Like actors and authors, the careers of stage directors are often cyclical. But right now in Chicago, no director is hotter than Gary Griffin.
Consider his slate of projects. At the end of last month, three critically well-received Griffin productions were all running simultaneously at different Chicago-area theaters — “Beautiful Thing” for Famous Door at the Theatre Building; “David’s Mother” at Apple Tree Theatre in Highland Park; and “Me and My Girl” at Drury Lane Oakbrook in Oakbrook Terrace. That triple home run is surely a first for a Chicago director. And although the last two productions have now closed, a New York producer is eyeing Griffin’s marvelous “Beautiful Thing” for a possible transfer.
Yet another Griffin show comes to fruition when the 1975 musical “Shenandoah” opens Sunday at Drury Lane Oakbrook (where Griffin has been artistic director). And this fall, he has landed the chance to direct the high-profile Court Theatre production of the Off-Broadway hit “Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde.” Come Christmas, he’s even directing “Cowgirls” at the Skokie-based Northlight Theatre.
Obviously, Griffin (who grew up in Rockford, trained at Illinois State University and cut his teeth as a Chicago director at the Buffalo Theatre Ensemble at the College of Du Page, Glen Ellyn) has many fans in the local theater community.
Tony Desantis, the octogenarian owner of Drury Lane Oakbrook, regards Griffin as the savior of his theater. “I would never do any show in the future unless Gary gave his approval,” Desantis enthused at great length. “He’s put this place in the best financial shape it has ever been in. That young fellow has got a lot of common sense.”
Actually, “Shenandoah” will be Griffin’s last show as artistic director of the Drury Lane (Ray Frewen takes over in the fall, with his predecessor continuing to consult for Desantis and direct one show per year). Good friends, Frewen and Griffin worked together on “Shenandoah” (a Tony-winning show about a farmer in the Shenandoah Valley that was based on the Jimmy Stewart movie of the same name).
“I’m trying to work my life so I can do less,” says Griffin, explaining his leaving Drury Lane and joining the artistic staff of the Apple Tree, where his main job will be the oversight of that troupe’s expansion program to a new performance space in Arlington Heights (which is being shared with Second City and others).
Griffin says that probably three of the five shows in each Apple Tree season will move subsequently to Arlington Heights, although details are still being worked out.
“A lot of things have just come along at once,” Griffin says. “But I may not be this visible for long.”
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There are not many smiles these days at the DreamStreet Theatre in Blue Island. “The theater,” says co-founder (and physician) Barry Wouk “is basically on life support. It’s all very depressing.” The current crisis was precipitated by a disappointing transfer of DreamStreet’s Chicago-area premiere of “Nunsense 3” to the Ivanhoe Theatre on the North Side. Cheered by enthusiastic reviews (in this newspaper and elsewhere) for David Perkovich’s production, the DreamStreet partners had expected a multi-year open run of “Forever Plaid”-dimension. But the show attracted an average of fewer than 20 people a night and closed last Sunday so as to stem the hemorrhaging of money.
The crisis means that next year’s season in Blue Island is on hold (barring the appearance of a new financial backer), with the renovated movie theater likely to become merely a rental facility in the future.
“We don’t understand why the community in Blue Island has not supported us,” says a saddened Wouk, referring to a lack of sufficient ticket sales since the company’s founding in 1996. “We all worked ourselves to the bone for no money. All people had to do was walk around the corner.”
The one glimmer of hope for DreamStreet is that the baseball-themed musical “Bingo” (of which the theater owns a large piece) is being performed this fall at the Union County Arts Center, Rahway, N.J. That’s close enough to New York to attract favorable media attention and subsequent productions, it is hoped. But even if “Bingo” hits the jackpot, the “Nunsense 3” debacle will not be quickly forgotten in Blue Island.
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Theatrical agents, presenters and promoters from across the country are converging on the rather unlikely locale of Green Bay, Wis., this weekend. The occasion is the world premiere of Peter Buffett’s “Spirit Dance,” a Native American-themed musical and choreographic extravaganza that’s being widely touted as the next “Riverdance.” The show (produced by the British mogul Peter Holmes a Court and backed by the powerful William Morris Agency) will be taped this weekend by PBS and will show up across the country next March during Pledge Month. That’s exactly the technique that launched “Riverdance” to international glory, and “Spirit Dance” will begin a post-video national tour in 1999 before eventually hitting Broadway. Or that, at least, is the plan.
Some of the national interest stems from the directorial involvement of Wayne Cilento (“Tommy”), one of musical theater’s hottest choreographers (Buffett’s recorded sound track is already available in stores). But the industry pilgrimage to Green Bay stems mainly from a pervasive perception that souped-up cultural dance and rhythm extravaganzas not only pack a huge wallop at the box office but also are the future of touring theater.
