For 19 years, Bernard Havard has been the top gun -- Producing Artistic Director -- at Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theater, the oldest continually-operating theater in the United States. He took this venerable house and turned it into a producing organization with the largest subscription base of any theater in the country. In a tight economy, his company has been prospering. Other regional companies envy the Walnut's scope and affluence. (This is a company that even has its own branded Platinum Plus credit card.)
Philadelphia is a good theater town and has many strong local companies. But, where most of them have staffs ranging in size from 15 to 30, Havard employs close to 100. While others sell 6000 or 7000 subscriptions, the Walnut sells 56,000, a figure which includes its studio and children's productions. For its main-stage series alone, the Walnut's subscriber base is 50,000. Annual attendance exceeds 300,000. This puts it ahead of such well-known subscription houses as Chicago's Goodman Theater, San Diego's Old Globe and New York City's Roundabout.
Bernard Havard describes himself as being "an unabashed populist." He says: "I won't produce anything nihilistic unless it has redemptive value. Also, I'm careful to choose plays where the language is accessible." That eliminates Shakespeare from his repertoire and also precludes scripts that rely on black English.
Born in England, Havard emigrated to Canada and was educated at the University of Alberta and the Banff School of Fine Arts. Bernard got an Equity card acting on TV in Calgary and then moved into stage management. Eventually he became a theater administrator and was Managing Director of the Alliance Theater in Atlanta from 1977 to 1982, when he was head-hunted and brought to the Walnut. Havard changed the Walnut into a non-profit producing company, rather than just a booking theater.
In January 2002 Havard directed a play on the Walnut's stage for the first time. His production of Art enjoyed a seven-week run. We asked him why he's directing.
HAVARD: The two most important elements in theater are the artists and the audience. I've been in touch with audiences, but have not had enough recent contact with actors. As an administrator you can get distant from them. I didn't want that. I want to stay close to the creative process. I've directed two plays in our 60-seat studio upstairs.
Cohen: Both of those were three-character plays, just like Art. Is that a coincidence?
HAVARD: Not entirely. I like intimate plays.
Cohen: What explanation do you have for the Walnut's great success? And does it put a burden on you?
HAVARD: Of course it does. I feel a great responsibility to serve the audience. We're a populist theater. We give people shows that they want to see. We do our experimental work in the small theaters upstairs, and our main stage is for works that are accessible. We give them great value, bringing five shows to subscribers for a cost that's equal to the price of one New York theater outing. And it's wonderful to be able to tell the actors that they will perform every night to nearly sold-out houses.
When I started at the Alliance in Atlanta it had 2000 subscribers. When I left we were up to 20,000. A journalist there said that I brought it to "a Havardian peak." When I came to the Walnut we started at zero and built to 50,000. My goal in the early years was to emulate the Old Globe in San Diego. Now we've surpassed their audience size. Unfortunately for them, there was been an increase in crime in their neighborhood and subscribers got frightened. Their subscription base fell. So did Alliance's after I left, because they began to cater to African-American audiences, and that turned off many subscribers.
Cohen: To what do you attribute your success?
HAVARD: Popular programming and good marketing. We've found that the public loves musicals, and now we do three of them each season. [The 2001-02 season has three musicals, plus one comedy and one drama; 2002-03 has the same breakdown. The musicals are She Loves Me, The Sound of Music and Evita. One of 2001's musicals was a world premiere, Camila, demonstrating that sometimes the Walnut does take risks.] Also we've developed a strong telephone marketing department, which has increased our sales tremendously.
Cohen: Would you consider changing your opposition to doing Shakespeare?
HAVARD: Sure. If the government or a philanthropic organization would come in and subsidize it. There's just too much financial risk in trying to fill the house for an extended run -- our shows run seven weeks. I won't subject my company to that risk.
Cohen: You have a reputation of staying in the background and not attracting attention to yourself.
HAVARD: That's because I'm not trying to advance my personal career. My life is intertwined with the Walnut. This job is not part of a trajectory leading from here to another theater company.
Cohen: So please tell us things the public doesn't know about your personal life.
HAVARD: I'm 60 years old, and I live in Queen Village with my second wife.
[At this point, Judy Havard, joins the conversation]
Judy Havard: Don't say that. Call me your real wife.
HAVARD: She's correct. The first one was just practice. I have three grown children from that marriage who work in theater. My daughter Celine has an MFA from Columbia in theater management and is a free-lance director and actress. Christy is production manager at the New Victory Theater on 42nd Street in Manhattan. And my son Julien is a dresser for Kiss Me Kate.
Judy and I met on a blind date in 1993, when I took her to see [Terrence] McNally's Lips Together Teeth Apart at another Philadelphia house. She's a college professor and we have a son, Brandon, who is three.
Cohen: What directing experience do you have?
HAVARD: Just a little bit. At college, and one play when I was at the Alliance. I acted in Canada, England and Australia, then became a stage manager before I went into theater management. Returning to directing with Art, I found the process enormously exciting. Unless you're an auteur director, which I'm not, the actors contribute 90 percent, and the director's job is to point them in the right direction. I think I've managed to provide them with insight. Art is unusual in showing three men who confide in each other and reveal their feelings. It's rare that you find men who open up to each other. I understand these people.
Cohen: Do you have any male friends like that?
HAVARD: Only one. He and I went to college and worked in Banff together. He still lives in Canada, and we still keep in touch. We exchange e-mail almost every day.
[END]
