Three months after the hurricane and flood, New Orleans is still in bad condition -- worse off than people in other parts of the country can imagine. The New Orleans theater community is in turmoil also. Some have complaints against people who have left New Orleans, such as Lane Savadove, artistic director of the acting company called EgoPo. (See separate Periodica story about the EgoPo troupe). EgoPo's stagings are intentionally disturbing. Unintentionally, its departure from New Orleans caused another sort of disturbance in the theater community there.
In conversation with Savadove, it is clear that he loves New Orleans and was hoping to live there permanently until the devastation of the hurricane changed his mind. But some people got angry when they read his comments about moving to Philadelphia. My first story about this in the Philadelphia City Paper on November 17, 2005, prompted a letter to the editor from Richard Read, who never liked EgoPo's work. David Cuthbert, the respected theater critic of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, praised Ego Po's production of The Maids as "a flat-out brilliant production [that] illuminated the text in myriad ways and was truly a stunning piece of work."
But Richard Read, who heads an offbeat theater group called Running with Scissors, wrote that when he attended he felt "trapped in a room for nearly two hours with 30 other people who'd rather be shoving needles in their eyes."
Read wrote: "Cassandras like Savadove should...perhaps not return to our strong, proud city at all. [He] is on a rampage, casting aspersions about the future of theater in New Orleans and speaking on behalf of New Orleans' theater community when he himself was only nominally a member. Savadove doesn't really know what he's talking about."
Richele Pitalo wrote a letter in support of Read: "Lane had only been a resident of our city, in all its magnificence, for a short time, and furthermore, he has chosen not to return to endure the hardships of rebuilding it. I do not begrudge him his choice to be elsewhere, but with that choice he has no place, no right, to see into our future anymore. It is no longer his to see into, and I take offense."
Anne-Liese Juge Fox, a member of EgoPo who is staying in Louisiana with her family, defends Savadove: "I told Lane he'd be crazy if he wanted to come back. I'm determined to work together with him again because he's incredibly brilliant and a good leader, but I don't know how I'll be able to do it. Lane was a dream to work with both as an artist and as a human being."
David Cuthbert offers an explanation of the reaction to EgoPo's move: "You have to understand that it's taking just as much -- maybe more -- to rebuild New Orleans culturally as it is to rebuild it structurally and that the theater artists who have actually gotten something onstage -- and gotten audiences for their efforts -- in the midst of devastation have done so at great personal sacrifice and a helluva lot of hard work. Lane overstated the case [for the impossibility of working in New Orleans], and was speaking from his own perspective."
So how badly has the hurricane damaged New Orleans' theaters? Major stage productions have, in fact, been put on hold. ContemporaryArtsCenter, Jefferson Performing Arts Center, Saenger Theater, Flour Power and Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre are closed indefinitely. The Anthony Bean Community Theater will reopen in January with August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone.
Southern Rep is perhaps New Orleans most prestigious theater, a 19-year-old company that has specialized in world premieres and revivals of plays with Southern themes. Lane Savadove, as a guest artist, directed Tennessee Williams's A House not Meant to Stand at Southern Rep. The company performed in a mall that was so damaged by Katrina, it will not reopen for months, so the company cancelled the first four shows of its season: the world premieres of Callie's Tally by Betsy Howie, The Sunken Living Room by David Caudle; Stop Kiss by Diana Son; and A Streetcar Named Desire as part of the Tennessee Williams Festival.
Ryan Rilette, Southern Rep's artistic director for the past three years, says he plans to reopen the theater in May 2006 with its previously scheduled production of Kimberly Akimbo by David Lindsay-Abaire.
Southern Rep had a full-time staff of three plus four part-timers before the hurricane. Now it is reduced to just Rilette. He describes the devastation: "We were able to go back to the theater for the first time last week, and found the carpets buckled due to the heat, but they look as though they can be repaired. Our new dimmers appear to be working as does the sound system. Sadly, we have lost our rehearsal and office space as a result of the Hurricane. More than 24 percent of the households on our mailing list live in areas where almost everyone has lost their home. Many more have severe damage to their homes, have lost their jobs or have decided not to return to the city."
So life is tough for that long-established company. EgoPo is newer and would have faced even greater obstacles. Rilette puts the controversy in perspective when he says: "I think what Richard and other people are upset about is the fact that Lane said that `it'll be a long time till anyone there thinks about going to theater' because that is patently untrue. People have already started mounting shows and audiences have been coming. In fact, the first few shows that were put up at Le Chat Noir sold out."
Le Chat Noir's website describes itself as "a cabaret theater and piano bar and is New Orleans' premier venue for music, cocktails and cabaret." Elsewhere it is described as a gay drag cabaret. Not that there's anything wrong with that, to quote "Seinfeld," but that is quite different from EgoPo's classic plays in intricately rehearsed productions. Read's company also is different from EgoPo. It specializes in what Read describes as queer camp parodies and broad comedy, ranging from Hedwig and the Angry Inch to a send-up of “The Bad Seed.” Read's group is producing Grenadine McGunkle's Double-Wide Christmas, an absurdist comedy on weekends in December in the Latin Quarter.
"My guess," Rilette continues, "is that what Lane really meant was that it'll be a long time before his audience would come back; the people who want to see avant-garde, movement-based work in New Orleans. And I think he's probably right about that."
Some observers feel that New Orleans, even before the hurricane, preferred jazz as its principal art, and liked its theater offerings to be light and happy. Drama, especially movement-based drama, faced a struggle to gain a foothold in this marshy land. Since the hurricane, New Orleanians want to be cheered. They have not yet had a chance to attend serious dramas.
People who have stayed are upset about the vast numbers of people who have left. David Lee Simmons, Arts and Entertainment Editor of the Gambit Weekly, a New Orleans alternative newspaper, expressed that view to this reporter. He wrote about it in a December 6 column:
"New Orleans is going through an incredible period of transition -- from a battling city to an embattled one, from a fairly large city to a pretty small one, from a city of bottomless history to one facing an uncertain future. We seem to feel that, in order to move forward, we need all hands on deck. There's so much work to do, and we want all of our friends and family to join us in the struggle.
"Many of us cannot believe that there are those among us who will not be there with us—for us—in the fight. There's a palpable sense of desertion at play here. Abandonment. With that comes an understandable feeling of resentment over the idea that some of those closest to us don't have the stomach for this. But... the decision whether to stay or go is an incredibly complicated one...It's too painful to think that they won't come back. But if they don't, we also have to learn to let go."
Anne-Liese Fox's effort to cope with the crisis was a workshop around Thanksgiving: "Participants' stories of loneliness, displacement, heartache for home, and strength in solidarity with family and friends so much mirrored my own. The benefit of having these stories told and played out in the community is evident when you see the faces and hear the enthusiasm from the audience after the performance. For me personally, I felt more connected and less alone in my displacement."
She announced an additional workshop for February 2006: "We all know of so many stories about what we've all been living through. These are stories that need to be heard as we heal and rebuild our lives and our community. We think creating a Playback Theater company here in New Orleans can be an important part of that process. This is the first step in building a new company to help in the healing and rebuilding of the New Orleans region."
[END]
