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September 16, 2022 • Volume VIII, Number 12
"If you fail to prepare, you’re preparing to fail."
-- Unknown. Today the quote is often attributed to Benjamin Franklin, but there is no historical record to support this attribution. The earliest known instance of publication was an article written by Rev. H. K. Williams in 1919; it’s believed he was quoting proverbial wisdom. In its many uses over more than a century, the words “plan” and “prepare” are often interchanged.
Antoinette Essa
Virginia Rep’s
70th Anniversary Season will begin Sept. 30 with the Opening of Chicken & Biscuits at our historic
November Theatre AND on Oct. 14 with the Opening of Steel Magnolias at our ancestral home at Hanover Tavern. Our 70th Anniversary Season will
conclude in Sept. 2023 with a big party. To launch this yearlong celebration, Antoinette Essa from CBS 6
interviewed Phil and Desirée to commemorate the founding in Aug. 1953 of
Barksdale Theatre, which merged with Theatre IV in 2012 to form Virginia Rep. Key among Barksdale’s accomplishments are:
- Establishing metro Richmond’s first professional performing arts organization of the modern era,
- Defying Jim Crow Laws to unite our community,
- Saving historic Hanover Tavern, and
- Creating the first “dinner theatre” in America.
Tune in to Channel 6 news this evening and tomorrow morning to catch Antoinette’s coverage. We’re privileged and proud to be living this legacy.
DeMone Seraphin
Welcome to DeMone Seraphin, Director of the first production in our 70th Anniversary Season, Chicken & Biscuits. DeMone is a Helen Hayes Award nominee (DC’s excellence in theatre award) for his direction of Topdog/Underdog. Most recent directing credits include Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for Lubber Run Amphitheater, How I Learned What I Learned for Avant Bard Theatre, and Five Guys Named Moe at the Fulton. Other directing credits include the Off-Broadway revivals of Split Second and The Exonerated, the world premiere musical Once Uponzi Time: A Tale of an American Scheme at the McCarter Theatre, Off-Broadway premieres of Yours Truly, Ella!, and The King: The Final Hours, an Elvis Presley musical. International productions include the German premiere of August Wilson’s Jitney, and the classic musicals Barnum, and Runaways. As an actor DeMone has appeared on Broadway, nationally and internationally in Miss Saigon, Rent, Ragtime, Jesus Christ Superstar, Ain’t Misbehavin’, and Man of La Mancha. DeMone was the Founding Artistic Director of The New American Theatre Co. in New York for 10 years and is currently a Producing Partner for Avant Bard Theatre in Arlington, VA. We’re thrilled to have DeMone joining our team.
Thanks to the Anne C. Robins & Walter R. Robins, Jr. Foundation for being the latest donor to support our community-in-action program, TALL (Theatre Arts Learning League). Over the decades, we’ve learned that the creation of innovative programs takes four things: 1. Research, 2. Partnership, 3. Time, 4. Money. TALL is being developed by Desirée Roots (Artistic Director of Community) and Jessi Johnson Peterson (Executive Assistant). The idea for TALL came about when Phoenecia Hill (our former Community Organizer) met with Resident Councils in RVA’s public housing
communities to ask what they wanted most from Virginia Rep. The resounding answer was “something for our kids to do during the summer.” This need was passed on to Hannah Miller (former Director of Community Health + Wellness / current Research and Evaluation Specialist), to do a deep dive into academic studies on “summer learning loss.” From this research, TALL was created. More next week.
We won’t continue to publish questions for discussion in this column in ALL upcoming editions. But we had such good response last time (11 “talkbacks”), we’ve decided to issue more goads to encourage your input for at least the next week or three. This week’s prompt:
Like all theatres, we’re receiving input from subscribers and donors who sometimes espouse conflicting opinions. We’ve heard from some who say that if we STOP requiring mask-wearing at upcoming performances, they will discontinue attending Virginia Rep performances. We’ve also been told by another group that if we CONTINUE requiring mask-wearing at upcoming performances, THEY will stop attending for the foreseeable future. What’s a responsible theatre to do? One possible answer is this: we could follow the trend reported this week in the New York Times, established by theatres that have decided to continue with MASKS REQUIRED during all Wednesday matinee and Friday evening performances, AND loosen protocols to MASKS RECOMMENDED during all other performances.
Faithful supporters, what do YOU think?
We encourage your comments, corrections and feedback. Please email your thoughts to mhaber@virginiarep.org.
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