Love’s Labour’s Lost: A Labour of Love

 

Back in January, when AGL Board President Albert Pennybacker, Equus Run owner Cynthia Bohn, Equus Run Business Director Maury Sparrow and I sat in my office and began working out the details of producing a show out at Equus Run Vineyards in June, I knew we were capable of adding a major production but that it would be difficult.  After all, we end our fiscal year June 30, which means we come to the end of the year generally with very little money, as is the nature of most professional not-for-profit theatre.  When you factor in the notion that we have not built up much of a cash reserve yet and that we had three productions still to produce between January and May, you begin to see what a daunting task this was going to be.   There is a quote that I keep in my office, posted on my bulletin board that comes from Tony Taccone, the artistic director of Berkley Rep in San Francisco.  It reads: 

 

“Every theatre in America talks about risk.  It is on every brochure.  Everybody wants to say they take risks, and nobody wants to live with what happens if you actually take them.  I say to our audience, ‘I don’t love everything we do, but I respect everything we do.  This theatre is big enough, confident enough and responsible enough to deal with ideas and feelings that challenge us all.’  We have to keep raising the bar, getting past our fear and taking risks.  Pursuing the creative truth is not just the cornerstone of progressive art – it’s the cornerstone of democracy.”

 

I have referenced that quote a lot over the last six months, when dealing with nervous board members, actors wondering why we were doing Love’s Labour’s instead of something more “recognizable” and with myself…My wife can attest to the many sleepless nights I have endured over the last six months, while trying to see this major undertaking through to fruition.  Now that Shakespeare at Equus Run has been an overwhelming success, we can look back and say it was a risk worth taking.  But in fact, while we were struggling through the months of February, March, April and May; nothing was certain.  We had pushed all of our chips into the middle of the table, raised the ante and said, “This is the hill we are prepared to die on…”  I’ll tell you when I began to get the sense that the risk was going to be rewarded:  The first rehearsal I sat in on, and watched the Love’s Labour’s company stumble their way through our Act II.  What I saw that night was not a problem play with an ambiguous ending, I saw a company of actors, performing in shorts and jeans and tennis shoes and bare footed who so clearly enjoyed being in each other’s company that I left at the end of rehearsal floating on air.  They didn’t know yet how good they were and could be but I was beyond thrilled.  From there, things began to take off, culminating with our opening weekend and the fact that at this point, there is a very good chance that in only six performances, Love’s Labour’s Lost will become one of the top 3 best selling shows in the history of this company.   

 

Ican honestly say now that I am more proud of this endeavor than of anything I have done in my career up to this point.  For a theatre company as small as AGL, coming off such a turbulent time in its history, complete with essentially a new board and staff…to take the daunting task of launching what is in essence an outdoor drama, completely from scratch…is not only a remarkable accomplishment, it is an historical accomplishment as well.  For the rest of our careers, we will be able to say we were there at the beginning…That is a privilege not many people get to experience in their careers.  These people do:

 

Anthony R. Haigh, Anna Goodman Hoover, Nelson Fields, Andrew Connerley, Lara Brier, Matthew Hallock, Adam Luckey, Kim Colley, Samuel Arnett, Micha O’Connor, Todd Culley, Walt Ecton, Casey Holloway, Timothy Hull, Tiffiney Kavanaugh, Maureen Kuehler, Adam Montague, Dick Murphy, Christopher Rose, Eric Ryan Seale, Sidney Shaw, Bob Singleton, MikeVan Zandt, Amanda Williamson, Lisa Woods, Tommy Gatton, Scott Sherman, Brett Henson, Marcie Crim, Margaret Hill, Clara Stager, Julieanne Pogue…

 

Special Thanks goes to the AGL Board of Trustees, these people had faith in the staff of AGL to move forward and they gave us the resources necessary to make this opportunity happen:

 

Albert Pennybacker, Laurie Keller, Jim Dickinson, Tammy Farley, John Cole, John Morgan, David McDowell, Jennifer Miller, Sarah Tedford, Charles Edward Pogue, Rachel Ray, Ramona Woods, Vanessa Oliver, Barbara Howardand Sandy Canon.

 

Finally, to Cynthia Bohn and Maury Sparrow, thanks for picking up the phone, thanks for having the faith, thanks for taking the leap, thanks for letting us play in your wonderful vineyard…We look forward to playing for many years to come…

 

If you haven’t seen the show, you have three more opportunities to do so…this Thursday, Friday and Saturday…Come to Equus Run Vineyard and crush a cup of wine with us…and see Shakespeare up close and personal!!

 

Peace and Love

Richard (Rick) St. Peter

Artistic Director

June 27, 2007

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