Volume 3, Issue 13 |
| Susan Booth |
Susan Booth has traveled the world and helped bring some of theatre’s most sucessful plays to
audiences worldwide.
In this interview, the Artistic Director of Atlanta’s Tony Award Winning Alliance Theatre shares here
journey and offers some valuable advice for aspiring theatre directors and playwrights.
IAE: Please tell us what influenced you to pursue a career in the arts and how did you end up
in Atlanta?
SB: Initially, I wanted to be an actor so I did my undergrad studies at Denison University in Granville,
Ohio. After that, I moved to Chicago to further my studies at Northwestern University, and while there I started
directing plays. While living in Chicago, I worked on the artistic staffs at various theatres and did some
traveling the country as a freelance director. In 1998, I came to Atlanta to do a project here (Alliance Theatre)
and was taken with the theatre and the audience. I didn’t know much about the Atlanta community at the time,
but I loved the idea of the Woodruff Arts Center having a symphony, a theatre, and an arts museum all
together on one campus.
Kenny Leon was nice enough to ask me back a few times, and after maybe 3 projects in Atlanta I received a
phone call from him (Kenny) saying, “I think I’m going to move on from being Artistic Director and we’re looking
to do a national search to fill the position. If you’d like, I’ll suggest to the search firm to take a look at you.” I
didn’t know much about Atlanta, and while many artistic directors started out as directors, the positions are not
the same. While most of my experience was running city theatres like the ones in Chicago, I had never run a
regional theatre like the Alliance. But I took Kenny’s offer for a referral, and soon thereafter (2001) I was in
Atlanta working at the Alliance Theatre.
IAE: What does an Artistic Director do in the theatre?
SB: Typically, at not-for-profit theatres like the Alliance, they normally have someone run the
administrative side of things while another person runs the artistic side. But at Alliance, I am the singular leader
of the theatre. However, I must mention that I do have this fantastic leadership team that I work with who helps
we run Alliance Theatre. The most important thing that an Artistic Director does is we determine the mission
and vision of the organization. We also select the programming, and we’re the lead artist of the institution. In
our field, rather than the writer being the executive director in theatre, it starts with the director. When the
director is hired, he/she makes the decisions on the creative team. Alliance does 11 productions each year; I
direct two of them myself, and then I hire a director for the other nine. I also work with the director as they
select their creative team, and then I must make sure the work is being created at a level that meets our
standards.
IAE: So what makes Alliance Theatre unique from other theatres in this region of the U.S.?
SB: Alliance is one of the largest theatres in the country, and unlike the Fox Theatre and Cobb Energy
Center (in Atlanta), we are not a commercial house where work comes in from somewhere else and is
already commercially vetted. Everything that we do here at Alliance, we build from scratch; it all starts here.
One of the things that I take great pride in is the fact that we do a lot of world premieres at Alliance. We did the
world premieres of “The Color Purple,” “Sister Act,” and Twyla Tharp’s newest dance piece, “Come Fly Away”.
In the last 10 years Alliance Theatre has been producing world premieres of major new American musicals that
go on to Broadway, London or commercial national tours; but their first productions happen at Alliance
Theatre and are built by our staff. That’s the kind of work that I’m most proud of.
IAE: What makes a great director and what type of training would one need in order to become
an Artistic Director in theatre?
SB: Most Artistic Directors are trained as a director first. As a director you must be conversant with
directing classics, new plays and musicals so when you become an Artistic Director you understand each type
of play well enough to know who to hire as your director. As mentioned, we do 11 shows each year at Alliance
Theatre and I only direct 2 of them, so as the Artistic Director I must be able to stand side by side with the
director and make sure the show is up to the standards of the organization.
Another major part of training to become an Artistic Director is that you have to really know the literature of the
field. Having great taste in new writing is very critical if your theatre does new work because you’re the person
who is green lighting what the rest of the world has not seen yet. You must have a real sense of what works
and what doesn’t, and be able to pick up on that when you’re reading a script before it’s ever on a stage. You
also have to develop the ability to figure out what makes sense in your community. While we send a lot of work
out to the rest of the country, one of the most important things about my job is that the work we start at Alliance
must resonate here in Atlanta. There have been times where producers and writers have approached us to
start their productions here (Alliance) and I’ve had to tell them “no” because it wouldn’t resonate with the
audience here (Atlanta). Also, the more you understand about marketing, fundraising, project development
and community engagement, the more successful the theatre will likely be. Once upon a time in our field you
could be singularly an artist and you were surrounded by people who worried about everything else.
While that model still exists in the field more and more it’s evolving into administrative leaders with great artistic
abilities or artistic leaders who have entrepreneurial or managerial skills. I don’t think we have the luxury
anymore in this field to singularly define ourselves and think we can run the place.
IAE: What new projects are you working on?
SB: I spent some time in New York working on a project that’s going to have its world premiere with
Alliance in March 2012 called “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County.” It’s been an incredibly daunting, ambitious
and cool project.
IAE: What are you looking for when you read a new playwright’s work, and what are some of the
common mistakes you see?
SB: Most new writers have not developed their own unique voices. I don’t want to read an imitation of
David Mamet. If I’m looking for a Mamet piece, I’m going to go and do one his. When I’m looking at new works I’
m focused on subject matter; does it come through with a sense of urgency that gives you the feeling that the
writer had to write this play? Plus, did they choose a style that embraces what theatre is about?
When I taught at Northwestern University one of the things that I’d see all the time from young writers was
screenplays for the stage. If you want to write a screenplay, then write a screenplay, but car chases are not for
the stage. Stage is about deep feeling, provocative thinking and human stories. If you had to tell a story and
you had to tell it in a theatrical language, your work will find an audience.
The one that I always think of is Maggie Edson, a middle school teacher here in Atlanta who has only written
one play in her life. That play is called WIT, and it has won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. She’s a great school
teacher, but she felt she had to tell this story, and the only way she could think to tell it was through a play.
WIT was produced all over the world, and HBO turned it into a very successful film. I think about that and I
desperately tried to get Maggie to write another play, but her answer is always, I don’t have another one that I
have to write. To me, that’s what makes a great play; the need to write it.
audiences worldwide.
In this interview, the Artistic Director of Atlanta’s Tony Award Winning Alliance Theatre shares here
journey and offers some valuable advice for aspiring theatre directors and playwrights.
IAE: Please tell us what influenced you to pursue a career in the arts and how did you end up
in Atlanta?
SB: Initially, I wanted to be an actor so I did my undergrad studies at Denison University in Granville,
Ohio. After that, I moved to Chicago to further my studies at Northwestern University, and while there I started
directing plays. While living in Chicago, I worked on the artistic staffs at various theatres and did some
traveling the country as a freelance director. In 1998, I came to Atlanta to do a project here (Alliance Theatre)
and was taken with the theatre and the audience. I didn’t know much about the Atlanta community at the time,
but I loved the idea of the Woodruff Arts Center having a symphony, a theatre, and an arts museum all
together on one campus.
Kenny Leon was nice enough to ask me back a few times, and after maybe 3 projects in Atlanta I received a
phone call from him (Kenny) saying, “I think I’m going to move on from being Artistic Director and we’re looking
to do a national search to fill the position. If you’d like, I’ll suggest to the search firm to take a look at you.” I
didn’t know much about Atlanta, and while many artistic directors started out as directors, the positions are not
the same. While most of my experience was running city theatres like the ones in Chicago, I had never run a
regional theatre like the Alliance. But I took Kenny’s offer for a referral, and soon thereafter (2001) I was in
Atlanta working at the Alliance Theatre.
IAE: What does an Artistic Director do in the theatre?
SB: Typically, at not-for-profit theatres like the Alliance, they normally have someone run the
administrative side of things while another person runs the artistic side. But at Alliance, I am the singular leader
of the theatre. However, I must mention that I do have this fantastic leadership team that I work with who helps
we run Alliance Theatre. The most important thing that an Artistic Director does is we determine the mission
and vision of the organization. We also select the programming, and we’re the lead artist of the institution. In
our field, rather than the writer being the executive director in theatre, it starts with the director. When the
director is hired, he/she makes the decisions on the creative team. Alliance does 11 productions each year; I
direct two of them myself, and then I hire a director for the other nine. I also work with the director as they
select their creative team, and then I must make sure the work is being created at a level that meets our
standards.
IAE: So what makes Alliance Theatre unique from other theatres in this region of the U.S.?
SB: Alliance is one of the largest theatres in the country, and unlike the Fox Theatre and Cobb Energy
Center (in Atlanta), we are not a commercial house where work comes in from somewhere else and is
already commercially vetted. Everything that we do here at Alliance, we build from scratch; it all starts here.
One of the things that I take great pride in is the fact that we do a lot of world premieres at Alliance. We did the
world premieres of “The Color Purple,” “Sister Act,” and Twyla Tharp’s newest dance piece, “Come Fly Away”.
In the last 10 years Alliance Theatre has been producing world premieres of major new American musicals that
go on to Broadway, London or commercial national tours; but their first productions happen at Alliance
Theatre and are built by our staff. That’s the kind of work that I’m most proud of.
IAE: What makes a great director and what type of training would one need in order to become
an Artistic Director in theatre?
SB: Most Artistic Directors are trained as a director first. As a director you must be conversant with
directing classics, new plays and musicals so when you become an Artistic Director you understand each type
of play well enough to know who to hire as your director. As mentioned, we do 11 shows each year at Alliance
Theatre and I only direct 2 of them, so as the Artistic Director I must be able to stand side by side with the
director and make sure the show is up to the standards of the organization.
Another major part of training to become an Artistic Director is that you have to really know the literature of the
field. Having great taste in new writing is very critical if your theatre does new work because you’re the person
who is green lighting what the rest of the world has not seen yet. You must have a real sense of what works
and what doesn’t, and be able to pick up on that when you’re reading a script before it’s ever on a stage. You
also have to develop the ability to figure out what makes sense in your community. While we send a lot of work
out to the rest of the country, one of the most important things about my job is that the work we start at Alliance
must resonate here in Atlanta. There have been times where producers and writers have approached us to
start their productions here (Alliance) and I’ve had to tell them “no” because it wouldn’t resonate with the
audience here (Atlanta). Also, the more you understand about marketing, fundraising, project development
and community engagement, the more successful the theatre will likely be. Once upon a time in our field you
could be singularly an artist and you were surrounded by people who worried about everything else.
While that model still exists in the field more and more it’s evolving into administrative leaders with great artistic
abilities or artistic leaders who have entrepreneurial or managerial skills. I don’t think we have the luxury
anymore in this field to singularly define ourselves and think we can run the place.
IAE: What new projects are you working on?
SB: I spent some time in New York working on a project that’s going to have its world premiere with
Alliance in March 2012 called “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County.” It’s been an incredibly daunting, ambitious
and cool project.
IAE: What are you looking for when you read a new playwright’s work, and what are some of the
common mistakes you see?
SB: Most new writers have not developed their own unique voices. I don’t want to read an imitation of
David Mamet. If I’m looking for a Mamet piece, I’m going to go and do one his. When I’m looking at new works I’
m focused on subject matter; does it come through with a sense of urgency that gives you the feeling that the
writer had to write this play? Plus, did they choose a style that embraces what theatre is about?
When I taught at Northwestern University one of the things that I’d see all the time from young writers was
screenplays for the stage. If you want to write a screenplay, then write a screenplay, but car chases are not for
the stage. Stage is about deep feeling, provocative thinking and human stories. If you had to tell a story and
you had to tell it in a theatrical language, your work will find an audience.
The one that I always think of is Maggie Edson, a middle school teacher here in Atlanta who has only written
one play in her life. That play is called WIT, and it has won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. She’s a great school
teacher, but she felt she had to tell this story, and the only way she could think to tell it was through a play.
WIT was produced all over the world, and HBO turned it into a very successful film. I think about that and I
desperately tried to get Maggie to write another play, but her answer is always, I don’t have another one that I
have to write. To me, that’s what makes a great play; the need to write it.
| Susan Booth - Artistic Director at the Alliance Theatre at the Woodruff |
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