Blake Robison, who will take over from Ed Stern in July as artistic director of Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, wants a Big Tent.
Robison, 45, currently the producing artistic director at the Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Md., plans to "invite a lot of people under that tent."
Robison will be in and out of Cincinnati for the remainder of this season - "all my vacation time and a whole bunch of weekends" - to meet the community and plan the 2012-13 season before he formally joins Playhouse on July 1. While in Cincinnati Thursday for the announcement by the Playhouse board that he had been named to the new position after a one-year national search, Robison answered a few questions for The Enquirer.
Question: Who do you want in the "Big Tent," and how do you bring them in?
Answer: I'll be actively pursuing partnerships with arts and civic organizations. I love the Off the Hill series (which takes touring shows to regional schools and community centers), and we'll be off-campus even more.
The old "if you build it, they will come" adage doesn't work anymore. We need to be a presence in the community and make the case for Playhouse over and over.
Q: When you were introduced as the artistic director Thursday, Playhouse Board President Victoria Buyniski Gluckman said you'll "take the Playhouse to the next level." What is that level?
A: I'll continue the commitment to artistic excellence and variety.
I'm interested in programming for current and new audiences and broadening the dramaturgy to reflect the diversity of the community - younger adult audiences, African-Americans, Latino. That's what theater is, seeing the world through somebody else's eyes. I like big ideas through the filter of immediacy.
There are lots of ways to talk about diversity - I don't like "slot-ism."
I want to find a way to integrate cross-disciplinary events into the season, local and national. The traditional narrative is not necessarily for someone in their 20s. They like a mash-up of styles, mixing genres in exciting ways - movement, video, spoken word.
I want everyone to feel wanted and welcome.
Q: You commission new work for Round House, and Playhouse has a new play commission program, currently on hold because of the economy. Whose work do you like?
A: Karen Zacarias (an award-winning contemporary playwright) - she's almost our house playwright - adapted "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents." Her work is so insightful, irreverent, snappy. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa does Marvel Comics and writes for the TV show "Big Love." He did a modernized "The Picture of Dorian Gray." Jeffrey Hatcher, who I know is also a favorite in Cincinnati. New plays are important - the development and perpetuation of the art form itself.
Q: How many plays do you expect to direct every season?
A: Two, in fall and spring. There's going to be so much else to do. And there needs to be a range of voices. I enjoy the curatorial aspect - putting projects together, finding the perfect creative team, participating in casting. I enjoy fundraising and donor relations.
Q: At Round House you launched the critically acclaimed Literary Works Project that reinterprets modern and classical novels through a theatrical prism for contemporary audiences. You've adapted work yourself - Alice McDermott's novel "Charming Billy" and Jay Perini's historical novel "The Last Station." Is that something we'll see here?
A: I like adaptations of classic literature - "A Wrinkle in Time," "Treasure Island" - which have the ability to speak to multiple generations, but not as "Masterpiece Theatre Live." I'm looking at the possibility of a large-scale family play on the Marx stage. There's a huge family audience in almost every city ... children, parents and grandparents all at the theatre together.
Source:
