Tony Award Winners on Working In The Theatre

The panel of performers -- David Cassidy and Petula Clark from Blood Brothers, six-time Tony winner Julie Harris (The Fiery Furnace), Jeff Hyslop (Kiss of the Spider Woman), and Joe Mantello (2003 Tony for Best Direction for Take Me Out and 2004 for Assassins) and Stephen Spinella (winner of back-to-back Tony Awards for both parts of Angels In America) -- talk about how their families encouraged them to pursue performing professionally, appearing on a Broadway stage for the first time, differing audience reactions between the West End and Broadway, and working on the multi-part play Angels in America.

The panelists -- playwright/director Edward Albee (Tony winner for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the 2005 recipient of the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre), director Arvin Brown (The Twilight of the Golds), agent Joyce Ketay, playwright Tony Kushner (winner of two Tony Awards for both parts of Angels in America), playwright Timothy Mason (The Fiery Furnace), and playwright Jonathan Tolins (The Twilight of the Golds) -- talk about playwrights directing their own work, how directors and playwrights collaborate, gauging audience response, and the evolution of their respective productions.

The Kiss of the Spider Woman production team -- producer Garth Drabinsky (Tony Award winner for Kiss of the Spider Woman), lyricist Fred Ebb and composer John Kander (Tony Award winners for Best Original Score in 1967 for Cabaret, 1981 for Woman of the Year and 1993 for Kiss of the Spider-Woman) playwright Terrence McNally (four-time Tony Award winner for Kiss of the Spider Woman, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Master Class and Ragtime), director Harold Prince (who has won 21 Tony Awards), and actor Chita Rivera (Tony Award winner for The Rink and Kiss of the Spider Woman) -- discuss adapting the novel and film, starting as a ""New Musicals"" development at SUNY Purchase through productions in Toronto and London before reaching Broadway, how the script has changed over the years, the budget required for the long creative process, and the business of producing and marketing a new Broadway musical.

The design panel -- scenic designer John Arnone (Tony Award winner for The Who’s Tommy), costume designer Elizabeth Fried (Brother Truckers), special effects designer Wendall K. Harrington (The Who's Tommy), lighting designer Mimi Jordan Sherin (New York Shakespeare Festival) -- moderated by three-time Tony Award-winning costume designer Patricia Zipprodt (in 1965 for Fiddler on the Roof, in 1967 for Cabaret and in 1986 for Sweet Charity), Professor Tish Dace, and author/designer/producer Jean Dalrymple discuss their creative childhoods; how the role of designers has evolved from directors, stage managers, and technicians; working with varying production budgets; and the colors and projections used in The Who's Tommy.

The resident theatre panelists -- Randall Arney, Artistic Director of Steppenwolf Theatre; Zelda Fichandler, Artistic Director of the Acting Company; Emily Mann, Artistic Director of McCarter Theater; Mac Pirkle, Artistic Director of Tennessee Repertory Theatre; Michael P. Price, Executive Director of Goodspeed Opera House; and Tony Award winner Lloyd Richards (for Fences), Artistic Director of Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center -- discuss the beginnings of regional theatre as a place to develop new plays and playwrights, relationships with commercial theatre, marketing and building a subscriber base, and diversity in playwrights and audiences.

The panel -- Tony Award-winning director and lyricist Martin Charnin (for Annie), Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public playwright Larry L. King and director/co-writer Peter Masterson, choreographer Rob Marshall (Kiss of the Spiderwoman), director/writer Lonny Price (Sally Marr and Her Escorts), Second Stage Theatre dramaturg/literary manager Erin Sanders, director Robert Jess Roth (Beauty and the Beast), Ernest Schier director of the National Critics' Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, and Tazewell Thompson Artistic Director of the Syracuse Stage -- talk about the different ways that writers collaborate, the role of a dramaturg, how choreography and directing can be intertwined, developing a production in workshops, and reimagining an animated film as a stage musical.

The Beauty and the Beast production team -- press representative Chris Boneau, producer Michael David (who’s plays have won 49 Tony Awards), associate producer Donald Frantz, production supervisor Jeremiah Harris, producer Robert W. McTyre, marketing consultant Margery Singer -- discuss creating a stage musical from an animated film, costume designs, production budget and ticket prices, marketing and publicity including a literacy program, and Disney's plans on Broadway

The panel of performers - Michel Bell (Show Boat), Charlotte D'Amboise (Damn Yankees), Rosemary Harris (Tony Award winner in 1966 for The Lion in Winter), Audra McDonald (four-time Tony winner for Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime and A Raisin in the Sun), and Lonette McKee (Show Boat) - discuss working with elaborate sets, their performing backgrounds, developing technique and discipline, and bringing classics back to the stage.

The design panel -- lighting designer Beverly Emmons, costume designer Ann Hould-Ward (Tony Award for Beauty and the Beast), and scenic designers David Schulder and Tony Walton (Tony Award winner for, among others, Pippin, the original House of Blue Leaves and 1992’s revival of Guys and Dolls) -- and co-moderater lighting designer Jules Fisher (seven-time Tony Award winner for, among others, Pippin, Chicago, Dancin’ and Jelly’s Last Jam) -- talk about where they studied their craft, how the props can overlap with costuming, how lighting design has evolved, the Ridiculous Theatrical Company's production of Movieland, and a demonstration of Gary Beach's costume from Beauty and the Beast.

The panel of performers -- Mary Alice (Having Our Say and Tony winner for Fences), Matthew Broderick (two-time Tony winner for Brighton Beach Memoirs and How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying), Alan Campbell (Sunset Boulevard), Gloria Foster (Having Our Say), John Glover (Love! Valour! Compassion! for which he won a Tony Award in 1995), Robert Sean Leonard (Arcadia and Tony winner for The Invention of Love)), and Helen Mirren (A Month In The Country) -- talk about how they got started performing, what lessons and training they had, the challenges of working on their current productions, and the playwright's involvement in a production.