Tony Award Winners on Working In The Theatre

The panel -- playwright/actor Dan Butler (The Only Thing Worse You Could Have Told Me), playwright Tom Dulack (Breaking Legs), director Scott Ellis (A Month In The Country), playwright Keith Glover (Dancing On Moonlight), director Sean Mathias (Indiscretions), director Gregory Mosher (Tony Award winner for his revivals of Anything Goes in 1988 and Our Town in 1989), director Lisa Peterson (Slavs), and literary agent Jack Tantleff -- talk about where they began their careers, playwrights who direct their own work, funding for non-profit and regional theatres, and the role of casting directors.

The production team of Love! Valour! Compassion! -- general manager Victoria Bailey, press representative Helene Davis, Manhattan Theatre Club’s Executive Producer Barry Grove (Tony Award winner for Best Play in 2005 for Doubt, 2001 for Proof, and 1995 for Love! Valour! Compassion!), director Joe Mantello (2003 for Best Direction for Take Me Out and 2004 for Assassins), playwright Terrence McNally (four-time Tony Award winner for Kiss of the Spider Woman, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Master Class and Ragtime), and artistic director Lynne Meadow (who steered the organization to Tony wins for Love! Valour! Compassion!, Proof and Doubt) -- discuss giving playwrights a home at Manhattan Theatre Club, director and playwright working together for the first time, transferring to a Broadway production, ticket pricing, and participating in the Broadway Alliance.

Goodspeed Opera House's team -- Tony Award-winning director and lyricist Martin Charnin (for Annie), press representative Max Eisen, associate producer Sue Frost, musical supervisor Michael O'Flaherty, director Charles Repole (Gentleman Prefer Blondes), and general manager Howard Sherman -- discuss Goodspeed's history and focus on the American musical, the business aspects of a regional theatre, being a part of the community, and the advantages of developing production at a distance from New York.

The panel of performers -- Betty Buckley (Sunset Boulevard and a Tony Award winner for her performance in Cats), Liz Callaway (Cats), Valerie Harper (Death Defying Acts), Brian Murray (Racing Demon), Roger Rees (Nicholas Nickleby, for which he won a Best Actor Tony), two-time Tony-winner Frances Sternhagen (for The Good Doctor and The Heiress) - talk about the different ways they started in the business, training at the Royal Shakespeare Company, notable acting teachers, how to prepare for auditions, replacing in a show with an abbreviated rehearsal period, and how to keep performances fresh during a long run.

The multi-disciplined panelists -- director/choreographer Jeff Calhoun (Busker Alley), director/playwright Michael Leeds (Swinging on a Star), actor/playwright Anne Meara (After-Play), director Mike Ockrent (Big, Crazy For You, Me and My Girl), director/choreographer Lee Roy Reams (Hello, Dolly! revival), Tony Award winning-director Lloyd Richards (for Fences), and director John Tillinger (Deathtrap) -- discuss the director's role in relationship to the playwright, the differences in developing of musicals and plays, directing revivals, the challenges of auditions, and the pros and cons of workshops.

Five of the stage's most talented Directors -- Thomas Kail, Moisés Kaufman, Bartlett Sher (who won a Tony for his work on the 2008 revival of South Pacific), Leigh Silverman and Kate Whoriskey -- talk about how they work with, and interpret, the author's work; the relationship between directors and designers; managing change as the work evolves; why they feel actors should be more involved in the process; the different approach they take when working with classics as opposed to original works; how they work with casting directors and then work with the various actors and acting techniques; their desire to be a support system for each other; and whether they feel directing can be taught.

The Moon Over Buffalo production team -- press representative Adrian Bryan-Brown, designer/producer Heidi Landesman (Tony winner for her scenic designs of Big River and The Secret Garden), producer Elizabeth Williams (three-time Tony winner for Crazy for You, The Real Thing and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), general managers Wendy Orshan and Jeffrey M. Wilson of 101 Productions, and Serino Coyne advertising representative Ruth Rosenberg -- discuss the process of bringing Ken Ludwig's play to Broadway, from the first reading, casting Carol Burnett, finding a director, creating the $2.4 million budget including an out-of-town tryout, to advertising, press coverage and opening night reviews.

The design team of The Heiress -- scenic designer John Lee Beatty (1980 Tony Award winner for Best Scenic Design for Talley’s Folley), lightning designer Beverly Emmons, costume designer Jane Greenwood, two-time Tony-winning director Gerald Gutierrez (in 1995 for The Heiress and in 1996 for A Delicate Balance) and actor Cherry Jones (Tony Award winner for her performances in Doubt and The Heiress) -- discuss the interwoven details of their production, from natural period lighting for the enclosed sets, to background colors complementing the costumes, and the advantages of collaborating on previous works. Mask/puppet designer Ralph Lee demonstrates the large puppets worn by actors in Heart Of The Earth: A Popul Vuh Story.

The design team of The Heiress -- scenic designer John Lee Beatty (1980 Tony Award winner for Best Scenic Design for Talley’s Folley), lightning designer Beverly Emmons, costume designer Jane Greenwood, two-time Tony-winning director Gerald Gutierrez (in 1995 for The Heiress and in 1996 for A Delicate Balance) and actor Cherry Jones (Tony Award winner for her performances in Doubt and The Heiress) -- discuss the interwoven details of their production, from natural period lighting for the enclosed sets, to background colors complementing the costumes, and the advantages of collaborating on previous works. Mask/puppet designer Ralph Lee demonstrates the large puppets worn by actors in Heart Of The Earth: A Popul Vuh Story.

Beginning the discussion with the question of when, or if, work becomes fun, our guests, lead actors and Tony Award winners -- Jane Alexander (1969 for The Great White Hope), Bill Irwin (2005 for Best Actor for Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), Angela Lansbury (five-time winner including for Mame, Gypsy and Sweeney Todd), Cynthia Nixon (2006 Best Actress for Rabbit Hole), and Geoffrey Rush (2009 Best Actor winner for Exit the King) -- also talk about how they choose roles and whether they'd consider playing smaller roles on the stage today; what they feel from an audience and how they react as audience members; their relationship to, and the role of, the stage manager; how much they consciously set the tone for the company; how they balance the thoughts of the playwright and the director -- and how they handle it when the two don't agree; and whether they follow stage directions from the existing script.