Theaterweek
Red Thread: A new Theater Company
by Anthony Chase
The arrival of a new theater company is a fairly regular event on the Buffalo theater landscape. New theaters come; some linger; some go.
What makes the arrival of Red Thread Theatre interesting is the names of the personalities involved. This is not a crew of newly graduated theater students from a local university. This is not a ragtag collection of theater hopefuls, producing a vanity production because every other theater is a closed shop. The founding members of Red Thread are among the most prominent and frequently employed theater practitioners in Buffalo: Eileen Dugan, Colleen Gaughan, Josephine Hogan, Kelli Bocock-Natale, and Christina Rausa.
Dugan is one of Buffalo’s most highly regarded leading ladies, and frequently appears at the Kavinoky and at Shakespeare in Delaware Park.
Known for solid realistic performances and for not flinching in the face of onstage emotional intensity, Gaughan is often seen at the Irish Classical Theatre Company.
Hogan is Irish Classical’s artist in residence, and has appeared in a huge range of classical and contemporary plays on that stage.
Bocock-Natale has a dual career as first-rate character actor and director—having enjoyed numerous opportunities in both pursuits—from Irish Classical, to Buffalo United Artists, to MusicalFare—and has won Artie Awards for both acting and directing, for musicals and dramas. (All of these ladies have been nominated for and/or have won Arties.)
Rausa is Buffalo’s mistress of the one-woman show, and has appeared prominently with Jewish Repertory Theatre of Western New York in recent years.
The stated mission of Red Thread is “to present productions of the highest quality aspiring to expand the horizons of audiences and artists alike, thus enriching our community and our world through the art of theatre.” One might also suspect that an underlying mission of the company is to gain the ability to choose their own roles and directing assignments.
For while these women work often, the most prominent theaters here tend to be veritable boys clubs, and even the Dugans and Hogans among us must wait to see what roles are being doled out each season. Not only are they obliged to select from what is offered, they always run the risk that there will be nothing for them—or nothing especially interesting.
There is a great history of female actor producers in this country for precisely this reason. Laura Keene was the first—it was her company that played Ford’s Theatre the night Lincoln was shot. Katharine Cornell became the First Lady of the American theater by producing her own vehicles as well.
“Red Thread,” I am told, refers to the Asian myth of the red thread of fate that invisibly connects those destined to meet—usually in a romantic context. In Buffalo, a city with only two degrees of separation, we would seem to exist in a tangle of red thread. This particular tie has destined these prominent theater professionals to work together on this venture.
The first show up at Red Thread, which will perform at the New Phoenix Theatre, was obviously chosen for its plumb acting opportunities. In Catherine Hayes’ Skirmishes, a senile old woman lies on her deathbed, attended by two married middle-aged daughters who have never liked each other. With their mother dying, the two women, one the constant caregiver, the other who escaped long ago, ruminate over their bitter memories and grudges. Dugan and Hogan will play the daughters, while another prominent Buffalo actor, Kathleen Betsko-Yale, will play the mother. Bocock-Natale is directing the production.
Skirmishes was first performed in England in 1981, where it received high praise for a script that seemed to be headed in predictable directions, but catches its audience off-guard with the insight and skill of the writing. The play made its New York debut at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 1983, with a production that was celebrated for the outstanding performances of the actors, who reportedly carried Hayes’ witty and haunting script with remarkable dexterity. Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote, “If this 90-minute, intermissionless play occasionally repeats itself, not a line of it is false or lacking in compassion. The sisters’ arguments are not manufactured histrionics; they rise and fall out of a natural continuing conversation. Miss Hayes uses little forced exposition and springs few surprise revelations. She makes us feel that we have been transported directly into the heart of the play’s family, even to the point where we feel we know the two offstage husbands.”
Despite this glowing attention, Skirmishes (and Catherine Hayes) fell off the radar. The women of Red Thread are providing the play with a local resurrection.
Skirmishes will run February 4-27. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm. (The first three Thursday performances are pay-what-you-can.) For ticket reservations and further information call 716-853-1334. By Colin Dabkowski Colin Dabkowski, The Buffalo News, N.Y. Jan. 24--Last spring, when it came time for local actress and director Kelli Bocock- Natale to scope out possible roles to audition for, she ran down the list of shows in the 2009-10 theater season. One by one, Bocock-Natale checked off productions that featured females in lead roles. Out of more than 100 plays and musicals, Bocock-Natale said, she couldn't count more than four. It's the same story for female directors, of whom Bocock-Natale is one of only two or three who seem to work in local theaters on a regular basis. Josephine Hogan, artist-in-residence at the Irish Classical Theatre Company, has long been troubled by the fact that so many quality scripts prominently featuring women go unproduced in local theaters. Hogan and Bocock-Natale's concerns are shared by local actresses Eileen Dugan, Christina Rausa and Colleen Gaughan. And now, the five women have banded together to form the Red Thread Theatre company, which aims to produce material that speaks to the concerns of women and to foster a creative atmosphere in which women can flourish. The company will be in residence at the New Phoenix Theatre and will open its first show, the three-person play "Skirmishes," on Feb. 4. For a range of complex reasons, a gender gap that has narrowed significantly in the corporate and public sectors and in other areas of the arts has remained stark in the local theater world, both onstage and backstage. It's heartening to see five actors of such wide-ranging accomplishment venture into that space with a new enterprise aimed at balancing the theater scene's gender equation. To be sure, such a company is not precisely groundbreaking. It joins the ranks of TheatrePlus, Alleyway Theatre's female-focused company and O'Connell and Company, whose weekly "Diva by Diva!" cabaret series has become a beloved institution on the local theater scene. But the addition of Red Thread Theatre seems an important step for a vibrant theater community that continues to expand, improve and refine itself by the year. "There is a gap nationwide, not just in Buffalo," Rausa said. "We feel lucky we're in Buffalo, and we're pleased with Buffalo theater. But we think we have some very good ideas." The launch of this company is especially notable for the experience of its founders, all of whom have long and auspicious histories in the theater. In addition to her acclaimed roles in shows like "Sophie Tucker: Last of the Red Hot Mamas" and "The Learned Ladies," Bo-cock- Natale has become one of Buffalo's most daring directors. Dugan, who played the narrator in Studio Arena Theatre's final production of "To Kill a Mockingbird," is also familiar to fans of Shakespeare in Delaware Park, where she has appeared in many productions. Rausa is a gifted actress who has appeared recently in the Jewish Repertory Theatre productions of "Rose" and "Golda's Balcony." Hogan's reputation as a commanding stage presence is beyond reproach, and Gaughan, who has often appeared on the Irish Classical stage, has also had a long history as a performer outside the area. All this adds up to an exciting prospect for theatergoers of any experience, disposition or, indeed, gender. And that is the goal: not an exclusive theatre company, and certainly not a "feminist" one, but an outfit that exists to deliver transformative experiences to the community as a whole. "It's not a 'women's theater,' but a theater run by women," said Dugan, who added that she estimates the theatergoing audience in Buffalo is 60 percent female. That, she said, begs for more material featuring women in strong roles. About the company's prospects, Dugan said: "We're excited, and we're terrified. But we're determined." But there may not be any reason to be terrified. The group seems to have plenty of support from the theater community, which showed up in spades for an announcement of the company's debut at Allen Street Hardware on Monday night. Saul Elkin, artistic director of Shakespeare in Delaware Park (which, to its credit, plans an all-female version of "Macbeth" for the summer), showed up to lend his support. So did Meg Quinn, artistic director of Theatre of Youth, Vincent O'Neill, artistic director of Irish Classical Theatre Company, local actress and radio personality Loraine O'Donnell and a whole host of others, all of whom seem invested in the success of the new venture. All the members of Red Thread Theatre expressed their gratitude for the depth, breadth and vibrancy of the local theater community. And when the discussion among the Red Thread founders inevitably turned to the idea of tossing its hat into a scene already crowded with active companies, the group had the only appropriate response. "Everybody said, 'So what?' " Rausa said. "You always have to keep the brew going. You can't stop creating new ideas."
Women Reclaim Their Role on Stage