Every May, John Gibson gives one of my favorite monologues when he announces the upcoming Live Arts season. Two years ago, he hopscotched around the DownStage theater’s floor and scratched show names like American Buffalo and A Little Night Music into the floor in chalk; a year later, Live Arts’ longtime artistic director tore apart scraps of the child-sized coffin from Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage while he announced a more optimistic season, from High School Musical to the upcoming production of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice. It’s a one-night-only performance, the only show on each Live Arts schedule not repeated through the year, and while the larger Live Arts community is always involved in each season, the announcement always comes from the man himself.
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Cuts above: John Gibson (with the cast of Sweeney Todd) bids farewell to Live Arts after 18 years of “forging community theater” that often felt bigger and brighter. |
Last week, however, brought a different kind of monologue from Gibson, for a much smaller audience. On Tuesday morning, Gibson took a seat in the C-VILLE office and said that he would resign from Live Arts on January 4, 2010—18 years after he first entered the theater as its first full-time employee. He leaned forward in his seat, took a breath and, at my first question, began his scene.
“So, ‘why’ is your question,” he began. “And it’s a totally positive choice, and largely, but not completely, a personal one.”
In January, Gibson’s partner of 22 years, Joseph Barker, died; a memorial service took place shortly after, on the same stage where Gibson announces each season. “It’s been hard, but what I realized is that I’m ready for the next challenges,” explained Gibson. The personal element “is curiosity and fear, and those have been great guides for me in my work at Live Arts.”
Gibson was 26 years old, only four years removed from college, when he started work at Live Arts. “You know, I’ll be 44 years old [this year], which is roughly the middle of a professional life,” he said as he reached a line in the monologue he would share a few times during the days that followed our talk: “I’ve always said I will not be 65 years old and up on a ladder wiring together another Gala chandelier.”
Don’t you want to take a chandelier with you to keep tinkering with it?
“I have a little, tiny, 2′ by 2′ space in my home for theatrical souvenirs,” chuckled Gibson. “So, it wouldn’t fit.”
Before his resignation, Gibson will direct a fall musical at Live Arts, produce the 2009 Gala (scheduled for November 7), and once more lead a team of volunteers to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a gig he hopes to be part of in the future. As for his future with local theater and Live Arts, Gibson pledged to follow his same fears and curiosities.
“As much as I love directing at Live Arts, I’m also curious about other types of stages and other forms,” said Gibson, and added that he would likely take a break from theater for a while. “But will it always, in some form, be Live Arts? Yes. Of course.”
Gibson’s monologue clocked in just shy of 14 minutes—a few pauses, themes strung together as casually and effectively as stage lights. And, as any member of a rapt audience would, I let Gibson finish his part.
“Here’s the central fiction of Live Arts: That it’s a one-man show, that I am Live Arts. Whenever I encounter that, I always push back, I always correct people, and point instead to Charlottesville as the success of Live Arts. And I feel so good about the opportunity to let people understand that finally.”
Read the Feedback blog for details on the announcement of Live Arts’ 2009-2010 season.
Capshaw uses power, signs Tim McGraw
Only a day after C-VILLE released its 2009 “Power Yearbook,” Coran Capshaw, the No. 1 player in the local arts scene, added a little more swagger to his stride when his Red Light Management signed platinum-selling country artist Tim McGraw to its (now slightly more diverse) roster. Billboard magazine wrote that McGraw, with more than 40 million albums sold and 30 No. 1 singles to his credit, “will be joining Dave Matthews Band and Phish as Capshaw’s primary focus.” Read more about the heavy-hitters in the local arts scene—Lyn Warren, Kirby Hutto and more—as well as a few must-meet up-and-comers here.
