It was mid-August of 1984. I had just returned to New York City from Pittsburgh where I had played Joe in the Metro Theater’s production of A DAY IN THE DEATH OF JOE EGG by Peter Nichols. I had three more summer weeks off before beginning work again in September as the Artistic Programs Director for the New Dramatists. I knew that the season of 1984-1985 would be the last year I would want to spend at the New Dramatists so I had a strong urge to plant seeds for the future.
But what? I had built an excellent list of contacts with playwrights, actors and others in the New York theater community during my previous three years at the New Dramatists. Also, Janet Reed and I had produced a large, splashy evening for the drama alumni of Carnegie-Mellon University the year before at the old Roundabout Theater on West 23rd Street which had forced us to tap into CMU’s large network of New York alumnus. We had all the pieces in place to establish an ongoing producing institution and now seemed the time to do it.
I had doubts. Did I really want to spend the rest of my career nursing along a fledgling theater company dedicated to new American plays by new American playwrights? The notion seemed so invigorating, but also so draining. I knew only too well how difficult a proposition it would be.
I was living on Amsterdam Avenue and 106th Street in a small studio. My desk was a large door on sawhorses. I covered the entire desktop with tracing paper and decided that whenever I had an idea pertaining to this potential theater company, I would just make a note of it on this large paper canvas. Soon the canvas was crammed full of notes with ideas about plays, artists, funding, scheduling, associate institutions and all manner of things. It was the summer of the 1984 presidential primaries, so the name Primary Stages made its way to the top of my list of possible names. Come September I was ready to create a think tank to begin taking these scattered ideas to the next level. I contacted a small group of friends including Janet Reed, Lisa Barnes, Michael Greenwood and Portia Kamons who all agreed to meet together every week for a year to begin to bring this theater to fruition. Laurie Klatscher and Greg Lehane joined us early on as did Phil Bosakowski and Marvin and Anne Einhorn.
We did a lot of readings of new works from September of 1984 until May of 1985 but deliberately produced no shows so we could concentrate on building a strong administrative foundation. I gave my notice to the New Dramatists and left in June of 1985. Primary Stages signed a lease on an office and rehearsal space on Ninth Avenue just off 42nd Street, and we took up residency in July of 1985. We produced our first season of three shows at the Trinity School on West 91st Street between January and June of 1986.
Photo by Melissa Annis
