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From
out of Shadowland, a Shining Light for Ellenville
By M.R. Smith
CONTINUE....
Brendan
Burke is glad to be here. As a NYC-based actor, who first got a
role at Shadowland in 1994, he found himself returning for more
year after year. When the artistic director job came up in the trade
mags, he jumped at the chance to work in a familiar and friendly
house, suddenly finding himself wearing a wide variety of hats:
director, actor, designer, and administrator. But most importantly,
he found himself in a place where a fully supportive board of directors
gave him free rein to select the season, and guide the vision of
the company towards its mission statement, which (to paraphrase)
is this: to produce a mixture of classics, contemporary and new
plays, including thought provoking socially relevant work with vision,
at an affordable price. He does this very well.
“If you think about how many plays you get to do in your life,
it’s going to be a relatively small number, so why not choose
the important ones?” When Burke says this, it is with the
understanding that a successful season still needs its anchors:
one well-chosen musical, one good-time comedy, and one great modern
work, like All My Sons (2005), or Proof (2004). When it’s
time to pick the rest, Burke keeps an open mind. “I like to
go to my design teams, and directors, and just say: approach me
with the projects you want to do,” he confides. This approach
has paid off.
Flash back to 2003: Playwright David Wiltse had underwhelming reviews
of his new play The Good German, when he introduced it as a resident
at Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward’s Westport County Playhouse,
in Connecticut. Longtime (15 years) Shadowland director James Glossman
still believed in the play, and contacted Burke to help fix it.CONTINUE....
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