Posts Tagged ‘Roger Morgan’

A Chat With Tony Award Winning Designer Roger Morgan

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
This post is based on my interview1 with Roger Morgan, Tony Award winning Lighting Designer, and (full disclosure) my husband. Roger is my business partner at Sachs Morgan Studio -Theatre Design Specialists and I’ve written about him in this blog. When I asked Roger about his toughest work challenge, he talked, I listened, and these are his words:

Well, you know I always enjoy challenges. The toughest? Probably when I’m short on the three basic ingredients required to plan theatre spaces:

Time. Space. Money. (TSM)

Keeping TSM in balance makes a happy owner and a successful project, so the first challenge is to convince the owner to invest some T. This is a tough sell. Why? A comprehensive Architectural Program is necessary to predict TSM, and a Program is hard to grasp.

Architectural Program: ar•chi•tec•tur•al (adj) pro•gram (n)
Quantified list(s) of rooms, spaces, floor areas, expressed
in net square footage and/or diagrams; prose descriptions of
qualities that can’t be characterized in data.

I think of the Program as the recipe for the design and construction of the project. Here’s the catch: an owner often expects to begin the project with the design. With no program. And with a budget.

Our job is to communicate the value of the Program to the decision makers, who are not usually in the business of building buildings. It can be tricky: we’re designers and we love to draw; owners are bottom-line-driven and want results. So it’s tempting for all of us to rush, and discipline is required. Otherwise the project gets out of hand, costs more than it should and doesn’t meet anybody’s expectations. That’s not the way we like it.

Here’s the way we do it:

THE DESIGN TEAM WORKS WITH THE OWNER AND USERS

Interviews + Observation + Comparisons + Documentation = THE LIST

THE LIST:
How many?
How big?
Why?
For whom?
For what purposes?
Near what?
Why?
+   How often
Sq Ft, Ht + adjacencies

TRANSLATE THE LIST INTO BUBBLE DIAGRAMS

Bubble Diagram Draft

REVIEW DATA WITH COST ESTIMATOR OR QUANTITY SURVEYOR

CONVERT:
Net Sq Ft to Gross Sq Ft
Apply $psf cost values
Synchronize with local construction costs
RESULT: a prediction of project cost

In 40 years, no one has ever said “We’ve gotta spend more than that…” I’ve never seen a preliminary cost estimate meet with contentment. It’s another challenge of my job, cuz accuracy and qualifications of the team are usually questioned.

This is often the most intense time of a project because its very life is threatened. Assumptions are challenged: “What can you live without?” Soul searching begins and programmed spaces may be reduced. Difficult decisions are made. Eventually the Program is brought into alignment with the budget. TSM is clear.

You know what’s amazing? This all happens before anyone has drawn a line. 90% of the most important decisions for the project have been made!

We’ve agreed on the recipe – now we’re ready to cook. For me, that’s the fun part.

1An earlier version was published in Theatre By Design, the Studio’s Newsletter

Tags: , ,
Posted in The Eight Roles | 2 Comments »

A Foreword For My Book… Or A Backward?

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

(A Loony Moment of Escape)

An eminent person is sometimes said to be helpful...

For weeks I’ve been obsessed with whom I might ask to write the Foreword to my book. Tonight, my husband offered to write a “Backward”.

Granted, this was probably a gesture intended to shut me up. My husband, however, is a guy with wild ideas that often work, so I listened. A “Backward” would be the opposite of a Foreword, he explained; instead of laying out why the book matters, it would summarize what people will remember. He went on to persuade me that “Backwards” will be a forward trend in publishing.

I ignored the fact that his idea reminded me of Father Guido Sarducci’s Five Minute University, because I was convinced. We all know that people don’t read any more – I mean books are written about the fact that nobody reads them!  Who cares that I have spent this year consumed with writing, re-writing, cutting, purging, drilling down, down, down into this concept I am passionately committed to? Chances are that nobody will read the damned book anyway! A “Backward” sounds reassuring to me – a momentary escape from the thought that maybe no one cares.

So I’ll finish writing the book. I’ll find an eminent person to write the Foreword. And Roger will explain in his “Backward” exactly what readers would remember if they had actually read the book.

But do you suppose I should spell it “Backword”?

Tags: , ,
Posted in Language | 6 Comments »

Ensemble Studio Theatre Gala

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Ann and JerryScene: Caroline’s Comedy Club, NYC, May 3, 2010.

Event: Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Gala

Picture: EST member (and teenage friend) Jerry Zaks, who presented the “Distinguished Member” Award to me. He recalled that I was in the first play he ever did, and thus was his first leading lady.

My husband Roger got the Award too (what are the chances of that? See photo below) as well as esteemed actor Dominic Chianese. We were told the awards honored our outstanding achievements over the past 40 years. Flattering. Not to mention the real reason: survival!

Dominic’s band, the New York Sidewalkers got the entire audience to sing along in a rousing rendition of That’s Amore! and many attendees said the whole thing felt like a family reunion. I was glad that I threw away my impassioned but oh-so-serious acceptance speech before the event, and (as is my tradition) expressed my thoughts in rhyme:

I stand here tonight with the clear sensation
That I am just one in the 4th generation
Of Irish Catholics and German Jews
Who arrived in our country and paid their dues
In order to plant the roots of a tree
Whose branches have grown into my family.

Roger Morgan, you’re part of my tale
And Sam, with your bright-bellied sis: Abigail!
The Morgan family is so far-reaching
It’s hard to fathom the depth of their teaching.

I could list the Sachs-Morgans, one by one
With their spouses and children: for me, t’would be fun
For all of YOU tho, t’would be mighty boring
(And it would be awful to cause all that snoring!)
So I’ll NOT list family names at this time
Though tempting it is to make it all rhyme.

My roots are my backbone and why I stand proud
In front of this highly distinctive crowd.
Agnes and John and Ernest and Maisie
(Good lord I’m listing them – I must be crazy!)
Julius and Rosa – Dad, Mom – and Jim
I carry your love and wisdom within.

What is it I’ve learned that makes me stand tall?
My children and friends often ask, when they call.

I think it’s BELIEF, or so it would seem
You gave me this gift: whatever my dream
Belief it could happen, BELIEF with true ZEAL
Would often make my vision turn REAL.

Then, the Theatre’s dose of daily rejection
Developed my armor: mighty protection
Through sadness and failure, all part of the deal
The standard, in fact, I expected to feel.
We all know, in theatre, that things DO go wrong
And staying the course tends to make us real strong.

So what was the dream I clung to these years?
That thing that kept growing in spite of my tears?
It’s really quite simple, though not to say easy

And sometimes I must say it made me quite queasy:
To merge my life and my work into one
Which included my husband and daughter and son
To create a safe place where all is OK
No matter the obstacles during the day
Has been my passion, my quest to feel free
In fact, it’s rather like – yup – EST!

So CURT, and ROGER and BILLY and PAUL
And Denny, two Jerry’s and – yes – to you ALL!
Marianna and Les, two Mindy’s and Chris: Abigail, Dave, Sam-Jamie-Nancy-Art-Peter- BetsyPollyMelodieJackSusanAnnieDonnaRita….

WHOA!

Thank you. I’m honored. In my tux and my boa.


Roger Morgan with Jim Boese, VP of the Nederlander Organization, who presented the Award after a humorous introduction about representing the FOR-profit theatre world. (Note: Roger’s Award is a beautiful, useable decanter from Tiffany’s.) Roger recalled the first play he was in at age 12, in a community theatre; he was mortified that people might think he was 10, the age of the character.


The Roches (Terre, Left, and Suzzy) who sang their hilarious song from MAMA DRAMA, I’d Like Her To Be Rich. Beginning in 1987, EST member Christine Farrell initiated MAMA DRAMA as an Octoberfest project; it grew into a full length play over several years at EST. Published by Samuel French, it’s produced all over the country, 20+ years later.


Four MAMA DRAMA writers. From Left: Christine Farrell, Leslie Ayvayzian, me, and Marianna Houston. Missing: Donna Daley, Anne O’Sullivan and the late Rita Nachtmann.

There was a lot of laughter that night (and too many suggestions of a GRAND-MAMA DRAMA!)

Me and Tony Soprano?  Go figure!




Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Collaboration | 4 Comments »

“This Is The Wisdom I Have Learned”

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

William Goyen’s House of Breath opened on November 4, 1969 at Trinity Rep, in Providence, Rhode Island. Every year I look back on this play on this date. Why, you might ask?  Two important reasons: it was a theatrical production ahead of its time, and it marks the occasion when I fell in love with Roger Morgan.

Roger in 1969

Roger in 1969

Directed by the brilliant Adrian Hall, with sets and lighting designed by Eugene Lee and Roger Morgan, House of Breath was a powerful, poetic piece about a family from the swamps of East Texas in the early twentieth century. The production pioneered non-traditional casting before the term existed, and explored trans-gender issues in outrageously flamboyant Adrian-Hall-style. The late great Ethyl Eichelberger (known at the time as Jim) played the role of a sexually repressed young man whose imagination transforms him into a black showgirl. I played Jim’s dead sister Jessie, brought to life through the memories of her family.

Ann in House of Breath, 1969

Ann in House of Breath, 1969

It is hard to describe how everyone loved that play. We knew it was groundbreaking. And it is romantic to remember the magic of that opening night. Roger and I were caught completely off-guard by the depth of our connection to one another; each of us secretly thought it must have been the high of the production that swept us off our feet. And partly of course, it was – it created the perfect backdrop. What I have recognized over years of acknowledging November Fourths is that the collaborative experience of that project provided the context in which Roger and I subsequently built our lives. Each of us was a creative collaborator, and the spirit of the work at Trinity quickened the pace of our courtship. Of course we fell in love that night! We didn’t know at the time that it marked the beginning of a collaborative, creative and frequently improvised life, lived together and separately, for forty years.

2009 (40 years later)

2009 (40 years later)

Roger always loved one particular moment in the play. Young Jessie remembers her brother dressed up as a King in a pageant, and declares with great wonder: “This is the wisdom I have learned!” Jessie, filtered through the collective memories of her family, marvels at the power of memory.

“This is the wisdom I have learned” is one of those code phrases that pops up in our marital dialogue; sometimes with humor at a “duh” kind of realization, and occasionally filled with the wonder that inhabited House of Breath and Trinity.

Collaboration, risk, and the belief that together we are doing something important in the world are, of course, 3 of the 6 Principles of Theatrical Intelligence. So in typical Sachs Morgan tradition, let’s give a hearty HIP HIP HOORAY!

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Love | 10 Comments »