A Love Letter to Theater and Perseverance

It was an honor to serve as Awards Committee Chair for the 89th Annual Drama League Awards last Friday at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City. The once-a-year celebration of Broadway and off-Broadway theater was an overwhelming success, and I was grateful to have had so many incredible and talented friends and colleagues in attendance. Here’s a short story about how I found myself in that room, in the position of Awards Chair.?

In 2016, I moved back to New York City after a long and formative period of managing Broadway tours. Twelve, to be exact. Four as company manager and eight as general manager. I’d spent the better part of six years traversing the United States and traveling overseas, visiting cities and theaters, and meeting and working with local presenters who passionately collaborate with producers and booking agents to assure their cities and, more specifically, the people in their communities have access to the greatest art I know. Live first-rate theater.?

Touring was a remarkable experience. It shaped parts of who I am today and how I see the American theater. Its role in affecting one person at a time and its ability to serve as a catalyst for larger conversations. I most enjoyed working with people, putting everything on the line to do what they love. Missing holidays, birthdays, funerals. Working through fatigue and plain old, I just don’t know If I’ve got it in me today to: perform, load a truck, strike a note, run a payroll, or get 60 people on a plane after checking out of a hotel on little sleep from settling an engagement the previous evening and making sure the check or wire cleared.?

Before touring I spent several years in New York working on Off-Broadway (8 shows) and Broadway (6 shows) productions, and one year in Las Vegas managing a first-class Broadway sit-down. Everything I have written, all of it including obtaining a Bachelor's degree in Arts Management and three summers of Broadway management internships, was for a super-specific goal. To learn and become the best producer the world has ever known. And so, in 2016, it was time to return to New York. With knowledge gained having served as a right hand to producers in all the meetings and moments outsiders are not brought into, and to experience the same with playwrights, directors, choreographers, designers, production and stage managers, technicians, musicians, all sorts of vendors and of course, actors. At times demanding, at times vulnerable. Always human.

Coming from a middle-class family, I had prepared myself for re-entry. Saving most of my tour money (a mentor advised me to live on per diem only) and announcing I would no longer accept management positions, which meant passing on full-time employment opportunities several times. For a period, I would serve as an advisor, offering my services to other producers, business owners, and those seeking to have their interests represented before the entertainment industry. This was my ‘keep the lights on' strategy. A maximum of 20-30 hours per week working for others so the rest of my time could focus on building a modern producing office. Lucky for me, that role got me into so many rooms, holding a position I had not previously held. A strategist and negotiator. Trusted. Humble. Flexible and Firm.?

I have a strong memory of the first Broadway industry conference I attended when I moved back to the city. The president of a company I had worked with often during my touring years approached and asked who I was working for. I responded, no one. I’m setting out to start my own office. They looked over my shoulder, released my hand, and walked to their next conversation. At the time, it felt like a slow gut punch, and a sense of embarrassment came over me. Who would I talk to if I had no current business to offer? Nothing to transact. Not human. Today, I am thankful for that moment. It yielded perspective. Around this time, I received a text message from Bonnie Comley , who, like her husband, Stewart Lane , is a champion of the arts and of people. Particularly young professionals. It read, “Are you free Monday, November 7th, for a NYC charity event?” The event was the 2016 Drama League Gala honoring actor David Hyde Pierce at the Plaza Hotel. En route to the gala, with the industry conference still fresh on my mind (and heart), I worried I had nothing to offer, no current big project to speak of. Should I even go or stay home and spare myself possible further embarrassment? I went. It was a little uncomfortable. But mostly, it was wonderful. A room filled with story-tellers and story-supporters.

We all have our pandemic memories. Where we were the exact moment our industries shut down. Seeking safety. It was a puzzling time, particularly at the start. In 2020, six weeks before Broadway shut down I announced the formation of Teague Theatrical Group , my modern producing office conceived and brought to life to collaborate, support, and empower the future of storytelling. Was the pandemic a message. A sign. Get out out of this wild business and join an industry not shut down by government mandate? Of course not. Shit happens. To all of us. What was very real though was a sense of isolation, mixed with an unhealthy side-order of doom and gloom. Ask around the theater industry and everyone has their stories. I’m a healthy guy and yet there I was losing hair on my head (remind me, there’s a Getty image I need pulled), and I swallowed one of my back molars from stress grinding. That was some of the painful ugly side of my arts-worker pandemic experience. One of the things I did to lift myself out of isolation was to start contacting friends and colleagues in real ways, offline, off zoom. Phone calls and text messages to check-in. Real contact, greater than a social ‘like’ or ‘thumbs up’.?And I set a rule for myself. No matter how I was doing on a given day, if I read or heard about someone experiencing personal or professional achievement I would reach out to offer my congratulations. Turns out people appreciate this sort of personal connection. I know I do. And so in June 2021, when I came across an article announcing Bonnie Comley as the new President of The Drama League’s Board of Directors, the first Broadway producer to hold the position since the 1970s, I reached out to offer my sincere congratulations. To which I received the following reply, “Thanks so much. Any interest in joining me on the board, I’m looking for people with industry credits.”

It’s hard to believe I am not only a current member of the Board of Directors at The Drama League , but today serve on its Executive Committee as Treasurer, Finance Committee as Chair, and as mentioned at the start of this article (if you made it this far), I had the distinct honor of serving as Awards Committee Chair for the 2023 ceremony. To think seven years prior, a young man with so much professional experience and so much to offer, nearly didn’t make it through the front door of the Plaza Hotel out of fear he might walk into a gala and be discovered as someone with nothing to offer. I guess I thought I should write this article to say, that’s a load of crap. We all have so much to offer and I am just so darn thankful Bonnie Comley and the Drama League trusted me this year to chair what actor John Lithgow calls “the best party on Broadway.” And to my present self, who sometimes, though not as frequently, wonders if he has done enough, learned enough, networked enough to be among the greatest of story-tellers in the world. The answer is YES. Absolutely. And about Teague Theatrical Group, my modern producing office, we are up and running, and doing quite well. There is so much to be grateful for. So much yet to come. Stay tuned!