![\"rfkplay\"](\"http:\/\/magazine.nd.edu\/assets\/22403\/rfkplay.jpg\" "\\"rfkplay\\"")
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Anna M. Thompson decided to read one last email before calling it a day.<\/p>\n
It was nearly 11 p.m. when the executive director of Notre Dame\u2019s Marie P. DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts (DPAC<\/span>) clicked on the message from Greg Phillips \u201966. Phillips had been in the Decio Mainstage Theatre audience a few hours earlier for the L.A. Theatre Works\u2019 world premiere performance of RFK<\/span>: The Journey to Justice<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cKeep up the good work of bringing all types of works here and continue to push the envelope of making us think instead of just sitting and being entertained.\u201d<\/p>\n The line that ended that impromptu thank-you note has kept Thompson smiling for weeks. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re trying to do,\u201d she says. \u201cExactly.\u201d<\/p>\n When Thompson arrived on campus in the summer of 2007, the University made a commitment not only to showcase some of the world\u2019s top performing artists but also to help them cultivate new works to bring to the DPAC\u2019s five stages.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a trust that we\u2019re building not only with performing artists but with our own patrons,\u201d Thompson says. \u201cWe know if they go home and talk about something for a week they\u2019re not only going to come back they\u2019re going to be more willing to try something else.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the 2008-09 Visiting Artist Series, the University has showcased eight new commissioned works by such artists as the Kronos Quartet and Wu Man, the Richard Alston Dance Company and Tim Robbins\u2019 The Actors\u2019 Gang. The University has already commissioned at least six more works for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons \u2014 most notably The Actors\u2019 Gang\u2019s anticipated stage adaptation of author Howard Zinn\u2019s A People\u2019s History of the United States<\/em> \u2014 in a growing effort to establish the University as a leader in the creation of new works in music, dance and theater.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat if we had no more new music?\u201d Thompson says. \u201cWhat if we had stopped with Bach? What if we said, \u2018Okay, nobody\u2019s going to do better than that. Let\u2019s stop now.\u2019 If that happened the world wouldn\u2019t have gotten to hear Mozart or Stravinsky. Can you image a world where nothing new was being created? I feel it\u2019s our responsibility to make sure that doesn\u2019t happen. I think it\u2019s one of the most important things we\u2019re doing right now. There\u2019s a cultural legacy that we have to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n Formerly the executive director of fine arts programming at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John\u2019s University in Minnesota, Thompson has long been an advocate for investing in the creation of new performance works, especially in the world of dance. She often likens such commitment to the arts as being as important to higher education as funding research in the sciences \u2014 both allow new discoveries and exploration of ideas.<\/p>\n The response to January\u2019s RFK<\/span>: The Journey to Justice<\/em>, the University\u2019s first theater commission, seems to echo that sentiment.<\/p>\n The performances cross classic theater with old-time radio shows, featuring actors with scripts in hand delivering their lines into microphones placed around the stage. Written by playwrights Murray Horwitz and Jonathan Estrin, the production examines the Civil Rights movement through the lens of Robert F. Kennedy\u2019s political life, showing his evolution from ambivalence to passionate race-relations crusader from 1960 to \u201968.<\/p>\n Notre Dame served as lead commissioner on the project, with Stanford University, the University of Maryland and the University of Richmond also contributing.<\/p>\n \u201cNotre Dame did what any good commissioner does,\u201d says Susan Loewenberg, the founder and producing director for L.A. Theatre Works. \u201cThey gave us the money and left us alone. They trusted us to come up with something that was good. What they were able to do on their end was to put together discussions, a matinee performance just for students and professors; I even did a class about the politics of the play. It\u2019s a wonderful way of exposing how you can use the arts in all kinds of ways.\u201d<\/p>\n The addition of such educational opportunities across the University community, Thompson says, also can provide rare firsthand examinations into the creative process that can be applied in multiple disciplines.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t talk to Beethoven or Mozart,\u201d Thompson says. \u201cBut to be able to sit down and have a conversation with [British choreographer] Richard Alston about a new dance piece is a very different experience, maybe a once-in-a-lifetime experience, for faculty members and students.\u201d<\/p>\n Although the 2008-09 season was Thompson\u2019s second as executive director, it introduced her first year of artistic programming. With the support of grants, donors and budget reallocations, Thompson was able to commission works by dance troupes Diavolo and Spectrum Dance Theater as well as the world premiere performance of a Terry Riley composition by the Kronos Quartet, a San Franscisco-based ensemble, with soloist and pipa player Wu Man. Since most of the money came out of a fund to pay visiting artists\u2019 fees, Thompson says she had to be more selective in the performers she brought to the University\u2019s stages.<\/p>\n \u201cIt may have shifted the way our season looked,\u201d Thompson says \u201cbut it certainly didn\u2019t affect the quality of artists we could bring to Notre Dame. The Kronos Quartet has now performed that work all over the country, and in every program it says \u2018commissioned by the University of Notre Dame.\u2019 That brings equity to the University, and it brings equity for a performing arts center that\u2019s only six years old.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Thompson doesn\u2019t dictate the subject matter for commissions, she does seek out artists who will develop complex projects that fit the University\u2019s mission. In addition to civil rights, a subject closely tied to the University through the work of former University president Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, CSC<\/span>, Tim Robbins\u2019 group presented The Trial of the Catonsville Nine<\/em>. The play follows the trial of nine Catholic activists, most notably brothers and priests Philip and Daniel Berrigan, who entered the Selective Service offices in Catonsville, Maryland, on May 17, 1968, removed 378 draft records and burned them in the parking lot.<\/p>\n Loewenberg of L.A. Theatre Works says being commissioned by a university often provides a much greater chance for such works to be seen.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s become very popular for foundations to commission playwrights, but 97 percent of them are never performed,\u201d Loewenberg says. \u201cThey may do readings and workshops, and that\u2019s that. If they aren\u2019t sure they can make money off of it, especially in this environment, they won\u2019t put it on.\u201d<\/p>\n Thompson understands that.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I were a community theater looking right at the bottom line, I\u2019m not going to be doing a play like RFK<\/span><\/em>,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m going to do Bye Bye Birdie<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Creating original works can take anywhere from 18 months to two-and-a-half years to produce, and can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000. Thompson says her goal is to have between two to six commissions and at least one world premiere performance at the University per academic year. She also says that she hasn\u2019t come close to spending $50,000 on a commission since arriving at Notre Dame \u2014 but she hopes to.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not there quite yet,\u201d she says, \u201cbut we\u2019re working on it.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeremy D. Bonfiglio is a South Bend-based freelance writer and the staff features writer for<\/em> The Herald-Palladium of St. Joseph, Michigan.<\/em><\/p>\n Anna M. Thompson decided to read one last email before calling it a day. It was nearly 11 p.m. when the executive director of Notre Dame\u2019s Marie P. DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts (DPAC) clicked on the message from Greg Phillips \u201966. Phillips had been in the Decio Mainstage Theatre audience a few hours […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4250,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-516293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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