Ask why.

Today marks the opening of TimeLine’s 50th production!

I must say, this milestone is a bit astonishing. In many ways, it seems like just yesterday the six of us who founded TimeLine were each pitching in $50 to get the company started. But since that auspicious beginning in 1997, TimeLine has grown exponentially, thanks largely to our passionate supporters. Your patronage, curiosity and desire to engage in provocative theater has inspired us to make TimeLine a stronger and more dynamic organization with each passing day and production.

So, after a string of 14 seasons operating in the black, more than 50 awards for our art and management, and 49 plays that have furthered our mission of exploring history, it is perhaps ironic — and hopefully not a harbinger — that we mark our 50th production with the story of Enron, a company with one of the greatest business free falls in our nation’s history.

But those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and Enron is a trajectory that I assure you TimeLine has no intention of following! Fifty shows, but we’re just gettin’ started!

Bret Tuomi as the disgraced Jeffrey Skilling in "Enron" at TimeLine.

And — ominous superstitions aside — I couldn’t be happier to have Enron as our 50th production or more excited to have it be our first under the direction of the über-talented Rachel Rockwell. She has become one of the most prolific, heralded and admired artists in Chicago’s theater community, for good reason.

We’ve presented her with Lucy Prebble’s epically scaled play, which was a sensation in London and a swiftly extinguished misfire in New York. Such are the challenges we relish at TimeLine, and Rachel and her design team have created a sleek, stripped-down arena in which you will become engulfed in the raucous, gluttonous and seductive world of money-making (and losing).

The story of Enron is one you surely know and might prefer to forget, but the appeal of Prebble’s script is not merely to repeat the sensational news story or to rail at the villains involved. The theatrical roller-coaster ride the play takes us on offers fodder for much more conversation and introspection about what we asked ourselves during the collapse of (fill-in-the-blank-company) in recent years — “How exactly could that have happened!?”

About a week before we started rehearsals for Enron I was traveling, and it seemed everywhere I went I saw people clutching the new biography of Steve Jobs. In airports, coffee shops, on the subway — everywhere I turned, people were probing and mourning the life of Apple’s visionary. And I couldn’t help but think of Jeffrey Skilling and how, at one time during his prime as Enron’s chief executive officer, he and his legions of supporters imagined that he would be revered in the way that Jobs is. At Enron’s height, Skilling possessed such astonishing vision, chutzpah, hubris and drive that those around him believed he would change the world — and the way that business was done.

He and the ever-shining gleam of the Enron logo were so seductive. People wanted to, needed to believe in the company’s promise — and this belief is what would make it all thrive, providing the life and fortune of their dreams.

Now, with the perspective of time (and after the bottom fell out), we have a more cynical and skeptical view. In many ways, Skilling’s foot soldiers at Enron were right: He did change the way business was done. But for how long? That’s a trickier question.

Skilling’s obituary will be markedly different from that of Jobs, and some day people may probe his biography for vastly different reasons. And our continual search for the next pioneer surely will go on. Perhaps we’ll have wider eyes about how or if their moral compass factors into the company’s bottom line. Or perhaps not, just as long as they deliver whatever it is we want from them.

Over the next several months, we will hear a lot of politicians talking about deregulation. Enron reminds us why we need to keep asking questions. Ironically, the Enron company motto was, “Ask why.”

Indeed. Well put.

It’s a question we’re always happy to discuss with you, and we’re glad you’re here to be a part of that conversation about Enron.

I’m thankful to everyone who has believed in and supported TimeLine through our first 49 stories, and I look forward to talking with you about the 50th, 100th and beyond …

It’s complicated

I can’t stop thinking about Enron.

As we approach the opening of our 50^th production, there are a lot of sleepless nights — as there always are during tech and previews — but I think that’s even more true this week, as many of us can’t stop thinking and talking about this play. Personally, I have many complicated feelings about what happened at Enron, and specifically about Jeff Skilling and Andrew Fastow.

Bret Tuomi as Jeffrey Skilling and Sean Fortunato as Andrew Fastow in "Enron" at TimeLine.

Obviously, there’s a lot of anger. Anger because when I look at what happened at Enron it is hard for me to ignore what I perceive to be a totally senseless downfall. Anger because of all that the stakeholders lost. Anger at Ken Lay and the board.

Yet I’m equally fascinated with the minds of Skilling and Fastow. As someone who loves numbers and accounting concepts, I have to admit that I find Fastow’s mind to be brutally compelling.

But it is really Skilling  — and Bret Tuomi’s dynamic portrayal of him in TimeLine’s production — that is keeping me awake at night. It is easy to portray Skilling as a basic villain, but it really sunk in watching Sunday night’s preview: Skilling for me is no longer just a man I read about in the paper or in books. He now has humanity. While I don’t agree with what he did, I have started to understand his motivations, and that is a very unsettling feeling. We watch Bret as Jeff Skilling go through that journey — starting off as a smart man with sophisticated ideas, taking himself to the top of the world, then watching it all crumble away and culminate in a heartbreaking 4 a.m. phone call to his daughter. While his acts were monstrous and destructive, this play helps us remember that he was motivated by very human emotions: pride and fear.

As I reflect on Skilling’s rise in the business world, I can’t stop wondering about the powerful, intoxicating feeling of being a pioneer, of standing of the edge of the next big thing. It brings to mind David Sarnoff and some of the questions The Farnsworth Invention raised about innovation, about the pain of bringing an idea from concept to reality. Sarnoff’s big question was “What’s next?,” which is a question we like to ask ourselves at TimeLine. As it turns out, that was the exact same question Jeff Skilling was asking as he tried to make sense of the new virtual world that Enron helped pioneer.

I understand that there is a huge burden to being a pioneer in a public company, where you are accountable to the shareholders. Intellectually, I understand that in that world, you are only as good or as valuable as your stock price. But having spent my entire adult life working in the not-for-profit industry, I can’t fully appreciate the pressure of the stock price. But I do understand the pressure to be accountable to the people who support TimeLine, the artists and the mission. And though we prefer to concentrate on “What’s next?,” we recognize that in moments like this we also must ask the question “Why?” It’s our responsibility to inspire a real conversation about why Enron happened. If only the leadership at Enron had demanded an answer to that question, perhaps thousands of lives might not have been ruined.

My thoughts now are just scratching the surface. We have 12 more weeks to live with this production, but I don’t anticipate my feelings about Enron and Skilling will become any less complicated. TimeLine always wants to create a dialogue with our audience about the work we put on our stage, and this one will surely inspire some passionate discussions. I can’t wait to hear what you think, and how you respond to this production and the complicated feelings it evokes.

A Pitman’s guide to the Art Institute

A few weeks ago I emailed my friend, co-conspirator and TimeLine Marketing Director Lara Goetsch to see if she wanted to go to the Art Institute of Chicago and look for all the art mentioned in The Pitmen Painters.  She agreed and we met in the foyer of the museum on a rainy Thursday evening.

It’s so easy to get complacent when living in a city of artistic riches about how much access we have to art and how seldom we take advantage of opportunities to see it.

As I was running up the steps to meet her, I had a sudden memory of my first visit to Chicago and to the Art Institute and how impressive and imposing the museum looked with its grand steps and guardian lions. How I raced around trying to see paintings that were important to me and how I was surprised by paintings I had never intended to see. It’s so easy to get complacent when living in a city of artistic riches about how much access we have to art and how seldom we take advantage of opportunities to see it.

Like a good dramaturg, I had made us a list of paintings and gallery numbers by checking the museum catalog online first. Feel free to follow along on our journey and possibly map your own visit to the Art Institute using the museum’s online gallery map.

We started our quest by looking to find any Chinese paintings like those the Pitmen saw at the exhibition in London. It turns out that the Art Institute has a substantial Chinese pottery collection and a good Japanese print collection but no Chinese paintings. So we had our first disappointment, mitigated slightly by one of those great museum moments — finding something we hadn’t been looking for. This time it was beautiful restored Japanese carvings that were part of one of the Japanese Pavilions during the Columbian Exposition. They had even mysteriously resided under bleachers at Soldier Field for a time!

We tore ourselves away to continue our quest for paintings from the script.

13 x 4 = 52

TimeLine Company Members David Parkes and Janet Ulrich Brooks in "A Walk in the Woods" at Theater Wit.

Here we are in the final weekend of the run of A Walk in the Woods! Over the past few months, whenever people asked me why we produced  A Walk In The Woods at Theater Wit, I talked about TimeLine’s need to expand our production schedule to accommodate a growing audience plus wanting to increase the length of production runs. To do that, we needed to move one production off site because it was the only way to make the numbers work. One gentleman responded by saying, “so it really is just about the math.”

Is it really just about the math?

The simple answer is yes. For the previous two seasons, TimeLine had to cap the number of subscriptions we sold. It was becoming very hard for our subscribers to get seats on the nights they wanted. There wasn’t as much flexibility with our FlexPass subscription as we wanted to offer; reservations needed to be made very early to get first choice of dates. Also, it was becoming difficult to purchase extra tickets for friends to introduce them to TimeLine, as many productions sold out early in their runs.

In the long-term, not being able to bring in new audiences was holding us back. The vitality of our organization relies on our patrons. TimeLine’s mission is about engaging people to be a part of a larger conversation. And while we love the conversations we are having, we know that in order to stay vibrant and expand the impact these conversations can have, it’s important to keep meeting new people to engage.

Faced with these twin desires — to give our patrons more of the flexibility they had in the past plus accommodate new audiences — the solution that rose to the top was to expand our production calendar from 9-week runs to 13 weeks.

With each production running for 13 weeks and continuing to produce 4 shows per season, we had a numbers problem. 13 x 4 = 52.  Plus each show takes a week to tech and a week or more to load in the set. TimeLine loves time, but we haven’t yet figured out how to manufacture more weeks in the year (believe me we’d like to try)! So the next solution was to move one production to a different venue. Thus, A Walk in the Woods at Theater Wit, and the remainder of our 4-play season at our home on Wellington Avenue.

The effect of this decision has been significant. Our expanded production schedule for 2011-12 resulted in more available performances and seats than ever before — 107 more performances and 10,000 more seats, in fact!

The continued success of TimeLine is due in large part to you seeing our shows and introducing your friends to the work on our stage. We know this has been particularly challenging the past two years, but so far the added performances seem to be making it easier. In fact, we already have been able to welcome an additional 700+ subscribers (a nearly 30% increase over last season), and hundreds of single-ticket buyers to both A Walk in the Woods and The Pitmen Painters.

Our experience at Theater Wit ends this weekend, with only 5 performances left of A Walk In The Woods. It’s not too late to purchase tickets to Walk or a subscription to all four plays! The rest of the year we’re back at our home on Wellington — The Pitmen Painters (now extended through December 18) is followed by the Chicago premiere of Enron by Lucy Prebble, directed by Rachel Rockwell (performances start January 17) and the world premiere of John Conroy’s My Kind of Town, directed by Nick Bowling (performances start May 1, 2012).

Thank you for taking this journey with TimeLine.

Congratulations, Chicago theatre!

TimeLine's Company Members (from left): Juliet Hart, David Parkes, PJ Powers, Ben Thiem, Nick Bowling, Janet Ulrich Brooks and Lara Goetsch at the 2011 Equity Jeff Awards.

Last night the entire TimeLine Company, members of the Board of Directors and representatives from all four of our 2010-11 season productions (Frost/Nixon, To Master the Art, In Darfur and The Front Page) trekked to the Drury Lane Oak Brook Theatre for the 43rd Annual Joseph Jefferson Equity Awards. We were there to celebrate and support TimeLine’s 17 nominations (including two for Outstanding Production – Midsize, for Frost/Nixon and To Master the Art) but mostly to enjoy an outstanding party that recognizes excellence in the Chicago theater community, of which we are honored to be a part.

The parade of winners was announced and gave wonderfully funny and heartfelt speeches. There were performances from the nominated musicals and revues and video excerpts from the nominated plays, a special presentation to Chicago Sun-Times theatre critic Hedy Weiss and much more. The night was full of the fun of catching up with friends and colleagues, and gratitude for the talent and camaraderie of Chicago’s theater community.

From left: "To Master the Art" playwright Doug Frew, Andrew Hansen, "To Master the Art" playwright and director William Brown, Mike Tutaj, Collette Pollard and TimeLine Artistic Director PJ Powers.

We were thrilled to cheer three of the artists who worked with us last year as they took home some Jeff lucite! Andrew Hansen (nominated SIX times last night!) took home the award for Original Incidental Music for his To Master the Art compositions, a huge part of the immersive design that transported audiences to Paris during the 1940s. Mike Tutaj received an award for Projections/Video Design for his extraordinary work on In Darfur (some of us still don’t understand how he accomplished what he did on that show!). And Collette Pollard was honored for the enveloping set design for The Front Page, literally putting the audience inside the 4th floor press room of Chicago’s Criminal Courts building.

For more about last night’s festivities, check out:

• Our public photo gallery on Facebook
• TimeLine’s Twitter feed (Director of Marketing and Communications Lara Goetsch “live tweeted” throughout the presentation ceremony)
• The Jeff Awards website, with the complete list of winners and official photos

Special thanks to the Joseph Jefferson Committee for an incredible night!

The Hawk and the Dove

Last summer, as I prepared to take on the role of American negotiator John Honeyman in Lee Blessing’s A Walk in the Woods and researched the world of arms negotiators, no book became more valuable to my process than The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan and the History of the Cold War by Nicholas Thompson. From the Amazon.com book description:

Only two Americans held positions of great influence throughout the Cold War. The two men embodied opposing strategies for winning the conflict. Yet they dined together, attended the weddings of each other’s children, and remained lifelong friends. … Paul Nitze was a consummate insider who believed the best way to avoid a nuclear clash was to prepare to win one. George Kennan was a diplomat turned academic whose famous “X article” persuasively argued that we should contain the Soviet Union while waiting for it to collapse from within. A masterly double biography, ‘The Hawk and the Dove’ “does an inspired job of telling the story of the Cold War through the careers of two of its most interesting and important figures.” (The Washington Monthly)

One of the most fascinating parts of absorbing this extraordinary book (called perhaps “the most important political biography in recent memory” by The Washington Times, among countless more critical praise) was realizing that author Nicholas Thompson is the grandson of Paul Nitze. Through a mutual connection, we were able to contact Mr. Thompson, who graciously agreed to answer some questions about his book, the two men it is about, and their story’s connection to A Walk in the Woods:

David Parkes (DP): Obviously, knowing of your grandfather’s considerable influence in the shaping of American foreign policy must have been a significant inspiration for the book.  At what point did you decide to include George Kennan in the story, and relate the events of the Cold War through their, as you say, “often parallel, and sometimes perpendicular,” lives?

Author Nicholas Thompson

Nicolas Thompson (NT): The seed for the book was planted in 1999 when my grandfather read a letter he had received from Kennan. Nitze had just published an op-ed in The New York Times calling for the abandonment of our nuclear arsenal. Kennan had sent an eloquent note expressing his pleasure that they had finally agreed on an issue they had disputed for 50 years. I remember wondering then about the history between the two men.

I ultimately decided to write the book when I read the obituary of Kennan, who died six months after my grandfather. I hadn’t recognized how closely parallel his life was to my grandfather’s. But I remember sitting at my father’s house, reading the obituary in the newspaper and saying to my dad “Wow. Their lives were the same.” He then told me about their personal friendship, which made a possible book seem like an even better idea.

DP: What was the most surprising thing you learned in your research for the book?

NT: I had no idea about the depth of Kennan’s depression and his dark feelings about this country. I also had no idea how interesting a character Svetlana Stalin, the daughter of the dictator, would turn out to be. I had never even heard of her when I started, but it turned out that she was a seminal figure in Kennan’s life, and she and I actually became friends.

DP: Can you speak a little about your first recollections of Paul Nitze?

NT: I remember playing tennis, fishing, and hiking with him. I had a vague sense that he was important, and I wrote a 6th grade term paper on his arms negotiating. But mostly I liked playing in grandfather-grandson tennis tournaments. When I was 10, and he was 78, we were about equal on the court. I remember him as a kind, loving, brilliant man, and these personal memories led me to doubt the standard histories that cast him as a demon of the Cold War.

DP: How did you first hear of the famous “walk in the woods,” and what did you learn from Nitze regarding the negotiations with Kvitsinsky?

NT: I never learned anything from him. I was only seven when it happened, and I never discussed it with him. But I learned a great deal from Kvitsinsky! The most surprising thing he told me was that the Russians rejected the deal in part because they thought that Nitze, who had always been a hardliner, had played a trick on him. I was also impressed with how much genuine respect he had for Nitze. He’s still a member of the Russian parliament, but he was willing to speak with me, and answer repeated emails, entirely because I’m Nitze’s grandson.

DP: How do you feel Nitze’s thoughts changed over time on nuclear arms as a means of shaping foreign policy?

NT: I think his general philosophy — nuclear weapons should be at the center of foreign policy, and we need to set the strategic balance in such a way that minimizes the odds of war, particularly by making the U.S. stronger than the U.S.S.R. — was pretty consistent. What was also, strangely, consistent was his view that any given moment was a moment of urgent peril and that the Soviets were ahead in a way that we needed to catch up to.

DP: You mentioned that you saw a previous production of the play A Walk in the Woods … what were your impressions of the story in light of what you know of the actual events?

NT: I think the play does a good job of capturing the reality of events, though, of course, in real life, it was an old American pairing with a young Russian. But it was truly two men from very different worlds who undertook a risky mission to try to solve an unsolvable problem.

DP: How have  your own views of American diplomatic efforts changed or evolved since your completion of the book — particularly with respect to the United States’ post-Cold War relationship with Russia, and the continued challenges of nuclear disarmament?

NT: One of the great questions of our times is the one Nitze struggled with at the end of his life: Can we actually get rid of all the nuclear weapons in the world? It’s a very tough question, in part because of game theory. If every big country gets rid of its nuclear weapons, it becomes particularly valuable for a small country to build them. But I’ve been impressed with Obama’s rhetoric on the issue, and I’ve been pleased by the limited progress that has occurred with Moscow.

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David is a TimeLine Theatre Company Member and portrays American negotiator John Honeyman in our current production of A Walk in the Woods (playing at Theater Wit through November 20).

A terrific day in New York

Getting up at 4 am is not my idea of starting a day off right. By a longshot. But I made an exception one week ago, and it was more than worth it.

Why the early rise? I was headed, along with TimeLine Managing Director Elizabeth Auman, to New York City for a luncheon for the American Theatre Wing National Theatre Company Grants. TimeLine was among 10 emerging companies chosen nationally (and the only Chicago recipient in 2011) to receive a $10,000 award to support general operations.

What a terrific day it was for TimeLine!

TimeLine Artistic Director PJ Powers and Managing Director Elizabeth Auman with other recipients of the American Theatre Wing’s National Theatre Company grants as well as ATW’s Ted Chapin, Lucie Arnaz and Heather Hitchens. (Photo: American Theatre Wing)

After the pre-dawn flight into LaGuardia, Liz and I whisked quickly to the CUNY TV Studios to tape a segment for an upcoming episode of ATW’s Working in the Theatre Series (check this post for updates on when our episode will post online). The 10 honored theatres were broken up into smaller groups, and I was interviewed by Ted Chapin, Chairman of the Board of the American Theatre Wing, along with the artistic directors from The Transport Group in New York and TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

From there we hopped a quick cab across Midtown to the heart of the theater district for the formal awards luncheon at the Glass House Tavern, where we were able to mingle more with the other recipients and members of the American Theatre Wing, including its Executive Director Heather Hitchens, and its Board Vice-Chair, actor Lucie Arnaz, who served as the hysterical and inspirational Master of Ceremonies.

As I sat listening to each honoree talk about their work, I was struck by the immediate camaraderie among all of us. Coming from all over the country – from New Mexico, San Diego, Austin, Atlanta, Arkansas and more – these are companies that we’ve admired from afar for years, each with a distinct mission and creating a buzz in their respective cities.

While serving diverse communities, each organization is at an interesting moment in its history. I often joke about TimeLine being in our “awkward teenage years” – about to turn 15, with many years of achievement and learning behind us, yet with the best still yet to come. And, like our fellow honorees, we’re starting to make an impact on a national scale, and the American Theatre Wing is providing a tremendous platform to support that growth.

Monday was a day to pause and discuss what it means to be a leader in our field. This is something we talk about a lot these days at TimeLine – how to be thought leaders, artistic provocateurs, responsible administrators and burgeoning entrepreneurs, while staying true to what has made us who we are (our mission, vision and values).

In year 15 of TimeLine there is surely much to be proud of. But still much work to do. We’re striving to become stronger leaders in our immediate community, while also hoping for our mission to make ripples beyond our beloved home of Chicago, to help to shape the national theatre scene.

Liz and PJ with Martin Miller from TheatreSquared. (Photo: American Theatre Wing)

Talking with peers from around the country that share similar challenges and aspirations was not only inspiring and invigorating, but it was also a great reminder and testament to what has made TimeLine special.  Liz and I were deeply proud to represent TimeLine’s incredible team and support system on Monday, and to share stories, ideas and insight into what the buzz is all about in Chicago.

Following the luncheon, I carried a great sense of pride back out onto the streets of Manhattan – pride in all that TimeLine has become and all that lies ahead, as well as gratitude for all who walk through our doors each day to be a part of our work, whether artist, audience or administrator.

After a stroll through Midtown, I was back in a cab to LaGuardia to wrap up the whirlwind day, landing late at a near-empty O’Hare, to get back to work the following morning for a busy week at the theatre. Oddly, it was dark when I left O’Hare and dark when I returned, almost as if nothing had changed in the interim. But, even exhausted as I was, it was a day I will not soon forget.

Check out more photos of the event at the American Theatre Wing’s photo gallery …

Paper magic

If you’ve been following TimeLine’s 15th Anniversary season at all — received our 2011-12 subscription brochure, gotten an email, attended a show — you’ve seen the four images we’re using to promote the four plays this season:

For several years now TimeLine has used photographs as the primary images each season. And this year was no exception — these are indeed photographs. But instead of photographing abstract scenes of people/objects, this year we tried something completely new. Something that could only have been accomplished with the time, talent and superhuman patience and attention to detail of one Ryan Robinson — photographer, artist and dear friend of TimeLine. And because it was such a crazy cool process and result, we thought we’d share the backstory with you!

Ryan wrote about how he approached the project on his blog:

I’ve been creating photography for TimeLine’s season brochures for a few years now. This year was a bit different compared to previous shoots. … I wanted the process of creating the images to be just as important as the final images. No gimmicks or Photoshop trickery needed. When we had our initial meeting to go through the four plays and talk about concepts, I approached TimeLine with a completely different idea. I wanted to create EVERYTHING out of cut paper — no actors, no real environments, no scheduling the team to meet in four various locations around Chicago. Just me, a million x-acto blades and stacks and stacks of paper.

It was a big change but with a desire to try something new in honor of our 15th Anniversary, we decided to take the plunge, trust in Ryan, and see what happened. A few weeks later, he had created four absolutely stunning models, made entirely of paper except for a few 3-dimensional central items. We scheduled a photo shoot (it’s amazing how many different ways you can photograph an inanimate object – especially one with movable parts!), picked the winners and the season was off and running.

Almost as incredible as the images themselves is this video that Ryan made of himself actually doing the work to create them. Hours and hours of work and creativity condensed into one whirlwind 3 1/2 minutes. He even did a special paper cut-out version of our logo, with a collage of posters from many of the 45+ plays we’ve produced peeking through. You have to check it out:

We hope to have the models themselves on display at TimeLine sometime soon, so you can admire them up close.

In the meantime, if you’re as impressed by Ryan’s work as we are, definitely check out his website to view his online portfolio. And TimeLine is thrilled to congratulate Ryan on his newest endeavor — co-founding Ink Factory Studio (their motto says it all: “You talk. We draw. It’s awesome.”). It’s all about the work of “graphic recording” — creating real-time, hand drawn visuals during discussions, brainstorms or keynote speeches. If you haven’t heard much about this before, we highly recommend you check it out! We wish Ryan all the best with his new company, and we can’t thank him enough for giving us these four stunning images — paper magic, indeed — to illustrate our milestone season.

Share your thoughts

TimeLine Company Members David Parkes and Janet Ulrich Brooks are negotiators John Honeyman and Anya Botvinnik in "A Walk in the Woods," now playing at Theater Wit through Nov. 20, 2011.

TimeLine’s 15th season opener A Walk in the Woods — the Pulitzer Prize-nominated play by Lee Blessing that first premiered on Broadway in 1988 and has been revived, with a twist, by director Nick Bowling — has been playing for a few weeks.

You can read the official critical response at our website, but with so many of you already having seen the show — and six more weekends to encourage others to check it out — we want to hear what you thought of the production! What was your response to the gender switch (making the Russian negotiator a woman, rather than a man as originally written)? Did the play make you feel a greater sense of futility, or of hope, about our ability to work with international adversaries? How about personal adversaries? Do you feel the play is dated? Have you been Googling information about nuclear weaponry in the world today? What conversations have you had with your friends and family since seeing the show? We want to hear it all!

Responses, reviews, comments or questions are welcome below (please review our guidelines before diving in). We look forward to the conversation!

Lighting the artistic impulse

BJ Jones

Written by BJ Jones

In 1969 I joined the United Mine Workers. I made varnish for Mobil Chemical one summer during college. Midway through the summer the UMW went out on strike for wages and conditions and we were on the picket line. During my time off my buddy and I headed to upstate New York to go to a rock concert which was getting rained out, but … that’s another story.

As I left Mobil to go back to school they offered me a full time job, but I told the shift manager that I was headed back to class and that I was going to be an actor. He looked at me with barely concealed pity and said I would always have a job at Mobil. I thanked him and headed out of the factory and into my life. Well, that factory has since closed, and here I am directing a play about my fellow mine workers who were also artists.

That shift manager was a great guy, but he couldn’t conceive of making a living as an actor. I’ve thought of those guys over the years, and I wonder if they ever had dreams like I did. I wonder if they had gifts unopened, and fires unlit. I was the first of my generation in our family to graduate from college and in Cleveland in the late 1960s, making a living as an artist, let alone even being one, was outside the realm of possibility.

The miners turned artists in TimeLine's production of "The Pitmen Painters."

At the end of college the Artistic Director of the Cleveland Play House offered me an apprenticeship, and the fire of my passion for theatre was lit, unquenchable 40 years later. And here I am, working on Wellington Avenue, just down the street from where I made my Chicago debut at the old Ivanhoe Theatre.

I am so deeply moved by the thought that regardless of education, experience or class, the artistic impulse resonates from within everyone. Unrecognized, undernourished, it will not grow, but the flicker of recognition and validation can set the wheels of creation spinning.

At the end of the first act, the miners are talking about their work and their moment of self discovery. As a group they tell us:

… If you can overcome whatever you need to overcome, no matter who you are, where you come from. That is what is important about art; you take one thing and make it into another, and transform … who you are.

Perhaps that is the Pitmen Painters greatest work of art … themselves.

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BJ Jones is the Artistic Director of Northlight Theatre in Skokie and makes his TimeLine Theatre debut as director of The Pitmen Painters.