In praise of the New Voices Festival, Part 1

             

Branch Rickey, the man who successfully integrated major league baseball by bringing Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers, also has another, earlier innovation to his credit. When he was president of the Saint Louis Cardinals, he discovered that the club didn’t have the funds to compete for talent against richer ball clubs like the New York Yankees. Rather than trying to vie for talent with money that they didn’t have, he decided to grow his own talent, and thus was born the farm system, which every single major league team uses to this day. How appropriate is it then, especially in a county that has a viable farming community, that the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, PA has, in effect, developed its own farm system for nurturing talent? The revitalized theatre has made it part of his mission to feature new works during its season, and has also, through its Education programs, given exposure to playwrights through their New Voices Festival.

                This year (2016) was the third one for the NVF, my third year participating in it, and I’ve loved dong it each time. Why? Well, they actually hired me for one, which earns them some Brownie points right off the bat, but I can tell you that every year has been one of the best experiences I’ve ever had on stage, certainly the most varied. In three years I’ve played an angry Latino, a frustrated, silent waiter, a surgeon operating on a cat’s paw in the middle of the night, a theatre maintenance man, a college professor, one of a pair of siblings deciding on the fate of their mother, and done the background bit in a couple of plays that needed bodies. What’s more, there are no egos on display when we’re putting this on. The spirit of cooperation and fun permeates even the most serious work, and the audiences, which have grown from a hardy bunch of theatre fans to near sellout crowds, are finding the NVF to be a night of rich and varied stage experiences.

                So what accounts for the success, camaraderie and good times that the NVF has given me? It all starts and ends with the two people primarily responsible for bringing the festival to life: Hester Kamin and John Augustine.

                Hester and John. John and Hester. I can’t imagine, after this many years, one without the other, as both are essential to the equation that is New Voices. I met them both at that first casting call in 2014, braving a dark, rainy night on my way to NY to stop off in Lambertville to show them what I had. Together they find the right actors for the right roles and the right mix of plays that will work together for that night, with results that have been pitch perfect each season.

                While they work together very well, separately each brings a distinct set of skills to the project that complement and enhance one another. John, who is listed in the program as Playwriting Mentor and Instructor, takes the ten scripts that wind up getting chosen for the Fest and, with the authors, works them into shape so that when the actors sit down at the table read to give voice to these works for the first time, they are as close to complete as possible. He knows that a good show starts with a good script, and he makes sure that what we have in front of us is as good as it can be.

                Hester is New Voices’ Mother Superior. It’s Hester who coordinates the schedules of ten small productions, with some nights seeing six shows drift through the three rehearsal rooms in Lambertville. She’s the one who deals with each of the show’s technical issues (props, lighting, sound effects, costumes, etc.), getting the program together, having food in the green room, planning the cast party…there’s nothing that escapes her attention, and all of the shows are better for it. She, John and our stage manager Ellen Gallos also drift in and out of rehearsals to see how the plays are shaping up, ready to offer encouragement and advice when necessary and needed.