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Becky's Last Year By DANIEL MORGAN SHELLEY
Drama Division faculty member Rebecca Guy has spent the past 20 summers working with the Chautauqua Conservatory Theater Company, serving as artistic director for 17 of those years. Last summer, Guy announced that the 2004 season would be her last as artistic director. I was fortunate to be a part of the conservatory this summer, which came to be known as "Becky's Last Year."
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| The original staff of the Theater School at Chautauqua in 1984. In the middle of the second row are Becky Guy and Michael Kahn. |
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The Chautauqua Institution, which celebrated its 125th anniversary in 1999, is a community renowned as a center for the performing arts and a resource for the discussion of the important issues of our time. Approximately 7,500 persons are in residence on any day during a nine-week summer season, and more than 150,000 attend scheduled public events over the course of the season. Some 300 students are accepted annually into the Chautauqua schools of fine and performing arts, and more than 400 open-enrollment continuing education courses are offered each season.Originally called the Chautauqua Lake Sunday School Assembly, the institution was founded in 1874 as an educational experiment in out-of-school, vacation learning. By 1880 the Chautauqua platform had established itself as a national forum for open discussions of public issues, international relations, literature, and science. Approximately 100 lecturers appear at Chautauqua during a season.For student performers like myself, Chautauqua is an opportunity not only to learn and perform with field professionals, but to do so in an environment that is centered on artistic, spiritual, and psychological growth and well-being. I arrived at the institution a week early to begin rehearsals for the opening show of the season, Athol Fugard's My Children! My Africa!. It was undoubtedly the best performing experience of my life so far. So many different elements came together in an amazing way for me. I got to work with two remarkable actors: Vanessa Caye Wasche from the Guthrie Program at the University of Minnesota, and Equity actor Helmar Augustus Cooper, who was in the Broadway revival of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom last year. Mr. Fugard's story was flawless, and the technical support for the show was incredible. The opportunity to work in an Equity show with high-quality stage management was a student's dream, and I could not have asked for a more generous and patient director than in my own teacher, Ralph Zito, who was also on the faculty at Chautauqua. During my entire nine weeks there, I was able to work on my craft in a very stress-free and fun way, and remember why I got into acting in the first place: because it makes me happy. The Chautauqua environment fosters a healthy artist, which in turn fosters an uninhibited flow of creativity. For audience members, this institution provides an invaluable opportunity not only to experience the arts, but to learn about the vital details that go into the creative process.As a member of this year's conservatory, I got to experience firsthand not only how wonderful the institution is as a whole, but also how much of an impact Rebecca Guy has made there. She came in 1984 as an instructor at what was then known as the Theater School, a training program partly developed by Guy's mentor and friend, Michael Kahn, who is now Richard Rodgers Director of the Juilliard Drama Division. A year later, the program was retitled the Chautauqua Conservatory Theater Company, and in 1988 Guy became its artistic director. More than 80 plays have been produced at C.C.T.C. under her guidance, many of which she directed and/or acted in. Some of her favorites include Collected Stories, Marvin's Room, and a very successful production of The Laramie Project, which sparked meaningful and much needed discussion in the Chautauqua community.
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| Becky Guy and Tom Becker, the president of Chautauqua Institute, at Beckyfest. (Photo by Daniel Morgan Shelley) |
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This year at Chautauqua, Guy was asked to give one of the department of religion's Thursday afternoon lectures at the Hall of Philosophy as a last-minute stand-in for a speaker who cancelled. To give insight into Becky's character, I quote from Chautauquan Daily staff writer Judy Lawrence, who interviewed Guy about the lecture. "She agreed to do it because she was terrified," wrote Lawrence. Guy described it as feeling she was "up there without a mask and that's a terrifying thing. I knew that by doing this … I would probably, hopefully discover something new about myself." Asked about trust during the lecture, Guy described theater as a communal life form and explained (as Lawrence wrote) that "her responsibility as a director is to create a safe place for actors as well as for the writer. The best way to go into a creative process is to assume trust. 'I try to go into a situation trusting everyone,' she said."That mentality of trust, community, and courage is exactly the legacy that Rebecca Guy will leave the C.C.T.C. with. Colleagues and students alike have commented on it. One of this year's actors, Audrey Kelley, who comes from Rutgers University, said: "For her to remain an open person, not afraid to show us who she is as a human being and still be effective as an artistic director, is awe-inspiring. She has shown me that all of my person can be appreciated in a world that tends to depreciate people."Allison Lee, Equity stage manager for the C.C.T.C., has worked with Becky for nine years. "I have seen how she respects our craft, her understanding and appreciation for the entire process and what goes into the making of theater," she said. "She insists that we learn to take risks, to explore the cost, to fail and to succeed and always look for more."Chautauqua Conservatory Theater Company artistic associate Ralph Zito, who also heads voice and speech for Juilliard's Drama Division, has a year-round working relationship with Guy. In an interview with Chautauquan Daily staff writer Susannah Dainow, Zito said of Guy: "… it's really rare that one has the opportunity to work so closely over a long period of time with someone who is such an incredible friend … one of my proudest professional accomplishments is what we've created together in the conservatory with providing this experience that's a combination of training and performance." This was also Zito's last year at Chautuaqua, after nine years of directing and teaching.Near the close of the season, a wonderful organization at Chautauqua called the Friends of the Theater threw a rousing celebration simply called "The Beckyfest." Stars hung from the ceiling with the names of all the plays produced under Guy's tutelage. Excerpts from her favorite plays were read by guest speakers. Pictures of Guy throughout the years hung on the walls, and the room was filled with those who had been touched by her commitment to the institution and to the theater as a whole.
"It's a real challenge to be responsible for the artistic environment and culture at Chautauqua," Guy recently told me. As artistic director, she had the final say on what the theater season would consist of each year, balancing the triple responsibilities of choosing "entertaining" shows for the institution's audience; creating a nurturing environment for the artists, students, and staff; and honoring the spirit of theater in producing quality work. One of Becky's consistent satisfactions of the past 20 years was watching the growth of the students, like myself, over the course of the summer.Chautauqua will never be quite the same, and I sincerely hope that the next artistic director will be as much of a blessing to the company as Rebecca Guy has been.Daniel Morgan Shelley is a third-year drama student.
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