John Doyle to step down as artistic director of CSC
John Doyle to step down as artistic director of CSC
#1John Doyle to step down as artistic director of CSC
Posted: 7/19/21 at 12:12pm
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/CSC-Announces-Return-to-In-Person-Performances-With-ASSASSINS-More-John-Doyle-to-Step-Down-in-2022-20210719
Oh thank goodness! What a great piece of news.
I felt this deserved its own thread, as it's not every day we get announcements like this for the major non-profits in NYC.
I have nothing again Doyle as a person - he seems to be a lovely man, and I hope he retires with his husband and has lovely time of it. But I'm glad he's exiting, and after this coming season, I hope to finally extricate myself from the cycle of hope and disappointing that I've been in with Dull Doyle for years.
I'll be the first to admit that he's done some good work in the past, and he always picks interesting, challenging material, often stuff that's rarely performed. And he always gets great actors to work with him. That's why I keep coming back to him, against my better judgement. And I've enjoyed a few of his productions, usually in spite of his direction, rather than because of it. But more often than not, I end up in what I call the "Doyle Daze" - that feeling of bleary, foggy boredom I get almost every time I see one of his productions.
One other thing I will say, giving credit where it's due: in his time as artistic director at CSC, he's done a good job curating the seasons in such a way that the shows complement each other, or work in conversation with each other in some way. It's a cool way of building seasons, and I hope whoever takes over for him continues that practice.
Even if he doesn't retire, I hope that returning to work as a freelance director allows him some room to re-discover the creativity and passion he had at the beginning of his career, rather than the lazy, half-baked, half-hearted productions he's been churning out at CSC.
BIG BALONEY
Leading Actor Joined: 6/21/03
#2John Doyle to step down as artistic director of CSC
Posted: 7/21/21 at 1:39pm
I very rarely cared for any of his cut down productions. As a member of Classic Stage Company I'm glad
He is moving on.
