BWW Interviews: Director Marc Robin Thrives on 'Regional Theatre Playground'

He has directed and choreographed over three hundred shows on American regional theatres stages from Chicago to Philadelphia to Houston, Kansas City, and Phoenix, been nominated for over seventy awards, won sixteen of fifty-three Joseph Jefferson nominations! He is currently the full time Artistic Director of the Fulton Theatre in Lancaster, PA, but that will not stop him in the coming season from staging productions not only in Lancaster, but also in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Brunswick, ME, to name but a few gigs already planned.

"Regional theatres are the places that are focusing on art first and commercial aspects second. Regional is where new works begin today and where quality theatre exists. I love the playground of regional theatre," the Florida born, fifty-two-year-old Marc Robin exclaims with enthusiasm when I am able to catch up with him shortly after the opening of Maine State Music Theatre's highly acclaimed East coast regional premiere of Mary Poppins. Robin, who also staged Dreamgirls and LES MISERABLES in Brunswick this summer, confides, "I like to be busy. I don't wind down. I always think I am supposed to be doing something. But that's because my work is my passion."

Robin's energy and enthusiasm are clearly contagious, and it is evident in his animated conversation how much he loves his profession. He recounts the magic that drew him to the theatre as a child. "I played Toto in The Wizard of Oz when I was four, and I am told that at age five I walked over to a piano and began to play without ever having taken a lesson. I think I loved the attention at first, but I soon realized that this was what I was born to be. Everyone has something he is supposed to do. I discovered my passion early on, and thanks to my Mom's encouragement, I was able to work toward a theatrical career from age six onward. I attended classes at the Children's Theatre School in Fort Lauderdale until I was fifteen, and then I went to the High School of Performing Arts there. I did the national tour of One Thousand Clowns when I was ten and lots of commercials. In college I met Randee Lefkow, who took me under her wing and told me she thought I could become a dancer. At her urging, I went to New York to study at the Step Studio where my amazing teachers included Ann Reinking, Honi Coles, Peter Gennaro, and Rebecca Wright."

In addition to this intensive dance training, a sequence of other opportunities helped establish the young Robin as an in-demand dancer-actor-singer. "I was twenty-one and had just moved to Chicago, and I auditioned at the Marriott Theatre for Dominic Missimi. I was cast in Gypsy as the back end of the cow," he laughs. The job earned him his Actor's Equity card, however, and formed a collaborative friendship with Missimi that endures to today. Robin's big professional break came when Bob Fosse cast him in the national tour of Dancin', the last production the famous choreographer would mount before his death. "That altered my life as a performer and as a director-choreographer," Robin recalls.

As Robin began dancing, he gradually realized that he had a desire "to create the dances," and slowly he progressed to assistant choreographer, dance captain, assistant director, choreographer, and finally, director. Robin sees his life "as a series of doors which have lined up, and one after the other has opened. Sure, I've had my knocks, but I feel incredibly blessed to continue to do what I enjoy for the people whom I love."

Though Robin has phased out dancing after an onstage injury a decade ago, he has no regrets about moving on. "I loved performing, but I love directing and choreographing even more. I realized that as a performer it was the rehearsal process where you figure things out that always intrigued me most. I love the blank slate."

From the start musical theatre has figured prominently in Robin's body of work though he has directed straight plays like Driving Miss Daisy and August Osage County, among so many others. "There are moments in life when you are so excited that you want to sing, and in a musical, you actually get to do that!" Robin, whose resume is a virtual catalogue of musical theatre history - everything from Crazy for You, 42nd Street, and Miss Saigon to Sunset Boulevard and Sweeney Todd - says that at the moment he finds himself drawn to "shows with a dark center like Sweeney Todd, LES MISERABLES, or Big River," though he still loves doing comedies and big dance productions "because they keep me in shape. Mary Poppins is the first big dance show I have created in a while," Robin says. "I love the challenge in big musicals of painting pictures, of figuring out the formations, the mechanics - where everything goes - in the larger tapestry."

Robin's direction is noteworthy not only for the dazzling skill with which he does design and animate those large canvasses, but also for his ability to imbue the drama with humanity and heart. His recent production of LES MISERABLES at MSMT this summer was one of the freshest and most poignant takes on the play in recent memory. Similarly, in Mary Poppins he chose to emphasize the family dynamics. "This play is about a man who has lost touch with what it is like to have love. It's not just a spectacle," Robin affirms. "I want the audience to care about Mr. Banks. It's the human spirit that must endure in the play."

Robin has also made forays into directing opera with La Traviata, Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Knickerbocker Holiday for Chicago Light Opera Works, and he enjoys this genre as well as long as the company "is willing to let you work with the singers as you would with actors."

The same versatility that permits him to move among genres and styles translates to Robin's catholic taste in stage venues. He says he likes the challenge of working in proscenium (like the Fulton or MSMT), in arena staging (as with the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre), or in the round (at Marriott Lincolnshire or Drury Lane). "In the round there are no rules whereas in a proscenium house, there are storytelling conventions. As a choreographer theatre in the round gives more freedom, though you can't have a big physical production. It's a plus and minus situation," he adds.

Not only is Robin remarkably adept at adapting his staging style to the venue, but he is also practiced at reading his audiences. Having worked in countless communities across the country, Robin is sensitive to regional tastes and cultural contexts. "Every theatre has its own audience. When I am hired as a director, the first thing I ask the producer is to tell me about the audience." He cites as an example a production of Pippin, which he mounted in Utah, where he felt the orgy scene as he might have staged it in Chicago would not fly so he devised a plan where "the whole production became a magic show with shadow play and mirrors." Asked about the taste in Brunswick, ME, Robins says he finds it "incredibly intelligent and sophisticated. I have no filters here. It's one of the most freeing communities - rather like directing in New York or Chicago."

Robin, who has returned to Maine for eight summers now, will be back in 2014 to stage Joshua Chamberlain and will also direct and choreograph Woman in Black, Cats, and Young Frankenstein at the Fulton in addition to sharing the administrative responsibilities of the Lancaster theatre with Aaron A. Young, the Managing Director. Robin, whose mother was a bookkeeper, says he enjoys the challenge of the managerial aspects of theatre. "I make artistic decisions based on financial realities. The puzzle of the play is the same as the puzzle of the finances and the running of the theatre."

The programming, scheduling, and logistic factors interest Robin. He is savvy about putting in place strategies to insure the survival of his and other regional theatres. The first of these is creating a balanced program, which he calls "a hot topic" for theatres everywhere. He concedes that if he wants to produce a new, unknown, or difficult work, he has to offset that with more popular shows that the audience will come to see. He cites as his mandate as Artistic Director "to turn a financial corner for the Fulton. For years my predecessors programmed only art, and it was spectacular, but it didn't fill the theatre. If we are going to be a major player on the regional scene - and I want the Fulton to be the best - then we have to be a mirror of everything that is good in theatre. We need to be all inclusive - not just musicals or comedies, but all kinds of plays"

The second strategy Robin has advocated is shared productions, such as Dreamgirls which also played at MSMT this summer. "I am trying to get the Fulton to understand that the future of regional theatre is in shared expenses on co-productions. There are plusses and minuses, but in general sharing cuts costs, affords the actors double work weeks and increased insurance points, and saves time for the technical staffs of both theatres."

Time constraints are certainly a big consideration for everyone working in regional theatre today. Robin talks about the grueling schedule at a theatre like MSMT, which is on a summer stock resident contract, where as director, "I basically have to mount a show in forty hours" with only one run-through, one staff technical, and one preview at the Pickard Theatre. The Fulton has a slightly more accommodating schedule with two-three weeks of rehearsal, a couple days of tech, and a couple previews. Whatever the differences, however, Robin asserts that "you have to make sure you are utilizing every second."

Asked what his ideal time frame might be, he says something like Philadelphia's Walnut Theatre with "three weeks rehearsal, four-five days of tech, and one week of previews where you get to make adjustments," and he does admit that there can be such a thing as over rehearsing a show. Robin firmly believes that "unless it's a drama that doesn't require audience involvement, you cannot rehearse in a vacuum. So the previews are crucial. They allow me to make changes and take the angst out of the process."

Despite the challenges and constraints of this profession which has filled Marc Robin's life for almost three decades, he is optimistic about the artistic climate in America. "Art is still thriving. People will always go to see a play; they did even in the Depression. But that is not to ignore the fact" he continues, "that across the country the arts are struggling with lack of funding and are fighting for the same dollars." But, Robin, who serves on a panel for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, believes it is a battle worth fighting. "Without the arts we lose balance in our society, and as artists the role we play now is critical to insuring that art will continue to exist."

To hear Marc Robin affirm this credo is to feel his spirited commitment, initiative, and zeal. To listen to him talk about the shows he still dreams if tackling - "Rodgers and Hart's On Your Toes, the entire Sondheim canon, and then Follies" - makes one long for a theatre willing to make these dreams a reality. And to witness a production he has directed or choreographed is to partake of that magical interaction - what he calls "that once in a lifetime theatrical experience, that one moment that happens for you and makes you forever a part of it."

Photo Credit: Courtesy Maine State Music Theatre

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