Cardinal Stage Company Comes of Age
July 25, 2010
New season features more shows, kids’ fare
By Nicole Brooks331-4232 | nbrooks@heraldt.com
BLOOMINGTON — Cardinal Stage Company just keeps growing, with the numbers providing the proof, says Cardinal artistic director Randy White.
“I think Cardinal is coming of age. We’re not the new company in town,” he said in an interview last week.
Cardinal has rolled out the line-up for its third full season — in 2005-06, the then-new group mounted some shows but not complete seasons — and five years in, White is pleased with what Cardinal has become. The 2010-11 season features six mainstage shows, as opposed to last year’s five, and two children’s productions, up from last year’s one. Two years ago, there was no paid staff. Now there are five full-time, paid staff members. Two years ago, Cardinal’s annual budget was $190,000. Now, it’s $650,000, he said. Cardinal paid 120 artists last year — salaries ranged from a “full-on union actor’s” pay to a stipend, White said. And, he added, the nonprofit ended this fiscal year with a surplus.
There’s, of course, more to do. Cardinal has been “entirely unsuccessful” at group sales, White said, and not so hot at marketing itself to surrounding counties.
And there’s still the ever-present question: Where’s home?
“There’s no single issue for us more important than space,” White said. This season, as in the past, Cardinal will perform most shows at the John Waldron Arts Center, either in the auditorium or the smaller Rose Firebay. Two productions, “A Christmas Carol” and “My Fair Lady,” will be mounted at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.
Cardinal is growing out of the Waldron, White said. “In the long run, we recognize that we can’t utilize the Waldron on a full-time basis.”
Cardinal’s mission is build a regional theater company on par with Indianapolis’ Indiana Repertory Theatre, White said, and to do that, he needs space for fundraising, a box office, and so on.
“That’s not the mission of either the Buskirk-Chumley or the Waldron, and why should it be?” he asked.
In White’s best-case scenario, Cardinal has its own building, with room for performances, offices, rehearsals and instruction.
Cardinal is on the path to finding that home, White said.
The Season
First, or simultaneously, there’s the coming season and more than 80 performances to tackle.
The Sept. 2 season opener, “The Grapes of Wrath,” will be a large and expensive show, White said, aided by a grant from Indiana University alum Jane Pauley and her husband, cartoonist Gary Trudeau, via IU’s College of Arts and Sciences. The play will be presented as part of IU’s fall 2010 Themester. This fall is the university’s second-annual themed semester, and sustainability is the topic. “Grapes” fits in because the story deals with both an economic depression and an environmental disaster, bringing to light the issues of economic and environmental sustainability, White said.
With more than 20 people on stage and some costly, necessary maneuvers — there’s a flood scene — “Grapes’” ticket prices won’t come close to covering their share of the production costs.
“In general, our ticket price covers about 50 percent of what it normally costs us to put on a production,” White said. The rest comes from fundraising, sponsorship and the like.
“We’re going all out on casting,” White added. Cardinal is bringing in a lead actor from Chicago and four actors from Indianapolis for “Grapes.”
On the flip side of environmental and economic doom and gloom is the comedy “Souvenir.” It’s based on the true story of Florence Foster Jenkins, an early 20th century socialite who bankrolled her own singing career. She was known for her lack of musical abilities, and drew audiences largely because they couldn’t believe how terrible she was, White said. But she made it all the way to Carnegie Hall, in 1944, and the question is — did she know people were laughing at her?
In late December, Cardinal presents “A Christmas Carol” for the first time. White found an adaptation he liked, one that has a smart way of working Christmas carols into the show, he said.
Up next is Cardinal’s first Shakespearian production, “Romeo and Juliet,” a play White has never directed.
“The Lonesome West” is the “definitely the adult play of the season,” White said. The “feckin’ Irish comedy” features a drunk Irish priest and two brothers with few redeeming qualities, he said. “The dark stuff is where it really gets funny.”
Of “My Fair Lady,” at the Bus-Chum next June, White exclaims, “It hits you like a freight train, just how good the music is.”
After season promotional information went to print, those with the power to do so pulled the rights to the first children's play on the schedule, and “Go, Dog. Go!” was scrapped.
In its place, White plans to bring back “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” based on Laura Joffe Numeroff’s much-loved picture book. The children’s show, which played last season as the first in the company’s new “Cardinal for Kids” series, enjoyed success, White said. That was in part due to the kid-friendly showtimes — 10 a.m., 2, 4 and 7 p.m.
The season's second play for children is a reprise of “A Year with Frog and Toad.”
Theater for young audiences — not kids doing theater for other kids, but adults putting on shows for kids — is an endeavor White wants to grow. A special energy is created when, in an audience of 170 people, 120 or so are children, he said.
Learn more about Cardinal online at www.cardinalstage.org.
