Puhlil: Perspective is the Pittshurnh Puhlic Theater's newsletter for subscribers and friends. Arthur Giron: A Man Of Many Lives
Arthur Giron. Arthur's play, Becoming Memories, will run from April 16 to May 19 at the Pittsburgh Public Theater.
Writing an article about Arthur Giron is a very frustrating task because Giron is a fascinating man who has, in his own words, "lived many lives." For the last month, I have driven Giron from his Oakland apartment to the theater so that he could do preparatory work on Becoming Memories. During these drives I have renewed an acquaintance with Giron that began when I was an off off-Broadway producer in New York. Giron was born in New York City where his father was serving as Consul General of Guatemala in the U.S. Traditionally, Guatemalans devote part of their careers to public service and that is why Giron's father, a dentist, was in New York when Arthur was born. Later, the family moved to California where Giron's father had studied. He became a staff dentist for MGM during the 1940's. The Giron family lived in the Wilshire District next to the house that was used in the film Sunset Boulevard. "_Iwas an actor in California and at the age 20-21 I felt that it was important to go out and live in the world. I also wanted to do what I felt would be significant work. I feel the problem of hunger and nutrition is a.very big one in our time. The World Health Organization was doing important work in Guatemala at the time so I took a job working for them as a writer/editor. It coincided with my trying to find my roots. I always felt a little bit different growing up in Hollywood and when I was in Guatemala, I felt less different. I grew up in this country, but there were certain mannerisms and certain ways of thinking that I had picked up from my mother and father." When one of the foundations that funded the World Health Organization invited Giron to come to New York and work for them, he decided to return to the United States in 1964. He arrived with the idea for his first play, Edith Stein. "I had a young family by that time so I worked in the foundation world by day and wrote plays at night." Giron's work took him to several different foundations including
the Chase Manhattan Bank Foundation where he wrote some speeches and correspondence for David Rockefeller, its Chairman. During this time, Giron worked to get both state and corporate ·funding for the arts. He also helped found the Arts and Business Council of New York and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council among others. It was during this time he met Bill Gardner. "I've known Bill Gardner for many, many, many years. My first play, Edith Stein, was done at the Arena Stage and was cast by T.C.G. where I met Bill, who worked there at that time. The way we actually got reacquainted was that - you know Bill is a very good playwright. He doesn't like to talk about that. I was very active in the funding of social action programs. Bill was working for a very wonderful organization called the College for Human Services. This was during the pre-feminist movement. They were trying to help women become professionals. I wanted to get them some money from Chase Manhattan and I did get them a $25,000 award. But they didn't give me the materials I needed to present to my committee. The deadline was five o'clock. I called the College for Human Services and told them, 'If you don't get down here with a proposal by five o'clock, you can't get the money.' At five minutes to five this man rushes into the office, hands me the papers and says, 'Are you Arthur Giron, the author of Edith Stein?' He sits down and says, 'My name is Bill Gardner.' So we talked, and from that time Bill began, as he does with many people, a life-long observation of my work.'' Giron continued writing at night and working in the foundation world by day. "There came a moment when my body would not allow me to live two lives. Because of my having to support my family - I supported my family from when I was very young because my father died when I was thirteen. I automatically did that. But I got to the point where I had had three or four productions and my
body - it's a funny thing - but my body just would not allow me to do it. My son at this point was about thirteen years old when I said to my wife: 'My body is in pain. I have to write full time.' She said, 'Now I will support us.' It was a very big adjustment in our marriage. She became the primary bread-winner at that point. She is doing well working in New York for the last ten years in a pioneering job for Spanish television and as a real pioneer in Spanish cable. By helping me, she took a step out in the world. Luckily it's worked out." Giron and I talked about the plays he has already written and the ideas he has for future ones. The ideas flowed smoothly. Mixed in were stories about the ideas and experiences that led to earlier plays like Edith Stein and Dirty Jokes. "I have a ten-year-plan. I want to write two cycles of plays. I'm very, very interested in finding out what's happened to the American spirit. I want to go back in time in terms of certain American values that are within us still." "I'm researching as part of my American cycle, Hawthorne and Melville and the conditions around the year 1850. Melville brought out Moby Dick that year and Hawthorne brought out The Scarlet Let ter and The House of Seven Gables. And three years later, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin. Then I want to do a musical on the Wright brothers. They chose never to leave their family home; what was the family environment in that house that fostered that genius? Why don't we have that today? I'll end that cycle with an exploration of James Forrestal.'' "That dovetails with the other cycle that begins with the Mexican-American War and continues with an exploration of the United Fruit Company. People don't realize that Americans have been in Central America for hundreds of years. I'm very interested in the cultural differences and how one culture affects another culture. There are three cultures at work: the Indian culture, the Spanish culture and the North American culture. Then in the middle of this ten-year-plan, I had a very personal play come out which draws on my Hollywood background, Charlie Bacon and His Family. It recently had a workshop production in New York and now a well-known Broadway producer is negotiating for an option on the play. I didn't even know I had that play in me; it just came out. So I have my personal plays and my big pretentious plays.'' "I am also beginning to become fascinated with Pittsburgh. When I drive to the airport, I see these little towns and I know that they hold mysteries that are just waiting to be uncovered. There is such a wonderful sense of history here as well. I'm beginning to suspect that with all the problems and changes going on here, I should just go out and start collecting information. The Mexican War streets on the Northside will fit into my big cycle . . . Who knows? There may be wonderfu I gold nuggets here in Pittsburgh just waiting to be discovered.'' Stephen Berwind
Public Perspective . Pittsburgh Public Theater . Page 1
April• May 1985 Public Renewal Campaign Begins The Pittsburgh Public Theater began its 1984-1985 subscription campaign with the mailing of renewal forms on February 20th to all of our Season 10 subscribers. Bill Gardner, the Public Theater's Producing Director, explains the importance of the subscription campaign. BILL, OCCASIONALLY A SUBSCRIBER WILL ASK WHY WE ARE BEGINNING OUR SUBSCRIPTION CAMPAIGN FOR THE NEXT SEASON BEFORE COMPLETING THE CURRENT ONE. Producing an entire theatrical season takes months of advance planning. Before the first show opens in the fall, eight months of work have occurred. We start with what is called a "laundry list": plays that we are interested in bringing to Pittsburgh audiences. Each play under consideration has different requirements to bring it to the stage. What directors, set, lighting and costume designers are necessary to produce each play to its maximum potential? What actors are necessary to bring the characters to life? Good people are very much in demand, and we have to be able to make some commitments in advance to guarantee we will have the talent necessary to mount a first-rate production, the kind of production Public Theater subscribers deserve and have come to expect. SO THE CAST, DIRECTOR AND DE· SIGNERS MAKE A DIFFl;:RENCE WHEN YOU ARE BEGINNING TO PUT TOGETHER A SEASON? Yes, certainly. Try to imagine 'night, Mother without Sylvia Sidney's Thelma; Misalliance without Ford Rainey's Tarleton, Robert Moberly's Gunner, the set by John Wright Stevens; Strange Snow without Matthew Cowles' Megs; Room Service without Ursula Belden's Hotel White Way or Larry Arrick's direction. I UNDERSTAND WHY THE CAMPAIGN BEGINS IN FEBRUARY, SO YOU HAVE THE TIME TO PLAN THE NEW SEASON, BUT HOW DO SUBSCRIP· TIONS AFFECT YOUR PLANNING? Subscriptions play a major role in determining what kind of productions the Public Theater can produce. Subscribers are the backbone of the Public. By renewing their subscriptions, they are ordering another year of professional theater in Pittsburgh. The number of our subscribers who commit to renewing directly affects the kind of productions we are able to do, and the caliber of actors, actresses, designers and directors we can in turn make commitments to. In many ways, the Public Theater is no different than any other business: what is produced is linked to what is ordered. Subscriptions are important to regional theaters, and there does seem to be "a method to their madness" in starting their renewal campaigns when they do. Support another great year of professional regional theater. Renew or subscribe to our 1985-86 season today.