Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2007 - 61

book

reviews
The Alchemy of Theatre: The Divine Science
Essays on Theatre and the Art of Collaboration

By Robert Viagas; New York: Applause Theatre &
Cinema Books, 2006. 275 pp, 26 color and b/w
photographs. ISBN 1557836981, cloth, $27.95
Reviewed by James G. Cunningham
The Alchemy of Theatre is a compilation of essays from twenty-eight of the top practicing artists on Broadway addressing a subject that has
not been covered to this degree: collaboration.
The author, Robert Viagas, is the editor of Playbill Books and the program director of Playbill
Broadcast. With his familiarity and friendships
with a wide variety of professionals on Broadway, Viagas was well-suited to approach the essayists and ask them to explore how their work
is "interlocking." The end result is a wealth of
insights from a broad spectrum of highly respected artists in their ﬁelds, all with one common endeavor: producing a successful show.
Among the people from whom he elicits these
insights are playwrights Edward Albee, Wendy
Wasserstein, and Terrence McNally; composers Cy Coleman and Stephen Flaherty; Flaherty's
lyricist partner Lynn Ahrens; producer Rocco
Landesman; directors Harold Prince, Susan
Stroman, and George C. Wolfe; actors Chita Rivera, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Kathleen Chalfant,
and Dick Latessa; designers Robin Wagner, William Ivey Long, Jules Fisher, Peggy Eisenhauer,
Tony Meola, and Angelina Avallone.
Viagas explains in his preface that he began by asking questions as a guide for the essayists as they wrote or by holding extended
interviews that became essays after revisions.
Two of the essays are revealing conversations
between partners. Lynn Ahrens and Stephen
Flaherty ﬁnish each other's sentences discussing the development of Ragtime as they worked
with librettist Terrence McNally. Jules Fisher
and Peggy Eisenhauer together lift a veil to reveal their partnership as lighting designers and
their work on Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da
Funk.
Viagas groups the artists in their order in
the development of a production. The ﬁrst sec-

THEATRE

DESIGN

tion is "Pen to Paper," comprised of playwrights,
composers, a lyricist and a librettist, who create
the original words on the page. The next section
is "The Captains," the producers and directors,
who form the leadership of a production. The
actors and dancers are grouped in the section
"Their Hour Upon the Stage." The last section
is "Completion," with essays from the designers, an orchestrator, an advertising agent, and
a press agent. The essayists were asked to give
their practical solutions to common problems
of collaborating they have faced. The resulting
anecdotes are "presented as parables of what to
do, and what not to do."
Viagas identiﬁes several practical forms of
collaboration: the "Partnership Collaboration,"
an almost marriage-like relationship between
two people, such as Fisher and Eisenhauer;
the "Leadership Collaboration," a relationship
a person has with a group of fellow artists and
commanded by another, usually the director or
producer; and the "Collegial Collaboration," a
coalition of artists of roughly equal status who
pool their knowledge and creativity. Viagas says
there can even be blocks of collaboration with
different forms in various combinations, such as
a partnership inside a leadership collaboration.
For Viagas, several precepts emerge, often with the same precept coming from two or
more widely varied artists. Some of the precepts
are just common sense, of course, but it is good
to see them in print. Some are commandments
we were taught in the classroom or later by experience and now repeat to our students. Find
your own personal glory as part of a team. Keep
an open mind. Pick your ﬁghts. Stand up for
your art and integrity if pushed too far. Cultivate
the ability to do well even when someone else's
opinion prevails. You won't ﬁnd an essay from a
diva in this text. The essayists look down on divas
as insecure people who are afraid to trust anything but the safety of their own vision. Edward
Albee, however, may strike some as a diva when
he writes, "I dislike the term 'collaboration'...
Let us call it 'having my play done properly'

rather than 'collaboration.'" Obviously, you can
hardly call him insecure. Several of the artists
reﬂect that, for them, collaboration in theatre
extends its lessons into all aspects of their lives,
even to raising children with a partner.
The essayists all have their own individual
ideas about collaboration and how they work
within its bounds. Each essay features several
wonderful and insightful stories of familiar productions. Several of the essayists are connected
by their work on the same production. Quite
often we get two sides of the same story, such
as The Producers set designer Robin Wagner
and director Susan Stroman both discussing
the "I Want to be a Producer" scene, when Leo
Bloom's drab accounting ofﬁce is transformed
as showgirls pop out of the ﬁling cabinets.
Where did that idea come from? Wagner and
Stroman had previously worked together on
Crazy for You, where the opening scene had a
parade of showgirls emerge from a limousine.
Their shared experience, a common vocabulary, allowed the idea to bear fruit again later.
Another thing that the artists all share is a great
respect for one another. Several of the artists
point out several peers they admire. Bernadette
Peters is named in four essays as the ideal of a
dedicated performer. Those they do not hold in
high esteem are relegated to anonymity, a gracious display of manners. Sorry, but you won't
ﬁnd any dirt being dished.
Here are a few of the thoughts on collaboration that Viagas evokes from his essayists:
Wendy Wasserstein: Learning how to rely on
your collaborators really frees you. Because
Copyright 2007 United States Institute for Theatre Technology, Inc.

TECHNOLOGY
WINTER

2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2007