For those of you who can remember back to July 8th, you’ll recall this post in which we got a touch dickish with the Bloomington Civic Theatre. Lucky for us, BCT’s Executive Director, Terry Lynn Carlson, was listening and promised to “dump piles” of BCT info on us. Said info is below in the form of this week’s FringeFamous Five. Enjoy!

For those that don’t know, how did you arrive at Bloomington Civic Theatre.

TERRY LYNN CARLSON: About 10 - 11 months ago, I was approached by the BCT and asked if I would ever be interested in doing this job. They were beginning the search for a new Executive Director and my name was presented by a board member. After some consideration, I agreed to discuss the possibility. They brought me out for a production and we began a series of meetings/interviews. The position was offered to me at the end of November and I came on board in the middle of January. We initially agreed to a six-month interim contract, but I was extended a permanent offer this May.

Tell us a bit about BCT’s upcoming season.

TLC: The upcoming season is such a crowd pleaser. Crazy For You, Fiorello, Man of La Mancha, and The Music Man. Big frothy musicals that everyone is excited to see. Our gamble for the season is the one I am most excited about. Fiorello is one of only 3 Broadway musicals to ever win the Pulitzer Prize. It is the amazing true story of New York mayor & congressman, Fiorello LaGuardia. It has a lush score and a fantastic script. Two love stories, good versus evil, and clearly defined characters.

BCT’s productions are normally cast using a very large percentage of local professional actors. BCT pays these actors. Why is BCT considered a community theatre and not a professional theatre?

TLC: Great question!! The best answer for this is in how a specific theatre defines itself. There is also the name (civic, community) that helps to define this. Bloomington Civic has always been a community based theatre. They began paying a stipend a number of years ago partly because they had the means to do so, but also to help insure that high quality talent would continue working here. While BCT pays their actors as much or (in some cases) more than some “professional” theatres, they are still by definition and name a “civic” theatre.

In this email release, you claim that BCT will expand its season by up to 3 additional productions. You also state that BCT will expand its educational programming as well as its staff. In a recent FringeFamous comment, you said that you “know intimately the difficulties involved in piecing together a career in the arts”. So why doesn’t BCT consider increasing its non-union actor stipend?

TLC: Okay…this is like…three questions in one so, here we go. When I got here, one of the first things I did was to assess what BCT does very well, what they need to work on, and what they don’t do that they should be doing! The theatre has been doing the same thing for a long time and it has been very successful. We need to honor that history, but we also need to develop new audiences and find new ways to reach into the community around us. There are two theatres in this facility, one of which BCT has never used for any major production. We have the facilities and the support to expand and mix up our offering to include straight plays and smaller edgier musicals. We also have the capabilities of offering more to the community through education and outreach, and we need to add staff to maintain the programs we develop…I think there is some kind of assumption that since we are in this beautiful facility and that we are proposing this expansion, that we have this wad of money laying around that will allow us to do this. That just isn’t the case. One of my biggest challenges over the next few seasons is to find the money to make all of these things happen. We are in the midst of forming partnerships and sponsorships. We are developing new strategies for fundraising…Will these things succeed?

I absolutely think that they will. As to whether or not we will increase actor stipends, we will continue to look at how we can improve our overall package. I have been thrilled and amazed at the level of talent that BCT attracts and I hope that it continues. But, I am also struck by the fact that actors come to work here of their own free will in full knowledge of what we pay. In the years that I made a living as an actor, I did not audition for any theatre that didn’t pay a living wage. That was my choice. It says nothing about the level of talent that any institution may attract, it is simply a personal choice. The actors that I talk to here, tell me that they come because we do great work. We may be paying (barely) gas money, but we have top of the line production values and full houses for virtually every performance. We are the closest thing to “professional” theatre that you can get without actually calling it that. As we grow, it is a question that I think we will continue to ask. We are in the midst of truly defining what BCT wants to be 10 years down the road. Maybe…???

So if you were trying to make it as a professional actor today, are you saying that you would not audition for BCT?

TLC: If I was a young actor starting out in this business, I would definitely audition at BCT. I would also audition at a handful of other local community theatres such as TRP that draw some high level directors but don’t pay their performers anything. There is great value, at some stage, in working for institutions that are heavily attended and reviewed, and that also have the respect of area patrons and professionals. But at some point, if you are going to make performance your livelihood, some choices need to be made.

In the early part of my acting career, I occasionally had a paying contract, but I also did community theatre, street theatre, passed the hat, toured in a van named “Bjorn” that went through a quart of oil every 50 miles, I…was a mime! I auditioned for everything I could, whether it suited me or not. But by the time I was nearing thirty, I had children, a mortgage, health insurance…responsibilities that required me to make the choice of only working for theatres that paid a living wage. I made a personal commitment to the business and to myself, and I didn’t settle for anything less.

If I were to return to acting today, I would love to work at BCT. The facility and staff are fantastic. But they would have to offer me a guest artist contract. I have been a member of one or more of the performance unions since 1982 and can’t imagine a reason to give that up today.

Terry Lynn Carlson is the current Executive Director of Bloomington Civic Theatre. He has worked in the entertainment industry for more than 30 years as an actor, director, producer, designer, technical director, stage manager, consultant and arts administrator. Local associations include; The Old Log Theater, History Theatre, The Ordway, Chanhassen Theatres, Nautilus Music Theatre, Minneapolis Children’s Theatre, Jon Hassler Theatre, Park Square Theatre, Minnesota Opera, Plymouth Playhouse, Minnesota Fringe Festival, Troupe America, Theatre in the Round, Commedia Theatre, New Tradition Theatre, Harmon Place Players, Alexandria Arts Association, Centennial High School and The Minnesota Alliance for Arts in Education. He has appeared in National Tours of The Sunshine Boys with Dick Van Patten and Frank Gorshin, Last of the Red Hot Lovers with Gary Burghoff and Moon Over Buffalo with Gavin MacLeod. Terry Lynn was Artistic Director of The Minnesota Festival Theatre and currently holds that position with ARTisphere Theatre Company. He studied Music, Theatre and Dance at The University of Minnesota and the Bernstein School in Los Angeles.

Coming soon to the MN Fringe Festival…

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