Jubilee Theatre at a turning point starting 35th season
For many years after Jubilee Theatre artistic director Rudy Eastman’s death in 2005, his widow, Marian, was uninterested in venturing into downtown Fort Worth.
It’s not that she didn’t want to see the plays and musicals at the theater she had helped to found with her husband, where she had devoted 25 years of blood, sweat and tears. But she had a hard time being in Sundance Square.
“Sometimes I went to the shows, but I was on automatic,” she says. “There were times when you could feel the weight of Rudy — he’s all over Sundance and downtown Fort Worth. Our whole little Jubilee family haunted the streets of downtown, so there was nowhere I could turn and not be wrapped up in it.
“I had to put some distance so I could clearly see.”
Ten years later, Marian calls 2015 her “turnaround year,” partially because she turned 70 this year and has learned that nothing heals like time.
It is also a turning point for Jubilee, one of Texas’ longest-running black theaters; 2015 has already been one of the most trying years in its 35-year history.
Legal entanglement
In January, Jubilee’s 33-year-old artistic director, Tre Garrett (born Declois Beacham), was arrested on two counts of “compelling prostitution with a child under 18” (there was a third count, but that accuser recanted). Garrett, who had fast become a critical darling in the North Texas theater scene and was drawing national attention at Jubilee, was released on bail. He was indicted in August.
As anxious as I am to publicly defend myself, I have been advised by my legal team to wait.
Tre Garrett
in an emailed statement to the Star-TelegramA trial awaits (a date had not been set as of press time), but Jubilee had no choice but to sever ties with him, and did so in February. If Garrett is found guilty of the first-degree felony, the sentence could be five to 99 years, or life, in prison.
Garrett has not given interviews since his arrest. In response to a recent request for one, he wrote the Star-Telegram in an email: “As anxious as I am to publicly defend myself, I have been advised by my legal team to wait.”
The last show Garrett directed, Charlayne Woodard’s In Real Life, the third in a trilogy that Jubilee had presented over the previous two seasons, was set to begin previews Jan. 30 — the day the news broke. Amid a media frenzy, the board released a statement, and the show went on.
Managing director Glenda Thompson, marketing and operations director David Hadlock and members of the board of directors refused to talk about Garrett’s legal troubles. In February, they hired as artistic consultant Sharon Benge, herself a Fort Worth theater institution — she founded Fort Worth’s Shakespeare in the Park and had directed five shows at Jubilee (and had been a radio personality on classical music station WRR/101.1 FM).
Then more changes came behind the scenes: Jubilee’s longtime technical director, Michael Pettigrew, left to pursue another interest, and in August, the board elected a new president in Ellen Benson, who had only been on the board for three years. There was high turnover in the board of directors — it currently has 16 members (16-20 is typical), and seven are new.
But the 2014-15 season continued with acclaimed productions, including Dominique Morisseau’s Sunset Baby and the musicals Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope and The Color Purple, with well-known Dallas directors like Vickie Washington and Akin Babatunde.
To theater patrons, Jubilee’s most visible product — productions of plays and musicals — seemed to be unfazed.
New seasons starts
The 35th season is now underway with Lanie Robertson’s Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, directed by Benge and featuring the Jubilee debut of Dallas actress Denise Lee as Billie Holiday (see “‘Lady Day’ takes the Jubilee Theatre stage”). Opening night is Friday.
“We’re going to start the search for a new artistic director this fall, and we hope to have someone on board by the spring of 2016,” says Benson.
Unlike with the last two searches, this time it will be done without a search firm, for financial reasons. Jubilee’s annual budget is as high as it’s ever been, at about $600,000, and despite the success of last season’s final show, The Color Purple — which sold out and broke Jubilee box office records — it was a musical with a large cast, and therefore expensive.
Benson says the season ended with a “small deficit”; she declined to give an exact number but hinted that it might be around $30,000.
But a small deficit pales compared with the bigger loss, of a young and seemingly brilliant director in whom the theater had put a lot of hope. It caught everyone off guard.
“Everybody was devastated, stunned and sad for a lot of reasons,” says Benge. “I think there were some unknowns: What is the outcome going to be? Will there be a financial impact? It was about putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward. Time has been part of the solution here.”
Early support
The path to become one of Fort Worth’s most respected performing arts institutions was not easy from the beginning.
Rudy and Marian Eastman met when they both worked — he as director and she as stage manager — in Sojourner Truth Players, which in 1972 became Fort Worth’s first black theater troupe. Rudy, a drama teacher at Como High School, co-founded the company with Erma Lewis, Ralph Stone and the Rev. Paul Sims. Rudy and Marian met in a production of James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner and eventually married.
We knew that until the society world saw what we were doing, it wasn’t going to be accepted by general black or white audiences.
Jubilee Theatre co-founder Marian Eastman
In 1981, the Eastmans left SJP to form Jubilee Players. The first Jubilee production was called Mojo String.
“When we were formulating Jubilee, we studied every black theater that was alive at the time,” Marian Eastman says, noting that they looked most heavily at two of the country’s oldest and most prominent black theaters, Cleveland’s Karamu House and New York’s Negro Ensemble. “We studied the genesis of those organizations and what they were surviving on, and we looked at income levels in the population in general and in the black community, and their level of engagement in the arts. One of the things we discovered: Black audiences didn’t start coming until whites accepted it and would say it was art.
“We knew that until the society world saw what we were doing, it wasn’t going to be accepted by general black or white audiences.”
The black theater canon at the time was fairly limited. There were old minstrel shows and Hansberry’s plays (A Raisin in the Sun was Jubilee’s second production). The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and ’70s had produced important work, but the Eastmans weren’t interested in plays like Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman, now considered an important 20th century work.
Although they did stage some staples from the black canon, including Lonne Elder’s Ceremonies in Dark Old Men and Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls …, Jubilee found success in penning its own plays, some of them adaptations of classic works by Aristophanes, Moliere and Lewis Carroll, and a number of Shakespeare-inspired works: Dreaming on a Hot Summer Night and Brother Mac, which was Macbeth set in the Black Panther Party.
For the musicals, Rudy Eastman collaborated with terrific (and white) musician Joe Rogers.
In the early days of Jubilee, the Eastmans knew that there wasn’t a culture of arts philanthropy in the local black community, and white audiences were courted. With the help of donors like Betty and Hardy Sanders and Darwin and Muriel Mendoza, Jubilee grew from a theater that performed in a variety of bars and venues to a group that moved into a small space near Texas Wesleyan University in 1987 and then into its downtown space in late 1992.
By Jubilee’s 25th anniversary in 2005, when Rudy died, the budget had grown to about $400,000, and Jubilee had a trove of original work — which cut down the amount of royalties it had to pay to publishing services.
Leadership struggles
In 2005, a 23-year-old Tre Garrett was an assistant director for the Broadway production of Julius Caesar with Denzel Washington in the title role. Later that year, he applied for the newly opened position of artistic director at Jubilee Theatre.
Deemed too young and inexperienced, the Houston native was passed over for Ed Smith, a former boxer, jazz radio DJ and well-known director at black theaters across the country who had worked with important figures such as playwright August Wilson and director Lloyd Richards.
Impressed with the fact that there was a long-running black theater, and in well-manicured Sundance Square no less, Smith began introducing audiences to up-and-coming playwrights like Lynn Nottage as well as established names like Endesha Ida Mae Holland.
He didn’t have knowledge of Rudy Eastman’s canon of original musicals and play adaptations, and according to him, they weren’t available in manuscript form. In his five seasons there, he brought back several Jubilee favorites, such as God’s Trombones, and his first season ended with a tribute called Rudy.
Smith even attempted his own original show with Sam Shade: A Detective Musical. He also directed top-notch productions of the heavyweight plays of August Wilson, whom Jubilee had produced only once in the Eastman era.
Rudy Eastman once said that he saw no reason to produce Wilson’s work because he’s the one black writer — along with Lorraine Hansberry — whom the white theaters regularly produce.
That black/white dynamic is one reason Smith left at the end of the 2009-10 season. He told the Star-Telegram he was frustrated with the amount of white involvement on the board and in technical positions. But Jubilee’s audiences have always been about half white, which was the design from the beginning.
Recent successes
Then Garrett got the job; he was 30 years old.
New and younger audiences began attending, and subscribing, and for the most part, Jubilee held onto its significant percentage of white audiences who enjoy quality theater.
“You don’t have to be African-American to relate to the joys and struggles of life,” Benson says.
Still, during Smith’s and then Garrett’s tenures, several longtime Jubilee artists left, including Rogers, Gloria Abbs and Robert Rouse. Some began work on their own projects. Actress Sheran Goodspeed Keyton founded DVA Productions, which now produces a full season at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center.
In Dallas, where there surprisingly hadn’t been a long-running black theater, former Jubilee actress Regina Washington began African American Repertory Theater, formed with film actress Irma P. Hall. The group is still going strong and is more interested in well-made plays from the black canon.
When Garrett came on board, anyone who wanted to act at Jubilee had to start over. There were days of general auditions, and because the theater had been known more for its musical talent than actors with solid dramatic training, Garrett begin to find new blood, even if it meant pulling talent from out of town.
His first show to direct at Jubilee was the Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens musical Once on This Island at the end of the 2010-11 season, and he began the next season with Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Topdog/Underdog, which featured Rico Parker, a powerhouse actor from Los Angeles who has returned for several North Texas shows since, including 2014’s searing production of The Brothers Size from one of the most talked-about modern black playwrights, Tarell Alvin McCraney.
In his time at Jubilee, Garrett developed relationships with other area theaters. In 2013, he directed a terrific A Raisin in the Sun at Dallas Theater Center and Will Power’s The Seven at Southern Methodist University. He was set to direct Arthur Miller’s All My Sons at WaterTower Theatre in 2015, but another potential project, with nationally known writer/actor Ruben Santiago-Hudson, pulled him away.
Garrett introduced Jubilee audiences to rising playwrights like Nathan Jones, Charlayne Woodard, Katori Hall, Dominique Morisseau and McCraney. He even commissioned, and received funds for, a new musical about African-American cowboys called Black Spurs, but it was an artistic dud.
And then, the January arrest happened, changing the trajectory of Jubilee’s year and its 35th anniversary season.
Still, its focus has remained the same. Keeping tabs on the new writing talent is crucial, says Marian Eastman, but it’s also critical that they honor Jubilee’s past.
“I want to see some vibrant new energy with some respect to the past,” she says. “I would like to see you use black theater for entertainment and also to see important black issues on stage, things that challenge the way you think. I’m glad to see there are black writers out there who are able to put their creativity to good use.”
Looking forward
Given this new season of transition, it makes sense that the 2015-16 season looks fairly “safe,” artistically, with the ninth Jubilee production of God’s Trombones, a Jubilee favorite by Rudy Eastman and Hip Pocket Theatre co-founder Doug Balentine that’s based on the sermon-poems of James Weldon Johnson.
The season also includes the musical revue Smokey Joe’s Cafe, an original holiday show by Geno Young and Akin Babatunde called Do You Hear What I Hear!, August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, and Judi Ann Mason’s comedy Livin’ Fat. (“We haven’t had a play that’s a comedy in quite a while,” Benge says.)
“There’s a whole combination of things we need to do as a theater to test our markets and find out who our audience is,” says Benson. “We will do the analysis of what brought in the dollars and why, and what didn’t and why.”
As the national search for a third artistic director since Eastman’s death begins this fall, they are thinking about the future. In honor of the 35th season, a new fundraising campaign aims to get donations of just $35 from at least 1,000 people.
You can’t separate that part of my life from me. It’s part of who I am, and for as long as I can breathe, I will want to see it succeed.
Marian Eastman
Jubilee Theatre co-founderThe new artistic director will have some big shoes to fill. And crucially, as the leader of one of Texas’ longest-running black theaters, the most important criterion, says Benge — who is white — is that the person hired for the top job is black.
“I think it is necessary that someone understands the black canon,” she says. “I think you should be an experienced director who can direct both musicals and serious plays. And considering the last two artistic directors, it’d be nice to have someone who’s mid-career, not someone close to retirement, and not someone so young and up-and-coming that you’re always looking over your shoulder to see who’s going to see what you’re doing.
“It is always somebody who can take charge, and sadly, know something about fundraising — and somebody who wants to live in our community,” she adds.
As for Marian Eastman, her “turnaround year” is coming at the right time. She says she is not sure of the extent of her Jubilee involvement in the coming years, but she now realizes it’s a relationship she’ll never break.
“You can’t separate that part of my life from me,” she says. “It’s part of who I am, and for as long as I can breathe, I will want to see it succeed.”
A look at Jubilee Theatre through the years
1972: Erma Lewis, Ralph Stone, the Rev. Paul Sims and high school drama teacher Rudy Eastman co-found Sojourner Truth Players, Fort Worth’s first black theater troupe. Several members who would become cornerstones of Jubilee, including Gloria Abbs and Rudy’s future wife, Marian, would become part of the production team. (Rudy and Marian met in a production of The Amen Corner, and would later marry.) The troupe performed in various spaces around town. Suzan-Lori Parks, who would later become the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama, for Topdog/Underdog, interned one summer with SJP in Fort Worth, as her aunt is Maryellen Hicks, who became the first black female municipal judge in Fort Worth, and her cousin is former councilwoman Kathleen Hicks.
1981: Rudy and Marian leave Sojourner Truth and form Jubilee Players, rehearsing and performing in an annex behind Paul Sims’ church.
1982: Jubilee Theatre incorporates, and a year later receives nonprofit status.
1986: After performing original plays and works from the canon in several venues around town, including bars, lobbies and at Stage West on West Vickery Boulevard, Jubilee presents its first original musical, Negroes in Space, at Caravan of Dreams in downtown Fort Worth. This happened thanks to Jubilee’s first major grant from the Amon G. Carter Foundation — kicking off an important history of grants from local philanthropic institutions.
1987: Jubilee Theatre opens a space on East Rosedale Street, across from Texas Wesleyan University.
1992: A capital campaign to renovate a Sundance Square space concludes and, in November, Jubilee opens at its current home at 506 Main St.
1995: Jubilee signs an Umbrella Contract with Actors’ Equity Association, meaning it can occasionally use Equity actors, who get higher pay because of their union contract. Jubilee still has this arrangement with AEA; the next step would be to move to AEA Small Professional Theatre, but that doesn’t seem to be in the plans.
2004: Jubilee begins a half-million-dollar expansion project in the space, which concludes in January 2005, expanding the seating capacity from 99 to 147 seats and adding more restrooms, dressing room space and the lobby.
2005: Rudy Eastman dies unexpectedly in his sleep on May 31, a week before his production of Samuel Kelley’s Thruway Diaries is to open.
2006: After a national search, the board hires Ed Smith, who has extensive national directing and leadership credits, as the new artistic director. He retires at the end of the 2009-10 season.
2010: After another search, the board hires 30-year-old Tre Garrett in November. Garrett’s impressive credits included being an assistant director for Julius Caesar with Denzel Washington on Broadway, and he had directed many shows for Walt Disney Entertainment.
2011: Garrett’s first show to direct at Jubilee is the final entry in the 2010-11 season, the musical Once On This Island, which he selected. The 2011-12 season is the first selected by Garrett, and it begins with Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Topdog/Underdog, which he directs. Critics rave, but with its strong language and themes, some faithful audiences balk. It signals a new era for Jubilee.
2013: After making inroads with other area theaters, Garrett directs A Raisin in the Sun at the Dallas Theater Center, North Texas’ largest regional theater. He had previously been an assistant director on DTC’s Next Fall.
2015: On Jan. 30, Tre Garrett is arrested, charged with compelling prostitution with a child under 18; he is released on $25,000 bond. In February, the theater ends its relationship with him, and Sharon Benge is hired as artistic consultant. On Aug. 14, he is indicted; a trial date had not been set as of press time.
Near future: The board will begin a new national search, but this time without the help of a search firm, with the plan to have a new artistic director hired by spring 2016.
This story was originally published October 2, 2015 at 5:49 PM with the headline "Jubilee Theatre at a turning point starting 35th season."