<\/p>\n
Central Works Co-Director Gary Graves during rehearsal of \u201cBamboozled\u201d in Berkeley on Jan. 25, 2018.<\/p>\n
Scott Strazzante\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n
Central Works, which has been making new plays in Berkeley for 36 years, plans to close at the end of its 2026 season with the retirement of Co-Directors Gary Graves and Jan Zvaifler.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did try to find people who might be interested in continuing the legacy,\u201d Zvaifler told the Chronicle during a joint interview with Graves. \u201cBut quite honestly, when you\u2019re dealing with an organization \u2026 that requires that you run as lean as we do\u00a0\u2014 which is doing everything from artistic and executive direction to fixing the toilet\u00a0\u2014 it\u2019s just, who wants to do that, really?\u201d<\/p>\n
Graves cited a number of larger forces in the company\u2019s decision, which was announced Friday, April 10, including what he called \u201cthe proliferation of regional theaters around the country.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe industry itself has reached a max, and it\u2019s in a period of constriction,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also pointed to \u201cthe expansion of home entertainment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Josh Costello, who ran the nearby Aurora Theatre<\/a> before it closed in September, likewise blamed<\/a> the attention-sucking power and isolating tendencies of social media and smartphones as one factor in his own company\u2019s demise.<\/p>\n Graves doesn\u2019t think theater is going away altogether, especially not shoestring shows made by young people. \u201cLow-tech, low investment, everybody\u2019s unpaid, and it can be thriving and vital and wonderful\u00a0\u2014 that\u2019s the kind of theater that I think you\u2019ll never eliminate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Matthew Kropschot, left, and Andre Amarotico in Central Works\u2019 \u201cPush\/Pull.\u201d<\/p>\n Robbie Sweeny\/Central Works<\/p>\n What distinguishes Central Works is its intimacy in a 50-seat chamber in the Julia Morgan-designed Berkeley City Club. (Michelle Castillo Addison, Berkeley City Club\u2019s senior marketing manager, declined to comment on Central Works\u2019 closure or on any future plans for the space.)<\/p>\n \u201cThe audience really is part of the play, because you\u2019re watching not just the actors but the faces of the people across the room from you,\u201d Central Works Board President Elisa Mikiten said of the space, which is about as big as a large living room.\u00a0<\/p>\n Such intimacy, she added, helps debunk the notion that \u201cthe arts is an ivory tower\u00a0\u2014 for a different kind of person.\u201d<\/p>\n But by definition, intimacy doesn\u2019t scale. \u201cWhat makes that super-special is the same thing that makes it so difficult financially,\u201d Zvaifler explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n That model is all the more challenging with Central Works\u2019 specialty in world premieres.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brenda Barrow (Jan Zvaifler) prepares to lead the Lake Charles Pirate Festival Parade in Central Works\u2019 \u201cAfter Happy,\u201d written by Patricia Milton.<\/p>\n Robbie Sweeny\/Central Works<\/p>\n The company keeps a running tally of the new scripts it produces. Its last two shows, \u201cThe Prince Part 1\u201d and \u201cPart 2\u201d\u00a0\u2014 both part of Graves\u2019 longstanding playwriting interest in Niccolo Machiavelli\u00a0\u2014 are Nos. 80 and 81 on that list.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGenerally, people go to the theater to see plays that have been anointed in some sense, typically in New York or London,\u201d Graves explained. \u201cIt\u2019s really different than going to a play by someone you probably never heard of titled something you\u2019ve never heard of.\u201d<\/p>\n At the same time, it\u2019s given early productions to many important writers, including Lauren Gunderson, who\u2019s multiple times been named the most produced playwright in the country by American Theatre, and Obie Award winner Christopher Chen.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t imagine a more supportive environment for a playwright doing their first professional production,\u201d said Orinda playwright Harry Davis, whose \u201cPush\/Pull\u201d at Central Works won this year\u2019s Will Glickman Award for the best play to premiere in the Bay Area. \u201cI kept making script changes until right before opening night, and that was encouraged.\u201d<\/p>\n Longtime Central Works playwright-in-residence Patricia Milton concurred.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCentral Works has been a source of pride for the whole Bay Area theater community, and its loss will be keenly felt,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Central Works Co-Director Jan Zvaifler before rehearsal of \u201cBamboozled\u201d in Berkeley on Jan. 25, 2018.<\/p>\n Scott Strazzante\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n Zvaifler and S\u00f8ren Oliver co-founded Central Works in 1990, in response to fellow artists frustrated by limited opportunities to stage their works.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cA group of friends who were actors, who were working together and hanging out together and drinking together, (were) sitting around talking about how they can\u2019t get their work seen,\u201d Zvaifler recalled. \u201cAnd so\u201d\u00a0\u2014 she continued, slipping into a faux-dramatic tone\u00a0\u2014 \u201c\u2018What we need to do is do it ourselves! \u2019 And that\u2019s essentially what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n Graves, who came aboard in 1998, led the company\u2019s focus on world premieres. He formalized\u00a0 the Central Works Method, a new play development process in which directors, actors and others collaborate on a script from its genesis.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have an immediate laboratory experimental structure in which to test it out,\u201d Graves explained. \u201cYou get a special kind of buy-in from the actors when you\u2019re in on the development of the play at that level.\u201d<\/p>\n Mikiten also lauded Graves\u2019 leadership of the company\u2019s playwrights\u2019 workshops.<\/p>\n Sierra Marcks as Angela in Central Works\u2019 \u201cThe Dignity Circle.\u201d<\/p>\n Robbie Sweeny<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s apprenticeship-adjacent where there is an experienced craftsman imparting the craft to new people and cultivating the craft,\u201d she said. \u201cArts are really not so much about the individual. It\u2019s the Olympic torch, and how do you pass that flame on?\u201d<\/p>\n The pair\u00a0\u2014 Zvaifler\u2019s an actor and director, Graves a director and playwright\u00a0\u2014 believe their partnership has lasted almost three decades because of complementary skills and a shared strong work ethic.\u00a0<\/p>\n Graves particularly highlighted Zvaifler\u2019s financial acumen and a hosting ability honed from her time in food service.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way you build an audience or a clientele for a restaurant is by making people feel special when they come,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Zvaifler praised Graves\u2019 approach to earning artists\u2019 trust, as well as the respect he shows them and the way his own hard work inspires others to up their game. She also quipped about his willingness to do whatever needs to be done\u00a0\u2014 even his least favorite activities.<\/p>\n She recalled a time when Graves told her, \u201cDon\u2019t make me do front-of-house. Don\u2019t make me ask for money.\u201d But more recently, she noted, \u201cI\u2019ve seen him warm to it\u00a0\u2014 or appear to warm to it.\u201d<\/p>\n With a smile, Graves said, \u201cI started as an actor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Central Works Co-Director Gary Graves during rehearsal of \u201cBamboozled\u201d in Berkeley on Jan. 25, 2018. Scott Strazzante\/The Chronicle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[329,143,145,144,1058],"class_list":["post-269916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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