Interview By Dennis Ray • Downtown Asheville
Rapid River Magazine: How are you and your family doing?
Charlie Flynn-McIver: We’re doing fine. Angie (Flynn-McIver), also NC Stage co-founder, is doing a lot of online work with clients on presentation skills. The kids are both doing their online schooling and connecting with friends via social media. We’re all anxious but taking walks and exercising as much as we can. We’ve just got a new puppy, so that’s taking up a lot of focus right now. We are now a two-dog family (we have a 2-year-old terrier/border collie mix), which is something I never would’ve seen myself doing.
I have a daughter who’s a senior in high school and a son who’s just finishing 8th grade. Both of them are in the final year of their respective school, so I’m very sad for them as they slowly realize that school is over for them. Friends they’ve had since kindergarten, they’ll no longer see as they disperse to new schools. Events and rites of passages they’ve been looking forward to for years are canceled. It has to be a strange and depressing time for them, so we’re just trying to listen, be patient, and supportive as best we can.
RRM: What does professional live theater offer a community?
CFM: Live theatre offers a respite from the real world while sometimes examining the real world. It’s also an opportunity to experience something as a communal group that allows that group of people to share laughs, sighs, and tears. There’s an Oscar Wilde quote that says it better than I could: “I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.”
Even though he had said this when there were no movies or tv, the main point is that watching the action unfold on stage, being a fly on the wall watching the characters work their way through their problems, either dramatically or comically, or both at the same time, is something that can’t be replicated. Arts organizations, in general, add to the cultural and financial health of a community by providing places of community engagement and economic impact through associated event spending like parking, dining, child care, snacks, etc., and direct impact on the tax base with a professional workforce that includes everything from the administrative office to the directors, designers, and actors who appear in the productions.
RRM: Tell us a little about NC Stage’s history, its most significant accomplishments?
CFM: NC Stage started as an idea that Angie and I would talk about on long car rides. We met in New York and discovered quickly that we each shared a dream of moving back to our home state and starting a professional theater. I think what drove us is a desire to share the stories we found intriguing in an intimate setting that placed a high value on language and performance as opposed to the spectacle. We weren’t alone, apparently. In the late 90s and early 2000s there were many theaters popping up like this all over the country. We started with a 99-seat theater and an $80,000 budget. Since then, we’ve grown to 124 seats, a $600,000 annual budget, and hire dozens of professional directors, actors, and designers each season. A few accomplishments:
In 2012 we were awarded the American Theatre Wing’s National Theatre Company Grant, awarded to only ten professional theaters across the country each year.
In 2018 we were awarded it again.
In 2016 we produced the original musicals Brave New World (written by Tony Award nominee Bill Russell) and Curvy Widow (starring Tony Award nominee Nancy Opel).
In 2019 we were awarded the George A. Parides Professional Theatre Award from the North Carolina Theatre Conference
RRM: People are going to be cautious about being around large groups when the ban on social gatherings is lifted. How will NC Stage confront or ease this fear to bring live theater to Asheville audiences?
CFM: That’s the question of the century right now. There is no leadership in this regard right now, and we won’t be able to eliminate the fear until there’s a vaccine. Until then, a lot of it depends on what the guidelines are from the CDC and state and local mandates, which we have no idea what will be. We will also be answering to the actors’ union, Actors’ Equity Association, as to actor safety. My hunch is that there will be an easing of social distancing guidelines that will have things like public events like theater dead last. I’m imagining things like limiting audience size, initially at something like 20 percent, and maybe going up to 50 percent and also imagining face masks/coverings required for all front of the house and all audiences. As I was reading a play the other week, I was struck when two characters kiss. Well, that’s out! And then I thought of how hard it’s going to be to manage a safe distance in the work environment for actors, stage managers, designers, directors, stagehands, etc. Can we only do one-person shows or two-person shows where we can guarantee a minimum safe distance between actors and support personnel? Do we have to use performers that are related and cohabitate? Do we hire people with antibodies? What about quick changes that require a person off stage helping an actor change into a different costume? What about physical fights? Emotional fights? Backstage and dressing rooms being tight? And if we can’t have more than 20 to 50 percent of our seats available (which is a considerable financial hardship), do we put anything online?
Maybe if we do a play that involves more than two people it be rehearsed and performed offsite at actors’ homes via Zoom? Will the actors’ union support this?
So there are a lot of questions we’re working on right now, and no one has any idea what will happen. I voiced my concern about the number of actors in a play and what kind of physical distance they need to have (specifically what if they kiss) to a friend who runs a $30 million theater company, and his answer was: “Oh shit! That didn’t occur to me.”
RRM: Both the travel and entertainment industries were hit the hardest from COVID-19, and both are Asheville’s primary source of revenue. What course of action would you suggest our city council, chamber of commerce, as well as the members of our community, undertake to keep Asheville going as a significant art and cultural destination?
CFM: We are applying to the National Endowment for the Arts for a relief grant, part of the CARES package. We are in a good position for that since we were awarded a grant from them last season. Most other organizations will not have that opportunity. I think whatever relief any small business is eligible for should also be available to arts organizations, no matter the size. And as far as tourism is concerned, if any entity has touted Asheville as a vital arts destination in their literature, marketing, or “Best Of” articles, they need to figure out how the arts can be supported. All of us have seen anywhere from a third to a half of our annual revenue just evaporate. And that’s just the beginning. As stated in the previous question, this isn’t going to end anytime soon for anyone, let alone the performing arts sector. I’ll give you a hint. It’s money.
RRM: Let’s talk about theater. You wear many hats. What was your first love in the theater?
CFM: My first love in theater was being on stage. At an early age, I loved making people laugh. Sometimes, like in a classroom setting, that was viewed as a negative trait. On stage, it is rewarded. So I went into acting for college and grad school and was a professional actor in NYC for nearly ten years. Since then, I’ve gotten into directing and enjoy the challenge of leading a creative team coming up with solutions to how to tell the story of the play. There is no blueprint when you get a script. It’s a group effort that requires a strong team of really talented and skilled individuals. I love rehearsals with actors and designers in the room, working through a problem. That’s perhaps what I’m missing most right now in this current situation.
RRM: What is your favorite role you’ve played, and what part would you like to perform if the opportunity arose?
CFM: Great question! And my answer kind of changes with my mood and age. Right now, I’ve been thinking a lot about a play called Chesapeake and its main character, Kerr. It’ a really lovely play about a disillusioned artist who decides to do something rash in the name of art that has an unintended result and changes his life forever. It’s funny, dramatic, realistic, and fantastical all at once. And it’s really uplifting. And hey! It’s a one-person play, so maybe we’ll see it soon.
RRM: What have you been working on since March 11?
CFM: Pretty much everything I’ve mentioned in the previous questions have taken up most of my (at home) time. I’ve spent a lot of time writing and checking in with staff. Every time there’s a cancellation, it takes days and weeks to deal with. A lot of emails with the union, the play publishers, our landlord, the actors and designers we’ve had to let go. I’ve spent a lot of time researching webcams and online platforms for potential use in the future so we can start up as soon as possible. I’ve also been doing a lot of work around my house.
NC Stage