Photo courtesy Mark Bucher
Mark Bucher
Mark Bucher
Boulevard Theatre’s 2022-2023 season was ready to commence. The room was booked and the announcements for the season opener were sent—Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance, a staged reading at Sugar Maple. And then …
“The Boulevard Theatre’s 37th season has been the victim of supply chain challenges,” says the always waggish Mark Bucher, founder and artistic director. “When you’re dealing with the bigger publishing houses, it can take weeks and you still might not get a deliberate answer,” he continues, referring to, among others, Albee’s publisher. “After weeks of negotiation, we were denied the right to read-perform the show at this time.” The bigger, fully staffed theater companies can plan these things years ahead of time, but Boulevard is a one-man show.
With obtaining performance rights at loose ends, Bucher was inspired to conceive his own production, which will begin its gradual roll out in December, by the vigorous response to his Facebook posting complaining about too many standing ovations in theaters. It’s become a knee-jerk (or maybe just a jerk) response. “Please stop standing up for everything,” Bucher pleads. “The point is discernment, to think about what you’re seeing.”
One responder to his Facebook post wrote, “I stand up because I don’t want to stand out.” It’s following the herd, not wanting to be the only lemming not to jump the cliff. Another response: “I have the right to not stand!” Bucher isn’t being a fussbudget. If every well-timed onstage sneeze provokes a standing ovation, then how do we honor truly great performances?
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Photo: Mike Powell - Getty Images
Standing ovation in theater
And so this leads to a performance tentatively entitled Not Standing for It. Bucher has put out the call to Milwaukee actors, writer, theatergoers to submit a short essay on standing—or not—in theaters. He plans to cull six-12 monologues from the submissions to be performed by four actors.
Some Facebook comments have branded Bucher as a curmudgeon. “I’ve been told, ‘Mark, you just don’t like anything,’” he says with exasperation. “No, I like free lunches—but why do I always have to stand? In the old days, the curtain fell, people applauded and if they felt strongly, they yelled ‘Bravo’ and then, maybe, you would stand. Many actors on Facebook said, ‘You’re right. It’s become meaningless.’”
Boulevard Theater will mount a workshop presentation of Not Standing for It on Dec. 17, 3-5 p.m., at Sugar Maple (441 E Lincoln Ave.). This “will allow Boulevard to publically review the received monologues in a supportive and comfortable atmosphere,” according to Bucher, and “may likely be only the first of several steps to explore, improve, and—ultimately—hone the material into a more complete experience.”
