Why Shakespeare has left the park I am writing on behalf of Princeton Rep Company/ Princeton Rep Shakespeare Festival, regarding the Joint Princeton Recreation Board Subcommittee's letter which appeared in The Princeton Packet on Tuesday, June 26. Without going through a list of disagreements since our first season in 2000 at Pettoranello Gardens Amphitheater, it is sufficient to state that if the Princeton Recreation Department and Board wanted us at Pettoranello, we would be there. Princeton Rep has needed a home for its productions since its founding in 1984 and in 1999/2000, we thought we had finally found one. Alas, the public authorities had other plans for that beautiful venue which became all too clear in the extremely curtailed schedule which we were assigned in 2005. Our season that summer was nearly eliminated due to Princeton Recreation's decision to accommodate an expanded movie schedule and the NJ Opera's weekend show. We had repeatedly requested that the groups wishing to use the amphitheater be allowed to meet face-to-face, so that a compromise could be reached. Those requests were denied and subsequent attempts at last minute rescheduling failed. All of this is a matter of record and has been reported in the New Jersey press extensively. The Princeton Recreation Department and Board has shown a lack of understanding regarding the operation of a professional Actors' Equity theater company and its union requirements, as well as an unwillingness to deal with us in a respectful and cooperative spirit. Our numerous expressions about our funding issues regarding the delivery of a predictable and secure schedule to our sponsors have been uniformly dismissed, as have our requests for some sort of permanent status at Pettoranello. At this point, as stated in the Princeton Recreation Subcommittee's letter, it is clear that our "partners" are not willing to make an accommodation for the Princeton Rep Shakespeare Festival's critical need to present funders with a stable organizational profile. Our contract for this summer, once again, stated that our scheduling is and will remain "at the discretion of the Princeton Recreation Department." We cannot predict what the future will bring, perhaps a three-week season, a six-week season, or no season at all. This is not about a contract. It is about attitudes and policies that reflect the following sentiments expressed to us in a voicemail message by Michael Finkelstein in regard to our negotiations which broke down in 2005. Quoting Mr. Finkelstein prior to our aborted return in 2005:
Ignoring our needs, bulldozing us to just put up and shut-up, excluding us from the master plan and undermining us does not promote a positive outcome and another cancelled season is the result. Princeton Rep has simply asked for a permanent schedule every summer that would allow us to produce two professional productions as we have in previous years. We were promised a permanent home in 2000 at Pettoranello Gardens, that's why we invested our company's funds, time and good will in that venue. This is a matter of record. We received no ongoing financial support from the Princetons for this professional programming and we believe what we ask is entirely within the realm of possibility. Let me state clearly, that Princeton Rep never had and does not have any objections to other groups using the venue. We simply want what any arts organization needs —- a permanent schedule which allows us to plan for the future and an opportunity to grow. From our point of view, the Princeton Recreation Department and Board built Pettoranello Gardens Amphitheater, to a large extent, on our programming dating to 2000. Once the venue achieved some credibility and popularity as a performance space, it decided that Princeton Rep was expendable and the Princeton Recreation Department and Board's newly acquired "vision" for the venue had changed. This summer, sadly, the amphitheater will be dark most nights and that is truly a loss to the Princeton community. As for the subcommittee, the representatives of that committee have changed over the seven years since our initial relationship with the Joint Princeton Recreation Board. We have never met or talked with Tom Zucosky, but Jeaninne Honstein and Michael Finkelstein have been our main contacts through the years. Ms. Honstein has been singularly antagonistic to any overtures of compromise on many issues almost from our first meeting. Contrary to Ms. Honstein's claim that the Recreation Board Subcommittee has "gone to great lengths to actually ensure that the Rep Company would return to the amphitheater each year," in fact there have been no face-to-face meetings with anyone at the Recreation Board or Department since the summer of 2005. Furthermore, we are under the distinct impression that any dialogue is undesirable to Ms. Honstein and other members of the Board. A case in point: In the JPRD Subcommittee's letter to the editor where they mention dealing with us for seven years, they refer to us as "the Shakespeare Repertory Company." You would think they might have bothered to learn the name of our company over those seven years. So much for "going to great lengths." We at Princeton Rep Shakespeare Festival want to extend our sincerest apologies to all the audience members from Princeton and beyond who have attended our productions and supported our company. If we could have performed feats of magic like Prospero and have found a way to return to Pettoranello to bring you the great works of Shakespeare, we would have. We thank all of you and we will miss performing for you. Victoria Liberatori is Founding Artistic Director of Princeton Rep Company and the Princeton Rep Shakespeare Festival. |