For over half a century, Stuart Vaughan has been - in every sense of the phrase - a true Renaissance man of the theatre. Dedicated to bringing the classics to new audiences (and new life to the classics), the versatile Vaughan is a Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning director who also won a Tony Award for having served as a founding Artistic Director of the legendary New York Shakespeare Festival in the mid-fifties. Playwright, adaptor, acting teacher and professor are among the numerous other feathers on Vaughan's impressive theatrical cap.
Vaughan's latest project is a new stage version of The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic 1850 novel about the conflict between Puritanism and passion. It's the second 2006/2007 season production - following Vaughan and his wife Anne's adaptation of Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters - of the New Globe Theater, Inc., which Vaughan founded alongside Vincent Curcio and Anne Thompson Vaughan, and of which he is the artistic director. The play, adapted by Vaughan with Marie Kreutziger, also marks his 42nd New York stage production!
Vaughan was also the founding Artistic Director of the Seattle Repertory Theatre, the Repertory Theatre New Orleans and the former artistic director of New York's famed Phoenix Theatre. Directorial highlights include Richard III (with George C. Scott), The Family Reunion (with Lillian Gish), Hamlet (with Donald Madden), Julius Caesar (with Al Pacino and Martin Sheen), The Power and the Glory, Peer Gynt (with Fritz Weaver), The Beaux Stratagem (with June Havoc), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (with Elizabeth McGovern), and Abe Lincoln in Illinois (with HAl Holbrook).
With honesty, eloquence and insight, Vaughan recently answered some of my questions about his incredible life in the theatre - and about a career that shows no signs at all of slowing down!
MC: Could you please describe the origins of the New Globe and your goals for the company?
SV: My wife, Anne Thompson Vaughan, was Booking Manager in the early '70's for the tours of The Acting Company. She found that lots of college and community presenters (those with smaller theatres) were unable to afford the high fees. She and I formed The New Globe Theatre, Inc., an Equity company, to provide high quality theatre, with simpler physical productions, for those very audiences.
In its first incarnation, from 1976-1984, the New Globe toured university and community art centers and performed the classics in repertory. What changes and/or improvements do you envision for the company's second incarnation?
