Interview: Alan H. Green and Alysha Umphress of WHO COULD ASK FOR ANYTHING MORE? at Barrington Stage Company

There seems to be light on the horizon after the darkness that befell the arts and entertainment community as a result of the pandemic. Happily, things are returning to a new normal that includes live performances. Quite likely, those with an interest in Berkshire area theatre are aware that we were fortunate to have two of the very limited productions approved by Actors' Equity Association to go-ahead during the height of the year plus shutdown. As a point of reference, according to Forbes magazine, the halt of all non-essential TV and film productions, left nearly 1 million entertainment industry professionals completely out of work across the US.

According to Variety, in a recent survey conducted by The Actor's Fund, 76% of the over seven thousand respondents reported loss of income, 62% lost party-time or gig employment, 50% lost full-time jobs in entertainment and 22% said they do not know when they will return to work. The Actors Fund served more than 40,000 individuals in 2020, a 71% increase from 2019. More than $19 million was distributed to 15,000 individuals. "Clearly, we were able to help lessen the impact of the pandemic, but the pandemic has a long tail," Actors Fund COO Barbara Davis said "Now, we need to continue to provide direct financial assistance, must help more people access health insurance and receive health care, and provide mental health and other support services as the entertainment industry gradually returns."

Barrington Stage Company has been presenting award winning theatre in downtown Pittsfield for more than a quarter century. The thought of not producing during the pandemic was unacceptable to BSC Artistic Director, Julianne Boyd, board members and staffers. They went to extraordinary lengths to present a highly irregular and relatively limited number of offerings. Today, I hope to shed some light on a BSC initiative that may not be so well known. "Associate Artists" are integral members of the Barrington Stage Company theatre family who have made extraordinary contributions to the theatre. They have helped the theatre accomplish its mission, both by collaborating on top-notch work at BSC and by fostering a close relationship with the community. Associate Artists are part of the artistic team and help by suggesting plays and musicals to be produced, by developing new work on both the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage and St. Germain Stage and by consulting with the Artistic Director on various projects, both artistic and educational. This award was established in 2010 and the inaugural artists were composer/lyricist William Finn, actor/director Christopher Innvar and playwright Mark St. Germain.

Two of BSC's Associate Artists, Alan H. Green, and Alysha Umphress, are performing in the current production of WHO COULD ASK FOR ANYTHING MORE? We caught up with the pair and asked them to help readers understand how being a BSC Associate Artist has impacted them during these unprecedented times.

How many projects would you work on in a "typical" year, and how many have you between April 2020 and now?

Green: I don't think there is anything that is 'typical' in a year for any actor. I will tell you this, our health insurance (through AEA) is based on weeks we work in a 12-month period. During my entire career I have always worked enough to keep my health insurance. This year, obviously because of the lack of work, is the first time in my career that I didn't qualify for health insurance and my health insurance ran out for the first time in December 2020. AND...our union has now increased how many weeks one needs to work to qualify for coverage and also tripled the quarterly premium because of their own losses during this time.

Umphress: 5 official gigs were set when the pandemic hit. One of which was in Italy (the epicenter of Covid-19 at the time) for a symphony job that was supposed to be in late March. Then straight from Italy to San Francisco to play "Janet" in a new reimagined version of the Rocky Horror Show. And then two concerts and another symphony job later in the year. None have been rescheduled as of now. I was very excited to go to Italy as I had never been and it is my heritage. So that was really disappointing, plus I was counting on it financially. I was very excited and scared/nervous to play Janet. I am not what you call a traditional "Janet type" in that show and it was going to take me out of my comfort zone which I was really looking forward to. So that was a real bummer to not get that the opportunity to go against the grain and show audiences you do not have to be a skinny blonde to play that role.

As to quantifying the difference, Alysha added: "It is hard to say because every year is different. It also totally depends on if you are in a long or long(ish) running show. But, this question made me genuinely interested in the answer so I just looked at my entire year of Instagram stories for 2019 because I figured that would be a great record of everything I did and where I would have normally guessed 20-30 gigs for that year I went through and counted, and it was 45 actual jobs that year. Nutty!"

As to how many between April 1 2020 and now, Ashley responded: "Back to Instagram....jk..no really; I went and looked and it was actually around 23 gigs. So just a little under half of my previous year. Though, I will say most were significantly less money because they were via zoom or an honorarium, but I did do three or four full productions in 2020 which is wild, and I consider myself one of the lucky ones."

Did you receive assistance from the Actor's Fund or similar organizations, and if so, can you describe?

Green: I did not receive any assistance from the Actors Fund - although I did several virtual benefits for them. There was a lot of rent relief, but I have a mortgage and I guess folks thought if your industry shuts down and you have a mortgage that you do not need any assistance. I ended up doing a forbearance for my mortgage which at first, I felt kind of guilty about because I have never had to do anything like that before. But when I was on the phone with my mortgage lender, she reminded me that the government bailed them out with millions of dollars so they could do this for their customers. So that made me feel a little better about it. And it certainly has relieved some financial pressure.

Umphress: Not from the Actor's Fund, no. Because my husband was able to work, we weren't in a terrible place, so I didn't feel right applying for anything from them. I did get unemployment benefits though when I was not working.

Julieanne Boyd and Barrington Stage Company have been leaders and very actively working to keep the Performing Arts alive. I know that you performed in BSC's 2020 Holiday Getaway as well as their Rodgers & Hammerstein Review. Can you share some of the ways being an "Associate Artist" at BSC has made a difference?

Green: I think being an Associate Artists just means you are officially a part of the BSC family. I can offer humbly that it was my idea to do the Holiday Getaway because I knew BSC was one of the few theatres around that was able to prepare their theatre for a Covid Safe audience. I anticipated that the governor would open the theaters for indoor performance around the Holidays and suggested that they have a Holiday offering and that I had an idea to put one together. The Governor did open theatres for live performance, but no singing inside was allowed. I thought they might cancel, but they decided to go ahead and film it in the theatre and stream it. Honestly, I was just thinking of a way to sing Mary, Did You Know so my mom could see/hear it. And I came up with the show and asked Alysha and Joel to join me and together we created, I think, a really special, unique Holiday show that people seemed to really enjoy.

Umphress: It's such a great honor. I got my equity card here when I was a kid out of college. So BSC really is like a family for me. I was very humbled to be made associate artist. Nothing significant really changes but pitching projects is a thing and you feel like your voice is heard more so than if you were just an artist hired for a one-off contract.

Many of those impacted chose to turn some fairly creative alternatives during the closings, did you have any "side-hustles", you would be willing to share?

Green: I was one of the lucky ones who was able to work even in the midst of the pandemic, through BSC and a few other Broadway concert opportunities. I also did several master classes virtually on auditioning and song interpretation. Like most actors I was asked to create a lot of online content for virtual offerings and that took up LOTS of time (and it was always shocking how people kept asking us to do it for free to take advantage of our 'free' time but also knowing we were all in need of compensation more than ever before). And then I started doing a lot of speaking on panels about the new racial awareness that our country was going through after the murder of George Floyd. So that ended up taking up a lot of my time as well. I have even thought about possibly turning some of it into a book. But I would say the 'side-hustle' I ended up enjoying the most was sitting on the couch watching game shows with my mom. You never know how valuable something like that is until you have the opportunity to do it. Her reflexes are slowing down but she would be a Family Feud champ for sure!

Umphress: I actually did not. I didn't even make one banana bread!

What does the comeback / future look like for you?

Green: After all this collective trauma that we've shared I would like to think that our 'comeback' would be filled with us offering more compassion and grace for each other and ourselves. But I also realize, speaking from personal experience, how on edge everyone is and how easily we can kind-of "snap" these days. I am just taking it one day at a time and trying to remember how this year has hopefully taught a lot of us about what really is important in life.

Umphress: I am happy to say that already this year is almost completely booked through November which is amazing. So, it really is looking like things are back on track. We will see! This business is so uncertain, even in a non-pandemic time, I can never really know. I just hope I will be able to keep working and doing what I love.

Alysha and Alan will continue to do what they love and Berkshire audiences love having them do in WHO COULD ASK FOR ANYTHING MORE? The songs of George Gershwin at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield through July 3.

Associate Artists Elizabeth Stanley performs in concert June 28th, Jeff McCarthy July 24th and new musical, A CROSSING with book by Associate Artist Mark St. Germain will have its world premiere run September 23 - October 17th.

Visit: https://barringtonstageco.org/ for information and tickets.

Read the BWW Review of WHO COULD ASK FOR ANYTHING MORE here.

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