Interview: LOGAN VADEN talks about THE COLOR PURPLE at THE GARDEN THEATRE

Logan Vaden is the founding artistic director of THE GARDEN THEATRE. This company started performing at the MATCH in 2021 and has become one of the theater groups that consistently puts on amazingly well-done musicals that draw raves from audiences and critics alike. They have done shows such as BONNIE AND CLYDE,  CRUEL INTENTIONS, and REEFER MADNESS. This company is putting on the musical, THE COLOR PURPLE, for one weekend only at the MATCH. It runs only from August second through the fourth, but it is in the big auditorium! BROADWAY WORLD writer Brett Cullum got a chance to talk with Logan about this upcoming show and get a sneak peek at what is next for them.   

---

Brett Cullum: Usually, THE GARDEN THEATRE produces shows alone, but you have a partnering company this time around. Who are they? And tell me a little bit about how that came about.

Logan Vaden: We are partnering with the Sankofa Collective, which is a theater company that's actually celebrating ten years here in Houston. At the start, it was three high school students, led by Alric Davis, who is a very familiar name here in our Houston Theater scene, and he and his team decided that there was something missing even at that young age.

The Sankofa Collective's mission is not just to put on great shows, but it's also to educate - to bring things into schools and elder housing operations as well. It's very frequent that theater can become just a bubble. They want to make sure that they're reaching out of that bubble to people who desperately need the arts in their lives. So I've known Alric for several years, and we actually were supposed to do a different show, which will now be in our next season. That show that we were supposed to do was an original show. We decided we wanted a little bit more time to focus on it, to maybe make some more adjustments to the writing, and so we decided to move it. But the question remained, what could we do? 

Then, on Christmas of 2023, THE COLOR PURPLE, the new movie Musical, came out. It's a tradition for my grandmother and I to see a musical on Christmas if a musical comes out. And so we went and saw it, and as the credits were rolling, I was like, this is what we need to do. Alric and I had already kind of been discussing shows, but meetings kept getting pushed back because of schedules or whatever.

As soon as those credits were rolling, I texted him and said, “Hey, let's have a meeting next week. What if we did COLOR PURPLE this summer?” And lo and behold, he was texted back, “That's the show that I wanted to speak to you about!” So. It was very serendipitous, and we're thrilled that we get to do it together. It's a perfect gel for THE GARDEN THEATRE artists and Sankofa artists. And then some new artists to both of our organizations! It's been a really great time! 

Alric actually has a deep history with the show. He was in the very first high school production of THE COLOR PURPLE George Washington Carver Magnet School here in Houston. He played Harpo, and the director asked him if he would assistant direct and block some scenes; I believe that was his first experience in directing. So he's bringing a totally exciting perspective to this production because he's lived with it for so long.

Brett Cullum: What do you think is the biggest challenge in bringing this show to life?

Logan Vaden: The film and then the original Broadway production was very defined. The show takes place over about 30 to 40 years, so the time periods throughout the show are very defined. The revival in 2015 kind of stripped it down and made it just one set. Everyone wore one costume, and there were no indications of the passing of time. The scenes just kind of flowed into each other. There are no blackouts. There are no major scene changes that the audience has to sit there and wait for, so that's kind of the biggest challenge! How do we take this show that takes no breaks once the train starts? 

The second thing is that this is the very first all-local, all-professional production of THE COLOR PURPLE in Houston, which is crazy to me, considering that we are the most diverse city in the country. It was a mental block to me because once we decided to do it, I thought, “There has to be a reason no one's done this before. What if no one shows up? What if there's not enough talent for this?”

And I mean, we had over a hundred people audition for the show and had to turn away so many talented people because there was so much talent. We overcame that easily, thanks to our local Houston talent.

It's 23 people, which is the largest cast THE GARDEN has ever had, and I would venture to say it is the largest cast Sankofa Collective has ever had.

Brett Cullum: Tell me about your favorite song in the show. Which one do you wait for every time you see this? 

Logan Vaden: I am an absolute sucker for opening numbers. I have a Spotify playlist that is just musical theater opening numbers that I use when I want to feel energized. That's what I listen to, and the opening number in THE COLOR PURPLE is no exception to that. It is joyful. It personifies Black church culture in a way that is just beautiful. When we had our first stumble through Act One, I had chills instantly. There are these three church ladies that pop in and out of the show. There's GARDEN THEATRE favorite, David Allen the 3rd, and he is playing the preacher, and there's Celie and all the ensemble just getting introduced through this number. And it's a fun, joyful number. 

Of course, there are also beautiful ballads like “I'm Here,” which is everybody's favorite! It's hard to narrow it down. It's a show that I've lived with since the cast album came out when I was in high school, and all of the songs have lived inside of me since then. 

Brett Cullum: One of the things I love about THE GARDEN THEATRE, you do things that are very unexpected. You always produce shows that I wouldn't see coming, and I can't say that I saw THE COLOR PURPLE coming from your company, but it makes sense that you're collaborating with Alric Davis and the Sankofa Collective on it. I love the idea of two companies coming together to produce this beautiful big show. 

I also wanted to touch on something that you just had auditions for, just to talk about it because it's somewhat newsworthy. You are going to put on ASSASSINS by Stephen Sondheim, a show that dramatizes every single assassination attempt on a sitting American President. It's going to be your fall production. Given what happened recently, this could be a tough topic to confront. Are you still all in on ASSASSINS for the fall? 

Logan Vaden: We are still all in on ASSASSINS. It's a great Stephen Sondheim show that's very rarely done. I think the last time it was done in Houston was nine years ago by STANDING ROOM ONLY Productions, which was a fantastic presentation.

But Sondheim wrote this show to be polarizing. He wrote it on purpose so that you either absolutely love it or you absolutely hate it, and there is no in-between and that's where we're at in real life. 

We had auditions the day after the Trump assassination attempt, so that evening, I was thinking, “Oh, my gosh! Is this the right decision? Do we cancel this? What do we do? But I went back to that ASSASSINS is for everyone, but it's also either you love or you hate it. So that's just what we're gonna go for. We hope that most people love it. But you know it may be it may be too controversial for some, and viewer discretion advised. 

Brett Cullum: What Sondheim does which is so brilliant, is rather than being a statement about political violence, it is more a statement about the American dream. And what happens to us when that goes wrong or when we feel like we're not quite part of that fabric.

Logan Vaden: Yeah, no, I agree with that completely. But also, it is a huge statement about the gun culture in our country and the fact that so many of us think, “This didn't happen that long ago!" It did. And that's kind of the point of the show. It literally started with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The gun culture has always been there, and that's kind of a big theme as well for Sondheim.

Brett Cullum: It's fascinating to see. I actually did the show a long time ago. One of the things that we had to talk about and think about a lot is the presence of guns throughout the entire show and the different ways that they play; they're in people's hands, and they're being pointed. It's this constant safety drill. And I mean, who does a musical with guns? There's even a musical number about the love of guns!

Logan Vaden: I know. Well, I mean, you're talking to the person who produced BONNIE AND CLYDE a year ago. So that's a little bit of a theme with us. I think it's gonna be great. I'm a sucker for a gimmick, you know. That's why we did REEFER MADNESS over 4/20 but I had already planned this. ASSASSINS is going to close the week before the election, which was why I chose those dates already to make a statement. And now it's even more relevant. 

Brett Cullum: I'm excited about both. I think THE COLOR PURPLE says something very distinct and unique. And then, of course, ASSASSINS is a good extension of that. So you're doing some really cool stuff. I've been so interested in the choices that you make. So I'm there on both opening nights, for sure. 

Logan Vaden: I appreciate it. Yeah, the thing about THE GARDEN that sets us apart from other theater companies is our mission statement literally says that we want to match the diversity of our city, and that doesn't just mean the performers on stage or the audience. It also just means our programming. We try to make sure that there's something for everyone; I think that is what we're really trying to do. And that means for our artists and for our audiences. 

Brett Cullum: Well, gospel music and guns. I think you're you're getting there.

THE COLOR PURPLE runs at the MATCH facility in Midtown Houston for one weekend only, starting on August 2nd and running through the 4th. ASSASSINS will open at the same location on October 11th. Tickets are available through the MATCH box office. 
 

To post a comment, you must register and login.