Behind the scenes—Howard Tynes, Security of a different stripe

By David Hsieh

Security guards often wear dark suits, conservative ties, and dark sunglasses. But that’s not Howard Tynes’ style. A BAM security guard for the past 10 years, he is known—especially to Fisher building audiences—for his distinctive and nifty garb: freshly pressed suits in all colors and materials, and always with bowties and pocket squares. Anyone who has seen him would not be surprised to learn that he had a career in fashion. More unexpected is his career on the baseball field. Howard Tynes tells us how his three passions intersect.

Behind the Scenes—Gina Dyches Superstar!

Gina Dyches (front row, 3rd from right) with most of the cast of Jesus Christ Superstar
Live in Concert. Photo courtesy the artist.

By David Hsieh

Gina Dyches is a special events coordinator at BAM and an accomplished violinist freelancing around New York City. What do the two jobs have in common? They both require “great organizational skills,” according to Gina. What about another? “They are the coolest!” A case in point: at BAM, she is helping to plan a gala honoring Jeremy Irons and Darren Aronofsky, but as a violinist, she played in one of the biggest TV events of the year—Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, which aired on Easter night on NBC. 

Playing a rock musical broadcast live on network television is not what Gina had dreamed of when she picked up a violin as a shy fourth grader in a Phoenix suburb public school. Nor was living in New York and working at one of the premier contemporary performing art presenters in the world! Gina tells us how she got here.

Behind the Scenes—Noel Vega, BAM ticket services

Noel Vega. Photo: David Hsieh

Noel Vega is a grandfather, a writer, a life-long Brooklynite, and a 20-year-old veteran of BAM’s ticket services. The staff of ticket services has grown three-fold since he started in 1997, forcing it to move out the Peter Jay Sharp Building to larger offices in downtown Brooklyn. Technological advancements have made remote working possible. But the core of the work remains the same: to ensure ticket buyers have the best answers to their questions, whether by phone or by email. Vega tells us how that’s done.

David Hsieh: What does the ticket services job encompass?

Noel Vega: Our responsibilities include taking orders from people, answering their questions about current and upcoming events, giving them suggestions on where to eat, park, directions to the theaters, etc. People call us for everything—I can’t buy a ticket on the Website, I can’t use my ticket tonight, what do I do? What movie is playing?

Behind the Scenes—Jackie David and Raven Jones

Raven Jones and Jackie David. Photo: David Hsieh

Long-time BAM audiences will recognize Jackie David and Raven Jones, two stalwarts on the usher floors for the past 25 years. When they started (within three months of each other), the Harvey Theater was still called the Majestic and the Rose Cinemas were the Carey Playhouse, where a 35-year-old Robert Lepage made his BAM debut with a one-man show Needles and Opium. Neither of them expected to stay “more than two or three years.” But a quarter-of-a-century later, they have seen BAM grow along with their own families. They spoke with BAMbill.

Jackie David: I started because of my brother. He was an assistant manager in ticket services then. He told me about the usher opening and I started in September, 1992. Actually two of my brothers used to work here.

Raven Jones: It’s a family legacy! I started in December, 1992. My first show was Mark Morris’ The Hard Nut. I also came because one of my brothers was a choreographer and wanted to see the show from the audience’s point of view.
I was a school teacher. He said this would be perfect because I finish at three o’clock and could jump on a train and get here on-time. I intended to be here only two or three years. But that BAM thing happened and I kept up coming back. It has been a very rewarding and challengeing experience.

JD: After a year I became a supervisor. One day Christine [Gruder, theater manager] asked me to fill in for someone who couldn’t come in, and that was it—I was promoted.

RJ: Being an usher at BAM is very intense. You have to be on top of everything. You have to keep everything flowing. Every usher has a “station” to be in. You cannot leave that station. You don’t just disappear after you seat the audience.

JD: Before the house opens, I check it from top to bottom: make sure the lights are on and the exit doors are clear. After the show we check the house to make sure nothing is left.

RJ: When we had our 15th anniversary, all the ushers gave us a cake. We cut the cake and they said, “Feed the bride!” so we fed each other cake. I will always remember that day.

JD: Some of the board members and patrons know us by name. That make us feel very special.

RJ: They’ll share stories about their kids and I’ll share stories about my grandchildren. It feels very nice.

© 2017 Brooklyn Academy of Music, Inc. All rights reserved.

Behind the Scenes at BAM–Stacey Dinner, Artist Services Manager

Stacey Dinner (standing, 3rd from left) with friends including DanceAfrica artist directors Abdel Salaam to her left,
and Chuck Davis, seated, at right. Photo courtesy Stacey Dinner.

By David Hsieh

Stacey Dinner is hard to miss, even in a crowd of dancers. Her dark, shoulder-length hair flies in every direction. She keeps in sync with the most complicated African drum rhythms. She is also part of the four-people artist services team at BAM, which takes care of visiting artists' every need. She and her colleagues—Mary Reilly, Britney Polites, and Jeannine Baca—are the "frontline” between BAM and the artists it presents. We ask her what the job is like and her personal connection to DanceAfrica.

Q: Who are you? 

A: My name is Stacey Dinner and I am the BAM artist services manager. My background is in dance and arts administration. I first studied West African dance in college and then studied abroad in Mali, West Africa. I then traveled six more times to Africa, visiting 13 countries in total, and I ended up working at a world dance and music studio in Colorado, where I’m from, and also co-leading a study abroad trip to Senegal. These experiences made a significant impact on my life, and I continue to study West African dance to this day.

Behind the Scenes at BAM—Evan Kutcher: production, carpentry, and rigging

Evan Kutcher. Photo: David Hsieh

Shows at BAM come in all genres, medium, forms, and shapes. So our amazing stage crew is used to tackling any technical requirement, including building a set from scratch when the occasion arises. Evan Kutcher, a production coordinator and the head of carpentry and rigging at the BAM Fisher since August, 2016, demonstrated his bona fide carpentry skills recently. When the team for Poetry 2017, produced by BAM Education, decided to transform the Fishman stage into a graffiti-splashed building façade, Evan was happy to pick up his chainsaw and don a hard hat. The result speaks for itself, seen in these photos. We chat with Evan about how it all came about.

Q: What does your job entail? 

A: I’m a production coordinator and the head of carpentry and rigging at the BAM Fisher. Rigging is the term we use when we hang things over somebody’s head, whether it’s lights, speakers, curtains, set pieces, or projectors. I’m the one who makes sure that that’s safe and operated in the way it should be.

Behind the Scenes—There’s something about Mary Lou

By David Hsieh

Mary Lou Houston, BAM's wardrobe supervisor, is retiring after 20 years. Photo: Ben Katz

Mary Lou Houston started working in the theater on a fluke. It was in 1975 and she was in San Francisco, trying to open a restaurant. “A friend of mine who was working for the San Francisco Opera knew I could sew and told me the company needed someone in the costume shop. I went in for what I thought was an interview. Instead, they immediately sat me at the sewing machine, making alterations,” said Mary Lou, BAM’s wardrobe supervisor.

The sideline turned out to be very useful when the restaurant business did not pan out. So instead of spatulas and ladles, she waved scissors and needles; instead of carrots, lemongrass, and salmon, she arranged satin, sequins, and buttons. When BAM came calling in 1995, she had 20 years of experience working opera, ballet, American Conservatory Theater, touring houses in San Francisco, toured herself nationally, and worked New York theater. By then she was living in Prospect Heights and was happy to walk to work.  

Fast-forward 20 years: Mary Lou Houston will retire at the end of this season. Sitting in her sun-filled workroom in the Peter Jay Sharp Building, where the Howard Gilman Opera House is located (“Probably the best wardrobe room in New York—all these windows!”), she recalled the tens of thousands of costumes that passed through her hands and revealed a few tricks for those of us who treat a trip to the laundromat as the pinnacle of clothing care...

Don Coleman is done with Robert Wilson!

by David Hsieh

Mikhail Baryshnikov, Don Coleman, Robert Wilson, and Willem Dafoe. Photo: Elena Olivo

In the busy, sometimes hectic backstage area at BAM, Don Coleman is a reassuring presence. With a full head of silver hair, metal-framed glasses, and a deliberate way of talking, he exudes calm. Although he is tall, he doesn’t tower over people. He has a resonant baritone voice, but he doesn’t shout people down. He doesn’t have to. After 18 years at BAM supervising productions, he knows how to get things done. But it’s those talents that got him into the theater world in the first place.

“The drama coach in my high school in Albuquerque, NM was eager to have a big guy with a voice that can project for stage presence,” he recalled in a recent interview at the Howard Gilman Opera House. He liked it enough to study theater at University of Texas in Austin but soon found out there were others who were better at acting. So he switched to the design and technical side. After retiring from the Marines in Vietnam, he was “trying to make up my mind what my life was going to be.” With the help of the GI Bill and a scholarship, he was able to attend New York University's theater master’s program.

Unbeknownst to him then, another theater-loving UT-Austin alum had also moved to New York. Robert Wilson, who had quit studying business administration, was starting to make a name in the downtown art world. Their paths would eventually cross when Don joined the BAM production team in 1996. In 2000, he took on his first Wilson show—The Dream Play. Wilson was an established international artist by then. He had also acquired a reputation, which, according to Don, was of someone “who’s very definite about what he wanted and could give you a very hard time if he didn’t get it.” He added, “I know a lot of directors and artists are like that. I found that a lot of times when someone has a reputation of being difficult, the way to solve that problem is by giving them exactly what they want.”

Behind the Scenes: Christine Gruder, Theater Manager

by Susannah Gruder

Christine Gruder and friends. Photo: Susannah Gruder

After working at BAM for 25 years, Theater Manager Christine Gruder has seen it all. She and her staff, which includes 200 ushers and an Associate Manager, serve as the front line when patrons come to the theater, assisting them directly with any issues they may have, directing the flow of the audience in and out of the theater, and liaising with the various departments at BAM to ensure a successful performance. She has fielded countless complaints as well as compliments from theatergoers over the years, which she recognizes as being all part of the job. Though I know her as my mom, she’s taken care of BAM patrons for longer than I’ve been alive.

Q: Your job can be understood as the manager of the fourth wall—the audience and the house itself—an integral part of the theatrical experience. Do you see yourself in that sort of role?

A: I do in the sense that the frame of mind of the audience member affects their enjoyment of the piece. If they come in and they’re confused, or they’re irritated, or they’re angry, or they’re cold, or hot, or nervous… If they have negative feelings it’s going to affect their enjoyment. And conversely if they come in and they feel welcome, and they feel like they’re coming to a place where they’re going to be cared for and things go smoothly, it does as well. If we’re doing our job right they shouldn’t even have to think about what we’re doing. It should be seamless. And if they do experience something less than desirable, the way we handle it affects how they feel. One of the things I love about the way my department runs, is that I have such an amazing staff that I’m often told by people that an usher helped them, and that they love coming to BAM because the ushers are kind and recognize them and they’re helpful.

The Doors of BAM

by Louie Fleck, BAM Archives Coordinator

No, Jim Morrison is not alive, hiding in some secret room at BAM. But since “people are strange,” and since I am a person—one who enjoys exploring all the most obscure and hidden nooks of BAM—I thought it would be interesting to guide BAMblog readers through a tour of some of the stranger doors at BAM.

There are probably over 1000 doors contained in the Peter Jay Sharp building, otherwise known as the Opera House at BAM. Since opening in 1908, this building has undergone countless renovations and modifications. For example, long gone are the horse carriage entrances that flanked the foyer on Ashland Place and St. Felix Street. Also, while still visible from the outside, the center set of doors at 30 Lafayette are no longer used, as there is an escalator behind those doors in the lobby.

Thomas Paulucci, Crew Chief, and I took a little tour and now we’d like to share a few of the “hidden” places with you…

The Executive Files: LL Cool J Orders Chinese Food

BAM President Karen Brooks Hopkins has been at BAM since 1979, first working with Harvey Lichtenstein in the development department. The blog will feature anecdotes from her storied BAM tenure, as well as from Executive Producer Joseph V. Melillo.

Historical reenactment of LL and Karen in 1988.

With the Grammys tonight and LL Cool J serving as host, I reflect back on a Next Wave Gala in 1988 when LL attended as our guest.

It was one of those evenings that featured a fairly lengthy performance followed by dinner. LL was unhappy with the menu (wild mushroom flan and salmon with sorrel sauce) and decided to order Chinese food, which was delivered to the gala. It was pretty hilarious to see the delivery man show up, be directed to LL’s table, and then to watch LL and other guests ditch the gala food in favor of pork fried rice and chicken wings!

—Karen Brooks Hopkins, President of BAM

Behind the Scenes: Mary Reilly, Director of Artist Services

Get acquainted with some of the people who make things work at BAM. Mary Reilly is BAM’s director of Artist Services, interviewed by Sandy Sawotka, BAM’s director of publicity.*

Juliette Binoche with Mary Reilly, Director of Artist Services. Photo by Danielle Dybiec.

Q: As BAM’s longtime director of Artist Services, your work entails a range of diverse responsibilities. Tell us about them.
A: Artist Services facilitates the logistics involved with getting artists and companies to BAM. And it always starts with a visa! Then we’re on to planes, trains, hotel rooms, apartment searches, local transportation, company dinners, backstage toasts, opening night gifts, and a few emergency room visits—sometimes on the same day. Our main goal is to remove the daily obstacles that hinder artists from concentrating fully on their performances. Each artist requires a different level of support. An Icelandic actor in New York for the first time might require more than a New York-based dancer from Mark Morris Dance Group. When a company arrives from afar, we might organize a special outing. Last year, dance troupe Pamodzi from Zambia was here as part of DanceAfrica. None of the dancers had ever been to the US, so we arranged for a Big Apple Manhattan bus tour and the company loved it! We source and make medical appointments for artists who are in need of anything from an acupuncture tune-up to the sudden need for physical therapy or a B12 shot at midnight. There have been emergency root canals and even one burst gallbladder in my time here. We’ve amassed a list of top therapists in all these disciplines and try to make everyone feel taken care of during their BAM stay—whether it be a brief few days, a week, or in some wonderful cases, months, as with performers in The Bridge Project.

Q: How might a typical day go for you and your staff?
A: Ah, how we all wish for the typical. First we check the show reports from the night before to see if any notes exist for our department, flagging any potential problems. Then we begin tackling the myriad details necessary to get ready for the next show. It can also depend on which season we’re currently in: the Next Wave Festival or the Spring Season. The Festival has a furious pace as up to 16 different companies arrive and depart within 12 weeks. Artist Services is a staff of four including myself—a manager and two representatives who each are assigned certain shows per season. Our work is organized by who needs what first that day. With live performers, there is always the risk of injury or illness and urgent care trumps all. Getting everyone on stage is the top priority. We also manage more than 6,000 hotel nights per year. There is always a rooming list being tweaked and travel to be booked. Each rep begins by tracking her respective shows, returning calls, and processing ticket orders, backstage lists, and greenroom setups. Sometimes an artist may need child care at the hotel or want to know studios for a yoga or Pilates class. We do lots of recommending, and of course no day is complete without ordering champagne for our backstage toasts! It truly never gets dull around here.

Behind the Scenes: Carl Wurzbach, Sound Engineer

Get acquainted with some of the people who make things work at BAM. Carl Wurzbach is BAM’s sound engineer, interviewed by Sandy Sawotka, BAM’s director of publicity.*

Q: Carl, as the sound engineer for the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, you play an important role in a wide variety of BAM productions. Can you tell us about your main responsibilities?

A: BAM does it all: opera, rock & roll, modern dance, Shakespeare, even MTV specials. It’s my job to provide whatever the visiting company needs for that production’s sound and video concerns. Everything from the placement of the large speakers you see, to the dozens of little ones you don’t see—around the theater, in lighting booths, and in dressing rooms. As many as 60 microphone inputs may be used to get a band sounding good for the audience, as well as another 60 for the monitor mixes that the performers need on stage. My duties also include ensuring that the titles are perfectly executed for our foreign language productions. In addition we make certain that the video screens and projectors used in each show do what the director and designers want them to do. We also make sure the backstage communications systems provide the stagehands, electricians, prop people, carpenters, and sound folk with the ability to see and hear everything that happens on stage. Cues are called, the lights, scenery, and actors move, and the magic happens... when I am lucky, I even get to mix the show.