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September – December, 2011 Red

September – December, 2011 OnStage

Why Red?

Mark Rothko, one of the most celebrated American painters of the mid-twentieth century, was also among the most enigmatic and conflicted. The youngest son of a Russian Jewish émigré family, he developed a lifelong disdain for the upper class as a result of his impoverished background, yet he craved the commercial success that greeted such peers as Jackson Pollock. He was a latecomer to the world of visual art—he first pursued an acting career, under the tutelage of Josephine Dillon, aka Mrs. Clark Gable—and his early work was steeped in the realistic approach that he studied at the Art Students League of New York, but he achieved renown as one of the most rigorously experimental of a group of artists known as Abstract Expressionists (a term he loathed). Both icon and iconoclast, Rothko became one of the most revered artists of his era, yet also grew increasingly protective of his works, turning down offers of exhibitions that might have brought him the widespread success that had eluded him.

Possibly the most celebrated episode in Rothko's turbulent career came in 1958, when he was awarded a substantial commission to create a series of murals for the Four Seasons, an upscale restaurant housed on the first floor of the new Seagram Building in New York. Although he was exhilarated by the free reign he was given by the building's designers, the assignment brought with it a number of challenges, including architectural restrictions (it was the first time that Rothko had had to create works to fit into a specifically designed interior space) and, perhaps more disturbingly, a prospective audience that the artist had professed to scorn. This emotionally and creatively charged event becomes the basis for John Logan's gripping new play Red, which has quickly become among the most acclaimed dramas of the past decade. But Red is considerably more than a documentary of a seminal time in the career of a fascinating artist. By pairing Rothko with a fictitious young assistant, himself an impassioned artist, Logan has created a universally affecting portrait of struggles both personal and generational: of a gifted but tormented mentor, of a protégé struggling to establish his own voice, and of the sometimes painful truths that emerge.

Although John has achieved considerable fame as one of Hollywood's most respected screenwriters, his career began in the Chicago theater, and he and I have enjoyed a personal and professional friendship since our collaboration on Riverview: A Melodrama with Music more than 20 years ago. Following Red's Tony Award-winning run on Broadway, John called to let me know that he wanted the play's first post-New York production to be in Chicago, at the Goodman, under my direction. I was both honored and thrilled by his request, and it is with enormous pride that we begin our 2011/2012 Season with this extraordinarily passionate, moving work. It's a great pleasure to welcome John back to the city where he launched his distinguished career—and to bring Red to our Goodman audiences.

Robert Falls
Artistic Director, Goodman Theatre