Video: Celebrate 40 Years of Lincoln Center Theater

Lincoln Center Theater is the heart of theater in New York City

It's hard to compute that it's 40 years. It's 40 years. Lincoln Center Theater is, at its best, a wonderful, wonderful theater

I'm very, very, very. proud of this theater having achieved a 40th anniversary, and I'm proud of it because theater

at Lincoln Center, which most people don't remember now, was a very endangered species

When I first started here, it was called the Vivian Beaumont Theater. The day after Labor Day

in 1984, a lot of the board that had been with us for a while ran for the hills

with real talk about turning the Beaumont into an indoor skating rink or an indoor garage

The Beaumont at that time was always known as the troubled Beaumont

And I didn't want to be the director of the troubled Beaumont

So I said to Bernie, let's just call ourselves Lincoln Center Theater

And I got a call from the president of Link Ink, not Leventhal, who's wonderful, wonderful guy

And he said, who the hell said you could call? all yourself's Lincoln Center Theater

And he said, you better be good. People at Lincoln Center felt that if when Bernie Gersten and Gregory Mosher came in

that if they didn't make this work, this would be the end of theater at Lincoln Center

Early on in those years, it was real survival. We needed to have a successful production that was extended

and generated revenue for us to be able to really be sure that we'd be here the next year

Jerry Zax, who was our favorite director in those years because he did House of Blue Leaves

he did anything goes, and six degrees. When you try to even begin to get your arms

around the extraordinary accomplishments that Lincoln Center Theater has realized over the last 40 years

You really get to a place where you see the hope for how much better we can be as citizens, as human beings

You know, Lincoln Center Theater is the place where my dreams came true

I had a home where I could work on magnificent shows. It's really good

really moving to be part of an institution as a director and to feel a home here

Light and the Piazza for me was the beginning of my dreams coming true

just being a part of something so magical and so brand new. My first show here was Light and the Fianza

I remember the first time that the whole thing came together, that we had the set, we had the costumes, we had the lights, the music, and someone came walking through one of the arches in that set in a costume designed by Kathy Zuber, and it sent shivers at my spine

I know that when I come to Lincoln Center I in to be changed and that I got to play here at all to start my career to do The King and I as my Broadway debut has spoiled me for life

Coming to Lincoln Center theater is like coming home. My favorite place is downstage center at the Vivian Beaumont Theater on the stage

But when you're on stage, it feels like you could reach out and touch every single audience member

It is so intimate. When I think of the downstage center, I think of being in South Pacific

and I think of running down with all the sailors and stopping right on a dime

right at the very edge of the stage. I like to sit on the balcony of the Vivian Beaumont of the lobby and look over the plaza

It moves me every single time. I was living in New York doing Anything Goes

and my boyfriend proposed to me, and Bernie said to me, get married on the stage

Tony added bits and pieces to the final scene of Anything Goes, which is a wedding scene

and I indeed got married on the stage of the living in Belmontia

I feel like it's been a home away from home, really. and I was here the day that I went into Andre's office to say

I'm going to have a baby and we're going to have to grow the swimming suit and the shorts

And in the left side dressing room, I had both of my children as babies

I would say Lincoln Center theater is like family to me. I've had five plays at Lincoln Center

A first play is like a first date. A second play is like going steady. A third play is like you're engaged

A fourth play is like marriage. And a fifth play is like a long marriage

for any institution to commit that way to an artist's career and longevity is a huge, huge thing

Lincoln Center in Theater is my favorite place to work. To me, there's no place like it. There's nothing like being on this campus

I strive to do my absolute best because of the environment, because of where I am

I find it very inspiring and I find it very comforting. So when you're doing challenging work, it's nice to be able to feel sort of comforted

Coming here lifts me. Our board at Lincoln Center Theater is incredibly special

Not only does every single person love the theater, most importantly, they love Lincoln Center theater

You know something about this theater that I love, and I tell everybody at every other theater

it's great that when you walk into the offices, you have to walk down that

long corridor. And there are a lot of theaters where you're not aware of the staff and that you're

all together in this, you know, and I find that one of the healthiest things about Lincoln Center theater

Andre said, we need a third theater. I said, Andre, we already got two. We got the Beaumont and we got

the Mitzie Newhouse. You need a third? He said, yes. We have to capture

young artists, young playwrights, young actors, and give them a forum. Andre's vision forever had been that we needed a third stage

He worked with, you know, very young and up-and-coming playwrights and nurtured them throughout

the course of their career. Wendy Wastrichterstein, you know, would be a great example of that

Lincoln Center Theater has really uplifted the voices of many amazing playwrights

You know, my favorite memory of working here at Lincoln Center, was probably the final week of previews for my first show here disgraced And my mom came to New York City to see the show She had this moment where she I think realized what Lincoln Center means

and what her son being a playwright means. It was in a moment I'd never experienced before with her

which was, I think, she really felt like she felt like she belonged in America somehow

We have LCT3 so we can foster new work and support new designers, new directors, new actors, new writers

Lincoln Center takes chances on new artists. Lincoln Center took a chance on me

In contact, the opening short story took place on a swing. The crew here hung a giant rope swing from the ceiling in the rehearsal room

and I know that they had to reinforce that up there so we didn't bring down the whole ceiling

There's no other place in New York that would, build you a swing inside the rehearsal studio hanging from their ceiling

Only Lincoln Center. We were doing the Coast of Utopia, and I came up with this cockamamie idea

It was a rolling ocean, and suddenly you saw Briano Bern dreaming in a chair

and he would turn around and around and disappear. They had a production meeting in the basement of Lincoln Center Theater under the Beaumont

Bernie Gerston, God rest his son. said at the end, absolutely. What a great idea

Drill a hole in the bottom of the theater. And that's what they did

They drilled a hole in the bottom of the Beaumont so my actor could disappear

I think this theater at its best is producing plays that nobody else can or will produce

Nobody else would have done Serafina, the great South African musical, because they didn't have enough money to put 40 people on stage

or to rehearse for a year in South Africa. Seeing Serafina open that first night

and seeing those South African teenagers in this room, being the musical voice of the anti-apartheid movement

because Mandela was still in prison when he did so. That was mind-blowing

My favorite memory of working at Lincoln Center Theater was the moment during the skin of our teeth process where we first entered the Viviant Beaumont Theater

19 of us were making our Broadway debut. Seeing the set for the first time, which was like so magnificent

And then Lillianna Blaine-Cruz, our director, played started from the bottom. by Drake and we all just were like dancing in the theater and it felt like we were living that song

I'm excited for people who have never been to the theater to suddenly arrive at Lincoln Center and be like

whoa, this is what theater can be. I'm going to shift to Andre Bishop for a second, okay

Because not many people know what a director does except for the people in the room or in the production meeting

And basically a director takes care of everybody. And the question is, who takes care of the director

And that's André Bishop. Andre makes sure that I is director and the other directors have been fortunate enough to work here

have what they need. One thing that he's said that really moved me

is he's like, I feel as an artistic director and as part of this institution that so many of you artists get to fly

Like if this is like the trapeze, you know, I want you to be able to fly and I want this institution myself to be the kind of nesting so that you can do so safely What special about working at Lincoln Center Theater is very easy Two words

Andre Bishop. You have the benefit of his experience, his knowledge, his intelligence, his kindness

Andre Bishop is a theatrical genius. He's complicated, intelligent, humorous, kind. I would say that

Andre Bishop is loved. He's so revered and loved and rightfully so

I think Andre Bishop is a true friend of women artists. You know, when I think of Andre Bishop

I think of somebody who enabled me to have a career, to be honest

He produced our first show. And Andre always had in mind, I am at my heart a talent scout

identifying what is great in the history of theater, to adapt to the new world, a talent scout in terms of finding the best talent to write new plays

One thing that I'll never forget about Andre is that he changed the landscape for Asian American artists

King and I was pivotal in how people see Asian Americans on stage

When I think of Andre, I think of how intuitive he was about giving notes

He knew the three or four things that were very important that he needed to

to get across. And he found the right way and said them in a very kind way

It's not just what you say. It's how you say it, and most particularly when you say it

Here's an Andre note to me on one of our shows. Lynn, it's a beautiful pudding with too many raisins

He can be invited dress, and he pulled me aside. He said, you know, your play's wonderful

but I think you need a joke at the top of the first act. I wrote a joke

and we put it at the top. It changed the entire response of the audience. He's one of the greatest producers we ever had

is a very strong spine and point of view on how to support an artist and how to help an artist

And he's really the best at that. It would be hard to overstate the impact

that Andres had on American theater. He has nurtured generations of artists

over a very long period of time in an incredibly supportive way

As I look back now over these last decades, I realized that these shows would not have happened without Andre

I hope the core values of Lincoln Center Theater are preserved faithfully, and by that

I mean the support and nurturing and love of artists who work here

the atmosphere that is created for the staff and for the board

and for the audience when they come, and the devotion to new American plays and musicals

I hope that continues very, very, very. much. I have great confidence that Lincoln Center theater will continue to be very strong in the

Not-for-Profit Theater world and a leader. I'm excited for Lincoln Center in the next 10 years to

grow and transform in ways that it didn't know it could. I think Lincoln Center uniquely in the next

five to ten years will hopefully be able to take its place as one of the most important theater

in the entire world. I'm incredibly excited about the next 10 years

ahead of Lincoln Center Theater. We're the best now. We're going to be even better moving forward

It's our mission to bring exceptional theater to life on the stage

We can only do that if we continue to be the home for brilliant artists

and the next generation of artists