Writers learning from writers In journalism, learning from the pros can provide important insights as aspiring writers venture out after graduation onto the shifting sands of the 21st-century news business. Andrew Solomon, assistant professor of journalism, says those contemplating lives as freelance writers learned how best to get through to assignment editors when Isaac Guzman, a former features editor and pop music critic at the New York Post, discussed the art of the query letter. Such an email provides a quick synopsis of the writer’s story idea and offers information that will lead the editor to believe that the writer can deliver the article that he or she has dreamed up. Guzman’s advice? Have a concise subject line to catch the editor’s attention, get to the point quickly, and describe how you’ll obtain access to the event or the interview.
“He also told the writers to provide links to stories they’ve written, and to make sure the links still work,” says Solomon, the former national news editor of Backstage and an editor at the Washington Post and Newsday. “He suggested they might want to make PDFs of their online stories because content can come down and not be accessible.” Solomon also brought New York Times reporter Alan Schwarz to class in the spring of 2012 to share his investigation of head injuries in the National Football League, and the subsequent lawsuit filed by hundreds of former players who had suffered concussions. “He was such a good shoe-leather reporter who was able to use statistical analysis to get out in front of the story,” says Solomon. “We as professors at times grossly underestimate how flattering it can be for someone to be asked to share his or her experience. It’s a great untapped resource.”
Backstage Legends and Masters: A Conversation with Artie Siccardi Dan Hanessian with Artie Siccardi In April, 200 students, alumni, faculty, and staff packed the Black Box Theatre of the Performing Arts Center for “A Conversation with Artie Siccardi.” The event, arranged and produced by Dan Hanessian ’90, associate professor of theatre design/technology, brought Broadway production technical supervisor Artie Siccardi to campus to talk about his decades of work backstage. Siccardi’s appearance was part of Hanessian’s Broadway Technical Theatre History project, in which he and others are documenting the development of the technical side of theatre over the past half-century. The project celebrates the increasingly complex built environments that create the worlds inhabited by characters in musicals and dramas. Siccardi has worked on more than 200 Broadway shows, including the hit musicals Cats, Billy Elliot: The Musical, The Color Purple, La Cage aux Folles, Gypsy, Mamma Mia!, Jesus Christ Superstar, and A Chorus Line. In 2012, he received a Tony honor for Excellence in the Theatre on the day before this year’s Tony Awards. Hanessian chronicled Siccardi’s storied career, which included working on 81 shows in the 1980s, including 10 shows in 1980. “You worked on 63 percent of Broadway shows that year,” he reminded Siccardi that evening.
P U R C HA S E | 18
Siccardi told the students that he began his career as a carpenter on Broadway in the 1950s, on the show Jamaica. Over the years, he took on many new titles—production supervisor, technical supervisor, and production manager. As production supervisor, Siccardi was charged with making sure the scenery and costumes were built and fashioned in line with the creative team’s vision. He selected the scene shops to build the scenery, then worked with the show to make sure that his team kept the production in good working order. The musical Cats was a harbinger. “Cats started it all,” Siccardi recalled. “And then it kept getting bigger and bigger.” At Purchase, Siccardi provided students with his knowledge about the way Broadway used to be, with fixed lighting, and stagehands pulling lines and pushing scenery around. They used wood to build scenery, long before metal became the construction material of choice. “We used wood,” said Siccardi. “You all laugh. But little by little, wood became too expensive.” Back in the day, shops could build the scenery for a musical for $400,000. Today, it can cost a producer up to $1.5 million, Siccardi said. Today’s stagecraft includes digital projections systems, automated lines, and lighting that moves about. “I’ve tried to grow with the changes,” he said. “You have to grow with it. I sure wouldn’t want to be starting out now.”