He continued, “There are plenty of places where being successful is important, and of course we want to succeed artistically, financially, but there are fewer and fewer places left where the consequence of failure isn’t way too severe.” One of those places is Powerhouse Theater, the producing venue of New York Stage and Film, THE BIG BAD (SAFE) WORLD which Mark co-founded with Upon graduating, Mark landed Max Mayer and Leslie Urdang in a world where theatres were ’81 in Poughkeepsie, New York, not incubating new work, and on the campus of Vassar College. commercial venues in New York At Powerhouse such playwrights were . . . well . . . commercial. He as John Patrick Shanley found a and a small group of YSD alumni, creative sanctuary, one removed including Lewis Black ’77 and from the pressures of commercial Joe Grifasi ’75, took matters into success and the crippling influence their own hands, creating an of New York critics. In speaking environment in which exploration about Powerhouse, Mark says, and failure were okay. Mark and “The value there is doing the work. company took over the downstairs That’s the place I helped create, space at the West Bank Café, and that’s what I value.” in this tiny black box managed to While maintaining a career cultivate a community, not just “There are plenty of places in movies and television, Mark an audience. In a phone interview where being successful is important . . . continues to appear on the stage. Lewis Black—comedian, pundit, In 2011 he starred in his sixth actor, and, oh yes, alumnus of but there are fewer and fewer Broadway production, one of three the YSD Playwriting program— places left where the consequence of one-act plays in Relatively Speaking, summed up the experience: “It was Honeymoon Hotel by Woody Allen. basically an opportunity to get failure isn’t way too severe.” (Other Broadway appearances some good work done with nobody include Doonesbury, A Funny Thing bothering us.” Late at night, when Happened on the Way to the Forum, nothing else was going on, the 100A Year with Frog and Toad, Romantic Poetry, and Laughter on the 23rd seat Laurie Beechman Theatre became the New York City version Floor.) of “YSD Night” at the Yale Cabaret; Joe, Mark, and Lewis wrote and produced hundreds of short plays for an audience eager to see what ADVICE Like any soon-to-be graduate I finish the interview these friends had created. The shows—put on in the wee hours by trying to wheedle some advice out of Mark. After all, he’s had and with great regularity—were often sold out. It was a formative and is having an extremely successful career as an actor, no small period of growth and community building, and, after Mark’s 1982 feat for anyone. He mentions how grateful he is for the life he break-out film role in My Favorite Year and his seven-year stint on has led—decades of performance, plus raising a family and the television sitcom Perfect Strangers, he returned to the Laurie making a living in an extremely volatile and inconsistent business. Beechman and became a part-owner of the theatre space. Yet, despite this success, after each bit of advice he insists: Speaking about those early years, he insists: “There was a real “Remember, these are opinions, I don’t have any idea what I’m community, real dedication.” I asked where he thought that could talking about.” It’s a very humble statement but one that can be found nowadays, and Mark said he wasn’t sure. As a member of only be made by a person who’s aware of the importance of nowadays, I felt depressed. But I was relieved when he said he was work-in-progress. Mark leaves me with a quotable opinion: sure about one thing, the theme that makes him most proud of so many of his endeavors: “The important thing is just doing the work. “Theatre is a process. Don’t decide where you’re going. Doesn’t have to be finished, don’t finish, just follow the process, and do Some of it will work, and some it will die. But you should be able to the work.” Y find out whether or not something works without consequence.” It, among others—it was too good to be true. The very theatres Mark was looking to were becoming increasingly worried about pleasing their audiences (and preventing bankruptcy), so work was becoming less challenging and risky.
YSD 2012–13
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