Look Homeward, Stuart
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Then earlier this year director Ina Marlowe approached the Organic board about a possible merger with her own struggling not-for-profit Touchstone Theatre. A deal to formally join the two groups was finalized last summer, and Marlowe sent Gordon a letter requesting a meeting to discuss ways in which now-famous Organic alumni could get involved with the new company. Gordon flew into town for discussions with Marlowe during the summer and again last week. He told her he was interested in doing Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, possibly with former Organic members Dennis Franz, Joe Mantegna, and Meshach Taylor.
Recently Gordon was in Ireland and London shooting and editing his latest movie, Space Truckers, starring Dennis Hopper and George Wendt. The film, which follows truck drivers who haul giant rigs through space, will be screened in January at the Cultural Center as a benefit for the Organic Touchstone Company. Before committing to Julius Caesar, however, Gordon says he wants to stage workshop tryouts on the west coast this winter. If he’s pleased with the results, the show could open the 1997-’98 Organic Touchstone season on the old Organic main stage at 3319 N. Clark.
As Stuart Gordon talked of coming home, another formidable theater talent was looking to get out of town. Several sources confirm that Goodman Theatre associate artistic director Michael Maggio is on a short list of finalists under consideration to become artistic director of the 34-year-old Seattle Repertory Theatre, one of the west coast’s most prestigious companies. And Maggio is reportedly very interested in the job. Seattle Rep spokeswoman Linda Glass says a list of more than a hundred candidates has been whittled down to a handful, but a final decision won’t be announced until later this month. Yet one source claims that by last week the search committee had already informed a disappointed Maggio that the job would probably go to Sharon Ott, artistic director of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre for 13 years and reportedly the only other out-of-town candidate in serious contention for the job.
