Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009
greg london and the call of the footlights
Greg London at The Palace Theatre in Myrtle Beach. -Photo by Scott Smallin, Weekly Surge.
By the time Greg London was in the fourth grade, he noticed that the fifth graders always got the chance to mount a Christmas show, and this inequality got under his skin enough that he complained to a teacher about it, indicating that the fourth graders should be able to do the same thing. Essentially, that teacher told the young upstart to put his money where his mouth was, adding that if London could organize and direct it, the opportunity was his for the taking. "I wrote my own little script from memory of the stop-motion 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,' cast it, rehearsed it - and performed it to crazy success," he asserts with a chuckle.
Emboldened by his grade school wunderkind status (think Kershaw's answer to a young Noel Coward), London never had any doubt about the path he was to take, and has been actively involved in all aspects of the performing arts since then.
London holds Masters degrees in theater from both the University of South Carolina and Arizona State University and completed a professional internship with the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. In addition to working steadily as an actor/director/playwright, London was the artistic director for the Richmond [Va.] Art Theater and Planet Earth Phoenix [Ariz.]. He founded the Richmond Shakespeare Festival and was awarded the Eugene O'Neill Award for dramatic writing by the Kennedy Center/American College Festival in 2006.
He is also no stranger to the Grand Strand, having taught theater at Coastal Carolina University from 2002-2007. "I started out directing "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," he says. "This was supposed to be a visiting professor job for one semester, but I was offered the long-term opportunity there." He went back to New York for a bit while he pondered the situation. "I was living in Brooklyn with four roommates paying way too much money, and realized that I preferred living two blocks from the ocean. There's a great possibility for a strong entertainment community here, and I wanted to get back to the Southern lifestyle at the beach."
London returned to New York two years ago and garnered a spot for himself in the national touring company of "Hairspray," which trekked to China in 2008. "They cast me first as the male authority figure, which is the thru-line comedian, but the actor who played the mother detached his knee, so from that point I was playing Edna for half of the tour." The company played Beijing a week before the Olympics started.
London came back to Myrtle Beach with an eye to starting a theater company utilizing predominantly local talent. "A friend suggested I contact the Palace Theatre because they have a small stage there [The King's Suite]. They agreed to allow me to produce "Greater Tuna" there and later "Charlotte's Web," which ran for eight weeks."
The upshot: Meet the first artistic director for The Palace Theatre in Myrtle Beach. "I choose productions using a mix of professional, national-scale actors and local talent, as a kind-of enrichment program," he says, "and to tap into a market that hadn't really been tapped into in Myrtle Beach. We have mapped out a whole season of Broadway shows - between nine and 11 of them that will run between now and December 2010." These productions will be mounted in the King's Suite Showroom, but one will be staged in the main 2,700-seat auditorium.
"Little Shop of Horrors" will run through Sunday, and final auditions have been conducted for "A Christmas Carol," which begins its run on Nov. 27.
It has been said that Myrtle Beach struggles with its cultural identity - especially in regard to the rather fragmented arts community here. "Before we have harmony, we really need to develop and nurture strong anchor organizations," says London. "We can all benefit from each other because we have individual strengths. I believe theater breeds theater. The more people get to see it, the more people want to see it, and it doesn't matter where it is." A heady take, indeed - but not so far-fetched when we look at performing arts hubs on a national level.
Despite his work schedule, London says he has managed to get out to the beach quite often. "I love spending time with my best friend's triplets, and I write, oddly enough, in my spare time." He might also be seen at spots such as Bumstead's Pub, Time Out! or Shuckers. "I go and blow it out sometimes, of course."
But will Myrtle Beach remain home base for London? "That's the plan," he replied.