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"It is clear
there is a growing interest in seeing the lost gems the Mint Theater
Company is rediscovering. Scholars, teachers and students of theater
should welcome and support the work of the Mint, as it is one of the
very small number of theaters in North America that produce work of
real historical significance… its dedication to dramatists and
their texts is invaluable."
J. Ellen Gainor, Cornell University in Theater Journal
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On
Thursday, May 2nd, at a special cocktail reception at St. John's
Boutique on Fifth Avenue, Mint Theater Company was awarded a
Special Drama Desk Award for unearthing, presenting and perserving
plays of merit. We are grateful to the Drama Desk committee
for recognizing us with this very prestegious honor - and pleased
to share with you the words spoken by Ed Karam, of the The Times
of London, in presenting the award, and Jonathan Bank's words
in accepting it.
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It’s
serendipity that we’re honoring the Mint Theater Company
in the same season that one of our nominees for best revival
is Morning’s at Seven. As we know, Paul Osborn’s play
was first produced in 1939, and it flopped. It wasn’t until
1980, 41 years later, that it was rediscovered and made a success.
This year Daniel Sullivan revisited the play for a new generation,
and we found that it is still a humorous, wise and humane look
at families and small-town America that we urban-dwellers rarely
see anymore, if it still exists at all.
But if it hadn’t been for that first rediscovery back in
1980, Morning’s at Seven might still be waiting for the
Mint Theatre Company to find it. That’s what the Mint specializes
in—except that most of the plays staged in its space have
lain on the shelf more than 41 years. For instance the Mint
rediscovered A.A. Milne, the playwright, author of Mr. Pim Passes
By, a whimsical 1921 comedy that had been unproduced in New
York for 50 years. The Voysey Inheritance, by Harley Granville-Barker,
received its New York premiere at the Mint 95 years after it
waswritten.
Jonathan Bank, the Mint’s artistic director, spends a lot
of time scouring library catalogues and fielding suggestions
from Mint supporters and friendly academics. So, if any of you
have a juicy, forgotten script to pitch to him, go ahead and
bend his ear.
This past year is an ideal illustration of the Mint’s work.
We’ve seen Diana of Dobson’s from 1908, the story
of a British shopgirl who inherits a fortune and sets off for
a Swiss resort to mingle with the wealthy and experience the
leisure and respect that her social position has denied her.
The Mint also produced Rutherford and Son, a 1912 play about
a tyrannical glassworks magnate who bullies and alienates his
family but is ultimately trumped by his daughter-in-law.Although
both those plays were British, and incidentally, written by
women, the American repertory has also been represented. This
year we tasted the sophistication of S.N. Behrman in No Time
for Comedy, and for the first time, Jonathan opened the Mint’s
space to an outside production that he believed deserved an
extended viewing, Carl Forsman’s exquisite revival of The
Voice of the Turtle by John van Druten.
In addition to producing and directing, Jonathan has also edited
this just-published collection of some of the plays that the
Mint has produced. It’s called Worthy But Neglected, and
it’s really an ideal title. There are interesting stories
behind the obscurity of each of these dramas, and often the
reason has nothing to do with the writing. Certainly each of
them deserves the description “Worthy But Neglected.”
And so, for its work in unearthing, presenting and preserving
plays of merit, the Drama Desk feels that the Mint Theatre Company
is a worthy recipient of this special award, and is not to be
neglected.
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>>
Click Here to read Jonathan Bank's Acceptance.
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