2 CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 23, 2005 | SECTION TWO

I don’t want to make anyone do whatthey don’t want to do. They said [theaudience] will come back and I said nothey won’t. At that point I was ready tothrow in the towel. The next day I put anotice on the board, because I can’tpromise a full house every night.

That Saturday night we had under-studies for two cast members and we hada great show, and I said, “Why should Ilet the actions of a small group of peopledetermine what happens to a show I’veinvested a lot of money in when there arepeople who’d love to do it?” Actors don’tcall the show. It’s the director or stagemanager’s job. It was audacious.

Sunday morning I got on the phoneand asked the newer members of thecast to come back. I didn’t have under-studies for them, and I knew theyweren’t behind the mutiny. The old ruleis if the audience doesn’t outweigh thecast, you don’t do it. But that wasn’t thecase, and it’s a monologue show. We

Pullen expected to break even on it andis moving on to his next idea: a CANTV series featuring Chicago perform-ance artists. He expects to begin tapingin the spring.

Katrina: A Windfall for the Arts?You couldn’t miss the shiny red-and-black flyer tucked into a year-end solic-itation letter from the Lyric Opera. Itflashed a carmine headline reading“Tax Relief ” and followed up with someamazing propositions: thanks toHurricane Katrina and Congress, taxrelief will be coming to folks 1,000miles from Bourbon Street and wealthyenough to give the Lyric (or any othercharity) as much cash as they made thisyear. If they do it by the end of 2005they’ll be able to deduct their entireadjusted gross income, instead of justhalf of it. As a result, says JonathanSiner, Lyric’s director of planned giv-ing, even IRA withdrawals for largecash gifts (usually not a good idea) canmake sense for some people this year.

For the future, Congress is consid-ering legislation that would allow giftsfrom IRAs, including stocks, to rolldirectly over to charities, skippingincome taxes. It’s also looking at a floorof $210 per person on charitable con-tributions, an idea that could pop upand smack most of us in the pledgedrive: the first $210 an individual gives(or $420 per couple) would no longerbe deductible. It’s been paired with aprovision that will let people who don’titemize deductions on their taxes takeoff anything they give over $210, as ifthat’ll balance things out. AndrewFinch of Americans for the Arts saysthe floor breaches the long-standingprinciple that every dollar you give isdeductible. “And once you have it,there’s nothing to stop it from rising,”he adds. “A floor of $210 may not bemuch of a disincentive to giving. Afloor of $1,000 would be.”

Also pending: a provision thatwould allow artists to deduct morethan the cost of materials when theydonate a piece of their work to a non-profit. Don’t get your hopes up—atpress time Congress was headinghome. v

The Business

A ctor Shannon O’Neill andJourneymen Theater Companyartistic director Frank Pullen

met in 1995, just after he founded thecompany. Since then, O’Neill’s done adozen Journeymen shows, includingrepeat performances in the annual hol-iday satire The Eight: ReindeerMonologues. In the play Donner,Blitzen, and crew take turns at themicrophone, going public with Santa’ssins. This year the monologues turnednearly as ugly backstage.

O’Neill: This was my third time in therole of Vixen. We opened November 25and were supposed to run throughDecember 23 at the Theatre Building.We got through the first weekend, butthe next Friday, December 2, at thefive-minute call, the stage managersaid we’ve got maybe eight people [inthe audience]. The cast looked aroundat each other. We said maybe we shouldtalk to Frank about canceling.

I asked the stage manager to getFrank, and when he came to the dress-ing room I talked for everyone. Frankgave me a death stare. Another castmember said she felt uncomfortable;there were only about six people in thisbig auditorium. Frank said, “OK, fine.You make the speech and you give themoney back, and you can do whateveryou want.”

The box office refunded the tickets. Istayed to help Frank clean up and sawthat he was really pissed at me. I keptsaying, “Frank, this was a unanimousdecision.” I went home thinking it wasjust one bad night; I was prepared to dothe rest of the run. But the next nightFrank had taped up an announcementbackstage that the new closing date ofthe show would be December 4 andthat after what happened, even doingtheater anymore would be questionablefor him. It said, “Fill out your W-2s andI’ll send you a check.”

We felt horrible. If we’d known hewas going to take it this way we’d havedone the show. I tried to talk to Frank;he was barely speaking. I said, “I amhere for you; you can keep my stipendif that will help.” The actors huggedeach other and said our good-byes.Then on Monday I got a call from a

friend asking what was happening. Isaid, “Journeymen’s done.” He said,“No, it isn’t. He’s reopening the showwith a new cast.” I found out he hadasked some of the newer cast membersto come back. When they found out wehadn’t been asked, they quit.

Frank is basically easy to work with.No one expected that type of reaction.Mac Brandt, Tony Casale, and I had alot invested in the company. We’re wor-ried about Frank, but it was so seedy.Why would he burn those bridges? Wewere all left in the dark.

Pullen: I’m up in the booth and ourproduction manager comes up and saysthe cast isn’t going to do the show. Icount the tickets—eight people paidfull price and there’s two comps, ush-ers, and an understudy who needed tosee it. Thirteen total. And these areeight-minute monologues. I could be abitch and demand they go onstage, but

had another show running that sameweek, The Amazing Adventures of Scott& Ernest, which didn’t do well. TheSunday before there were six people inthe house and the actors went out onthat stage and performed like it wassold out. It’s the integrity, desire, andpassion to do it. The [refunded] ticketscould have paid the rent that night.

Three of those people were verygood friends [of mine], but when I’mdoing a Journeymen show I’m acting asa producer. Eight minutes of stagetime. They could have pretended theywere doing it as an audition or rehears-al. I still can’t get over the fact that theactors decided to call the show. That’sjust appalling. It’s very similar to what’sgoing on in the story—walkouts, Vixentaking it to the press, scandal, and meas the big bad Santa Claus.

Reindeer Monologues closed Sunday,one performance shy of its full run.

Must the Show Go On?What happened when members of the cast of The Eight questioned whether eight audience members was enough.

The original cast, front row: Anthony Casale, Shannon O'Neill, Mac Brandt. Back: Charles Glenn, Zach Welsheimer, KristinWilliams, Ricardo Gamboa, Jeannette Blackwell.

By Deanna Isaacs

thebusiness@chicagoreader.com

CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 23, 2005 | SECTION TWO 3