[Lynn Meyers was the 2006 CEA Theater Hall of Fame inductee. This profile article originally ran in CityBeat on Aug. 23, 2006.]
The 10 years that D. Lynn Meyers has served as producing artistic director
at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati (ETC) coincide exactly with the 10
years covered by the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards (CEAs), presented
for 2006 in a ceremony Friday at UC's College-Conservatory of Music. Photo: It's
all in the family at ETC: (Front row L-R) D. Lynn Meyers, Brian c.
Mehring, Caitlin Wood; (second row L-R) Richard Sillen, Laura
Berkemeier, Shannon Rae Lutz, Rick Diehl; (third row L-R) Matthew
Hollstegge, Nicole Tuthill, Tamara Young and Officer Nick Ligon
During that decade, Meyers has staged 46 regional premieres at ETC. She
also helped establish the League of Cincinnati Theatres (LCT) and
served in a leadership role during the league's early years.
Four times since 1996 Meyers has been called upon to step to the podium
and induct someone into the CEA Hall of Fame, recognition that's linked
to LCT's Award for Continuing Excellence. In 1999, she introduced
Cincinnati native and Broadway regular Pam Myers; in 2002 it was
veteran professional actress Dale Hodges; in 2004 she profiled
Cincinnati Playhouse leaders Ed Stern and Buzz Ward; and in 2005 she
introduced playwright Joe McDonough, whose writing she's championed at
ETC.
All in all, it seems fitting that, for the 10th anniversary of the
CEAs, Lynn Meyers herself is honoree to be inducted into the CEA Hall
of Fame.
Meyers grew up on Cincinnati's West Side and didn't know much about
theater. She aspired to be a writer while attending Mother of Mercy
High School; the arts weren't a thread in her life.
"I grew up in a remarkable and eccentric and eclectic family," Meyers
says. "Everybody had two and three jobs that they did really well. Work
was a prize, not a burden. My grandfather worked at American Linen
during the week, then at Findlay Market on the weekend. My grandmother
went back to work and opened a kitchen when she was 70. My mom was a
secretary, but then she was also a realtor. My dad was a cop, a good
cop."
That foundation taught her the value of surrounding herself with
dedicated people, people who possess what she calls "unbridled passion."
"I need people who want to come to work every day as much as I do,"
Meyers says. "If you have that desire, the rest of it happens."
She cites her lighting and scenic designer, Brian c. Mehring, another West Side product.
"He's brilliant, and he understands the gibberish of my language and
turns it into something visual," she says. "There's nobody like that on
the planet.
I've been blessed to work with some really good designers,
but he can read my mind and my heart. It's that passion I thrive on."
She laughs when she recounts how Mehring helped her learn to drive a standard transmission car two years ago.
"I couldn't get the idea of letting out the clutch and engaging the
gears until he told me it was like a cross-fade," a lighting concept in
which one set of lights fades while another one is brightened to reveal
something new.
She describes her new technical director, Richard Sillen, who
previously worked in New York City on conventions and meetings.
"He told me, 'I want to do work that matters! I can work anywhere and
do good work. I want my soul in something,'" she says.
That's how Meyers conducts her artistic career - with her heart on her sleeve - and that's what she expects of those around her.
Why does Meyers continue to create theater in Cincinnati? After all,
she has connections around the country from her tenure at the
Cincinnati Playhouse during the 1980s. She's directed in Canada and New
York City. She's abridged major novels and directed well-known actors
in recordings of books-on-tape. She's been involved in casting major
motion pictures such as The Shawshank Redemption and Milk Money. She
knows performers and playwrights everywhere.
"I love the idea at the end of the day that the work I do adds up to
making a difference," Meyers says. "I feel like Cincinnati is a town
that keeps reinventing itself. If I didn't feel like the work was
really challenging, I probably wouldn't be here. I'll wear the same old
clothes and drive the same old car, but I don't want to do the same old
thing.
"Ensemble Theatre gives me a freedom you don't find in other places.
The best an artist can hope for is to continue to keep working. That's
what ETC does for me."
Working - and working hard - is what Meyers is all about.
After graduating from Thomas More College in 1978,
she was accepted for graduate study at Yale Drama School, but she
couldn't afford to go. On the advice of a mentor, she wrote to 67
regional theaters with a note saying, "Here's a copy of my acceptance
letter to Yale. I can't afford to go. Give me a job!"
She had two responses. One was from Alaska Repertory Theatre,
which told her they admired her chutzpah but had nothing available. The
other was from Playhouse in the Park.
"Someone once said I am 'intolerably annoying,'" Meyers admits. "I think that's how I got the job at the Playhouse."
She persuaded Artistic Director Michael Murray to hire her as his
assistant. Over time she became casting director and eventually was
associate artistic director when she left in 1990 to pursue new
opportunities.
In 1996 ETC needed new artistic leadership. The board chair called
Meyers, who had directed recent ETC productions of Lips Together, Teeth
Apart and A Streetcar Named Desire. He asked her to come and help out
for three weeks. Ten years later, she's still there.
"ETC caught me," Meyers confesses. "I was standing in this neighborhood
where my grandfather had worked at Findlay Market - my mom, my
grandmother, all these people had built this life for me. In this
theater building that two loving people, Ruth Sawyer and Murph Mahler,
had bought. I said to myself, 'You can't close a theater when you've
got a building!'"
So Meyers is still at it. She refined ETC's mission to be "your
premiere theater" and focused on bringing new works to the stage. She's
built a reputation for ETC that attracts nationally known playwrights
like Lee Blessing and Tony Award winner Warren Leight. ETC repeatedly
has been the first theater in America to present a show after its New
York City debut.
What motivates her to work in the theater?
"It's a way to begin again and re-create your life," she says. "With
every show, with every production, with every moment that you get to
create onstage, you get another chance. Theater is about maybe creating
life the way it should be or could be or would be. Sometimes it makes
the world we live in a much better place. That's why it's worked for
me."
Of her recognition by LCT, Meyers is truly honored.
"The league represents so many diverse theater companies, where so many
more people are now having a chance to do their craft," she says.
"Cincinnati has always had wonderful community theaters, and today we
have more professional theater companies and even more
semi-professional companies. That's exciting."
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