Musical Theatre Guild
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The Musical Theatre Guild is a professional non-profit, membership theater company located in Los Angeles.
In 1995, as musical theater was dying out in the area with most of the local producing companies going under, Eric Andrist and Jeff Rizzo came up with the idea to start a membership company of musical theater performers. Their hope was that out of necessity, local performers would come together and do the work necessary to create and run a company that would create work for themselves that otherwise probably wouldn't exist. On New Year's Day, they sent out letters to twenty-three of the top performers in the area. Of those, seventeen accepted, including:
Christopher Callen, Edward Evanko, Tom Hatten (of L.A. TV's "Popeye" and the "Family Film Festival", Marsha Kramer (who played Wendy in the Sandy Duncan version of "Peter Pan), Jane Lanier (Jerome Robbins Broadway), Marcia Mitzman (of Tommy and Chess), Lorna Patterson (TV's "Private Benjamin"), Leanna Polk, Teri Ralston ("Company," "A Little Night Music"), John Rubinstein ("Pippin"), Katherine Skatula, Betty Vaughan, and Susan Watson ("Bye Bye Birdie," "Carnival").
The group literally started out with no money and met in the basement of a local Burbank church. They eventually moved their meetings into Andrist and Rizzo's living room which also became the headquarters for their main office, box office and their living room was often cleared out to become a rehearsal hall. Minimal dues were charged to the members, but at that rate it was clear it would take decades to raise enough money to produce a show. Unable to find a lawyer to do pro bono work for them, Andrist filled out and filed all the paperwork they needed to get their nonprofit status which was awarded to them in record time.
In the meantime, they were looking for things to do to stimulate and encourage the membership to participate and stay involved. John Rubinstein came up with the idea of doing informal "living room readings" of musicals while the group waited until they had enough money to produce a real show. Each member would come up with a musical, produce and cast it, and then present it in someone's living room with a piano player. It was a great way to show the group what it takes, on a small scale, to produce a show. Andrist and Rizzo produced the first reading in May of 1995, and at the urging of the group, chose their own "A Christmas Carol—The Musical" with John Rubinstein playing Scrooge. Other living room readings included: Lady in the Dark, Sweet Charity, Colette Collage, Carnival!, Rags, 110 in the Shade, Once Upon A Mattress, Sweeney Todd, Irma La Douce, Working, and Bells are Ringing. Two other original shows were also done, Tom Hatten's "Something Sweet," and Gordon Goodman's "Ghosts."
In May of 1996, the group produced a benefit concert, "Say It With Music," along with California Repertory Company of Long Beach, to raise money to produce their first season of "staged readings" for the public. Marsha Kramer spearheaded a campaign to get the Pasadena Playhouse as the venue to use, and Lars Hansen, the executive director of the theater at the time, opened the theater up to the group for 5 Monday nights a year. Rights to the first four shows were secured and the first season was announced: "A Christmas Carol—The Musical," "The Apple Tree," "110 in the Shade," and "Colette Collage." On December 9, 1996, the group opened the doors for the first time to the public only to find a torrential rainstorm outside. Not quite 50 people were in attendance for the first performance, which ended in rousing applause anyway.
With each show, the audience grew and grew. The second season of shows included: "Baby," "Here's Love," "Once Upon a Mattress," "On the 20th Century" (directed by Joanna Gleason), and "Falsettos" which broke all box office records to that point. The third season opened with a bang with Teri Ralston, Amanda McBroom and Lorna Patterson starring in "Over Here!" directed by Gordon Hunt (Helen's father). Susan Watson directed "Carnival" next, which was followed by "Bells are Ringing," and "I Remember Mama." The final show of that season was Stephen Sondheim's "Passion," which became the first show to sell out the Pasadena Playhouse for the group.
While the success of the company was growing, turmoil was brewing within its ranks. The membership had grown to around fifty members and it was becoming difficult to spread the work around evenly. While Andrist and Rizzo did most of the casting early on, the malaise it was causing was only adding to their daunting duties of running the company, mostly on their own. It was decided later on to leave the casting solely to each individual director. That in turn raised even more problems when the more talented of the company began getting roles in every production, often lead roles, when others in the company were either cast in the chorus or not at all. Certain members became irate when "name" celebrities were brought in for lead roles, and other members didn't like that non-union performers were allowed to perform along side them, even though it was these up and comers who often did a lot of the grunt work that the so-called "pros" didn't want to do. Blame always seemed to fall at the feet of Andrist and Rizzo, mostly Andrist since he was single-handedly running the company while Rizzo was on the road with the national tour of "The Wizard of Oz." Actors, being actors, rarely wanted to get involved with any aspects of running the company outside of performing, even though that was the principle behind it all. A handful of members were readily eager to help out, but it was never really enough and the workload became way too much for them to handle, especially for Andrist. Never good with confrontation, he chose to handle individual problems with members via letters which they in turn held against him. Members didn't like being reprimanded, but rarely wanted to participate in the way they had agreed to.
Behind their backs, a small faction of members began stirring the pot to get rid of Andrist and Rizzo. The company that they had started and invested over $10,000 of their own money into, was becoming a thorn in their side. There was no escape for them as their home had become the headquarters to everything Musical Theatre Guild. Confrontational meetings ensued and the founders finally tendered their resignations. The Board of Directors (made up of non performers for the most part) urged them to rescind their resignations, which they did. But after another confrontational membership meeting at their own home where one irate member read a two-page typed letter slamming Andrist, the duo walked out of the meeting. The group continued their meeting without them, even though they were at the home of Andrist and Rizzo. A few days later a special membership meeting was called. Andrist and Rizzo were told they could not attend. At this meeting they were voted out of their own company, unable to speak or defend themselves.
Andrist and Rizzo turned the company over and tried to get on with their lives. Andrist was vindictively and wrongly accused of many things after that including stealing members email addresses and calling the MTG phone lines on show nights to tie up the lines. While only a couple of members truly stood up for the pair, many in the group still remained their friends and would report back to them that the problems they were accused of still existed after they were gone. One member is quoted to have said, "No one really realized just how much work Eric did, until he was gone."
The group is still in operation to this day, although it's focus and composition is not what its founders had originally worked so hard to achieve. The membership has grown much larger than the group ever wanted. Originally only the cream of the crop of performers were sought as members while today it seems just about anyone can join. Certain members that the group as a whole voted out, were brought back in and the blame placed on Andrist. They no longer perform at the Pasadena Playhouse, instead doing one-night stands in Thousand Oaks, Glendale and Long Beach. The staged reading series they continue with today seems to be their only focus, when in fact, it was created solely as a way to raise money to produce full productions, and as a way to give members something to do in the interim.
By the time Andrist and Rizzo were kicked out, the Musical Theatre Guild had gone from no money to over $10,000 in their coffers, in four short years.
Andrist now cares full-time for his mentally retarded sister, Cali, and has written several children's stories as well as a novel for young adults with co-ex-MTG member Adrea Gibbs, that he hopes to have published in the near future. Rizzo continues to work non-stop in musical theater. He recently conducted the National Tour of "42nd Street" for two years.
