By Andrew Brink

James Dean called the acting life “the loneliest thing in the world.” It wasn’t that Dean felt that his art was lowly or obscure. In fact, he considered acting a calling, and with the language of someone gripped by religion, spelled out the actor’s contract with the world: “To grasp the full experience of life is the actors’ duty; to interpret it his problem; and to express it his dedication.”

But at the end of the day, Dean looked around and found himself surrounded by ghosts. “You are all alone with your concentration and imagination, and that’s all you have.”

In Des Moines, those called to this lonely art can be found on any number of stages — from the intimate setting of the Stoner Theater to the time-tested stage at The Des Moines Playhouse — bringing, as Dean did, characters to life.

Des Moines’ actors face their share of specters too. As is the case with artists working in any medium, actors living in the Capital City rarely can make a living off of their art. Most theaters in Des Moines, while offering a stage on which actors can hone their craft, rely on volunteer actors.

Several young theater companies are trying to change the landscape by creating professional theaters that someday will offer actors jobs that pay living wages. Wages that could help minimize the migration of Des Moines’ actors to the coasts and that would attract actors like Jami Bassman.

Bassman, an actor who grew up in West Des Moines and graduated from Valley High School in 1989, understands shifting landscapes.

In January 2006, Bassman and her husband, whom she met in Los Angeles, moved back to Iowa after 15 years of working as an actor in California. After returning to Des Moines, Bassman, whose jazzy voice and ebullient nature could inspire anyone to cast her, as their friend at least, quickly called everyone she could think of to find acting work. But looking for acting work wasn’t the first thing she did.

“The first thing I did was get a real estate license,” Bassman says.

She soon found an acting job with the Entertainment to Go murder mystery company, a group she had worked with while attending Valley.

But as with all but a few actors living and working in Des Moines, she found that she needed to subsidize her acting with a day job.

In L.A., Bassman could support herself each year by acting in a few union commercial jobs. In Des Moines, Bassman found that commercials pay about $200 each.

Setting the stage

As she was leaving L.A., some of Bassman’s fellow actors asked her why she was moving back to Iowa. The question is a logical one: Des Moines lacks a professional theater scene. Put another way, an actor in Des Moines has virtually no opportunity to support herself solely through her art.

But that’s not to say that Des Moines doesn’t have a living, breathing theater scene.

The Playhouse, founded in 1919, is considered by the American Association of Community Theatre to be one of the six oldest continuously-operating community theaters in the United States, as well as the second largest, based on the number of season-ticket holders (The Omaha Community Playhouse is the biggest).

The Civic Center of Greater Des Moines, which opened its doors in the summer of 1979 and hosts touring Broadway productions and concerts, was recently named by Pollstar, the world’s largest database of international touring information, as one of the top 15 highest selling theater venues in the world. The Civic Center ranked 11th for ticket sales between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2006, outselling venues such as Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

StageWest, a local theater company producing contemporary theater, celebrated its 10-year anniversary with its 2006-07 season.

Since 2002, a healthy crop of new theaters have popped up in Des Moines, including Tallgrass Theatre Company, Repertory Theater of Iowa, Theater… for a change and the Fourth Street Theater.

Downtown boasts nearly 5,000 theater seats, based on numbers provided by the Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau.

And 2007 marks the third year of the Iowa Fringe Festival.

“Des Moines has an excellent reputation and tradition in presenting quality theater,” says Ron Lambert, artistic director of StageWest. Lambert has attended many regional, national and international theater festivals, and ranks the quality of Des Moines theater among the best. “Not only for talent, but for dedication, commitment and passion for quality of work.”

John Viars, who has been the executive director of The Playhouse since 1982, rates Des Moines’ actors at the Off-Broadway and Broadway level. “We have a large pool of actors who could be professional if they wanted it, but choose Des Moines because of the lifestyle, working in the volunteer or stipend-only theaters.”

Lambert has encountered StageWest patrons who ask where their actors come from, “Meaning they are so good, they must be professionals from other cities,” he says. “It’s a strange compliment… but it is frustrating because they don’t believe such talented people are [here]. We’re an amateur company. These very talented people do it for the love of theater.”

Des Moines’ actors also are sustained by a devotion to their craft and a love for their hometown.

In Southern California, Bassman was feeling worn down by the commute, an ongoing hunt for an affordable house and a growing longing to live closer to her family in Iowa.

“I spent a huge part of my life on the freeway,” says Bassman when reflecting on her life in California.

Bassman caught the acting bug at a young age and credits a supportive family and an abundance of creative outlets with feeding her interest in the performing arts, an interest that eventually matured into a true calling.

“Acting is a passion,” she says. “Logically, acting is a bad idea, and instincts tell you to stay away since so few people can actually make a go of it. But it’s rewarding and allows me to experience parts of life that I would have no knowledge of otherwise.” Like mythology (Bassman is currently performing in The Playhouse’s production of Mary Zimmerman’s “Metamorphoses”) and life in the emergency room (she appeared in Lifetime’s medical drama “Strong Medicine,” produced by Whoopi Goldberg).

Bassman became involved with The Playhouse as a child, an experience that, coupled with the many performing opportunities she found at Valley, propelled her out of Iowa and toward the bright lights and tempting sunsets of Los Angeles.

She attended The California Institute of The Arts and, after graduation, spent most of her time hustling for work. Bassman found jobs in television, appearing in “Girlfriends” (UPN) and “Could It Be a Miracle” (Fox), as well as in commercials. After more than a decade of pounding the pavement, the scales finally tipped.

“To be honest, I never thought I would leave. California is beautiful and people can make it work.” But Bassman was missing out on events that could no longer be missed, such as the birth of her niece.

Acting in Des Moines, Frosty in the Sahara

The presence of actors Joseph Leonardi and Thatcher Williams, along with Bassman, supports what Viars calls a growing pool of talent in Des Moines.

Leonardi and Williams were both born and bred in Des Moines, both left the city for a number of years before returning to build professional theater companies and both are infused with a strong passion for their art.

And both have founded the only theater companies in town that pay their actors a stipend — when they can.
“Asking me what it’s like to be an actor in Des Moines is like asking Frosty what it’s like to be a snowman in the Sahara,” Leonardi says. “At times, there can be little to sustain us.”

His answer may sound tired or pessimistic, but Leonardi is neither. His assessment recalls his performance as Clov in Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame” produced this past fall. His stage-thumping performance was a highlight of the entire theater season, yet the production drew a small audience.

Leonardi graduated from East High School and attended Drake University and Grand View College, where he dabbled in theater, before ending up in San Francisco, where he found success as an actor for 15 years.

He returned to Des Moines in 2003 with one mission: to create a professional theater company. And his love for Des Moines is evident when he speaks about his hometown.

“I saw that Des Moines was going through a period of economic growth, and also saw that they didn’t have a professional theater yet,” Leonardi says. “I knew this was how I could help my hometown. There are good actors here, but they often leave because there are no professional opportunities.”

Leonardi launched The Repertory Theater of Iowa (RTI) in 2004, filling its seasons with works by Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neil, George Bernard Shaw and Regina Taylor. In keeping with his vision, Leonardi set out to pay his actors a stipend. Ideally, actors would split any money left over after production costs were covered. In reality, only some productions earned enough revenue to give the actors a paycheck.

“It takes time to build a professional theater. But I would like to eventually pay my actors an amount that is even remotely attractive.”

Leonardi has spent three years building what he considers a strong body of work, but after funding projects on his own only to face wavering ticket sales, he plans to raise seed money through contributions and grants before staging any new productions.

For now, Leonardi is splitting his time between contemplating his future in Des Moines and working his day job at Bridges of Iowa, an addiction and recovery center, where he works four 10-hour days a week — a schedule he achieved to accommodate his theater work.

“There is an energy in Des Moines that is exciting, and a feeling that Des Moines wants to grow,” Leonardi says. Looking back, he adds, Des Moines has always been a town of potential and wonders if the energy that drew him back to here is just another false start.

“I can’t think of a better place for the Repertory Theater of Iowa to be than in the Capital City. But I also know it’s easier to work in a city that is more culturally active.”

Gas money

Adding to Des Moines’ cultural scene is also the primary motivation for Thatcher Williams. An alumnus of Harding Middle School and North High School, where he graduated in 1987, Williams traces his love of acting, and theater in general, to the time he spent in Des Moines’ public schools.

“I went to public school when they still had money,” Williams says. He recalls school plays that involved every class, and being tapped to emcee various concerts and cultural events. As a result, he remains dedicated to Des Moines’ theater scene.

“I want all theater in Des Moines to do well,” he says. “Des Moines is where Minneapolis was 30 years ago. We are finding our culture. We just need to start gaining more ground.”

After moving around the country and working for various political campaigns, Williams returned to Des Moines in 2002, where he reignited his interest in acting through an audition at The Playhouse.

“The impetus to audition for my first show at The Playhouse was to relive my experiences on stage from public school. [As] I was performing in the Kate Goldman Childrens Theater, I realized just how much the audience was getting out of it.”

Williams turned this excitement into something solid. In 2004 he founded Theater… for a change (TFAC), the new theater in residence at Grand View College’s Viking Theatre.

TFAC primarily produces comedy — it currently is staging a production of “Corleone: The Shakespearean Godfather” — but Williams ensures that each season contains at least one show that “makes audiences leave with an expanded worldview.” Williams hopes TFAC will engage people who may not normally attend theater. To that end, TFAC keeps ticket prices low — $10 — and invites high school and college classes to attend free dress rehearsals.

TFAC spends between $5,000 - $6,000 per production, a price tag that includes the cost of costumes, printing, rights and marketing. It also includes paying actors about $100 for each production. Theaters generally count on ticket sales to cover half of the cost of producing a live show, and require contributions and grants to cover the rest.

“We pay their gas money, or for a couple of meals on the way to rehearsal. But I hope to provide more opportunities so actors will stick it out and help grow the scene.”

Williams subsidizes his theater work by managing databases full-time for various political campaigns and consultants. During productions, he invests anywhere from 20 to 80 hours in the theater.

“It’s a full-time job, plus my database management plus my family.”

Williams would like to eventually pay his actors at least part-time wages, a goal that could be reached through an increase in season ticket holders, contributors and grants.

Both Leonardi and Williams see a need for additional support, in the form of money and mainstream media attention, that would help validate the importance of theater in Des Moines and increase the size of the local scene. At the very least, additional support could help limit the migration of local actors to the Coasts.

“Our actors work for applause,” says Leonardi, noting that if Des Moines wants to grow and become more attractive, it must invest more in culture. “Minneapolis is 10 degrees colder and has more mosquitoes, but more people live there because they have invested in their culture,” he says.

Williams agrees. “Des Moines’ theaters and actors are not looking for a handout. But we’d like to see a little more attention paid to theater.” Like to receive the same amount of attention Williams says the local media gives to the bar and music scenes. “It’s great that music is promoted. It should be. The more you promote it, the more you create a little Seattle for our musicians.”

But without an appealing, supportive scene, Williams says, actors leave. And they don’t always come back.

The ebb and flow and ebb

Viars notes that Des Moines’ talent pool changes because actors continue to come and go, but adds he’s excited by the latter end of this continual ebb and flow. “The number of extremely talented performers seems to be growing.”

StageWest’s Ron Lambert says that some of the city’s younger actors leave to attend school or pursue their dream in New York or Los Angeles. He lists Chicago, Minneapolis and Seattle, as attracting actors with their strong or high-profile university theater departments.

Urbandale native Alexis Van Vleet is one of the city’s rising stars. A freshman at Drake, Van Vleet has already starred in a Playhouse production, “Swing,” where she melted hearts and delighted ears with her boogie woogie voice, been crowned the 2003 Iowa Idol and has been within spitting distance of Simon Cowell’s sneer (she was in the top 40 contestants in the 2004 season of “American Idol”).

Van Vleet could be the future of theater in Des Moines, but her plan is to move to New York City after graduating from Drake.

“That is my dream,” Van Vleet says. “Des Moines is not big enough to get your name on the billboard, and that’s what I’m looking for.”

While Van Vleet’s dreams steer her eastward, she praises Des Moines for giving her a solid foundation in song and stage. “The crowds at The Playhouse were so supportive. Des Moines is a great place to get a foot in the door,” she says.

Jami Bassman knows how Van Vleet feels. “Maybe leaving is part of the whole process,” she muses. “I’m glad I’m back, but again, the primary reaction to the path I’ve taken is, ‘why would you return to Iowa?’”

Bassman insists she is indeed happy to be back in Iowa. She has found an agent along with consistent, rewarding work.

Lambert puts the matter of providing more paid acting jobs into a national perspective.

“Nationwide, a very small percentage of actors make a full-time income in the theater,” Lambert notes. “They need an outside job, or additional income through commercials.”

Leonardi and Williams agree that growing the local theater scene by offering its actors more paid work could only help Des Moines become a more attractive, less lonely city for artists of all ranges.

For now, it appears that leaving Des Moines will remain a part of the local actor’s narrative. How long it takes to change that narrative is anyone’s guess. What is certain is that a large group of committed actors and theater professionals are working hard to turn the tired, old question of “Why would you move to Des Moines?” into “Why not?” CV

SIDEBAR

A brief history of Des Moines theater

1919 – The Des Moines Playhouse is founded
www.dmplayhouse.com
1952 – The Drama Workshop is founded
www.dramaworkshop.org
1979 – Civic Center of Greater Des Moines opens
www.civiccenter.org
1996 – StageWest is founded
www.stagewestiowa.com
2002 – Tallgrass Theatre Company is founded
www.tallgrasstheatre.org
2002 – Temple for Performing Arts opens
www.templeforperformingarts.com
2004 – Repertory Theater of Iowa is founded
www.dmtheater.com
2004 – Theater… for a change is founded
www.thatcherwilliams.com/theater
2006 – Fourth Street Theatre opens
http://www.vaudevillemews.com/theatre

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