The Bull's Production of Fool For Love
Like most good ideas, new theater company The Bull grew out of dissatisfaction. Faced with the prospect of working on another unexciting project, Katherine Krause turned to actor Kevin Shaffer and asked him what play he would do if he could choose. “And he said Fool for Love,” Krause remembers. “And I said, ‘that’s a really great idea! So... let’s do it!’”
But Krause, Shaffer and their compatriots (including actress Katie Bender, whose new play, A Night at the Magician, will be The Bull’s next production) aren’t just another bunch of theater professionals bored with not having any control. Under Krause’s direction, The Bull has a plan.
“I had taken some classes and knew how to set up a nonprofit,” Krause explains. “Most theater companies are in total financial disarray, but I want ours to grow from a non-profit to a profit. And I, personally, wanted to start my own theater company on the Lower East Side, and have a bar attached. I want people to say, ‘Hey, let’s do something Friday night,’ and come see one of our shows. Like The Box, but not as Studio 54!”
So far, The Bull’s young life has involved only two big fundraising parties—”No mechanical bull! Insurance doesn’t cover it,” Krause laughs—and their first full-length production, a revival of Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love that focused on the script’s comedy. But despite putting up a revival as their first work, the company doesn’t intend to carve out a niche as the place to go for reinvented classics.
“We knew Fool for Love would get people who maybe don’t normally go to see theater,” Krause says. “We’re not interested at all in Broadway [audiences]. We don’t really dig the term ‘off-off-off-off-Broadway.’ How many ‘off’s’ do you need? Broadway used to be where life-changing theater happened. And maybe in 30 years it will be that again, but right now it’s geared toward tourists.”
Even the company’s name seems the antithesis of Broadway. “The Bull means fun and innovative to me,” Krause says. “It kind of says a lot about how I work and the people around me work. Theater companies are dicey, man. They’re cliquey and there’s politics and a lot of times, they’re just a stepping stone for people. But there’s something to be said for working with the same people over a period of time, and seeing what a long way they’ve come. You know? ‘Wow, you’re really stretching your range. Your voice is cracking! That’s great!’”
And though the economy isn’t ideal for starting up a new non-profit, even the most pessimistic observer must concede that the universe is giving Krause all the right signs. “Our production stage manager, David Rosar Stearns, gave me a T-shirt with a bull on it,” she says, laughing, “and I ran into a guy wearing the exact same shirt. So we got to talking, and it turns out that he’s an entertainment lawyer who represents Sam Shepard!”
Then, in true producer fashion, she adds, “I gave him a postcard for the show.”
For more information on The Bull, visit www.thebullnyc.wordpress.com.
