Curt Dempster, R.I.P.
Another day, another death learned of via the internet, this time of Ensemble Studio Theatre founding artistic director Curt Dempster, who died yesterday at age 71. Here’s the story as published by Playbill.
Dempster’s life work was new work by emerging writers, and he and his theatre have certainly helped a number of them emerge. As Playbill notes, Richard Greenberg, John Patrick Shanley, Arthur Giron, Jose Rivera, Eduardo Machado, and Leslie Ayvazian all got there start there. It has also been an important home for David Mamet, the late John Belluso, Christopher Durang and others. Ensemble Studio Theatre has never had a lot of what we often call “resources” (a euphemism for money) — the building itself is a crumbling eyesore too close to the water and therefore overrun outside by rats — but it has a lot of heart.
I met him only twice, and then briefly. The first was in July 1990 when my friend Shawn Garrett and I were thespian Johnny Appleseeds, traversing the entirety of Manhattan in hundred-degree heat and hundred-percent humidity on a mission to drop my scripts at every theatre in town. At the Public, Joe Papp looked at me as though I was a cockroach (a reaction I understood better in the years to follow as I grew to recognize the incompetence of my approach). At EST, Curt Dempster looked up from the overflowing stacks on his desk in a sort of nod while I left the scripts with someone else. Years later when my play “Anapest” was getting a workshop production, I was reintroduced to him.
Neither of those brief encounters matters, but given the legacy he’s left I can’t help saying I met him however briefly, and that I’m grateful for what he created.
A memorial service is being planned; watch the EST website for details. The home page has a simple but tasteful tribute, which says that at EST he built “the premier developmental theatre of the United States of America.” It’s hard to argue with.
January 23rd, 2007 at 12:13 am
Lee,
I feel compelled to share a little about Curt, as he was a someone who championed artists ar various stages of their careers in a time, when (as you mentioned Joe Papp) others could give a hoot you even existed.
I was 19 when I walked into EST and Curt pushed my Chicago street smarts buttons when he kicked me out of his office (laughing) for even thinking I could be in his precious summer lab in Tannersville, NY.
I showed him my college professors glowing recommendation letters and he said “I have never heard of ANY of these people”.
Before leaving I paused at the door, thinking I had nothing to lose and said “that’s funny cuz I never heard of YOU either till about a week ago, I guess you couldn’t make it as an actor, so this is your TRIP” and left.
I cursed his name, his bald arrogance from 10th Avenue all the way to Broadway, got on the A train to 181st in Washington Heights only to find a message waiting on my answering machine from an intern… telling me Curt would like me to join his lab this summer.
That was the mixed message I got from Curt, I’ll mess with you to see how you react and if you stand up for yourself….I’ll do it again, cuz… that’s how I show you I care about you.
I had lost my father the year before I had this first encounter with Curt. I was just trying to find my way in NY. So in typical Curt style, he put me to work. Cleaning toilets, doing box office, trying to fix the elevator and getting to be a reader for the Marathon auditions, which to this day was a great learning lesson.
Over the next few years I started to find my way as an actor by studying at the Institute, with Gina Barnett & Debra Hedwall and doing the Summer Conferences with Frank Girardeau & Curt’s Labs in Tannersville, where one summer I turned 21 and had my first legal drink at the Tannersville Tool & Die.
I would see Curt and he would LOOK right though me like an X-Ray machine and ask “whadda ya doing?” We’d have some small talk…BS a bit and then he’d make some off handed remark about what I SHOULD be doing to be a better artist. Which pissed me off, as all I could think about was paying my rent on the $6k a year I was making at the time. But his comments made me stop, look and question “where I was at?” which in hindsight I really needed to hear from someone. The way he did it… was not the best, but it needed to be said…by someone.
I became a member of EST at 21 and learned how to act and produce my own projects through Octoberfests, did the Marathon and then moved on to Los Angeles to help create EST-The LA Project which is now in it’s 14th year.
I would call Curt from time to time and fill him in on our West Coast progress, my marriage, the birth of my 2 children and each visit in LA, we would spend a little time together being in awe of how my artistic life was born at EST. I thought about it recently and EVERY job I have gotten in the last 20 years, had SOME connection to EST either though my work at EST, relationships built from EST or inspired by EST’s mission. Without EST I have no idea how my life would have turned out. Curt IS EST, so that applies to him as well.
22 years later I have lost a mentor and an artistic father, flawed as he may have been, he was one of my biggest fans and taught me to “Protect & Respect my craft” before I even knew what the word meant. The last time I saw him in LA, he said “hey… Jimmy Do, whadda ya doing?”
I had way too many things to tell him… and his attention span was short, so I just said “who invited this guy?” He laughed…gave me a firm hug and I felt like I was home again at EST. I will never forget him and will be forever inspired by him. He will be missed… but not forgotten.
January 25th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Lee,
I never met Curt, but as a member of EST-LA I’ve certainly felt his influence. I enjoyed your comments, as well as those from James DuMont.
Curt will be missed, but he has left so much behind: theatre artists on both coasts nurtured in their artistic lives!
Isabel