'Problems at The Purple Rose' - Part 5: LGBTQ+ artists feel unwelcome at The Purple Rose Theatre Company
This is the fifth in a series of seven articles about the Purple Rose and the stories that have come out about it. Click here for Part 1. Click here for Part 2. Click here for Part 3. Click here for Part 4.
The theater has traditionally been one of the few places where LGBTQ+ artists have felt welcomed, almost to the point of it being a stereotype. But that does not mean all theaters have welcomed them.
In the complaints lodged against the Purple Rose Theatre Company in Chelsea, MI, a regional Equity house founded by actor Jeff Daniels and run by Guy Sanville, many artists have said it was made very clear that LGBTQ+ actors are not welcome there.
The evidence offered includes Sanville marking audition sheets of openly gay actors with “EF” meaning effeminate and telling other artists that gay artists will never be cast at the Purple Rose, an actor’s welcome at the theatre changing after Sanville asked the actor if he was gay, hostility toward non-binary artists and a refusal to use correct pronouns.
It has also been pointed out that while the Purple Rose has produced four shows in which LGBTQ+ characters were featured or even centered, none of these roles were performed by openly LGBTQ+ artists. Why not? The reasoning might be explained by an alleged incident that a Purple Rose apprentice had in 2003-2004.
They said the apprentices were sitting in on general auditions and after each audition, Sanville would explain what rating he gave and why. Someone came in and gave what the apprentice described as an amazing audition.
After he left, the apprentice reported Guy saying, “He was good. But we’ll never have a gay man on the Purple Rose stage. I gave him the highest number rating I can give him, but I also put “EF” next to it. He’s too effeminate.”
This is not to say there haven’t been gay men on the Purple Rose stage since that time. Several actors who identify as queer and have performed on the Purple Rose stage were interviewed for this series. At least one, Jeremy Kucharek, is certain Sanville was unaware that he was gay and said the artistic director’s attitude toward him changed after finding out.
Kucharek was brought on board as a resident artist at the end of 2018. After first auditioning, he was cast on the spot as an understudy in two upcoming shows.
Jeremy Kucharek
“Upon my one-minute audition, Guy told me I was the best actor he’d ever seen come from Wayne State, which I was doubtful about because I knew there were really talented ones I went to school with,” Kucharek said.
His initial experiences at the Rose, including three classes, were good ones. It started to sour when he was cast in “Never, Not Once.” As already described in Part 4 of this series, Kucharek was cast in a role originally written for a non-white actor even though he is white.
During the rehearsal for the show, Sanville called a five-minute break and asked Kucharek to come to his office—meaning the chair in front of the stage. According to Kucharek, Sanville asked him about his sexuality.
“He said, ‘It doesn’t matter to me, I don’t care, but are you gay?’” Kucharek said. “The person that got me into the Purple Rose and all my peers in class, in the show, stage management—everyone knew I was gay. I chuckled and said, ‘How did you not know that? Yeah.’ I didn’t think anything of the moment. He said, ‘OK, all right, no problem,’ and dismissed me and we went about rehearsals.”
However, Kucharek soon felt that there was a problem. After that moment, he says he never got any direction for Sanville at all. He was able to tell that Sanville was unhappy with what he was doing and that his performance was landing flat, but he wasn’t given any suggestions on how to improve or what to do differently.
He voiced how he was struggling to a stage manager and said he wanted to have a conversation with Sanville about what he could do better.
“The stage manager said you absolutely cannot do that,” Kucharek said. “If you go to Guy, it needs to be with actionable solutions. It would be unsafe for you to do that. I spoke with other peers and actors and they echoed his statements—that in no way, shape or form could I go to my director and ask for help or have a conversation or dialog.”
He struggled with why, when he was so prepared for the show, he got absolutely nothing. He said he eventually realized that everything dated to that moment where he was asked about his sexuality.
“He didn’t believe I could love the girl,” Kucharek said. “I’ve had various conversations with lots of people and I can’t count two other gay people who have been cast during the past five years. I went from thinking it was something I had done personally—that I wasn’t good enough, to come to a greater realization as a homosexual that I was unsafe to work in the theater space.”
Non-binary artist threatened with a lawsuit
A former apprentice, who has asked that their name not be used, found that their gender identity continued to be a problem even after their apprenticeship ended and they were no longer employed by the Purple Rose.
“After leaving the Purple Rose, I started to get more and more vocal about my gender identity—I’m non-binary,” said Robin(not their real name) “I had been vocal about it at the Purple Rose, but not to the extent I was afterward. I was vocal on Facebook.”
In one Facebook post, they talked about how tired they were of people telling them it was hard to use “they/them,” that they were tired of hearing about it. They said Sanville would comment on these posts.
“Guy would comment that I should behave, that I need to be nice to other people or he doesn’t have to be nice to me,” Robin said. “I deleted those comments.”
Guy Sanville
They also blocked Sanville so he could no longer see their Facebook. They then made a post saying that they felt unsafe at their former place of work because the person in charge was making them feel uncomfortable and that they didn’t know what to do.
The next day, they got an email from Katie Hubbard, the managing director, saying that Katie, a stage manager, and Saville would like to have a meeting to make sure they are feeling safe and respected at the Purple Rose. The stage manager, Devin Faught, was someone who had been with them in previous meetings with Sanville (see Part 1 of this series).
“I thought, that’s great, that’s a nice olive branch,” Robin said. “I took time to make a whole presentation about why and how you can respect trans and non-binary people and what you can do to make them feel safe.”
They showed up to the meeting on Dec. 12, 2019, and would quickly learn the meeting was not what they had been told it would be.
“As soon as I sat down, Guy said thanks for coming, this meeting isn’t going to be about gender and if you think it is, you’re wrong,” Robin said. “I looked at Katie surprised and Katie seemed unphased, she straight up lied to me. It was another meeting where Guy tore into me. He threatened me with his lawyer, saying I was slandering the Purple Rose.”
Robin said they stood their ground and said they wanted to read their presentation, but Sanville said he wasn’t interested in hearing it. Finally, Faught intervened.
“Devin said very quietly, ‘I don’t want to step on any toes, but if you want to learn more about non-binary and trans, who are you going to learn from?’ Guy said that was a good point, come on, let’s hear it. I thought, wow, now you’ll listen to me because a man said we should listen.”
They said that during the meeting Sanville made a comment that he knows what discrimination feels like because he was pulled aside once at an airport.
Other people interviewed for this article said they’ve never known a time where someone’s pronouns were respected by the Purple Rose’s artistic director, that he used what pronouns he chose for people.
While the Purple Rose has hired a diversity officer and released a diversity, equity, and inclusion statement, neither the statement nor owner Jeff Daniels’ letter on diversity makes any mention of LGBTQ+ people or issues.
Click here for Part 6: Purple Rose Theatre Company accused of crossing sexual boundaries and grooming
If you have more you’d like to share about this and other Purple Rose stories, please contact Bridgette Redman at bredman.lsj@gmail.com