TRANSCRIPT:
The Public’s Radio Morning Edition host Luis Hernandez spoke with Tony Estrella, artistic director of The Gamm Theatre in Warwick, about Bill Gale’s work and impact.
This transcript was edited for length and clarity.
Luis Hernandez:
Tony, great to have you back.
Tony Estrella:
Thanks for having me.
Hernandez:
I never got to meet him. Obviously, I’ve been hearing a lot about him. Is there one thing about him that stands out that you would say, “Oh, this is something about Bill you would have loved?”
Estrella:
Yeah, I think, you know, that he loved the theater. It seemed to me that he had a place within the community, even as he had to stand aside. This is the mark of a great critic in a sense, right? I don’t envy the job because you have to kind of straddle both worlds, but you have to also be a part of it, and so that there’s a culture of, “I’m here to kind of express my views as I see them, but at the same time, I’m deeply invested in that the theater is important to the culture. Dance is important to our culture.” Bill certainly embodied that. Getting a review in The Journal was a big deal, especially when you’re, kind of, a fledgling kind of actor coming up and you’re like, “Is the show even going to get reviewed? And if it gets reviewed and Bill’s going to do it, is he going to like it, and are people going to come and see it?” So you have a weird love, hate relationship always with this figure that you don’t know. Many years later, of course, I would meet him, especially in my job as artistic director at The Gamm and get to talk to him in the lobby a lot and at different events that we had.
This interview was conducted by The Public’s Radio. You can read the entire story here.
