© The Wichita Eagle
Aug. 4, 2002
Mister Nice Guy
Music Theatre of Wichita Director Wayne Bryan
Keeps His Players as Happy as He is-
and it's Not an Act
by Bud Norman
Every 10 days during the summer, Wayne Bryan and Music Theatre of Wichita put on a show. Usually, it's a big show.
That means filling the Century II concert hall stage with as many as 100 performers, singing classic songs and dancing to complicated choreography, with elaborate scenery in the back and as many as 20 musicians playing in the pit. Offstage, an army of stagehands and costumers, lighting and sound technicians perform a big show of their own.
A stranger to the theatrical world will find it a small miracle that they pull it off five times a year, all in about a 10-week period, and happily so. The pre-show atmosphere at Music Theatre of Wichita is conspicuously friendly and stress-free, with none of the ego clashes and backstage bickering that the popular imagination associates with the theater.
By all accounts, this is where Wayne Bryan comes in.
The producing director of Music Theatre of Wichita for the past 15 years, as well as a frequent stage director and occasional performer, Bryan is the man responsible for coordinating the chaos involved in every production, handling the bureaucratic problems that inevitably pop up in the office, selling tickets in the off-season and schmoozing with the potential corporate patrons, all while keeping everyone in a productively good mood.
"He puts people first, and he gets a product because he does," said Paul Black, a production manager for Music Theatre. He laughingly concedes that Bryan's people-first policy might be a means to that good product but insisted that "It's mainly because he's such a good guy."
He also manages, in the midst of it all, to imbue the big shows with art. Widely credited with leading Music Theatre of Wichita to its current level of popularity and praise, Bryan this year is being honored with a prestigious Kansas Governor's Arts Award.
College, then war
Wayne Bryan has a look that casting directors would use in good-guy roles. He's fit and trim without being intimidatingly athletic, always well-groomed but never gaudily attired, with a middle-American gentlemanliness that will remind the old-timers of certain character actors from the late show.
Born Wayne Brien Smith to a middle-class Downey, Calif., family in 1947, by kindergarten he was regaling classmates with mini-musical routines. On his way to a bachelor's degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara he played in the band, sang in the glee club, performed in a couple of operas and directed a musical. He also began to pick up professional jobs with the local theater companies at night.
Although he admits his professional ambitions caused some conflict with his father, who would have preferred a more sensible career for his son, Bryan describes a happy childhood.
"Dad was an attorney, and I worked in his office and saw how he was about contracts. He was a very high-minded man, with great integrity, and a lot of attention to detail," Bryan said. "Mom always loved music. She let me stay up late to watch the old Fred Astaire musicals."
By 1968 the Vietnam War was under way and Bryan's college deferment had run out. With his 1-A draft status in mind he decided to use his college degree in the Navy.
"My dad had fought in World War II and Korea, and there was no question about my joining the military," Bryan said. "In '68, if you had a college degree you could go into officer's candidate school, and I figured that being a naval officer was the best way to go."
The next four years would take Bryan to Vietnam and the Philippines, where he was in charge of a unit that had suffered unusually high casualty rates in the previous wars. He jokes that "I suspect I was assigned that duty because I was not someone they expected to have a lengthy military career," but he also credits the experience with teaching lessons that have proved valuable in his theatrical career.
"Having to take responsibility for 33 lives gave me a different mind-set," he said. "Now, no matter what happens, I can always tell myself that the show's going to open on Wednesday, and it's going to close on Sunday, and no one's life will be threatened."
The road to Wichita
The Navy years also included a lengthy stay at a relatively placid port in San Diego, where he was able to continue performing at night. Asked what his fellow sailors thought of his moonlighting, Bryan said, "I won the 1970 all-Navy talent contest - I did 'Snoopy's Summertime' from 'You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown' - and my commanding officer liked that a lot."
The "officer by day, performer by night" found enough work to earn a coveted Actor's Equity card. Out of the Navy in 1972, and now re-christened as Wayne Bryan because the union already had a Wayne Smith, he moved to Los Angeles and joined its multitude of aspiring actors. He found some work on such television series as "Joe Forrester" and "M*A*S*H" -"I spent most of that episode in a coma," he said - but more significantly, he also forced an audition on legendary comedy writer Abe Burrows and landed a role in the Broadway revival of his 1920s musical "Good News!"
The show starred veterans Alice Faye, John Payne and Stubby Kaye, giving Bryan a direct connection to the classic Broadway era of their youth. It also personally introduced him to the towering figure of that era, legendary composer Richard Rodgers, who saw Bryan's "Good News!" performance and personally selected him for a spot in the Broadway show "Rodgers and Hart."
With Broadway credentials on his resume, Bryan maintained a busy schedule of acting and directing in plays ranging from "America's Sweetheart" to "Ah, Wilderness," in film works ranging from the Public Broadcasting System's "American History" to an Erno Laszlo Skincare industrial show, and in venues from the San Bernardino Civic Light Opera to the Coconut Grove Theater.
In 1986, he even wound up playing in "Where's Charley" at the unlikely location of Century II in some place called Wichita, where he also directed a production of "Oklahoma!" for Music Theatre of Wichita.
"I thought Wichita was quaint. You couldn't get a drink with dinner, and I'd never encountered that before," Bryan said. "I liked the facility, and I really liked the people, but I thought that four weeks would be as much time as I'd ever spend here. At that point, I looked at life as a mosaic, and I thought I'd gathered all the Wichita tiles I would need."
A change of plans
At the cast party for "Oklahoma!," however, Bryan wound up in a long conversation with Belden Mills, a member of the board for Music Theatre of Wichita. Mills had been impressed with Bryan as a performer and director, and was even more impressed with the man.
"He's been a musical theater fanatic since he was a kid, so his knowledge was almost encyclopedic," Mills said. "And he just felt - which I found out later - that it was a good time in his life when he should be looking at something besides acting, something a little more stable."
When Music Theatre's producing director left for a job in 1986, Mills persuaded the board to hire Bryan for the job.
"I had been performing professionally for about 20 years at that point. I started on April Fools' Day, 1988," Bryan said. "I was amazed to find that the desk didn't come with instructions."
Lacking such instructions, Bryan simply proceeded to be the kind of producing director he would have liked to work for as an actor or director. That meant "I won't treat anyone badly. I want people to be brave, not intimidated. I want everyone to feel comfortable, to feel that they contribute. Theater is, after all, the most collaborative art form."
Friends and fans
Fifteen seasons later, it is difficult to find anyone at Century II who doesn't believe that Bryan has succeeded in those goals.
Terry Burrell, a well-traveled actress with top-notch theaters on her resume, says that "Music Theatre is one of the best I've worked in," and that "It starts at the top. Wayne gives you respect, and lets you do what you do." Adam Fry, a 22-year-old just starting a professional career after graduating from the University of Michigan, said simply that "Wayne's the best."
Paul Black came to Wichita on a day when the tornado sirens were blaring, and he admits that "I wondered what I was doing here." Although a freelance lighting designer by training and trade, Black has stayed 11 seasons as a sound designer and production manager, and he says that "I would only do that here."
Such loyalty has been essential to Music Theatre's success, Bryan says, "because happily, about 60 percent of the staff returns each year, and that means we don't have to reinvent ourselves, but we still get fresh ideas."
Some of the fresh ideas come courtesy of the young performers and artisans who visit for Music Theatre's intensive apprenticeships, a part of the company's original mission that Bryan has emphasized during his directorship. Other ideas come from loyal members of the audience, whose opinions Bryan carefully weighs while forming each season.
"I would like to do 'Sweeney Todd,' for instance, but no matter how I describe it, they know it's still about people eating people," Bryan said. "They don't want to see that in the summer, and I respect that."
For that matter, Bryan has come to respect the city he once considered a quaint town with archaic liquor laws. He didn't realize that he'd fully turned Wichitan until about five years ago, though, when other job offers started to pour in "and I realized that none of the other places looked appealing." Now, he's pleased to report that his parents have relocated to the city.
The city apparently returns the respect. Mills notes that Music Theatre's audience has grown substantially during Bryan's directorship, along with the corporate support and cultural prestige, and he concludes that his hiring suggestion "has worked out beautifully."
Bryan says that it has worked out beautifully for him, at least.
"I'm so happy to do what I do," Bryan said. "I'm glad to come into work every day, and I know that not everyone is so lucky."
Honoring Wayne Bryan
As producing director of Music Theatre of Wichita, Wayne Bryan was named outstanding individual performing artist for the 2002 Governor's Arts Awards.
The awards will be presented by Gov. Bill Graves in a ceremony Sept. 20 at the Reardon Convention Center in Kansas City, Kan.
Invitations may be requested by calling the Kansas Arts Commission in Topeka at (785) 296-3335.
Life Lessons Learned
Wayne Bryan lists the following when asked about the lessons he's learned in life.
"Sometimes it's your flaws - a bump in your nose, a crack in your teeth - that gets you a role."
"In cities like Wichita, even if they're not considered cultural hubs, you still have the potential to do great work."
"There's something in the human spirit that wants to sit in a darkened room and hear stories."
Back to the Producing Director page
