When partners of a longtime gay couple both have similar careers in the arts, their relationship can benefit since they both can understand the distinct stresses and demands of each other's work. Yet both have to be careful that they don't step on each others' toes.
Take, for instance, Frank Galati and Peter Amster, two longtime Chicago-area theater artists now based in Sarasota, Fla. One of the two could conceivably risk being hired for a job that the other covets.
"As professional theater directors," Galati said during a joint telephone interview with Amster, "One would imagine a very competitive kind of relationship."
"But it's very fortunate that we not only love each other, we admire each other as artists and cheer each other on," Amster said.
Currently Chicago-area audiences have a chance to compare and contrast both Galati and Amster's directing work this month since both are represented in high profile premiere productions.
Galati, a member of the Steppenwolf Ensemble since 1986, is the major creative force behind the epic world premiere of The March at Steppenwolf Theatre. He not only directs, but Galati also adapted E.L. Doctorow's historical fiction novel of the same name about Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's destructive drive through the South during the Civil War. (Galati previously collaborated with Doctorow from 1996-98 as the director to the critically acclaimed musical adaptation of his novel Ragtime.)
As for Amster, he's directing the Chicago-area premiere of the 2008 Broadway musical [title of show] at Northlight Theatre in Skokie. [title of show] (Note: This is its actual title) is about two gay friends who rush to write a musical about the process of writing a musical for a competition in three weeks time.
Often Galati and Amster are separated due to work, but they're happy that their respective schedules allowed each other to be back in the Windy City at about the same time. And though arts-rich Sarasota is now their main address, don't assume that their loyalties have fully transferred to the Sunshine State.
"I love Chicago with all my heart and I think of myself as a Chicagoan," Galati said. "Just because I don't have an address here, it doesn't mean I'm not a son of the Windy City."
Indeed, the majority of Galati and Amster's decades-long theater careers have been based around Chicago. The two first met in 1970 while they were at Northwestern University in Evanston.
"We've pretty much been together since the birth of both of our careers," Amster said.
Although both have become best known as theater directors and educators, Galati is also respected for his stage adaptations of novels and acting prowess, while Amster also worked as a choreographer earlier in his career. That's when the two had more chances to work together, notably on 1970s productions of the Gertrude Stein/Virgil Thompson operas The Mother of Us All and Four Saints in Three Acts for Chicago Opera Theater when Galati directed and Amster choreographed.
But nowadays, the two directors bounce around to major regional theaters across North America. Galati's next major directing gig is a revival of the musical 1776 at the Sarasota-based Asolo Repertory Theatre in the fall, while Amster next heads to the Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City to direct The Merry Wives of Windsor (which Galati also directed last season at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada).
Amster admitted that he hasn't been as celebrated or acclaimed in his theater career as Galati, who has been Tony-nominated for directing Ragtime on Broadway in 1998 and winning for adapting and directing The Grapes of Wrath in 1990. Yet Amster has also seen first hand how disappointing things can be when major Broadway productions don't work out, notably Galati's involvement in troubled shows like Seussical: The Musical and The Pirate Queen.
"His career has a much higher profile and a higher range than mine and I'm perfectly happy with that," Amster said, noting that he largely focuses on mid-weight American and British comedies he personally labels as "the sorbet course." "What I saw what Frank had to go through, the pressures on him doing a Broadway show was enormous."
"He will say that he does the sorbet course, but the fact is that he's fully capable of a main course meal, a banquet," Galati said. "I adore him, I love him, I have learned a tremendous amount about myself and my work from him, and I would like to think it's gone the other way as well."
Northlight Theatre's Chicago-area premiere of [title of show] begins previews Friday, May 4, before an official press opening on at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 11, at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie. Performances then continue through Sunday, June 10, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays (May 8 and 29 only), 1 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays (no matinee May 23 and no evening show May 30), 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays (7:30 p.m. on May 11), 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays (no matinee May 5), 2:30 and 7 p.m. Sundays (no evening shows May 13, 20 or June 10). Tickets are $25-$60. Call 847-673-6300 or visit www.northlight.org .
The March, adapted and directed by Frank Galati, continues through Sunday, June 10, at Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St. Tickets are $20-$78. Call 312-335-1650 or visit www.steppenwolf.org .
