E-Mail This Article to a Friend A regal presence Remembering Julie Ince Thompson, plus actors protest

Julie Ince Thompson: 1951-2003

Julie Ince Thompson (1951-2003), one of the most widely admired members of the Boston dance community, died on September 25, a day short of her 52nd birthday. She was an imposing figure on stage in the area since the mid-1970s, not the least for her commanding height of six feet, and facial expression of a renaissance Madonna, as well as an inner focus that extended out to embrace her audience. She was best known for the series of solo portraits of strong-minded yet vulnerable women she created, based on the poetry of the late Ruth Whitman.

She will not be forgotten soon by those who saw her tour-de-force performances as the American pioneer Tamsen Donner, facing the hardships of the journey west in a wagon train, which premiered in 1982; or as the dancer Isadora Duncan, who achieved immortality on stage despite intense personal losses, which premiered in 1991 as a commission from the Harvard Summer Dance Center. Thompson embodied these mythic characters, using movement, words, and song to weave the stories of their lives. She was also fascinated by the bi-gendered Egyptian pharaoh, Hatshepsut, transforming the meager facts about her life into work for the stage, with guest artist Donald Byrd, as a work-in-progress in 1994. She choreographed works for other dancers, with five world premieres set to the music of long-time collaborator Patricia Van Ness, presented by FleetBoston Celebrity Series in a full evening concert in January 2001. Her last public appearance was in "Advent 2002" at the Boston Conservatory.

Thompson traveled widely as a child because of her father’s military career. She spent five years with her family in Japan, where she inhaled the country’s sense of decorum and restraint. She came east in 1972, after studying theater at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to begin performing in Boston during the mid-1970s in works by Dorothy Hershkowitz and Amy Ellsworth. Ellsworth, who is the board chairman of the Boston Dance Alliance, remembers Thompson as "a regal presence onstage, with a centered calm about her," yet marked by " a kind of separateness." She began early in her career to work alone rather than with other choreographers, according to Ellsworth.

A superb teacher who influenced many of the local dancers she taught at the dance department of Boston Conservatory of Music and Harvard Summer Dance Center, she was also a licensed teacher of Alexander Technique and a member of the faculty at The Alexander Technique Center of Cambridge, founded by her partner and husband of 34 years, Tommy Thompson. She served as a role model for the young women with whom she worked, proving by her own life and serene manner that a dancer could be a wife and mother as well as a consummate professional artist. In Cambridge, the Dance Complex where Thompson often performed is renaming its theater in her honor.

During the last few years, while she battled colon cancer, Thompson began writing poetry to explore her feelings about the experience. "The quality of living she demonstrated this past year was an inspiration to us," said Ellsworth, a close friend. Thompson is survived by her husband, Tommy; their children, Danielle and Gabriel; a stepdaughter, dancer Adrianna Thompson Ledingham; her parents, Jean and Eugene Ince; and three sisters and a brother.

— Iris Fanger

In-Equity

When Actors’ Equity Association organizes a protest, it’s no surprise they’d use the medium they’re most familiar with: the stage. Last Wednesday (September 24), folks sauntering through the Theater District were treated to a free world premiere of The Jobless Chronicles. The show was created by and featured New York-based members of Equity, the national union representing more than 45,000 professional actors and stage managers, to alert the public that Big League Theatricals’ staging of the touring production of Miss Saigon, which was playing a one-week engagement at the Wang Theatre, does not pay its non-union performers what Equity deems fair wages and benefits. Theatergoers, meanwhile, are still paying up to $75 per ticket to the show, a mere $3 less than the top price fetched for Thoroughly Modern Millie, a full Equity production opening at the Wang next week.

Of all the parties involved in presenting the production, only Josiah A. Spaulding Jr., president and CEO of the Wang, would comment. In a written statement he said, "It’s unfortunate that Actors’ Equity chose to use our doorstep as their stage, as we are not part of this. It is misleading to the public, who are led to believe that it is our problem." Several calls to Alan Wasser Associates, Big League’s booking agency, were not returned.

This is not the first time Big League has irritated Equity. When The Music Man marched across the country earlier this year, making a stop at Boston’s Colonial Theatre, one thing the lavish production could toot its horn about was being the first national non-Equity touring show to play in major theater cities like Chicago, Seattle, and Boston. Previously, such tours had made stops in smaller towns in Texas and the Midwest. But with production and touring costs constantly on the rise, non-Equity productions have become a more common way to keep costs down for flashy Broadway shows that hit the road.

It seems that the unions representing some of the actors and musicians have decided to make Boston a city where they draw a line in the sand. Non Equity productions have played played here for years without incident.

"If a union — or anyone else — wants to make their case, that’s fine. Don’t make the Wang or the performers, or the show the issue. If you have an arguement with the producers, make it," said Spaulding.

The Boston Musicians’ Association, the local chapter of American Federation of Musicians, objects to the fact that the full pit-orchester has been replaced by a computer-sequemced score supplemented by non-union musicians.

The Wang, Spaulding points out, has in the past added musicians to round out computerized soundtracks. The local union declined to allow its members to participate this time.

Equity is like any labor union. Members are entitled to benefits such as minimum salaries, per diem while touring, health insurance, pension plans, and contract negotiation. The Jobless Chronicles speaks to predicaments of the job market that are easily applicable to any field.

"We wanted to do something on a broader topic. We’re talking about an issue that’s affecting every American: joblessness," said Flora Stamatiades, Equity’s director of organizing and special projects. "We’ve gotten the local labor unions involved. In each city, [Equity] is reaching out via local labor councils and the AFL-CIO to unions in the area for their support. It’s the first time Equity is taking on something this grand-scale. . . . There’s a long tradition of theater as protest. Going back to the Greeks, a lot of theater was created to make societal points. It wasn’t always all for entertainment."

The Jobless Chronicles takes the form of five spoof musical numbers, one original and the rest sung to the tune of familiar standards like "Old Man River" ("The jobs keep going, they just keep flowing away"). Carter James concocted the lyrics for a range of sacked characters, including a steelworker and an elderly woman whose textile plant has recently shut down. Aside from an actress character on the lam from Miss Saigon, the show’s tales of jobless woe are based on true testimonials. Equity plans to have Chronicles follow Miss Saigon’s tour to particular cities that "fit in with [Equity’s] overall plan," said David Lotz, national communications director for the union.

Theatergoers, meanwhile, streamed into the show on Wednesday with tickets in one hand and Equity-distributed leaflets in the other. For many, the leaflet on Equity’s campaign, which is dubbed "Fair Wages All Stages," was the first and only exposure patrons had had to the situation — and their only way of learning they held a top-dollar ticket for a non-Equity production. Miss Saigon is advertised as a touring Broadway show without mention of the company’s Equity status — or lack thereof.

"I’m disappointed; it doesn’t seem fair to actors," said Karen Newman of Newton, who was seeing Miss Saigon with her teenage daughter. "I’m a big supporter of the arts. I understand you have to pay a lot for tickets, but if you’re paying such high prices, you trust the money is going to go to the right people."

While there was some interest in the issue, there didn’t seem to be enough concern to spawn any impassioned boycotts. "It leaves a bad taste in your mouth not knowing [about the non-union actors ahead of time], but it’s such a great show. We wanted to see it anyway," said Robin Thomas of Westwood.

— Liza Weisstuch

Correction: Branford, not Wynton

Not for the first time, we’ll admit, we’ve got our Marsalises in a knot. Last week, in "Future Perfect," we misidentified the member of the Marsalis family who will be appearing at Berklee College of Music’s annual Encore Gala, which benefits the school’s outreach program to urban teens. The event, to be held October 18 at the Sheraton Boston Hotel at the Prudential Center, will feature Branford Marsalis — a Berklee alum, and the oldest of Ellis Marsalis’s brood — and not, as we erroneously wrote, his famouser lil’ bro Wynton.The Encore also features performances by 100 Berklee faculty and student musicians, in a setting modeled after famous jazz clubs. Tickets start at $250; call (617) 747-8960.