by Joey Guerra
Entertainment Editor
Broadway producer and director Stuart Ostrow has big plans for the University of Houston School of Theatre, and it doesn't only involve acting majors.
For the Fall 1997 Musical Theatre courses being offered on campus, Ostrow, who was appointed Cynthia Woods Mitchell Distinguished Professor of Theatre in 1995, seems to have a wide-open-door policy.
"I want to get as many students involved as I possibly can," said Ostrow, stressing that he is looking for students from all majors, including English and journalism, to fill spots in classes on writing, directing, choreography, designing, producing, stage managing, dancing and singing. "I'm really concerned about trying to get to the vast student body."
Ostrow criticized what he calls a sort of "separation of church and state" in many of the colleges on the UH campus, from music to art and even theater. Diversity is his main objective, along with talent, of course.
"This is like Paris, this university," quipped Ostrow, referring to the size of UH and the impossibility of knowing everyone. He said he hopes for a closer-knit group one day and an intermingling of majors on mutual projects.
For the musical theater courses, Ostrow is putting an emphasis on finding writers, but added every position on the team is important.
"The creative team is harder to find," Ostrow said. "Lyric writers are as rare as a needle in a haystack."
For Ostrow, teaching at UH is only the latest in a string of immense achievements and successes. On Broadway and the West End, he produced The Apple Tree, M. Butterfly, Pippin and 1776, which garnered the Tony Award for Best Musical, as well as the New York and London Drama Critics' Awards. Ostrow also directed Here's Love, co-directed Chicago and was the author of Stages.
Ostrow's endless list of credits also includes establishing the Stuart Ostrow Foundation's Musical Theatre Lab, a non-profit workshop for experimental theater.
For all that association with The Great White Way, though, Ostrow's partnership with UH is hardly a step down, despite the fact that he calls his being the first ever musical theater chair in the country a "disgrace" because of the long and impressive history of musicals.
"Now I'm thrilled," Ostrow said. "I've got two musicals that are now in a professional life. There is a life after this class. That's the whole point of it."
In 1995, he produced and directed, for the Musical Theatre courses, a work in progress of Doll, a musical drama about love and obsession that will premiere in London with a full, professional production in September 1998. Last year's musical, Coyote Goes Salmon Fishing, a somewhat cheesy take on the beginnings of the world, will possibly be transformed into a Disney-esque extravaganza for Madison Square Garden. Ostrow will co-produce both shows.
"These (musicals) are things that have been in my trunk for 30 years that I've wanted to do, but I've never had the opportunity to before," Ostrow said.
Next fall's production is 1040, by Jerry Bock (Fiddler on the Roof) and Jerry Sterner (Other People's Money), which Ostrow described as "an irreverent look at the income tax code."
The former Broadway producer's ultimate goal with these musical theater courses is a clear but difficult undertaking.
"It's to try to rebuild the treasury of American musical theater, which is bankrupt with maybe the exception of Stephen Sondheim," said Ostrow, who added that the only other hope for Broadway, Jonathan Larson, passed away before he would see his creation, the smash hit Rent, come to fruition.
"I think people have been heartened by the success of Rent," said Ostrow, who also praises another Broadway revelation, Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk.
As for his current crop of UH hopefuls, Ostrow keeps an open mind. "I think they're all on the middle level. They don't know whether they're a caterpillar or a butterfly at this point. It's a hard metamorphosis."
Overall, Ostrow seems to be happy with the choices he has made theatrically, professionally.
"The trade that I've made with the university is wonderful," Ostrow said. "It's a terrific arrangement."