The Official Bulletin: 2016 Q4 / NO. 654

IN MEMORIAM
LOCAL 33 REMEMBERS GORDON DAVIDSON
Gordon Davidson passed away on the evening
of October 2, 2016. He was called a “Lion”
by some, “The Moses of Los Angeles Theatre”
by another but to members of Stagehands
Local 33, Wardrobe Local 768, Box Office Local
857 and the ATPAM local he was a loyal friend
and Brother.
Gordon was born May 7, 1933 in Brooklyn, N.Y. The son of a
college drama professor, he would upon graduating from Cornell
University with a degree in Electrical Engineering soon realize that
the Arts and not Science was his true calling. He earned a Master’s
degree in theatre from what is now Case Western Reserve in
Cleveland 1957. After a stint at the Phoenix Theatre Company in
N.Y. and The American Shakespeare festival in Stratford, Conn.
he was invited, in 1964 by his former boss John Housman to assist
on a production of “King Lear” at the Theater Group based
at UCLA. This led to his staging of “Candide in 1966 for which
he won plaudits and was drafted by the composer Leonard Bernstein
to direct “Mass” which opened the newly completed John
F. Kennedy Center for the performing arts in 1971. His staging of
“Candide” brought the attention of Dorothy Chandler who was
the driving force behind the L.A. Music Center and he was hired
in 1966 to take the helm of the Mark Taper Forum. From 1967 till
2005 Gordon was the Artistic Director of Center Theatre Group
a company he founded based at the Taper. In addition to his role
at the Taper, Davidson was also the Producing Director of the
Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theater for 15 years.
Gordon guided hundreds of productions at the Taper stage
as well as the Ahmanson and Doolittle Theatres. In 1977 Gordon
won the Tony for his direction of Michael Cristofer’s “The
Shadow Box”, which also won the Tony for Best Play and the
Taper won for Theatrical Excellence in the same year. In 1980,
Gordon received a Tony nomination for his direction of “Children
of a Lessor God”, which won Tony’s for Best Play, Best
Actor and Best Actress.
Under Gordon, the Taper was distinguished by having two
of its plays “ The Kentucky Cycle and “Angels in America” (Part
One – “Millennium Approaches”) receive in consecutive years
the Pulitzer Prize in Drama , the first time for plays produced
outside of New York. “Angels in America”, when subsequently
produced on Broadway, also received in consecutive years two
Tony Awards for Best Play for Part One and Part Two- “Perestroika”,
respectively. In fact, in 1994 when “Perestroika” won
the Tony , three of the four plays nominated for Best Play were
Taper plays (with “The Kentucky Cycle” and “Twilight : Los Angeles,
1992 joining “Perestroika”.
To I.A. members Gordon will be remembered for his loyalty,
class, grace, charm, taste and love of the theatre. For those of us
who had the great fortune of working with him we will be forever
in his debt. He was so revered that in 1995 he was awarded
the highest compliment Local 33 can bestow on someone when
he was given a Gold Card.
LOCAL 357 REMEMBERS WALTER SUGDEN
WWW.IATSE.NET
It has come as a profound shock to learn of the passing of
Brother Walter Howard Arnold Sugden, a long-time member of
the Stratford Festival stage crew and member of IATSE Local
357, who died August 18, 2016 at the age of 64.
Walter, Initiated into Local 357 on March 10, 1974, first
joined the Festival Theatre in 1973, was in his 44th Festival season,
working on Macbeth and A Chorus Line. He was a fierce
defender of the Festival Theatre heritage, of which he was so
proud to be a part. In particular, the iconic Tanya stage was of immense
importance to him: he was both eloquent
and passionate in his conviction that
the Festival should always seek to preserve
not only the essence of its brilliant design but
also as much as possible of its original fabric.
With his tragic early passing, we lose not
only a valued colleague and a dear friend but also a dedicated
upholder of our artistic legacy. He will be missed greatly by his
family and friends and Brothers and Sisters of Local 357.
54 OFFICIAL BULLETIN