A purple nurple for the Purple Rose

October 25, 2021 2:52 PM

Former cast and crew of Michigan's Purple Rose Theater are coming forward to share their experiences under long-time artistic director Guy Sanville. Among their personal stories are claims of abuse, misogyny, racism, homophobia, and more. Is time up for Guy Sanville at Jeff Daniels's home theater?
posted by custardfairy (14 comments total)

Where is Jeff Daniels in all of this?

This kind of smells like character assassination by association. Yes, Guy’s actions and handling might be deplorable, but dragging Mr. Daniels into this seems a bit underhanded.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 4:05 PM on October 25, 2021 [2 favorites]

I appreciate the bravery in sharing such harrowing accounts, it looks like a lot of people included their names. But I also wish there was some reporting/investigation to go along with this link.
posted by colossal at 4:05 PM on October 25, 2021

Sanville has a rep for being like driil Sgt. Hartman meets Walter Brennan. Someone I knew was upcoming in acting and competed in a high school competition, I went along and helped out with his part. He didn't win but we huddled and plotted. But director for the Shakespeare festival, talked to him and he got an audition, no easy task at 18. Sanville was there and you can feel that actor glowstick effect but we were from Flint and that shit don't impress. But seeing that talk, Sanville came up to congratulate and ask him if he would be interested in the Purple Rose. I kicked the kids shin to blurt a deferment. Later, he asked why and I said you don't want to work with him. Never heard about this ugly shit but it wouldn't surprise me.
posted by clavdivs at 4:40 PM on October 25, 2021 [6 favorites]

Wow, the one where he wouldn't cast a fat actor for a fat character, instead using a thin actor in a fatsuit, and later told everyone that oh, the fat actor was so talented but what if his health, etc etc.
posted by Frowner at 4:43 PM on October 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

I wish their website formatting didn't make it so hard to read long screeds.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:49 PM on October 25, 2021

I have seen Aral Gribble (the fat actor, who identifies himself in his story) perform a few times and he is fucking fabulous.

I rarely recommend instagram for anything, but in this case I do think it's an easier-to-read format than the wix website.

I know organizers in Michigan theatre who have been working hard to hold numerous Artistic Directors accountable during this weird COVID pause. Sanville is a bully, but (and this is not news) white supremacy and misogyny and abuse of power are also at work in plenty of theatres where the Artistic Director is a Nice White Guy who means well but isn't quite doing well yet. Progress is finally being made, I think.
posted by HeroZero at 6:48 PM on October 25, 2021 [2 favorites]

The Purple Rose of Cairo
(W.Allen movie starring Jeff Daniels. Daniels founded the theater (which I had never heard of before.)
posted by From Bklyn at 4:42 AM on October 26, 2021

Oh, wow. I was an apprentice at the Purple Rose more than 25 years ago (1995-1996), during Guy Sanville's first year as Artistic Director, and worked on one show with them after that, as well, before I moved away. It was a long time ago, but was also during a pretty formative period in my life.

I'm... feeling pretty shaken right now.
posted by kyrademon at 8:24 AM on October 26, 2021

Where is Jeff Daniels in all of this?

This kind of smells like character assassination by association.

A bit more clarification: Daniels founded the theater in his home town about thirty years ago. He occasionally has a play produced there and, according to Wikipedia, does an annual holiday fundraiser, but there's nothing that I see that says that he's been aware of the situation there. Hopefully, that will change.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:49 AM on October 26, 2021

One of the personal accounts mentions Sanville berating the person telling it in front of Daniels, so he couldn’t have been 100% ignorant as to how Sanville was.
posted by 41swans at 11:09 AM on October 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

When I was there (a quarter century ago, so take with as many grains of salt as you like), Jeff Daniels' involvement with the theater was dependent on his often extremely busy movie schedule, but he was there and involved whenever he could be. Chelsea Michigan is where his home is -- where he lives when he isn't somewhere else shooting a film -- and the Purple Rose was important to him an artistic project.

This does NOT necessarily mean that (A) the situation hasn't changed since I was there, or (B) he necessarily knew what was going on either way, but at least back then the theater absolutely wasn't just something he only did an occasional fundraiser for and used to get his own plays produced.
posted by kyrademon at 11:34 AM on October 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

According to the website, Daniels has produced new plays at Purple Rose in 19 of the last 25 seasons. He is also a board member, which (very much in theory) means that he should be engaging in oversight.
posted by HeroZero at 6:20 PM on October 26, 2021 [3 favorites]

OnStage Blog is in the process of publishing a seven-part on the purple role story. Here's an indicative excerpt:

After he left, the apprentice reported Guy saying, “He was good. But we’ll never have a gay man on the Purple Rose stage. I gave him the highest number rating I can give him, but I also put “EF” next to it. He’s too effeminate.”

posted by HeroZero at 11:44 AM on November 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

If anybody is still following this, Purple Rose AD Guy Sanville is stepping down.
posted by HeroZero at 1:32 PM on November 12, 2021