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Something I Said-Claude Purdy’s Passing Left American Theatre The Poorer For It
Something I Said – Claude Purdy
Dwight Hobbes
MN Spokesman-Recorder With the passing of Claude Purdy on July 27th, 2009 American theatre in general and Twin Cities theatre in particular lost a profoundly gifted director. Piercing insight into human nature and a flawless grasp of staging made him a playwright’s invaluable ally. It isn’t widely known, but Purdy also was a skilled actor and an expert dramaturg — on a personal note, my play “Shelter” would not have been the success it was without Purdy unstinting guidance and firm foot up my ass. He worked freelance in what has been termed “America’s National Theatre”, the League of Regional Theatres. There he established an enduring profile, staging productions at, among other venerated houses, ACT in San Francisco, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, LATC in Los Angeles, The Cleveland Playhouse, Dallas Theatre Center, Arizona Repertory and The Guthrie Theater. Purdy also spent 13 years abroad, including a six-year stint at The American Theatre of Paris, and four years at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, working with John Pepper Clark and Wole Soyinka. In St. Paul, he was a founding member and iconic figure at Penumbra Theatre Company. It was, in fact, Claude Purdy who discovered Penumbra member and two-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright August Wilson, though he was reluctant to claim credit. In an interview for a Minneapolis/St. Paul community newspaper, the most he would say was that he and Wilson traveled together from Pittsburgh to St. Paul and that he introduced August Wilson to Penumbra founding artistic director Lou Bellamy. A premiere interpreter of the August Wilson canon, Purdy directed Wilson’s first play, Black Bart and the Sacred Hills as well as Fences, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Claude Purdy succumbed to congestive heart failure at Alexandria Hospital in Virginia. He was 69.
About the Author
Dwight Hobbes has written for ESSENCE, Reader’s Digest, Washington Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press, City Pages, Mpls/St. Paul, MN Law & Politics, Pulse of the Twin Cities, Twin Cities Daily Planet, Women & Word, San Diego Union-Tribune and Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder (where he contributes the commentary column Something I Said). He’s spoken his mind over National Public Radio, Minnesota Public Radio, Blog Talk Radio’s UNOBSTRUCTED and KMOJ in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Was regularly featured as guest commentator on NewsNight Minnesota (KTCA-Minneapolis/St. Paul) and Spectator (Minneapolis Television Network). His monthly column “Hobbes In The House” in MN Spokesman Recorder speaks to domestic abuse and rape. His plays are Shelter – produced at Mixed Blood Theatre by Pangea World Theater, Dues – produced by Mixed Blood Theatre, University of Southern Illinois in Point of Revue, selected for Bedlam Theatre’s 10-Minute Play Festival and published by Playscripts, Inc. You Can’t Always Sometimes Never Tell – produced by Theater Center Philadelphia, Long Island University, reading at The Kennedy Center and published in the anthology CENTER STAGE, In the Midst – produced by Long Island University, starring Samuel E. Wright. Hobbes spoke on the panel “Farewell To August Wilson” at the Guthrie Theater, broadcast on Conversations With Al McFarlane (KFAI, KMOJ). Singer-songwriter Dwight Hobbes recorded the single “Atlanta Children” (BeatBad Records) and gigged 10 years in the Long Island/NYC area, including The Other End, Kenny’s Castaways and My Fathers Place. He fronted the Boston blues band Midlight. In Minneapolis, Hobbes opened for David Daniels at First Street Entry, James Curry at Terminal Bar, sat in with Yohannes Tona, Alicia Wiley at Sol Testimony’s Soul Jam, The New Congress at Babalu, Willie Murphy at the Viking Bar and Wain McFarlane & Jahz at Lucille’s Kitchen. Dwight Hobbes still drops in at the occasional open mic around town. www.myspace.com/dwighthobbesmusic
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