Though he was a star thespian in high school, Brian Goodman says he's "not nearly good enough" to play in the lead roles of the Young Victorian Theatre Company's Gilbert & Sullivan shows.
It's something he says with both modesty and pride.
As the general manager of the company for the past 20 years, Goodman has presided over its transition from a group of high school and college students to a company that employs professionals in its leads, orchestra and directors' positions.
"It just developed. I never intended it to be this way," said Goodman, a Pikesville resident who serves as a partner in the Baltimore law firm Wright, Constable & Skeen.
Young Vic, which started under a different name in 1971, opened its 27th season last weekend when it began a six-show engagement of "The Pirates of Penzance." Based at Bryn Mawr School in Roland Park, Young Vic produces performances of a single Gilbert & Sullivan play each summer.
While Goodman praises Young Vic's talent, its actors credit him with setting a tone that has allowed the company to maintain the spirit of a community theater while pursuing professional quality. The leads are paid, but the majority of Young Vic's actors -- those in the chorus -- are amateurs.
"I think it's about as close to a perfect marriage of professional and community-based talent you could have," said Lois Zajic of Randallstown, who has performed in the chorus since 1987.
"There's an atmosphere that allows the amateurs in us to enjoy the spirit of it," said Steve Goodman (no relation), an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins who has performed $ 1/8 professionally with the company since 1987. "It's very different than showing up for a job."
Throughout his high school years at Gilman School, an all-boys academy across Northern Parkway from Bryn Mawr, Brian Goodman performed in two to three plays per year. He won the school's drama award in his senior year (1975).
After enrolling at Johns Hopkins, he sang in the chorus of the Gilman Summer Theater, a company consisting primarily of students and recent graduates from Gilman , Bryn Mawr and Roland Park Country schools.
After the Summer Theater's 1977 season, Goodman was named general manager of the company and promptly changed its name to the Young Victorian Theatre.
In the time since, the company has increased its budget from about $7,000 per year to $70,000, he said.
