Jan. 15, 2002
Backstage with Berra
A Behind-the-Scenes Fixture at the Kennedy Center
Since 1971, Mickey Berra Has Set the Stage for the Best Washington Has
to Offer
By Jane Lingo
Mickey Berra is a monarch of all he surveys. As director
of production for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,
he presides over the operations of the Opera House, Eisenhower Theater,
and Concert Hall.
Thoroughly versed in all aspects of stage technology
— electrical, carpentry, rigging, and props — Berra is a 30-year
Kennedy Center veteran.
“In 1970, before the center was opened,”
he says, “some of us were working on stage rigging and wiring.”
He began working for the center full time in 1971 and was there for
Bernstein’s Mass, which opened the Kennedy Center.
Berra has been in Washington 37 years. In the summer
of 1964, an uncle brought him and his brother, Tommy, to the nation’s
capital to show them that “the world is bigger than Petersburg,
VA.” Berra went to work at the National Theatre.
“My first show was ‘Hello Dolly’ with
Carol Channing and the next was Joel Greg in ‘Cabaret,’”
he recalls.
Starting in 1964, Berra and his brother freelanced.
In addition to the National Theatre, they worked at GW’s Lisner
Auditorium, the DC Armory, and the inaugural balls. “I worked on
all the balls from ’64 on,” Berra recalls. Brother Tommy now
runs Ford’s Theatre as the technical director. In 1996, Berra worked
on the opening and closing ceremonies for the Atlanta Olympics. He also
worked on movies filmed in DC, which included stars such as Goldie Hawn
and Burt Reynolds.
“I never get tired of coming to work” Berra
says. “The whole world has come to the Kennedy Center. The arts
industry has brought world-class artists to Washington. I was doing
the sets for the Bolshoi Ballet about 10 years ago when the KGB was
with the ensemble. I was in Russia last year. I love Russia and the
Russian people.”
The trip was in preparation for the Kirov Opera and
Ballet, which will come here in February, followed by the Bolshoi Ballet
in June.
“The arts are more alive now than ever before,”
observes Berra, “because people are putting more emphasis on good
things in life, not just this ugly hatred we are seeing. The arts are
bringing back the good side of humanity.”
Berra says he takes a couple of vacations a year. “A field trip
is like a vacation,” he says. “I take my family. We go to
the beaches.” The family consists of his wife, Marcy, a 21-year-old
son who attends the University of Delaware, and a 17-year old daughter
studying at Jeb Stuart High School.
Berra, who leads a staff of 50 people who help with the sets, says his
enthusiasm for the Kennedy Center and his work is unbounded.
“What I like best about it,” he says, “is
that life’s in front of you. Everyday there’s something new.
With all the theaters under one roof, we are the biggest arts center
in the world.”
Working at such a large arts center means working
with some of the biggest names in show business, though Berra has an
insider’s view of their backstage lives.
“I really respect and admire the artists,”
he says. “I remember working with Leonard Bernstein and Dustin
Hoffman. You meet everybody here in our world backstage. The stars like
it because they can be around people and be natural and not have everybody
gawking at them. Placido (Domingo) will come in and ask about the soccer
scores.”
Looking into the next several years, Berra says, “We
renovated the Concert Hall first. Now we’re going to renovate the
Opera House from December 2002 to December 2003 in time for the Kennedy
Center Honors, the first week in December 2003. We are doing so much
to improve the ADA compliance and also to maintain the great acoustics.”
Many international visitors want to see the workings
of the center. “I’m always getting phone calls from the State
Department and others about people in the arts,” Berra says. “I
love showing them around. About four or five years ago, when the Royal
Ballet was here, I was showing Princess Margaret around. We have a basketball
net backstage. I shot a basket from 70 feet and they got it taped and
showed it on the BBC. I’ve got the tape,” he smiles.
Berra and his wife are big GW basketball fans, attending
nearly every game. Berra even acted as a messenger, of sorts, for the
men’s basketball team on a trip to Israel a few years ago.
“We were going to buy my daughter a piece of
jewelry,” he says, “and in the shop, they had a book for people
to sign. When we signed ‘Washington, DC,’ they asked me if
I’d give (then coach) Mike Jarvis a picture of a young man standing
at the wall in Jerusalem, praying for the GW basketball team. When I
got back, I called Mike Jarvis. He said, ‘There’s a story
in this. Let’s have lunch.’”
The young man in the picture, Roey Eyal, the son of
the jeweler, was recruited by Jarvis and played guard on the GW men’s
basketball team in the 1998 and 1999 seasons.
“(My wife) has become a basketball fanatic,”
Berra says. “We are so excited about (new men’s coach) Karl
Hobbs. The Smith Center is such a great place for the games. GW is a
great school.”
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
