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Michael Formato is production manager in the Department of Theatre and Dance, College of Arts and Sciences.
What are your duties as production manager for the Department of
Theatre and Dance?
My job is coordinating the many elements that
go into creating a production from the ground up. This would include
creating and maintaining budgets, arranging contracts for the rights and
royalties, running the audition process, coordinating various workspaces
for rehearsals and acting as liaison between the theatre and dance
department and various elements of the Center for the Arts. I often
refer to myself as a plumber—I make things flow.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
The interaction with the students—helping them be a part of this creative process we call performing arts. I once explained to a supervisory type that I work for the students; I work with everyone else.
I understand you're also a performer. Tell me about some of your
on-stage roles.
I have performed and I expect I will again, but
it is not my main kick. My last two roles were as Moonface Martin in
"Anything Goes" at Artpark and as Benny Southstreet in "Guys & Dolls" at
the Kavinoky. Performing in a show is so much easier than producing a
show!
You have a bachelor's degree in human development and a master's
degree in counseling. How did you end up pursuing a career in the
theater?
This would be a much longer answer than you would have
space to report. The short version is that I love theater and dance, and
I have always been motivated to help people—especially young people.
That is why I have stayed in educational theater-I can do both
simultaneously. By the way, do not suppose that I do not use my
counseling skills at UB. On nearly a daily basis, some student avails
himself or herself of my help on issues not related to performing
arts.
Your wife, Lynne Kurdziel-Formato, directs the musical theater
program at UB. What's it like working so closely with your spouse?
Lynne has devoted her life to her students and her program—she
created it—at UB, so if I want to see her much, and I do, it is a
real blessing to work in the same general area. Lynne has been called a
"living treasure," and I agree.
What do you do in your spare time? Do you go to the theater, or do
you do something completely different?
I love theme parks,
especially Disney, Universal and Busch Gardens. I am an avid Buffalo
Bills football fan. Lynne and I work so much that we have very few free
nights to do much of anything—theater schedules tend to run all at
the same time—but when it is possible, we catch as many theater and
dance productions in Western New York as we can. We do take trips to New
York City about twice a year to keep up with the Broadway scene.
What question do you wish I had asked, and how would you have
answered it?
What is the status of the performing arts here at
UB? The performing arts in the university setting are a vital component
of any institution that purports to embrace the collective work of
humanity. This principle is endangered when the same parameters used to judge objective science are applied to set value on
art—especially "living art" such as that which is experienced in
live theater. Any university, even a research institution, needs to
embrace the full spectrum of studies and judge each according to the
standards of that particular discipline.