Above: a recent photo of Gregory Poggi, taken when he was teaching at the University of Michigan.
The image of Poggi that is the icon image for our podcast episode is from 1979. It was part of a larger photo that accompanied an article by Edgar Williams in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Williams wrote about Poggi's innovation of holding local auditions for Philadelphia union actors. Here he is (alongside the Guild's production manager, Gerald Nobles) in the complete photo, along with a photo of an auditioning actor (from the Inquirer of September 24, 1979, p. 1-B):
Below, two sets of newspaper ads and photos from the 1981-82 Drama Guild season, the first one where Poggi was running the organization by himself, in the position of Managing director. First is Gemini, with a backstage photo of then actress (now author) Cordelia Biddle as the character of Lucille ("I'll just pick!" is her famous line.)
Dennis Cannan's Dear Daddy followed. It was a dark comedy about a dysfunctional British family by Dennis Cannan. William Woodman was the director. Joseph Maher played the title character, whom Daily News reviewer Jonathan Takiff termed "a brow-beating beast of a literary critic, who wields like a sword his mastery of language and book knowledge."
In our conversation, Poggi speaks often of the constant fundraising efforts he undertook to keep the Drama Guild in the black during his tenure. In 1988, the Drama Guild's Gala Ball was held for major donors to the theater company, on a dance floor that mimicked the Monopoly game.
As Poggi left Philadelphia in the spring of 1990, Inquirer critic William B. Collins penned a farewell article about him, summing up his estimation of his time at the Drama Guild.
