Interview with Gail Benedict by the Raggedy Ann Revival Effort (3-19-2022)

Content Warning: brief mentions of depression, alcoholism, & suicide. The Raggedy Ann Revival Effort talks to Gail Benedict, who played Bat in the 1986 Kennedy Center and Broadway productions of Raggedy Ann. Join the organizers as they listen to Benedict reminisce about her experiences in the show (good and bad) and give her own valuable insight from a lifetime in the theater. This audio was recorded and released with express permission from everyone involved. Full recording exists within RARE’s archives, kept private at the request of its attendees, including footage. Footage was, unfortunately, too low in quality to publish. The meeting was organized and recorded by Mac, and editing was done by Brooklyn Williams. Attendees: Gail Benedict Ronnie Gwyn Mac Brooklyn RARE, or the Raggedy Ann Revival Effort, is a volunteer-led project working to revive the Gibson/Raposo musical Raggedy Ann. We are also archiving other Raggedy Ann materials and oddities along the way. If you would like to know more about the project, you can find us here: Twitter:   / ragannrevival   Tumblr: https://raggedyannrevivaleffort.tumbl... Our discord server:   / discord   Sign up for our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/h4Cvmf Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 2:39 Flying, Falling, & Fog 6:51 The Evil Triumvirate 10:48 Less is More 13:46 Being Bat 20:19 Who’s your Audience? 25:04 What Would You do to Improve the Show? 35:17 Outro Photo credits: R.A.R.E. does not claim to own any photos shown. Photo of Ivy Austin in Moscow at 23 min 57 is from the 2020 New York Archives magazine, V19 N4. All other photos are from a press kit released to news outlets at the time of the 1986 Broadway production, photography done by Shirley Herz Associates.