tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16227740199695810602024-03-19T05:39:19.830-07:00Theatre Bay Area ChatterboxClay Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05368046512133086509noreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-31480543919950070722011-06-15T15:32:00.000-07:002011-06-15T15:39:23.801-07:00Allow Me to Introduce Myself...<span style="font-style: italic;">This is a special guest blog post written by Caroline Anderson. Caroline has worked in many theatres in the Bay Area. Currently, she works as marketing manager at PlayGround and box office manager at Cutting Ball Theater. She is also a communications and publications intern at Theatre Bay Area.</span><br /><br />Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Caroline, and I am a new-ish intern at Theatre Bay Area. One of my main duties as an intern has been archiving old articles of <span style="font-style: italic;">Theatre Bay Area </span>for the launch of our new website, Theatre Bay Area 2.0 (very creative name, I know).<br /><br />As a member of the public who has infiltrated this top-secret organization, I consider it my duty to share with you some of the discoveries I have made. Discovery Number One, which came to me as I was working the check-in desk at the Glickman Awards Ceremony and talking to Lily, a Theatre Bay Area membership associate, was that Theatre Bay Area <span style="font-weight: bold;">is not just a magazine. </span>Now I know this may not come as a surprise to some, but it was a fundamental realization that had escaped me. Theatre Bay Area does <span style="font-weight: bold;">so much more </span>than produce a glossy monthly publication that keeps everyone in the theater world—excuse me, <span style="font-style: italic;">theatre </span>world (Discovery Number Two was that in the world of Theatre Bay Area, the all-important “t” word is spelled in what I had previously thought of as “the British way”)—up to date on what everyone else in the theatre world is doing. In fact, I am still not sure about all the other things Theatre Bay Area does. This is the material for the rest of my discoveries.<br /><br />In fact the <span style="font-style: italic;">Theatre Bay Area </span>magazine, which had been my introduction to the organization, is only one of the programs offered by Theatre Bay Area. One such program is the <a href="http://www.theatrebayarea.org/programs/lemonade.jsp">Mary Mason Lemonade Fund</a>. Although a relatively minor output of the organization compared to some of its other endeavors, such as its monthly postcard distribution, the Annual Conference and the all-mighty General Auditions, the Lemonade Fund has stuck in my consciousness since I first read about itduring my archiving endeavors. For those of you who don’t know, the Lemonade Fund is “a confidential resource for theatre workers with terminal or life-threatening illnesses who are in need of supplemental financial assistance to improve the quality of their lives as they deal with medical conditions.” It began when Mary Mason, the general manager of the Magic Theatre, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1988. Her friends collected money to help her achieve her lifetime dream of going to Nepal. When there was money left over, they donated it to begin what became the Lemonade Fund.<br />Although it makes sense why there would be a need for such a thing, especially since so many people who work in theatre can’t afford full health insurance, it kind of blows my mind that such a thing actually exists. Why would an organization provide such a service? This question brought me to Discovery Number Three: Theatre Bay Area's mission is “to unite, strengthen, promote and advance the theatre community in the San Francisco Bay Area.”<br /><br />I think the reason why the Lemonade Fund has stuck in my mind, among all the other things I’ve read about as I’ve archived articles, is that it is a thing of such heart. It’s not the type of program you would expect large organizations with acronyms to create. But in its small way, it underlines what Theatre Bay Area is about: supporting the theatre community in a fundamental way that perhaps the community hasn’t even realized it needs. In spite of Theatre Bay Area's attempts to engage in dialogue with, and about, theatre on a national level, it is ultimately a grassroots, community-based effort.elanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458527697528488079noreply@blogger.com1725tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-34571548473087517962011-06-02T12:14:00.000-07:002011-06-06T10:14:17.372-07:00Can We Really "Do Less, But Better, with the Same?"<span style="font-style: italic;">Sasha Hnatkovich is the Communications Director of <a href="http://www.marintheatre.org/">Marin Theatre Company</a>. He has an MA in Community Development and Planning from Clark University and previously worked with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Trinity Church in the City of Boston and as a freelance writer.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> His views do not necessarily reflect those of Theatre Bay Area or those of his employer.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Can we really ‘Do less, but better, with the same?’</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">A follow-up to the 2011 Theatre Bay Area Annual Conference Plenary</span><br /><br />During the Supply and Demand Plenary at the 2011 Theatre Bay Area Annual Conference, it took me a moment to realize just how misleading the advice of Ralph Remington of the NEA and John McGuirk of the Hewlett Foundation was. ‘Do less, but better, with the same’ was the gist of their statements. The suggestion was not to, for example, continue spending $10,000 on five shows, but rather spend $10,000 on four shows (or three or two), increasing the budget per show and thus, according to the speakers, increasing the excellence of the artistic product.<br /><br />With further thought, I see two problems with this advice.<br /><br />First, the advice of Remington and McGuirk was based in what is, in my opinion, false logic: Funding equates to excellence of artistic product. In other words: if more funding, then better art; less funding, worse art. I think we can all agree that we have all, on more than one occasion, seen quite the opposite: small budget projects succeeding because of creative solutions to having less and big budget projects failing because of uninspired excesses from having more. That is not to say there is not excellence being produced with more (or crap with less), only that it is impossible to support the claim that that funding is the sole catalyst of artistic excellence.<br /><br />Second, the advice of Remington and McGuirk was based on math that did not account for the less-than-flexible variable of earned income.<br /><br />Let us say that we run a theatre company and our budget for our 2010-11 season of five productions was $10,000 (we’ll roll the operational budget into the production to keep this simple). For the sake of easy math, let us divide our budget equally among the productions: $2,000 per production. That’s all we had to spend on each show.<br /><br />Of course, we are fiscally responsible managers in our hypothetical example and our expenses are based not only on what it would take to accomplish our artistic vision but also our pragmatic revenue expectations. We don’t think running up a cumulative deficit year after year is very healthy, so we aim to earn at least $10,000 (or $2,000 a production) to balance the books.<br /><br />Being a nonprofit performing arts organization, we tend to only earn about 50% of our income from ticket sales. We earn the remainder from donations and grants. So, let’s say we are able to recoup the costs of each $2,000 productions with $1,000 in ticket sales and $1,000 in contributions, like this:<br /><br />$1,000 earned + $1,000 contributed = $2,000 x 5 = $10,000 total season revenue<br /><br />Aren’t our auditors happy?<br /><br />However, let’s say we were inspired by the advice given by Remington and McGuirk at the 2011 TBA Conference! If we decided to “focus on excellence” by reducing the number of productions (in this case, we’ll say from five to two) while keeping our budget flat, as was suggested by Remington and McGuirk, then we’d expect to get a model like this in 2011-12:<br /><br />$2,500 earned + $2,500 contributed = $5,000 x 2 = $10,000 total season revenue<br /><br />Right?<br /><br />If you are or have ever been responsible for ticket sale income, you are probably hyperventilating. You’ve been squeezing blood from of a stone for years with your pathetic marketing budget just to sell $1,000 worth of tickets to each show. Now, you’re expected increase income by 150%?! In one year?! And this expectation comes with fewer chances to recoup losses (you only have two productions to earn your budgeted income) and a just slightly less-than-pathetic marketing budget. But wait, wait, you have capital-E Excellence on your side!<br /><br />Edgar Allen Poe once said: “There are few cases in which mere popularity should be considered a proper test of merit.” A marketer knows this. He or she knows that merit is not enough fuel sales of a product. More often than not, sales of a product are related to consumer behavior, brand or product reputation, customer and business networks, price points, persuasiveness of messaging, accessibility to bandwidth (and so much more) rather than just excellence alone. In other words, our hypothetical theatre company will be lucky to pull this off in 2011-12:<br /><br />$1,500 earned (a miraculous 50% increase from 2010-11) + $2,500 contributed = $4,000 x 2 = $8,000 total season revenue<br /><br />Oh crap, we kept our spending flat at $10,000 and now we have a $2,000 deficit. But Remington and McGuirk's advice, to spend the same on fewer shows, in fact puts the burden of funding our artistic product on their organizations–the very organizations that they say are unable to increase funding to us. In the example above, contributed income would have to increase 40% (now the folks in charge of development are hyperventilating) to break even.<br /><br />Does consolidating resources in fewer shows make for better shows? Can it even be done? Do you know of any examples to support this advice? Let me know in the comment section below. I’m hoping you’ll prove my logic exercise wrong.elanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458527697528488079noreply@blogger.com1107tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-4687793595114670972011-05-09T16:01:00.001-07:002011-05-27T12:34:18.610-07:00Absolute Core Truths of Theatre Personnel Management<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-style: italic;">This special guest post was written by Impact Theatre artistic director Melissa Hillman. Learn more about Impact Theatre at <a href="http://www.impacttheatre.com/">http://www.impacttheatre.com/</a></span><br /><br />This season marked my 10th anniversary as artistic director of Impact Theatre, and my 15th with the company as a founding member. When I became Impact’s AD, I quickly became aware of the fact that there’s no AD boot camp. There’s no Handbook for New ADs. Some local people were very helpful—Patrick Dooley at Shotgun Players was especially generous.<span style=""> </span>Now that I’m more established, people who are planning to start their own theatre companies, or who are in their first few seasons, come to me for advice and I do my best to pay it forward. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I always give a lot of practical advice—how to handle auditions, how to get insurance, why you should join Theatre Bay Area, how to write a playwright contract, etc. One thing that’s struck me recently, however, is something I’ve never discussed in these situations: How much time we spend in the theatre finessing personnel management. I’m sure it’s the same in every field, but since theatre is where my managerial experience lies, I’m going to speak specifically to that.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Here’s what I’ve learned are the Absolute Core Truths of Theatre Personnel Management. These are probably all already printed in some management book, so feel free to tell me if I’m boring you by repeating something you had to read in business school, and I’ll go back to the ranting and inappropriate jokes you’ve come to expect from me. Here’s what I learned in the School of Hard Knocks™.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">1. You don’t buy loyalty with a paycheck. You earn it by treating people with respect.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">This doesn’t mean complimenting their work. “Great job!” or “You’re so good at this” only go so far with your staff if you treat their opinions dismissively and if you routinely override their expertise. Your marketing director, your lighting designer, and your box office manager all know more about their areas than you do. It’s their job to know more about it than you do. Listen to their opinions. Allow them to disagree with you. Take their opinions very, very seriously, because if they’re disagreeing with you about their area of expertise, it’s almost certain that they’re right and you’re wrong. Respect their knowledge and experience, and they will reward you in 100 ways.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">2. Give your staff ownership of the company and the work.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Allow your staff the freedom to make decisions. Don’t interfere with their decisions or their processes unless absolutely necessary. Does the set design violate fire code? Necessary. Does the rehearsal schedule violate the terms of your AEA contract? Necessary. Did no one tell the director the script is a comedy? Necessary. Do you think the backdrop should be light green instead of blue? Unnecessary. Do you think the sound designer should use “Bittersweet Symphony” instead of Sigur Ros? Unnecessary. Obviously you should make your opinions known, but putting your foot down and requiring a designer, development director, or stage manager to make unnecessary changes to their products or to their processes creates disgruntled, unhappy, underappreciated staff. Give your opinion or guidance, and back off unless the matter truly requires intervention. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">3. Wear your authority with ease.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Nothing says “I’m insecure in positions of authority” like someone yelling at staff or refusing to allow staff to voice their opinions. A strong leader engages staff as equals, respecting their expertise. This doesn’t mean you should cede authority. Allowing your staff to make their own decisions and create their own processes doesn’t result in an authority drain. Step in when it’s necessary to step in. Put your foot down, respectfully, when it’s important. But have the strength to recognize when it’s important and when it’s not. And when mistakes happen or disaster strikes—because it will, trust me—blaming staff or yelling at people or otherwise losing your cool is the worst thing you can do.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">4. Admit when you’re wrong.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Because they all already know it. Bluffing makes you look foolish.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">5. Don’t be afraid to make the hard decisions.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Sometimes people need to be let go. This is the hardest thing for me personally and something I’ve bitched out on doing a number of times, hoping for the best. Learn from my mistakes. Be gentle, be respectful, but get rid of the people who can’t do their jobs. Again, everyone else already knows, and they’re sick of covering for that person. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">6. Do whatever you have to do to keep your tech people happy.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">While all theatre personnel are equally important, too often techs get treated poorly, blamed for mishaps, and left out of the glory. Happy techs make a show sparkle with awesomeness, like a magical lighting and sound unicorn flew over the theatre. Happy techs can build a gorgeous set out of popsicle sticks and coffee filters. Happy techs call 427 cues without breaking a sweat. Unappreciated, yelled-at techs will still do their jobs perfectly—they’re professionals—but they will withhold the awesome and take someone else’s gig next time around. Or worse—continue taking your gigs and talk shit about you in the community.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">7. <span style="font-style: italic;">Relax</span>. It’s theatre.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">This isn’t brain surgery. No one will die if the director casts Actor X instead of the actor you liked best at callbacks. No catastrophe will ensue if your lighting designer went with a different gobo. It’s not fuckpocalypse if your marketing director thought one show was on the weak side. Breathe. Creating art is about both process and product. Don’t beat your process to death with your image of the perfect product. Nothing is going to be perfect, but it’s within your power to make it awesome.</div>Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16969862143807780313noreply@blogger.com915tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-15531506036801654092011-04-19T16:15:00.001-07:002011-04-27T13:29:04.217-07:00In Defense of Millennials<span style="font-style: italic;">This special guest post was written by Impact Theatre artistic director Melissa Hillman. Learn more about Impact Theatre at <a href="http://www.impacttheatre.com/">http://www.impacttheatre.com/</a></span><br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal">The dust has settled from the latest embarrassingly naïve post Kennedy Center president Michael Kaiser slapped together for his HuffPo blog, but many in the theatre community are still burning with curiosity over how a man who clearly has very little understanding of the contemporary arts scene and even less understanding of young audiences has become the head of one of the most prominent arts organizations in the world and has been handed millions of dollars to program for Millennials.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">If you want to see what I’m on about, the latest in a string of tone-deaf Kaiser posts can be found <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-kaiser/the-millennials-project_b_844309.html">here</a>.<br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">You can read the best of the crop of eloquent, well-informed smackdowns <a href="http://tippingoverbackwards.com/2011/04/05/join-michael-kaiser-in-the-fight-for-youth/">here</a>, <a href="http://mauralafferty.com/2011/04/09/millenials-the-throwdown/">here</a> and <a href="http://www.2amtheatre.com/2011/04/05/ask-not/">here</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Michael Kaiser is, like me, a former opera singer. Unlike me, he didn’t leave opera for theatre, but for—what else?—business. He promoted himself as a “turnaround king,” taking huge, lumbering arts organizations on the brink of beaching themselves and making them profitable. Evidently, he’s damn good at it.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I have nothing against business people. My father ran a small business my entire life. I do, however, question the wisdom of allowing a business guy with little experience in the arts a national sounding board with which to discuss what is wrong with the arts. He displays an embarrassing lack of knowledge about the contemporary arts scene and the topic of young theatre audiences. (Need more <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-kaiser/what-is-wrong-with-the-ar_b_822757.html">proof</a>?) <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Apart from the boringly obvious—old guy popping off about what assholes young people are, an activity old guys have enthusiastically enjoyed since Ancient Greece—there’s a much bigger issue on the table here. Kaiser is asserting definitional authority over what is and is not important in our <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">culture. And what’s playing at the </span><st1:place style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><st1:placename>Kennedy</st1:placename> <st1:placetype>Center</st1:placetype></st1:place><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> this season? </span><i style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Follies</i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">, at $45 - $150 a ticket. What else is playing there? I’m so glad you asked. </span><i style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Shear Madness</i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. </span><i style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Wicked</i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. </span><i style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Next to </i><st1:city style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><st1:place><i style="">Normal</i></st1:place></st1:city><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. </span><i style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Uncle Vanya</i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. </span><i style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Les Miserables</i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. </span><i style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Billy Elliott. La Cage aux Folles</i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. </span><st1:city style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><st1:place><i style="">Memphis</i></st1:place></st1:city><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. </span><i style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Addams Family</i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">.</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I’m certain these are all excellent business decisions. I know that many of these pieces are wonderful works of art that deserve a place on stage. But they are not, by anyone’s measure, comprehensively reflective of what’s currently happening in American theatre, nor are they reflective of what would be, by any </span>theatre professional’s standard, critical for (ugh) “culture IQ.” </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Do not define for me what we, as artists, should deem culturally important while simultaneously displaying, in multiple ways, your complete ignorance about the current state of the arts.<i style=""> </i>Yes, opera is important, musical theatre is important, but so is the art that’s currently being created, in an explosive burst of creativity all over the country, by these very Millennials you seem to think need your artistic guidance. Stop talking and start watching. Their art is everywhere, and a lot of it is glorious, brilliant and breathtaking. All you need to do is look.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Here’s another idea: <span style="font-weight: bold;">stage the Millennials' work</span>! Put your considerable millions where your mouth is. Why don’t you pull one or two of the titles on your mainstage that everyone has already seen six times at a community theatre and replace them with a new work by a young playwright? You have the money. Why not take a risk and stage something new? If you purport to want to increase your under-40 audience, as well as foster the new generation of artists, why don’t you stage their work? Is <i style="">Follies</i> really more important for “culture IQ” than a world premiere by Steve Yockey, Young Jean Lee, or Marcus Gardley? What are those Millennial Project millions for? John Legend and OK Go? <i style=""><a href="http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/artsfun/afterhours/18626.html">Really</a>?</i> <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">All of this begs the question: Why is someone like Michael Kaiser, who has likely never even heard of Young Jean Lee, being given a national media platform, a million dollar salary (no lie), control over one of the most prominent arts organizations in the world, and millions of dollars of federal funding? The answer is depressing, and simple: Because we, as a culture, think business people should be in control of every damn thing. This is their cultural moment. Eventually, it’ll pass, and we’ll put education back in the hands of educators, arts back in the hands of artists and music back in the hands of musicians, but it’s not going to happen while we’re listening to people like Michael Kaiser tell us what should and should not be culturally and artistically important. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">There’s no shame in being a businessman who knows a lot about making an arts org profitable without knowing a lot about the arts. There is, however, a careening truckload of shame in standing on a soapbox to chastise an entire generation for being artistically ignorant when the real issue is your own ignorance.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Young artists: <span style="font-weight: bold;">seize control of the narrative!</span> In other words: Keep doing what you already do. There are many of us who see you.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Michael Kaiser: Leave your office and go to an arts event that doesn’t have valet parking. </div>Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16969862143807780313noreply@blogger.com1563tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-52199813737191798222011-04-14T14:07:00.001-07:002011-04-14T14:55:12.419-07:00What’s a Theatre Company to Do When the Economy Crashes?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> <w:dontvertaligncellwithsp/> <w:dontbreakconstrainedforcedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> <w:word11kerningpairs/> <w:cachedcolbalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathpr> <m:mathfont val="Cambria Math"> <m:brkbin val="before"> <m:brkbinsub val="--"> <m:smallfrac val="off"> <m:dispdef/> <m:lmargin val="0"> <m:rmargin val="0"> <m:defjc val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent val="1440"> <m:intlim val="subSup"> <m:narylim val="undOvr"> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" defunhidewhenused="true" defsemihidden="true" defqformat="false" defpriority="99" latentstylecount="267"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="0" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Normal"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="heading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="35" qformat="true" name="caption"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="10" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" name="Default Paragraph Font"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="11" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtitle"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="22" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Strong"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="20" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="59" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Table Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Placeholder Text"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="No Spacing"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Revision"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="34" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="List Paragraph"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="29" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="30" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="19" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="21" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="31" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="32" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="33" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><i style=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This special guest post was written by</span></i><i style=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Pamela Rosen, a Silicon Valley-based business writer who moonlights in the theatre as an actor, director, and acting coach.</span></i></p> <p class="yiv1807353593msonormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">As we begin to emerge from the “great recession,” Bay Area theatre has a vastly different landscape than it did during the boom years. Well-established, respected companies have disappeared —victims, it would seem, of the terrible economy. Yet, there are plenty of theatre companies in the Bay Area that flourished during the recession. It makes me wonder: how did the successful ones do it? What caused others with solid audience bases to fail? And most importantly, what can struggling theatres do now to shore up their futures?</span></p> <p class="yiv1807353593msonormal" style=""><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Keeping it real in good times<span style=""> </span></span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"></span></p> <p class="yiv1807353593msonormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">When times are good, it’s easy for theatre companies to breathe easy and focus only on producing great shows. But so many companies plan from year to year and not for the future. When ticket sales are good enough to keep a company afloat, who wants to go out and raise money? It’s hard to convince a Board of Directors to work even harder to raise cash when money is flowing in from the box office.</span></p> <p class="yiv1807353593msonormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In 2008, our economy fell apart quickly, and not many even came close to predicting how severe the recession would be. Many theatre companies reacted by putting on traditionally crowd-pleasing shows they thought would draw big audiences. But splashy, family-oriented productions of <i style="">Oklahoma </i>and <i style="">Annie</i> couldn’t bring in the family if the tickets were priced out of the family’s budget. Incomes fell in 2008—but production costs didn’t. Without a long-term plan or a contingency in place, companies were simply not agile enough to adjust budgets or ticket prices. </span></p> <p class="yiv1807353593msonormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">One producer at the now-defunct Alameda Civic Light Opera (ACLO) explains, “We looked out into the audience during <i style="">Annie</i> and saw half-filled houses. Meanwhile, families were walking away from the box office after seeing the ticket prices, carrying crying little girls. It’s not like the audience wasn’t there, but the shows weren’t affordable anymore.” </span></p> <p class="yiv1807353593msonormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">With dramatic scenes like that, it’s unlikely ACLO would be have been able to recoup their losses with last-minute fundraising. The window of opportunity had closed. The board was too busy trying to pay the bills and keep the doors open and couldn’t take on the additional, now more difficult task of fundraising.</span></p> <p class="yiv1807353593msonormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">“The loss of ACLO is a huge void in the community,” says ACLO director Cary Litchford. “I miss the company terribly and they had a lot of heart and soul.” </span></p> <p class="yiv1807353593msonormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Building Relationships and Raising Funds</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"></span></p> <p class="yiv1807353593msonormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Theatre companies fare much better if they have long-term 3-5 year plans and Boards of Directors with members who understand that their individual and group responsibility is first and foremost fundraising and community outreach. The Willows Theatre Company in Concord closed its doors in November of 2009 and moved operations to its smaller cabaret house in Martinez, but is now roaring back. How did they manage it? With the company’s closure, the surrounding businesses and restaurants also suffered a drop in business. The Willows had developed such close relationships with those businesses that the theatre had become indispensible. An outcry from those businesses, The Willows’ key stakeholders, enabled The Willows to reorganize and return. Because The Willows had been making money putting on smaller, lower cost shows during the depths of the recession, they were ready to move back in and operate again in two venues, each feeding the other. Today, they have a new artistic director and a solid five-year plan.</span></p> <p class="yiv1807353593msonormal"><b style=""><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">One for the money, two for the show</span></b></p> <p class="yiv1807353593msonormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">An upstart non-profit company in <span class="yshortcuts">San Leandro</span>, Curtain Call Performing Arts, arose as a direct result of the recession, with a goal to provide affordable theatre to everyone regardless of the state of the economy. To do this, the Board created a unique charter: raise the all the funds to mount a show before a production begins, then charge no more than $12 a ticket. They’ve mounted three productions this way, and even offered $1 tickets to children with a paid adult during a specified matinee.</span></p> <p class="yiv1807353593msonormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Though this method currently makes it impossible to schedule production dates in much in advance, it’s an interesting model. The board is forced to continually innovate with <span class="yshortcuts">creative fund raising</span> and volunteer coordination. They’ve come up with clever ideas. “Our concert choir, <span class="yshortcuts">Cantare</span>, is one hundred percent volunteer operated,” says founding member Andrea Gorham. “Its sole purpose is to raise funds. CCPA partners with other nonprofit art groups in San Leandro to put on <span class="yshortcuts">benefit concerts</span> featuring Cantare.” Curtain Call partners with other arts organizations to share the profits and the audience. They’ve built an impressive audience base, and, through the choir, a large pool of volunteers. </span></p> <p class="yiv1807353593msonormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Though it’s not a model that many companies will likely embrace, other companies could take a page from Curtain Call’s book. They might also learn a lesson from The Willows, which stayed in business in the middle of a recession by mounting smaller, less expensive productions and maintaining strong relationships with external stakeholders who revived The Willows' mainstage.</span></p> <p class="yiv1807353593msonormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">All over the Bay Area, theatre companies are still struggling. Those with a long term plan, an understanding that the purpose of a board of directors is to raise money and develop external relationships, that also have the flexibility to scale productions costs to swing with a volatile economy, will flourish. We’re not out of this yet. For some companies, it’s too late. But there’s still a chance for others to mobilize and heed the lessons <a name="_GoBack"></a>of the last three years. What steps has your company taken to weather the economic downturn?</span></p>Pamela Rosenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05687098489801484018noreply@blogger.com545tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-27414510120605339522011-04-07T13:16:00.000-07:002011-04-07T13:27:52.431-07:00The Literary Adventures of Claire and Elana, Part 1<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> <w:dontvertaligncellwithsp/> <w:dontbreakconstrainedforcedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> <w:word11kerningpairs/> <w:cachedcolbalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathpr> <m:mathfont val="Cambria Math"> <m:brkbin val="before"> <m:brkbinsub val="--"> <m:smallfrac val="off"> <m:dispdef/> <m:lmargin val="0"> <m:rmargin val="0"> <m:defjc val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent val="1440"> <m:intlim val="subSup"> <m:narylim val="undOvr"> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" defunhidewhenused="true" defsemihidden="true" defqformat="false" defpriority="99" latentstylecount="267"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="0" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Normal"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="heading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="35" qformat="true" name="caption"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="10" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" name="Default Paragraph Font"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="11" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtitle"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="22" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Strong"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="20" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="59" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Table Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Placeholder Text"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="No Spacing"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Revision"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="34" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="List Paragraph"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="29" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="30" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="19" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="21" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="31" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="32" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="33" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="">The Literary Adventures of Claire and Elana: <a href="http://literarymanager.org/">LiteraryManager.org</a> Edition</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">ELANA rummages through the fridge at Theatre Bay Area, grabs a paper bag and pulls out her lunch, staring disdainfully at the stale bread and old apple that she packed herself in her sleep-deprived morning haste. Enter CLAIRE, who crosses cheerily to the water cooler to get a drink. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="">CLAIRE: So, I did it! </span>I submitted a play to the Playwright’s Foundation for the Bay Area Playwright’s Festival. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">ELANA: When was the deadline?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">CLAIRE: I know, I know, I took my sweet time. Maybe someday I’ll get in a submission one or two days before the very second they are due. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">ELANA dons her Judging Cap—a stylish porkpie, complete with feather.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">CLAIRE: (sheepishly) I think I heard a quote somewhere that real playwrights wait until the last minute. Have you heard that one?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">ELANA: No.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">CLAIRE: Oh. Well. This year I didn’t even have to mail in my submission, so I was able to procrastinate more than usual. They're using this new website called <a href="http://literarymanager.org/">LiteraryManager.org</a>. Have you heard of it?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">ELANA: Yes. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">(Pause.)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">CLAIRE: Well, it was great! I just filled out an online form, uploaded my script, and that was that. I didn't have to print or mail anything.<span style=""> </span>Did you submit a play this year?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">ELANA: No...</p> <p class="MsoNormal">ELANA rotates her Judging Cap to reveal the words “PLAYWRIGHTS FOUNDATION SELECTION COMMITTEE” written on the back. CLAIRE gasps and drops her water.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">ELANA: So we meet.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">CLAIRE: Well, technically, we’ve known each other for a few months, being coworkers and all.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">ELANA: So we meet...as judge and <i style="">judged</i>. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">CLAIRE: I didn’t realize you were on the selection committee!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">ELANA: I didn’t realize you submitted a play to the Playwrights Foundation! Wait. Does this not strike you as odd? Two coworkers, standing around the water cooler for an inordinately long time, able to provide complementary views on a new online literary database and seemingly unable to talk about anything else? </p> <p class="MsoNormal">(CLAIRE and ELANA make eye contact and slowly, suspiciously cast their eyes skyward, where a giant pencil eraser threatens to poke down from up above.)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">CLAIRE: Elana, you’ve resorted to a metatheatrical representation of yourself as the playwright-slash-literary puppetmaster?! Thank god you didn’t submit a play this year, or you would’ve been the laughingstock of the local theatre community!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">ELANA: Don’t look at me, I’m not the one pulling the metaphorical strings here!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">CLAIRE climbs atop the refrigerator and peers into the left eye of META-ELANA.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">CLAIRE: (Scrambling down) OH MY GOD. I can’t believe I’m in a play with a character named “META-ELANA.” Just being a character in this play is going to regress my writing 10 years. OH MY GOD! REGRESS MY WRITING? IS THAT EVEN A PHRASE??</p> <p class="MsoNormal">(The giant pencil eraser starts to erase Claire’s left foot.)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">ELANA: WAIT, SHE'LL TALK, DON’T ERASE HER! </p> <p class="MsoNormal">(The eraser hesitates.)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">ELANA: Claire, say something! Say something more about the database! </p> <p class="MsoNormal">CLAIRE: Uhm….I totally didn’t feel all angsty about paying the readers fee, because I didn’t have to spend any money on copies or binding or envelopes or postage.<span style=""> </span>Wouldn’t it be great if someday, in the future, this was the way all plays were submitted. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">(The eraser starts to erase CLAIRE's right hand.)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">ELANA: WAIT! Stop! She's given you what you wanted! She's talking!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">CLAIRE: (Louder) Freelance dramaturges can also use it to - --</p> <p class="MsoNormal">(The eraser erases CLAIRE's mouth.)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">ELANA: NOOOOOO! WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US?? WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US, META-ELANA?!?</p> <p style="font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-weight: bold;">To be continued...</span><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Will Claire and Elana escape from the water cooler unharmed? Will Claire get her mouth back? And just what *is* this literary database of which Claire and Elana speak so passionately, anyway? These questions and more will be answered in Part 2 of <i style="">The Literary Adventures of Claire and Elana: <a href="http://literarymanager.org/">LiteraryManager.org</a> Edition</i>. </p>Elanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15850005581506703862noreply@blogger.com412tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-79478283949794849932011-03-24T10:40:00.001-07:002011-03-24T14:38:28.518-07:00How to Get the 18-40 Crowd to Put Down the Controller and Go to Your Theatre<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">This special guest post was written by Impact Theatre artistic director Melissa Hillman. Learn more about Impact Theatre at </span><a style="FONT-STYLE: italic" href="http://www.impacttheatre.com/">http://www.impacttheatre.com/</a><br /><br />“How do you get so many young people into your theatre? How can <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">we </span>do that?”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I’ve been asked these questions over and over and over. And over. The real answer is: I’m not sure. All I can tell you is what we’ve done, how we’ve done it and what I think you can do to better your chances of attracting the 18-35 audience. Will it work for you? I don’t know. Did it work for us? Yes, indeed.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Bear in mind that you need to do all of these things, all at the same time. This isn’t a pick-and-choose situation.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><strong>1. Do the kinds of plays young people want to see.</strong></div><div class="MsoNormal">I am astounded by the fact that some larger theatres seem to believe young people should *always* be willing to translate, and blame self-centeredness, lack of interest in culture, lack of education and general boorishness when the 18-40 crowd don’t turn out in droves for a production of <i>Dinner with Friends</i> or <i>Love Letters.</i> Yet these very same theatres won’t slot a new play by an emerging playwright for fear of their subscribers’ reactions. They expect young people to translate, and heap condemnation upon them when they don’t, but they see older audience members’ potential lack of interest as their due. (P.S. Believe me when I tell you that 65 is the new 35. Many older Bay Area theatergoers are more adventurous than you think. TRUST. Moving on.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">While it’s always a good thing to have an active interest in the stories of people not in your age group (or ethnic group, or regional group, or religious group, etc), everyone longs to see their own stories, hopes, dreams, fears, realities and fantasies reflected in honest ways.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>Young people are no different. The key phrase here is “in honest ways.” A play by an older playwright with roles for young actors may or may not speak honestly to your desired potential younger audience members. Some older writers write very well for younger characters. Many do not. Large numbers of young people are not going to spring for tickets to a show that portrays them as mindless, boorish assholes. Find plays that speak honestly about the lives of young people in some way.<br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But how do I do that, Melissa? </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m so glad you asked.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">There are over 400 theatre companies in the nine-<st1:place><st1:placetype>county</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype>Bay</st1:placetype></st1:place> Area. We do more world premiere plays than almost any other region in the country—last I checked we ranked third. Yet it’s very common that staff from theatres who purport to want young audiences don’t come to world premiere productions at small theatre companies. How many emerging playwrights have you read this year? If the number is under 10, you’re slacking. Impact Theatre, my company, has produced a world premiere by, and/or entirely introduced to the Bay Area, these playwrights: Sheila Callaghan, Steve Yockey, Prince Gomolvilas, Enrique Urueta, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Liz Meriwether, Lauren Yee, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, Joshua Conkel, Trevor Allen, Jon Tracy. This is a partial list—I stuck to people you’ve probably heard of. Most importantly, we’re a tiny dog on a very, very big block. There are a wagonload of companies doing precisely what we do. Find them. See their shows. Spy on the playwrights they use. Companies like mine are your R&D department. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Find directors who can make classic plays relevant and interesting—because they are. There are directors all over the country who draw loads of younger audience members into theatres to see Shakespeare, and a bunch of them are directing at these aforementioned smaller theatres.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><strong>2. Be realistic about your pricing.</strong></div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s always annoying to hear people say, “But they’ll spend $60 on a concert ticket! Why won’t they spend $60 on theatre?” It’s like wondering why someone would drive all the way across country to be with her beloved but not drive just as long in the hope that she will meet a hot stranger in a bar. People drop bucks on concert tickets because they already know and love the artist and have every expectation of seeing a great show and having a great experience. Condemning those people for refusing to drop a similar amount of money on a show they may know little about that will, let’s be honest, likely bore them because it’s aimed entirely at someone else, is a bit much, yes? If you’re going to condemn the under-40 crowd for not dropping $60 on your play about middle-class, middle-aged white people and their midlife crises, you should also condemn Grandma because she’s not stocking her <st1:stockticker>DVD</st1:stockticker> collection with $60 of Robot Chicken.<br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">So keep your ticket prices accessible. Some companies do an under-30 rate, which, quite frankly, I’m not wild about. That 30-40 crowd is young enough to need enticing into your theatre but old enough to be on the brink of having enough money to become donors and subscribers. You want them. They’re routinely ignored and that’s not going to pay off in the long run for your audience building. Make an under-40 rate if you must. Make some performances pay-what-you-will. Make your less attractive seating areas $20 for the first few weekends. Whatever you need to do, do it.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><strong>3. Market to young people.</strong></div><div class="MsoNormal">If you’re not active on Facebook and Twitter, you need to be right now. Learn how to use these powerful tools properly. This isn’t a social media marketing post, so I’ll assume you can figure out where to get this info and move on. The blog on your website is going nowhere unless you’re pushing it with Facebook and Twitter, by the way. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Find ways to make your outreach to young people honest and, most importantly, unpretentious. One of the main things keeping young people out of the theatre is that they’re afraid they won’t fit in—they’ll feel awkward and out of place. As my friend’s dad was fond of saying, they’re afraid they’ll “stand out like a sheep turd in a bowl of cream.” You want to make them as comfortable as possible. A big step towards that is to use your marketing to make them feel welcome. Not pretend welcome, as in, “We want to sell you tickets,” but truly welcome, like “Come over and play with us! We just got a new toy!” </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Theatre is not medicine. We don’t go because it’s good for us. We go because we think it’ll be awesome. Make sure you’re approaching your marketing properly. “It’ll be awesome” + “You’re totally welcome and will be comfortable” + “We’re not stuffy and pretentious” will go a long way. Make sure you’re delivering those goods onsite as well. Nothing drives someone away from your company forever as efficiently as an undelivered promise.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">And that’s pretty much it. This is what I believe has worked for us over the past 15 years. I hope it’s successful for you as well. We all need to work together to build audiences for our future as an artistic community. There’s not a single one of us that exists on an island. We’re all in this together.<o:p></o:p></div>Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16969862143807780313noreply@blogger.com1353tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-22590774606425018732011-03-18T12:31:00.000-07:002011-03-22T17:10:44.757-07:00A Conversation with Actors' Equity<span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p></o:p>On Monday, February 28, Theatre Bay Area hosted Alt Stages in conversation with Bethany Umbach from Actors' Equity Association.<br /></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;">Alt Stages hosts several round table discussions through out the year on issues facing small, professional theatres. These issues range from publicity and social media strategies to managing a board. The recent conversation with Bethany Umbach was aimed at helping these theatre companies better understand the contract process and the producer's relationship to equity. </span></p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;">A full report of the conversation is available on the Alt Stages Facebook page <a href="http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=122261744639&topic=19121">here</a>. Below are a few of the questions posed to Bethany during the discussion. </span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;">Are there exceptions to the rules? If waivers/exception can be made, how do producers pursue them?</span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;">Concessions are exceptions to agreements and codes made by the union for certain projects/companies. Codes are often strict and the union doesn’t usually allow for concessions on those projects where codes apply. Agreements have more leniency. The union’s objective is to ensure that actors are paid for their services and treated fairly. Concessions may be requested through the appropriate Equity business representative and will be presented to the appropriate Equity committee for consideration. Contact Bethany Umbach about questions and concerns. (Bethany can be reached at bumbach@actorsequity.org or (323) 978-8080.)<br /></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"> </p> <p style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;">When you say "annual budget," do you mean "operating budget?"</span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;">No, this refers to the annual production budget (with regards to MBAT or BAPP). </span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"> </p> <p style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;">Who can hire Equity Membership Candidates (EMC) and why? </span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;">Anyone can hire and pay an EMC actor as a non-professional/local jobber (provided they are not a member of any of the 4A's unions), but only seasonal agreements (such as BAT) allow the EMC program to be approved for us and for those actors to earn weeks (points) towards Equity membership. EMC program approval is granted in theatres where there is a minimum equity ratio and an equity stage manager required, along with other criteria. The EMC program is set up to be a mentorship program if there are not enough equity members to mentor an EMC, so having Equity Actors and stage managers at the theatre is essential. </span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"> </p> <p style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;">What are the time frames suggested for approval for the various contracts?</span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;">Deadlines are listed <a href="http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=122261744639&topic=19121">here</a> and in the Bay Area Equity Contract Comparison. All deadlines are before the first rehearsal and are intended to give both the producer/company and Equity time to work out the contract. </span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"> </p> <p style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;">What is the general path from BAPP to MBAT? Is there a bridge? </span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;">The goal is to get actors paid. Contracts serve members in specific areas. The BAPP will not change much in the future, but the MBAT is the lowest agreement. The MBAT is the bridge between codes like the BAPP and agreements like the BAT. There really is not really a way to create an agreement between a BAPP and MBAT due to minimum wage and legal employment issues. </span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"> </p> <p style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;">How does a company operating on a MBAT contract hire an actor who has opted for financial core with American Federation of Television and Radio Actors (AFTRA) or one of the other sister unions? Are they considered union?</span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;"> If they are financial core with AFTRA they are not actually members of AFTRA. If they are AFTRA members or members of one of the other sister unions, they should be hired on an Equity contract. </span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"> </p> <p style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;">How does theatre in an educational setting apply to union contracts? Is a project considered educational simply by virtue of being performed in a physical school setting?</span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;">There are some projects that don’t seem to fit into the above codes or agreements, or maybe there have been rumors about what kind of contracts are needed for outdoor theatre, educational theatre, children’s theatre or some other specialty show. The best way to get specific questions answered is to call equity and have a phone conversation with a representative about what the performance will be, who it is intended for, why it is happening and who will be involved and how. Being clear, open, honest and willing to have a dialogue is the first best step to getting the best agreement or code.</span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"> </p> <p style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;">What if a company/performance doesn’t take in any ticket revenue, they just pass the hat?</span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;">It depends on how many people are expected at a performance and where the performance will be. Even if all revenue is by donation and the number of seats are uncontrollable (like in outdoor theatre) there is a way to make it possible for equity participation (LOA or concession to a standard agreement). Producers/companies won’t know if they don’t ask. </span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"> </p> <p style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;">Once you go on one equity contract, are you stuck at that level?</span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;">No. Equity wants producers and companies to be able to move up to the next agreement level, but they generally don’t want producers/companies to move backwards. Remember, Equity’s goal is to get it’s members paid fairly for their work and to make certain employment opportunities for its members are possible. </span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com413tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-30718416875308191312011-03-17T17:44:00.000-07:002011-03-31T16:14:13.762-07:00Where Do Original Musicals "Play" in the Bay Area New Play Landscape?There’s no question that the Bay Area is a hotbed for presenting new plays. Interestingly, the proportion of new musicals produced in the area, seems (to me) surprisingly low. Aside from ACT's upcoming production of <span style="font-style: italic;">Tales of the City </span>and last year's showing of <span style="font-style: italic;">American Idiot </span>at Berkeley Rep, world premiere musicals are few and far between, particularly when it comes to smaller theatres. Recently I have become aware of two world premiere musicals in the area, which I found to be an interesting convergence in happening (if not in theme): <span style="font-style: italic;">As Always </span>by Peter Tucker and <span style="font-style: italic;">Dogs! It's the Musical! </span>by Rose Tobin O'Connor. After speaking with Tucker and Silver Moon Productions artistic director Nellie Cravens, I was able to learn more about each production and shed light on some of the unique challenges of producing a world premiere musical.<br />Currently in performances through March 27 at the Eureka Theatre, <span style="font-style: italic;">As Always</span> (<a href="http://peterwtucker.com/">asalwaystickets.com</a>) traces a psychological journey through love, loss, and redemption during a single night of dreams, where inner battles come to life within the timely allegory of a foreign war. “Dreams have always fascinated me," Tucker says about his inspiration for the piece. "We create a world every night that is an emotional echo chamber from our waking experiences. As both participant and observer in dreams, every image, experience, interaction and character necessarily is born from our subconscious mind. Without the filter of conscious thought while sleeping, our dreams can go places we can't. This dream world has historically been ripe for theatricality, of course, and As Always found it to be a perfect device to tell a story about these themes. Much like we interpret our dreams upon waking through the lens of our own experiences, I also wanted our symbolic and non-literal world to speak to the audience members through their own lenses. After the applause, I hope they glean from the story and music what is most relevant to them and they find their own emotional ethos."<br />Tucker responded to the challenges of getting a world premiere musical produced by producing the show himself. Though necessary, doing so presented its own unique challenges. "While networking in preparation for the show," he says, "I noticed that theatre companies and industry groups seem to take self-production less seriously than works produced within the established frameworks of even the smallest theatre companies. This stigma exists even though access to those frameworks is difficult. Many producers and writers have been waiting years for a reading or production of their work.”<br />Silver Moon Productions presents a contrasting example with the world premiere of <span style="font-style: italic;">Dogs! It’s the Musical! </span>at Andrews Hall in the Sonoma Community Center (April 15-May 15; <a href="http://silvermoontheatre.org/">http://silvermoontheatre.org/</a>). The show follows an angel who is sent to earth to learn how to be a dog. Even though the show, which was written in 2004, had an "inside track" to the producers (the author is the sister of the vice president of Silver Moon’s board of directors), the musical was a bit of a tough sell. Nellie Cravens, artistic director of the company, says “We were cautious about producing a new work, especially a musical. Nevertheless, in 2010, we had a read-through/sing-through of <span style="font-style: italic;">Dogs!</span> in Sonoma. We were charmed and excited by its potential. One of our theatre company’s goals is to become a valued part of the Sonoma community. We are always looking for works that will draw a family audience, and at the same time provide an entertaining experience for adults. <span style="font-style: italic;">Dogs! It’s the Musical! </span>moves us toward that goal. We think it has a future, in a variety of possible venues. Audiences of all ages are bound to appreciate songs with titles like “Smell Me and Tell Me” and “Come On and Let Me Lick Your Pants.”<br />Have you ever been involved in a Bay Area-based original musical?<br />What Bay Area original musicals have you attended? What are your favorite(s)?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com247tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-36803138230662692612011-03-01T13:09:00.000-08:002011-03-02T11:02:42.400-08:00Arts + Kids = Scientists<em>This special guest blogpost was written by Impact Theatre Artistic Director Melissa Hillman. Learn more about Impact Theatre at </em><a href="http://www.impacttheatre.com/"><em>http://www.impacttheatre.com</em></a><em>.<br /></em><br />When I was in grad school at Cal, I taught a number of undergrad intro courses. I taught DA10, DA1A, and DA1B, which were intro courses for acting and dramatic lit, and they drew a large number of non-majors. I learned two things very quickly teaching at Cal: If you think it’s plagiarized, it is (thank you, Google!) and disproportionate numbers of science majors take theatre courses.<br /><br />I was struck over and over by how many science majors there were stuffed into these acting and dramatic lit classes. I had expected crossover from other arts and from English, but in each and every class I taught at Cal, science majors outnumbered English and arts majors. What was going on?<br /><br />A new article from the <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/imagine/201102/artsmarts-why-cutting-arts-funding-is-not-good-idea%22%3Ehttp://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/imagine/201102/artsmarts-why-cutting-arts-funding-is-not-good-idea"><em>Psychology Today</em> blog</a> might provide some insight. It turns out that scientists are built out of arts education. Provide a kid with music or theatre in elementary school, and out comes a physicist in college.<br /><br />Is it really that simple? Possibly. The study outlined in the article <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/imagine/201102/artsmarts-why-cutting-arts-funding-is-not-good-idea%22%3Ehttp://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/imagine/201102/artsmarts-why-cutting-arts-funding-is-not-good-idea">“Artsmarts: Why Cutting Arts Funding Is Not a Good Idea,”</a> demonstrates that science graduates are three to eight times as likely to have had arts education as the general population. When looking at science innovators (as defined by number of patents held and companies created), the likelihood of an arts education background is even higher.<br /><br />I know many of you will remind me that I get up in people’s grills on the regular about correlativity not being the same as causality, but in this case, it does seem as if there’s a hard case shaping up for causality. After the famous <a href="http://www.uwosh.edu/psychology/rauscher/Nature93.pdf">“Mozart Effect” study of the 90s</a>, dozens of studies about the impact arts education has on children’s brains, cognition, intelligence, and academic performance have been done, and they almost all point to some benefit. And while many are labeled by detractors as “inconclusive” or showing only correlativity, when taken as a whole, these many different studies done in many different ways do indeed point to a high probability of direct benefit.<br /><br />Whether we like it or not, it appears that we’re all participants in a very wide-scale study at present. Budget cuts (and our hyperfocus on the high-stakes testing we use as nothing but a stick with which to beat teachers) have decimated arts education in most US schools. Conversely, four out of the five highest-performing nations in reading, math, and science—South Korea, Finland, New Zealand, and Japan—all fund arts education and require it in schools in some way. China does as well. Will our science graduates be competitive in 20 years? Will we still be world leaders in science innovation in 30?Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16969862143807780313noreply@blogger.com256tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-76872605135326425842011-02-25T09:15:00.000-08:002011-02-25T20:58:17.591-08:00Talking About Declining Arts Education, Armed with New Numbers<em>Recapping Research: the SPPA Follow-Up Monographs, Part 1 </em><br /><br />Yesterday, I had the opportunity to listen in on a two-hour presentation hosted by Sunil Iyengar, the head of research at the NEA. The topic was three monographs the NEA commissioned to delve into the data gathered from the <a href="http://arts.gov/research/2008-SPPA.pdf">Survey on Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA)</a>. This benchmark report, which is fielded every four years, looks at the arts attendance habits of just under 20,000 people across the country in order to understand who’s going to what, who’s not going at all, and what that all means.<br /><br />In the case of these three monographs, the researchers were asked not only to delve into the 2008 data, but also to place it in context with the large trove of data gathered by the SPPA since it was first administered in 1982.<br /><br />These recaps take a while, so this just covers the first one…I’ll cover the other two next week.<br /><br />The three monographs were:<br /><ul><li><em><a href="http://arts.gov/research/2008-SPPA-ArtsLearning.pdf">Arts Education in America: What the Declines Mean for Arts Participation</a></em>, by Nick Rabkin and Eric Hedberg of the NORC Center at the University of Chicago. </li><li><em><a href="http://arts.gov/research/2008-SPPA-Age.pdf">Age and Arts Participation: A Case Against Demographic Destiny</a></em>, by Mark Stern of the University of Pennsylvania. </li><li><em><a href="http://arts.gov/research/2008-SPPA-BeyondAttendance.pdf">Beyond Attendance: A Multi-Modal Understanding of Arts Participation</a></em>, by Jennifer Novak-Leonard and Alan Brown of WolfBrown </li></ul>All of these, as well as a useful summary document, can be found at <a href="http://www.arts.gov/research">http://www.arts.gov/research</a>.<br /><br /><em>Arts Education in America<br /></em>Building off of an initial study commissioned by the NEA in 1992 that indicated that arts education was the most powerful predictor of arts attendance in adults, this study analyzed the data in the SPPA since 1982 to understand more fully exactly how central arts education is in the creation of future arts patrons.<br /><br />Nick Rabkin eased us in with some basic graphs demonstrating facts we sort of already know – that those who repot having had classes in art are far more likely to report they’ve also attended arts events across the life of the SPPA, and then that general education is itself a correlated indicator of arts attendance (more education = more attendance).<br /><br />Then things got interesting. Rabkin analyzed the number of art forms respondents indicated they had studied, both as a child and as an adult, and found that an increase not only in any arts education, but of a diverse arts education yielded higher average rates of arts attendance in respondents – and that the effect was even more evident with art forms studied as an adult. To pause here for a second, this seems to go against the current prevailing mutterings from some circles that the current adult generation may be simply lost to arts apathy, and that the focus should instead completely divert to children. Here’s the graph (taken from their presentation):<br /><br /><strong>F1. Arts Attendance Rate Predictions Based on Amount of Arts Attendance<br /></strong><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IcYm6SmPhoM/TWiE15dujvI/AAAAAAAAACs/aHoWqOlhMxk/s1600/fig1_artforms%2Bstudied.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 301px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577854199991799538" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IcYm6SmPhoM/TWiE15dujvI/AAAAAAAAACs/aHoWqOlhMxk/s320/fig1_artforms%2Bstudied.jpg" /></a><br />Taking, then, the fact that arts education is indeed quite important, Rabkin and Hedberg began an analysis of what has happened to arts education over the course of the SPPA, and indeed, over the last century.<br /><br />Starting simply, they looked at the percentage of 18-year-olds in each SPPA since 1982 who said they had had arts education as children. The numbers starkly declined from a 1982 high of 64% to a low in 2008 of 49.5%. The pace of decline is increasing precipitously as well. This itself indicates something of an issue, but then Rabkin and Hedberg did something fascinating. They extrapolated the ages of each of the respondents on every SPPA since 1982, and where from there able to figure out the year at which each person turned 18. Using that as an anchor, they laid out the percentage of respondents who experienced arts education as children for every year between 1930 and 2008, with this result:<br /><br /><strong>F2. Percentage of Childhood Arts Education, 1930-2008</strong><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O8Kzy_wLOmE/TWiFMNSeOqI/AAAAAAAAAC0/LBtzlC_Q7X4/s1600/fig2_artsed%2Bas%2Bkids.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 312px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577854583270423202" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O8Kzy_wLOmE/TWiFMNSeOqI/AAAAAAAAAC0/LBtzlC_Q7X4/s320/fig2_artsed%2Bas%2Bkids.jpg" /></a><br /><br />What this graph shows is that in 1930, about 20% of children had any arts education. The number steadily rose until 1985, when it was at about 65%. It then began a consistent downward trend, passing through 50% in 2000. Per Rabkin, this downturn was precipitated by:<br /><ul><li>Widespread opposition to taxes associated with arts education, beginning with Prop 13 (right here in California). </li><li>The emergence of school reform as a high national priority. The report that spurred this reform effort was called “Nation at Risk,” and was published in 1983. It encouraged raising standards and rigorous testing, and included practically no discussion of arts education. Per Rabkin, arts education has been marginalized ever since. </li></ul><p>A 15% decline is upsetting, but the problem is actually even more disasterous than on first look. The issue is that that decline is disproportionately affecting non-white populations, and not just a little. Since 1982, arts education for white has essentially stayed constant at about 58% of students. African-Americans and Hispanics, on the other hand, have seen a decline from around 50% of students in 1982 to half (!) that in 2008. The graph is incredibly disheartening:</p><p><strong>F3. % of Respondents Reporting Arts Education As Children by Race<br /></strong><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jqKjwWJZQ8w/TWiF3_RMltI/AAAAAAAAAC8/7OmRnw0viW8/s1600/fig3_artsed%2Bby%2Brace.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 317px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577855335421220562" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jqKjwWJZQ8w/TWiF3_RMltI/AAAAAAAAAC8/7OmRnw0viW8/s320/fig3_artsed%2Bby%2Brace.jpg" /></a><br />I’ve written at length about the terribly disproportionate impact of arts education cuts on non-white populations. Essentially, it is a situation of discrimination by default—schools in less affluent districts (districts where neither the local municipality nor the parents can afford to shoulder the financial burden of providing arts education to their children) suffer more than schools in more affluent districts, and less affluent districts are disproportionately non-white. As I said in <a href="http://www.theatrebayarea.org/mag/article.jsp?thispage=archives.jsp&id=595">an article on this subject</a> last year:</p><blockquote>In a country where, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the 2006 median household income for a whlte family was 158% that of a black family and 135% that of an Hispanic family, the fact that ubiquity of arts education is directly tied to affluence means that it’s de facto tied to race. </blockquote><p>Rabkin closed with some thoughts on the relationship between the decline in interest in the arts and the decline in arts education, and cautioned not to draw instant, direct connections between the two – at least not only in one direction. Declining arts education may contribute to declining interest in the arts, but it can also go the other way, becoming what Rabkin called “a bi-directional issue.” </p><p>Rabkin also cautioned us to understand that moaning about arts attendance and its ties to arts education isn’t going to get us very far with our legislators. In his term, he expected such arguments to be viewed as “trivial.” Rather, we need to advocate for arts education on its own terms, secure in the knowledge that instituting such reform will likely generate some increase in arts attendance in the years to come. </p>Clay Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05368046512133086509noreply@blogger.com1363tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-47311780594757424912011-02-22T14:08:00.001-08:002011-02-22T14:48:44.010-08:00The New Play Sector Talked (and talked, and talked, and talked) in the Capital<em>This special guest blogpost from Playwrights Foundation Artistic Director Amy Mueller first appeared on <a href="http://www.playwrightsfoundation.blogspot.com/">Playwrights Foundation's Blogspot</a>. Special thanks to Amy for letting us repost.</em><br /><br /><br /><br />Recently, I represented Playwrights Foundation at the New Play Convening at Arena Stage’s new <a href="http://www.arenastage.org/">Mead Center for American Theater</a>, hosted by the Bay Area’s own David Dower, founder of <a href="http://www.zspace.org/">Z Space Studio</a>, who is now Arena’s the Associate Artistic Director and architect of the American Voices New Play Institute at Arena Stage. It was an incredibly full four days, with a powerfully eclectic range of people from very different aesthetic/geographic/gender/age/cultural/ethnic identities, representing producing theaters of all sizes from all over, individual playwrights, ensemble theater makers, presenters, festivals, and yes, new play development labs and organizations like <a href="http://www.playwrightsfoundation.org/">Playwrights Foundation</a>.<br /><br />We did a lot of talking together, and a lot of listening. And those many conversations were a part of a national dialogue, all recorded, tweeted and livestreamed across the country. But all that listening and talking led us somewhere – somewhere that is intangible, and very hard to talk about succinctly. Nonetheless, the momentum of this event will, I believe, succeed in pushing the national agenda about the practices of developing and producing new work and the learning about ourselves and our (un)common work forward.<br /><br />Not everyone who deserved to be in this circle got to be, and I feel a responsibility to keep writing about it, to share my experience and bring your thoughts and words into the dialogue. If you were in the third circle, on twitter or live stream video, or, if you weren’t, and you want to tell me your thoughts, please respond to my posts here or on <a href="http://www.playwrightsfoundation.blogspot.com/">Playwrights Foundation’s Blogspot</a>.<br /><br />It seems fitting that we met up in DC where our elected reps are right now fighting tooth and nail to keep the NEA from becoming irrelevant. The NEA (a relatively tiny agency) plays a critical role in upholding our nation’s value for the arts, and its meaning to “We, The People” in a Democracy. If you haven’t expressed your opinion about cutting the NEA yet, please take <a href="http://www.capwiz.com/artsusa/issues/alert/?alertid=13209311&type=CO">this opportunity</a> to do so! I did it in 5 minutes yesterday, and yeah, I felt that glow of citizenship wash over me. No, really, it is extremely important for us to speak up! Do it NOW, and then finish reading this. Okay, so...<br /><br />Online there is a rich debate raging about NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman’s controversial and frank discussion on the issue of supply and demand in the American theater. You can read lots of interesting commentary on these links <a href="http://www.artsjournal.com/jumper/2011/02/">Diane Ragsdale</a> and <a href="http://newplay.arenastage.org/2011/01/fighting-words-from-rocco-landesman.html">Arena Stage Blog</a> and <a href="http://www.arts.gov/artworks/?p=5402">NEA Blog</a> and I suggest you do. These are some awesomely challenging times for us. It is dangerous, I think, to be dismissive of the firestorm of anti-intellectual, anti-culture backlash. To imagine that our relevancy to the majority is a shared value is myopic. But in the face of a real and present danger, losing faith is not an option. As cultural workers, as the planters and sowers of cultural seedlings, we are damn sure we are relevant but are challenged by issues of solvency.<br /><br />One of my favorite quotes from the New Play Convening was from Diane Ragsdale, who herself was quoting a professor: “A model is the representation of your beliefs about causality.” Think about it. I don't know about you, but at PF, we are constantly questioning our beliefs about our outcomes, and by inference our models of development. We are constantly making, deconstructing and redesigning our 'model(s)' (for organizational structure, staff roles, governance, and programs for play and playwright advancement). I love the notion that at the heart of all those developing models is belief about impact, a belief about what we mean to cause and how.<br /><br />So we new play makers are stuck here between blind, passionate belief and the requirement to quantify our impact. Believing in our work, believing it actually does make a difference, in so many ways, as we so claim, believing in art as a transformative experience of beauty, is absolutely essential to making the work – and yet, (and yet), we must become experts in making the case for its relevancy, and become savvy in the business of solvency.<br /><br />For me, sitting together with colleagues, new and old friends, and talking about our shared passion and our shared responsibility for carrying this work forward, that is, making new theater possible, was exhilarating and inspirational. I did cry a few times, and laughed a lot. Mostly, I listened, actively, heartfully, thoughtfully. It turns out that listening was itself the springboard. And you can listen, too: it's all available at <a href="http://www.livestream.com/newplay">#newplaytv</a>.<br /><br />Here's to: carrying the flame of passion, the innocence of blind belief, and the wicked ass savvy of financial know-how.<br /><br />- Amy Mueller<br />Artistic Director, Playwrights FoundationPlaywrights Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13487152211469747285noreply@blogger.com693tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-4585927262456638712011-02-04T09:55:00.000-08:002011-02-04T13:41:37.162-08:00Envisioning AlternativesEarlier this week, we generated a heated discussion about Rocco Landesman's <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/28/AR2011012806232.html">comments</a> at the <a href="http://arenastage.org/new-play-institute/">New Play Institute</a> on our <a href="http://blog.theatrebayarea.org/2011/02/supply-demand-and-apple-trees-thoughts.html">blog</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#%21/theatrebayarea">Facebook</a> page. I walked away from that discussion with the sense that yes, our theatrical ecosystem (from a business standpoint) is unsustainable. Many (sadly, most) theatre artists work for nothing or next to nothing. In spite of this, we are indeed witnessing a rapid increase in the amount of theatre companies springing up around the country, and that increase is concurrent with an alarming decrease in funding sources for these theatre companies. However, as the reaction around the blogosphere is indicating, simply suggesting that we have too many theatre companies without proposing meaningful alternatives to the current system is overly simplistic and frustrating to artists whose life's work is in question.<br /><br />That's where this post comes in. I would like to set aside this space to envision alternatives to the traditional models that many artists follow as criticized by Landesman: to produce a play or two with friends, to identify a niche in the theatre community, or at least a solid group of artists with whom one wants to continue to work, and then to form a theatre company with said artists. I have noticed a tendency in the theatre community to view creating a new theatre company as a necessary step in legitimizing one's work and building an audience. In our current theatrical environment, this is absolutely true. But can we imagine other systems in which this might not be as much of an issue?<br /><br />Should established theatre companies, for example, create more opportunities for less established artists to create? What if large companies dedicated a certain amount of resources to smaller-scale "theatre laboratories" in which fringe artists could experiment with the form without having to create an entire theatre infrastructure of their own? How would the large companies benefit from such arrangements?<br /><br />Could a group of smaller companies pool their resources to establish one umbrella nonprofit coop of sorts that serves all of them (run by a centralized managing director), much as arts organizations will pool their resources to share an office or performance space? Would such a thing even be legally and/or logistically feasible? Would this eliminate enough overhead costs to justify the added logistical headaches?<br /><br />What sort of infrastructure would need to be in place, do you think, so that artists would no longer need to create organizations to satisfy their artistic impulses?Elanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15850005581506703862noreply@blogger.com177tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-62802734340476495632011-02-01T08:50:00.000-08:002011-02-01T13:55:42.118-08:00Supply, Demand and Apple Trees - thoughts on the Landesman speech<span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:#000000;"><em>This blog post represents my views and my views alone. These thoughts are not meant to be representative of the views of any organization I work for.<br /></em><br />NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman dropped a bombshell on the </span></span><a href="http://arenastage.org/new-play-institute/"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >New Play Institute national convening</span></a><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" > last week in the form of eight words: </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/28/AR2011012806232.html"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >“We are overbuilt…there are too many theatres.”</span></a><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:#000000;"><br /><br />I'm sad I wasn't actually there to hear the speech, though the full thing is </span><a href="http://newplay.arenastage.org/2011/01/rocco-landesman-responds.html"><span style="color:#000000;">here</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. But this statement and its surrounding arguments have sparked a fire </span></span><a href="http://www.2amtheatre.com/2011/01/31/dear-rocco/"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >across</span></a><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" > </span><a href="http://www.arts-marketing.blogspot.com/"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >the</span></a><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" > </span><a href="http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2011/01/financial_shakeout_do_we_need.html"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >theatre</span></a><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" > </span><a href="http://nctc.typepad.com/blog/2011/01/supply-and-demand-and-theatre-what-rocco-said.html"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >blogosphere</span></a><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >. (Even the <em><a href="http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/landesman-comments-on-theater/?partner=rss&emc=rss"><span style="color:#000000;">New York Times</span></a></em> got into the act.)<br /><br />Essentially, Landesman argues that we are (and have been, for a while) in an era where even as arts funding and arts attendance decrease each year, arts non-profits continue to sprout up all over the country. Here are some samples from a blog he wrote in response to some of the criticism his speech got at </span><a href="http://www.arts.gov/artworks/?p=5402"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >Art Works</span></a><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >, gathering around the hashtag #SupplyDemand:<br /><br /></span><br /><br /><blockquote><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >“The NEA’s 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA)…reports a five percentage point decrease in arts audiences in this country. This is juxtaposed against a 23% increase in not-for-profit arts organizations, and a rate of growth for not-for-profit performing arts organizations, specifically, that was 60% greater than that for the total U.S. population.”<br /><br /></span></blockquote><br /><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >And later:<br /><br /></span><br /><br /><blockquote><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >“I care passionately about the arts in this country, and I believe that they will always play a vital role in who we are as an American people. But in order to get to where we need to be, we are going to have to have some uncomfortable conversations and prepare ourselves for a not-for-profit arts sector of the future that does not necessarily look the way it looks today.”<br /></span></blockquote><br /><br /><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >This whole thing reminds me of the mini-dust-up we had on this blog a while back around a post I wrote on whether </span><a href="http://blog.theatrebayarea.org/2010_05_01_archive.html"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >art needed to justify its existence</span></a><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >. A lot of people got really mad at that idea, using many of the arguments being made back to Landesman about his proposals: </span><br /><br /><ul><br /><li><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >that art is not commerce, and should not be treated in the same profit/loss, supply/demand way that commercial things are </span></li><br /><li><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >that arbitrating value of art is a waste of time, as the value is subjective and can be measured neither by the amount of money a piece of art generates nor by how many people see it </span></li><br /><li><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >that the playing field is uneven and grossly favors the largest animals in the forest. </span></li></ul><br /><p><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >I guess what I see here is what makes the arts world so fascinating and vibrant—the push/pull of aesthetes and economists, of artists and pragmatists (if those two things should be juxtaposed…I know plenty of pragmatic artists, although it’s worth pointing out that many of them are viewed as “sell outs”).<br /><br />In a conversation yesterday about Landesman’s speech, one person who was there expressed how upset he was about what he saw as a lack of understanding that what Landesman was proposing would essentially rip the rug out from under many artists who have toiled away at this work for decades. Another said that she thought she probably agreed with a lot of what Landesman said, but that his tone was so off-putting she couldn’t be sure. I can understand both points, although from reading what has followed from Landesman, I’m not sure that’s what Landesman meant to convey.<br /><br />When you strip away the tone, rhetoric and personality associated with the ideas, I find (for myself, here) that I can’t really find flaw in the equation. I think of the apple tree in the backyard of my old apartment building, which sat untended and overgrown. Every year, what seemed like thousands and thousands of blossoms would pop open on the branches, and then all of them would be pollinated and, since we none of us owned the tree, no one would pinch off any of the fruit. The tree, every year, would become burdened by all the fruit—the branches would bend, the leaves would start to look weak, and the fruit itself was small and sallow—a victim of its own ubiquity.<br /><br />If we as an industry (as we have) have set ourselves up to believe that there’s always room for one more apple on the tree, that the default to success is to create a non-profit theatre company of your very own, then we shouldn’t be surprised that we’re all feeling a little malnourished. In this, of course, we need to lay the blame where it belongs, which is with everyone on every step of the ladder from top-heavy arts organizations that favor known artists over new blood to funders who only fund organizations (and then of a certain size, with a certain pedigree and production history) to, yes, service organizations and other support groups that have for years encouraged unchecked proliferation of organizations and an egalitarian, everyone-deserves-equal-support-regardless attitude.<br /><br />Might we not, as Landesman seems to be arguing at least in part, all feel a little healthier if we spent some time tending to ourselves? Setting aside for the moment the large, scary questions about what that really means, and setting aside the reality that art is commerce, and needs to function on the same set of rules as anything else (namely that if supply outstrips demand, the correct answer is not to prop up the extra supply) – setting aside all of that, I still have to wonder if we’re best served by the current system, or if perhaps the foundation world (and it’s not just Landesman—former Mellon program officer Diane Ragsdale has </span><a href="http://www.artsjournal.com/jumper/2011/01/overstocked-arts-pond-fish-too-big-fish-too-many/"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >written similarly</span></a><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >, and Hewlett program officer Ron Ragin has </span><a href="http://theatrebayarea.org/mag/article.jsp?thispage=archives.jsp&id=595"><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" >warned</span></a><span style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,0);" > of the perils of assuming organizations' permanence) is going to force us to take a long, hard, healthy look at our industry.<br /><br />Perhaps we’re at an inflection point where “more is better” needs to turn into, as Landesman writes, “we are here to ensure the survival of the most creative and most dynamic.”<br /></span></p>Clay Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05368046512133086509noreply@blogger.com597tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-57440963105907052772011-01-20T12:54:00.000-08:002011-01-26T10:30:04.629-08:00Self-Producing: A Case StudyWhen’s the last time you saw the phrase “all remaining performances are completely sold out”? It’s everyone’s dream but how often is it a reality? A few weeks ago, I was among those that got to see a performance in the sold-out run of <span style="font-style: italic;">Becoming Julia Morgan </span>at the Berkeley City Club (it closed January 9th). I was struck by the steady stream of audience members filing in (and those turned away) and was even more inspired by the fact that Becoming Julia Morgan is a self-produced project. I checked in with Belinda Taylor, the playwright, and producer Sabrina Klein to see how the experience of self-producing played out.<br /><br />Former <span style="font-style: italic;">Theatre Bay Area </span>(then <span style="font-style: italic;">Callboard</span>) editor-in-chief Belinda Taylor finished her first play a few years ago after being commissioned by Klein (who at the time was the executive director of the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts and former executive director of Theatre Bay Area. <span style="font-style: italic;">Becoming Julia Morgan</span>, a play investigating the life and legacy of the architectural legend, had an award-winning, sold-out run in Sacramento in 2006. The next step seemed obvious: mount a Bay Area production. But Taylor found it a bit harder for the idea to gain traction than she had anticipated, especially since Klein had since left JMCA. So what to do? Klein came on as producer and Barbara Oliver (legendary director and a founder of Aurora Theatre) joined up as director, and the nucleus of a huge self-producing project began. Klein says, “It’s not like we said ‘Hey, let’s produce the play on our own!’ It was more, ‘Ok, no one else believes in this play as much as we do, so let’s make it happen on our own.”<br /><br />Once the core group was established, the planning began in earnest. Luckily, this trio of esteemed professionals had varied experiences and a network of resources to tap into. A wide array of new contacts became interested in the show and supported the road to production. Playwrights Foundation became the fiscal sponsor. After a nudge from a colleague, Taylor found a couple who owned a Julia Morgan home and was willing to offer it up as a venue for a fundraiser. Various vendors contributed wine, food and other items for a silent auction at the fundraiser. Add to that list the performers who donated their time to the fundraiser in order to give attendees a preview of the show, and this first fundraiser raised about half of what was needed to get the show going. A second fundraiser at a private residence raised the remainder. After securing pro bono PR work from Taylor’s colleague Gary Carr of Rising Moon Marketing; PR, things really started moving. Peets Coffee in Berkeley came on board and store manager Scott Soo-Hoo (of the Vine Street location in Berkeley) even created a “Julia Morgan Roast” for the run of the play. Taylor says, “My friends in Bay Area theatre and in Bay Area media were definitely an added bonus.”<br /><br />Klein refers to a number of benefits of self-producing: “We were not tied to any mission outside this one show. We could brand ourselves strictly as experts on Julia Morgan and as three women who love architecture, history and Julia Morgan’s work, giving us a common bond with a lot of non-theatre people. We had no reputation to prove or to overcome (the flip side of having no reputation to build on!), which can be a positive. We were incredibly agile, responding to opportunities as they came up. Many small companies are like that, but we really felt it was a strength in our case too.”<br /> <br />Her biggest recommendations for the self-producer: Ask for advice and build on existing resources. In this case, what the team lacked in both infrastructure and access to a deep rolodex was offset by the expertise of those in the team members' inner circle. The members relied on their fiscal agent, Playwrights Foundation (to help with insurance, Actors' Equity and liability issues), CentralWorks (to help them understand what it would take to produce and perform in the space), neighboring theatre Shotgun Players (who provided a number of referrals and recommendations for the creative and support team) and, of course, Barbara Oliver (whose reputation helped bring quality designers into the mix). And you never know where someone in your circle will lead you. For example, Anne Smith got an invitation for the first fundraiser in March (the show opened in December) and instantly invited the team to appear at the Commonwealth Club in August. About 50 people who love Julia Morgan (or architecture, or historical female role models, or some combination of the three) showed up, including four who ended up as donors and one who ended up as a volunteer and who then made even more connections for the production in the world of architecture.<br /><br />Klein closes her advice with a note that a great ticketing service matters. In this case, the Julia Morgan team used a combination of Brown Paper Tickets and, yes, Theatre Bay Area’s own TIX (www.tixbayarea.org).<br /><br />Aside from logistics, were Klein and Taylor pleased with the final results? "It was an experience like no other," says Taylor of watching her play performed at the final preview. "Everything came together: costumes, lights, sound, scenery, props, actors. My play was on its feet. I was somewhere on cloud 9. Dazzled. Astonished. Grateful.”<br /><br />Have you ever self-produced? If so, what was the experience like for you? Have you ever wanted to self-produce? What’s holding you back?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com183tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-82397191155500679842011-01-05T14:33:00.000-08:002011-01-05T14:40:05.705-08:00Invitation to the PartyA while back, I was asked to be a panelist at a local event: SQUART (Spontaneous Queer Art), curated by local artist Laura Arrington and sponsored by The Lab. At the event, 40-some artists assembled at the venue and were split into four teams and given parameters for a performance. Two short hours later, each team performed a piece that they had developed collaboratively. After each team presentation, four panelists from the field commented on the work (check out the January issue of Theatre Bay Area for some more thoughts on that experience!). Scores were given based on agreed-upon parameters (and even some wild-card parameters: on my night, nudity got extra points). The highest scoring presentation won a small cash prize.<br /><br />I was, in a word, amazed. Even though some of the performers didn't know each other, let alone know their teammates' respective skills, I was completely impressed with how well they handled being thrust into a collaborative performance. The ability they all demonstrated in being able to come together, absorb the given parameters and present a performance was remarkable to me.<br /><br />Acting as an audience member in the performances was just as exciting as being a panelist. The festival actively engaged audience members in the performances by adding an "audience participation" component to the given parameters. Because of this component, an interesting dynamic arose. One of the performances began in a darkened room and delivered very stern, clear instructions about how we, the audience members, should watch and behave during the piece. The piece continued and no further instructions were given. The performance progressed to the point that if an audience member (like myself) continued to follow the initial instructions, he wouldn't be able to see or hear anything that was happening. The other panelists quickly abandoned the initial instructions and followed the mass of people in the middle of the room to see what was happening. I found myself with a choice: do I follow? Or should I trust that the initial instructions will offer a payoff that I might miss otherwise? I opted for the latter and was somewhat bitter that there was no payoff and that, from my vantage point, I missed 95% of the performance.<br /><br />I don’t mean to criticize the artists involved. In fact, I was told from the people who did experience the full performance that it was actually quite extraordinary. But my experience does highlight an interesting question: In the fully-staged productions that we work on for weeks, or months, or years, how do we give our audiences an invitation to the party? Or do we invite them at all?<br /><br />As an avid theatergoer, I am in tune with the protocol of attending theatre. But do patrons new to theatre know what traditional protocols tend to be? They might wonder: Why is texting or tweeting during a show such a hot button? Why can’t I get up and walk on the stage during the show? How quiet should I be during the performance? What if I have to go to the bathroom? In an age of shrinking arts education in schools, where people often miss any early exposure to theatre, these are real questions. Does an audience member’s uncertainty around doing something wrong generate a fear that keeps them away? Have they attended theatre before and felt burned by doing something others thought was inappropriate?<br /><br />During my SQUART experience, I didn't feel like a theatre veteran. I felt as a person entirely new to theatre might feel. How often do our audience members feel like they are missing out on the full experience of being an "insider?" Do they feel "invited" to the experience? And if not, what are we doing to welcome them? This issue isn't simply about house manager announcements or usher rules or instructions. This is about the artistic choices that we make. What do you do to involve theatre "outsiders?"<br /><br />Check out the next SQUART happening Sunday January 09, 2011 at SomARTS. Info available at www.lauraarringtondance.comUnknownnoreply@blogger.com219tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-59476855034710233752010-11-11T12:42:00.000-08:002010-11-11T13:51:10.356-08:00Claire's Book Club: The Inciting IncidentI have the same bad habit most book (and theatre) lovers have: I buy more plays than I can actually read. They teeter dangerously on my nightstand and crowd my shelves like rush hour MUNI commuters. Orphaned about my apartment, these scripts stare longingly at me as I ignore them in favor of lesser entertainments. Yet I still thrill at the hunt every time I enter a new or used bookstore. I make a beeline for the drama section and comb the shelves looking for the next play that will inspire or corrupt, enlighten or injure, entertain or enrage. But after a recent trip to the Friends of the Library Book Sale (where I bought literally pounds of new plays), I have decided that enough is enough. I must read what I own.<br /><br />Why not write about it as I go? Readers, here's the mission: I intend to work my way through the pile of plays on my nightstand (and shelves, and coffee table) to relieve my buyer's guilt and, perhaps, inspire a little critical discussion along the way. Twice a month, I will write reviews of the plays I have read, as a way of keeping myself accountable and exposing you the reader to writers new and old.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Reading List:</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The Shipment </span>by Young Jean Lee, TCG<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The Revenger's Tragedy </span>credited to Cyril Tourneur (or Thomas Middleton, depending on what day of the week it is), edited by Lawrence J. Ross, University of Nebraska Press<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Shipment </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">by Young Jean Lee, TCG</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">"Ever hear the one about the white theater critic and the black identity-politics play by the Korean-American writer?"<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">- David Cote, writing in the New York Times about The Shipment in 2009.<br /><br /></div>This play requires five actors. Four male, one female. All African American. The costuming and props are specific and integral to the script. The set for the first half of the show doesn't have to be much more then acting blocks, but the second half requires realism. I would not recommend this play for actors looking for monologues or scene work for classes and auditions unless guided by a coach or teacher. This play is not for the faint of heart--it pushes buttons and experiments with structure and narrative.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The Shipment </span>is the first play by Young Jean Lee I have had the privilege to read. I knew I was going to love it before I even cracked the binding. I fell in love with Lee at first <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times</span> online review sight. I love a creator with mendacity/audacity/tenacity...and the talent and wisdom to back it up.<br /><br />The play is really a treatise on the depiction of race in the entertainment industry (and specifically in live theatre). Using clichés and caricatures as her broad strokes, Lee builds her story so the audience is unsure of who the joke is on until the last line. The Shipment contains one of the most powerful endings I've ever read. I can't get it out of my head. The play is often funny, but each punch line is really a set up for the conclusion.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Revenger's Tragedy </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">by Cyril Tourneur (or Thomas Middleton or someone else...)</span><br /><br />Fourteen or more speaking parts. Numerous nobles and judges and rabble. Only three women's roles. There's plenty of opportunity for double casting, but I wouldn't recommend changing the genders of the characters unless there is a specific concept in mind. This is an English language Jacobean tragedy, and can be performed with a unit set and basic props and costuming. Weapons will be needed as the last scene is an utter and all-consuming bloodbath. Good monologues for men, and some really great scenes for two or three actors. The question is: Is it a tragedy, dark with gruesome horrors...or is it a dark comedy, gruesome for its satirical treatment of horror?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Gratiana: No, he was too wise to trust me with his thoughts.<br />Vindince: I'faith then, father, thou wast wise indeed;<br />"Wives are but made to go to bed and to feed."<br /><br /></div>Women suffer page after page of this sort of treatment. When a woman isn't being raped, she’s seducing or killing or worse…whining. There are only whores and virgins in the world of this play, except all the virgins are raped and turned into whores. When a rapist is brought before a judge he says of his crimes: "My fault being sport; let me but die in jest." What a guy.<br /><br />So, this play was not funny "ha ha." But, the more I read, the more absurd the treatment of women became and I began to wonder at it's purpose. Tourneur seems to be about pushing buttons, not unlike Young Jean Lee. The scenarios are so ridiculous, the plots so confusing, the twists so twisty that I couldn't help but find in these pages true flashes of satiric subversion and a devilish eyebrow cocked toward a bloody patriarchy.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A closing tip for voracious readers:</span><br /><br />My favorite place to hunt for new plays is a university book store. If you've ever wanted to break into the reading lists of the best theatre minds in the country, run to the universities where they teach and stand in the bookstore line. San Francisco State University is an excellent resource for new plays. Yes, I order plays from Samuel French, TCG and Amazon, but for those days when I just want to browse and don’t want to be once again disappointed by a Borders or some other big chain, the SFSU Bookstore is a great place to go.<br /><br />So…what are you reading?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com525tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-15237098621285128612010-11-09T08:42:00.000-08:002010-11-09T11:25:57.421-08:00Perils of Free?In Friday's <a href="http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs073/1102382269951/archive/1102984717629.html">You've Cott Mail</a>, way down at the bottom, Thomas Cott includes a quick quote from Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis, given as part of a larger article in <a href="http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20101104/FREE/101109925">Crane's New York</a> about how major New York arts organizations are engaging the younger generation. Eustis' quote hits pretty close to home in terms of innovative audience development, not because what he's talking about is revolutionary, but because he speaks about the shortcomings of one of the most-well-known free-ticketed events in the country, Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park. Here's the quote, with some extra context pulled from the article:<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>Oskar Eustis, artistic director of The Public Theater, said the arts need to be more accessible for everyone. Even the nonprofit theater's free Shakespeare in the Park creates barriers.<br /><br />“By giving Shakespeare away for free, it has become inaccessible for many,” Mr. Eustis said. “Tell someone they have to wait six to 36 hours in line for a ticket and it erases 90% of population that would have considered going.” </blockquote><br /><br />In some ways, this is a quote that one can react strongly to without really being empathic about the Public's situation--after all, we're not all just sitting there with drastically popular, massively funded free programming where the demand highly exceeds the supply. But, here at Theatre Bay Area, we're in the enviable or unenviable position of having a similar issue. We've been grappling with this same (relative) issue in the context of our Free Night of Theater program, in which we annually distribute about 5,000 to 6,000 free theatre tickets, and also annually disappoint between 20,000 and 30,000 unlucky people who don't get tickets, don't get the tickets they want, or get overly frustrated by the (admittedly arduous, or at least not hoop-free) process of getting the tickets.<br /><br /><br /><br />We've tried various ways to "share the wealth" of the program--we do targeted giveaways to businesses whose employees seem likely candidates to become repeat arts consumers while also setting up various roadblocks to dissuade repeat Free Nighters from being able to easily access the tickets. But it's hard, and so when I saw Eustis' quote it got me thinking.<br /><br /><br /><br />How can we, as artists, arts administrators and (yes) businesspeople balance success with access? How can we make sure, in the case of Free Night, that we're continuing to make the arts available to new people while also ensuring, for the companies' sakes, that we're getting those tickets to audiences that are likely to return (and pay)? What does it say when the leader of one of the biggest free theatrical events in the world essentially says that the very "freeness" of the event "erases 90% of the population that would have considered going?"<br /><br /><br /><br />In the case of the Public, they're addressing this inequity by creating a "mobile Shakespeare" unit, the goal of which is to take the art to some subset of those people who can't or won't wait in line. And in our case, we're looking at turning Free Night upside down over the course of the next year and seeing if there's a way to keep the success of the program while also improving some of the inherent problems we've tried and failed to solve in the last six years. We'll see how it goes...but we're open to suggestions.Clay Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05368046512133086509noreply@blogger.com423tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-12926246387558349002010-11-05T10:04:00.000-07:002010-11-05T11:47:39.102-07:00Live-Tweeting at the PlayhouseOn October 21, I did something that made the arts marketer in me sing and the director in me cringe: I live-tweeted a performance of The Sunset Limited at <a href="http://www.sfplayhouse.org/">SF Playhouse</a>.<br /><br />Before you throw tomatoes at me (or pat me on the back), allow me to qualify: I was participating in the Playhouse Pluggers night, which is a designated performance for tweeters to plug away on their little portable electronic devices. One performance of each SF Playhouse show is "set aside," as it were, for volunteer "pluggers" to take over the back row of the theatre (where they won't disrupt other patrons) and tweet to their hearts' content.<br /><br />In spite of being somewhat of a Twitter outsider,* I decided to participate primarily as a follow-up to an article that my Theatre Bay Area colleague Clay Lord wrote about technology in theatre (or perhaps more accurately, theatre in technology). For those of you interested (and you should all be interested because this is a seriously brilliant article), you can read it <a href="http://www.theatrebayarea.org/mag/article.jsp?thispage=archives.jsp&id=608">here</a>. In it, Clay brings up the topic of texting (or tweeting) during performances as one of the most controversial intersections of theatre and technology, citing that 93% of Bay Area theatregoers polled were against texting during a play. The reactions, according to Clay, "ranged from 'Awful, the height of rudeness,' to 'Obnoxious!' to 'Those people should be hung by their toenails and allowed to die in the town square.'" While I find public toenail hanging highly repulsive, I must admit that my first reaction to the idea of a "tweet night" at the theatre was not entirely positive. I'm all for creative marketing and artistic experimentation, but (as a relative Twitter outsider) the idea of live-tweeting a performance seemed lame or distracting at best and obnoxious or disrespectful at worst.<br /><br />Nonetheless, I did my duty as a Theatre Bay Area representative, got dinner with my non-tweeting guest (every experiment needs a good "control" subject), and tweeted The Sunset Limited-inspired haikus in preparation for the tweet marathon that was to come. From the moment I arrived at the Playhouse, I felt like I was in some sort of VIP club. SF Playhouse is very conscientious about making its pluggers feel as welcome as possible by doing two things: telling us not to censor ourselves and giving us free wine.<br /><br />The most exciting part of my experience as a live-tweeter (aside from the wine) was the community of pluggers of which I was a part. There was @anthoknees, a theatre aficionado and actor who learned of the program through a friend and jumped at the opportunity for free theatre tickets. There was comedian @aliciadattner, artistic director of <a href="http://www.chatrouletteshow.com/">The Illuminated Theatre</a> @jonathanwbender, theatre afficionado and second-time plugger @n_a_k, and plugger veteran @scottragle who had participated in every plugger's night since its inception back in March. Though I was a bit intimidated by the experienced tweeters and their shiny new iPhones, I was immediately accepted by them (even with my sad little Blackberry that had been overhauled hours earlier so as to run a functional Twitter app).<br /><br />"I just tweet my thoughts," said Anthony Williams (@anthoknees), sensing my hesitation during the last few minutes before the show started. "It's sort of like breathing. Things just come to you and you share them."<br /><br />As a chronic over-thinker, as someone who likes to plan out everything I put down in writing, then re-read it a few dozen times before I publish it, this new way of viewing (and responding to) theatre is pretty radical. The lights went down in the theatre and I gave myself a little pep talk, something to the effect of "OK, brain, you've served me pretty well so far, but please please please find something more interesting to tweet about than 'actor 2 crosses stage left.'"<br /><br />While I had many reservations going into the experience, these concerns were quickly alleviated. Because what happened almost immediately is that, when the lights came up on the show, we entered into a fast-paced, on-topic, continually evolving conversation about the play (all typed, of course). Since I was watching my co-conspirators twitter their musings on the show while I was watching the show, I picked up on quite a few details that I might have missed otherwise. It was surprisingly exciting to have the instant gratification of tweeting an observation of the play and having that observation validated instantly by a community of alert, insightful theatregoers. I bonded with this group of strangers more than I have ever done at a theatre performance, even during post-show schmoozy-type parties. With so many theatre companies touting mission statements that declare a desire to bring people together through art, this is a pretty significant accomplishment in itself. Though I am usually a very attentive theatergoer, I don't believe I have ever engaged so fully with a play. I was so mentally exhausted by the end of the play from 90 straight minutes of watching, analyzing, reading and responding to all aspects of the play that all I wanted to do was go home and go to sleep.<br /><br />On the other hand, I must say that my experience of the art itself suffered. Because I was engaged with so many different forms, I missed some key plot points, pivotal shifts in the power dynamics and even a "happy accident"--when one of the actors (I'm assuming) mistakenly knocked over a glass of water, I found out about it first through the tweets of my peers and only looked up in time to see Carl Lumbly cleaning up the wreckage. In fact, I left the production feeling that I would need to see it again in order to get a complete sense of the artistic choices that were made by the actors, director and playwright.<br /><br />Ultimately, it strikes me that the debate over Twitter in theatre is a symptom of larger conversation that theatres are either avoiding or jumping into head-first: how do we remain relevant when the ways in which people engage with art (and each other) are changing? I very much doubt that allowing people to text during a play is the ultimate solution (not that it's claiming to be, or that there is one be-all-end-all solution) and it certainly isn't right for all theatres. But it is an interesting tool to remind us to reexamine the ways in which we as artists and/or forward-thinking arts administrators can use technology to our advantage rather than avoiding it altogether.<br /><br />What are you (either on the artistic or the marketing/admin side of things) doing to engage with this issue?<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Information about the SF Playhouse Pluggers program can be found <a href="http://www.sfplayhouse.org/pages/pluggers.php">here</a>. To read the pluggers' live-tweets of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Sunset Limited, </span>visit <a href="http://twitter.com/SFPlayhouse">here</a>. To read my posts exclusively (eegads!) go <a href="http://twitter.com/theatrebayarea">here</a> and scroll down to October 21.</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">*I never said I wasn't biased. I mean, I actually find the concept of Twitter to be pretty cool, but every time I try to use it (ok, the half-dozen-or-so times I've tried to use it), something goes awry and I get that horrible whale-being-held-up-by-birds-that-must-possess-superbird-strength-because-they're-really-tiny-and-that-whale-is-huge. And I want to hate the whale because it's telling me that I can't do what I want to do, but then I discover that it's called the "Fail Whale" which is so obnoxiously cute that I can't muster more than a vague sense of disapproval for the whale. And then I just end up feeling guilty for disapproving of a whale that is clearly being stolen by a flock of evil supergenius birds on steroids that are probably going to conduct painful scientific experiments on the poor, unsuspecting whale. I could really go on and on about the emotional turmoil caused by my encounters with that silly, complicated whale but I have a blog post to get back to.</span>Elanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15850005581506703862noreply@blogger.com301tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-75586639608314820922010-11-03T09:59:00.000-07:002010-11-03T10:29:14.291-07:00Arts Message Gets Through!<div>Did everyone hear Governor-Elect Jerry Brown's victory speech last night? It was an amazing win for the arts. First, Brown chose to hold his victory party in Oakland's beautifully refurbished Fox Theater, home to Oakland's public School for the Arts, which Brown helped create during his tenure as mayor. </div><div> </div><br /><div>In his speech, Brown referenced the theatre and the school as examples of the renewal he hopes to bring to the state. He went on to say that the school and the arts exemplify the "creativity and innovation" that California needs for the 21st century.</div><div> </div><br /><div>This is a huge win for the arts. Let it sink in that our new governor, unscripted, articulated the core value of the arts in his victory speech. This from the man who created the California Arts Council more than 30 years ago. </div><div> </div><br /><div>Congratulations to everyone involved in the nonpartisan Arts in the Governor's Race Campaign, and to all advocates of the arts who have been working for so long to get our message out. Last night's victory speech gives us all reason to celebrate.</div>Brad Ericksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17774331104314630210noreply@blogger.com237tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-58175126649744596142010-10-26T12:50:00.000-07:002010-10-27T11:30:50.633-07:00Oh, the Joys of Live Theatre<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> <w:dontvertaligncellwithsp/> <w:dontbreakconstrainedforcedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> <w:word11kerningpairs/> <w:cachedcolbalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathpr> <m:mathfont val="Cambria Math"> <m:brkbin val="before"> <m:brkbinsub val="--"> <m:smallfrac val="off"> <m:dispdef/> <m:lmargin val="0"> <m:rmargin val="0"> <m:defjc val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent val="1440"> <m:intlim val="subSup"> <m:narylim val="undOvr"> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" defunhidewhenused="true" defsemihidden="true" defqformat="false" defpriority="99" latentstylecount="267"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="0" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Normal"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="heading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="35" qformat="true" name="caption"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="10" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" name="Default Paragraph Font"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="11" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtitle"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="22" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Strong"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="20" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="59" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Table Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Placeholder Text"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="No Spacing"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Revision"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="34" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="List Paragraph"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="29" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="30" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="19" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="21" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="31" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="32" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="33" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class="MsoNormal">I recently made a reservation to see a show at a local theatre. I received an email back from the artistic director, who had also directed the show, saying that she hoped I still wanted to come, but that she felt that she had to tell me in advance that she would be going on carrying a script in place of an actor that had left the show. Of course I still went, not only because I know her to be a great actor and wanted to support the theatre, but also because I had great deal of interest in seeing this particular show. I replied as such and also added, in jest, something to the effect of “I hope you aren’t also house managing and running the light board!" Imagine my surprise when I walked into the theatre and she actually was house managing!<br /></p> <br />I was reminded of an opening night performance I attended a number of years ago at a large Equity house, where the lead actor had left the show a few days before opening and the director went on in place of the actor, script in hand. It was one of the most memorable and moving nights of theatre I have ever experienced. In that case, the artistic director made a pre-show announcement providing the context of “Oh, the joys of live theatre.” In both cases, the script became virtually invisible, either due to the skillful physical handling of the script, the performance/skill of the director/actor or some combination of the two.<br /><br />What struck me most about both of these experiences is that there was an almost palpable electricity onstage. There seemed to be a renewed focus and increased energy from all of the players. The actors and the entire production team rallied together in a way they couldn’t have possibly done in the absence of this adversity. The end result, though likely very different from the rehearsed "product," was, in my estimation, probably a more energized, committed and focused performance for all.<br /><br />The audience in both of these cases approached their experience differently as well. They were almost uniformly rooting for the team to pull it off and even looked forward to the story they would be able to tell their theatre-going friends: “I was there when….” They also were, probably unconsciously, even more attentive, observant and gracious than they would have been otherwise.<br /><br />While none of us would ever wish for something to go awry during the run of a show, such instances epitomize some of the things I love most about theatre: its risk and its immediacy. As an artist, these brushes with theatre "disasters" remind me to challenge myself: am I always bringing as much focus and commitment to the work I am doing as I can?<br /><br />I’m sure we all have many similar stories, at theatres large and small. What are some of your best "I was there when..." stories (either as an audience member or as an actor)? How did the theatre "disasters" affect the experience as a whole, either for the actors or for the audience members?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com119tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-59881538148499492862010-10-21T06:00:00.000-07:002010-10-29T09:47:52.246-07:00Proving what we know is trueThis post originally appeared on ARTSblog.<br /><br />As artists and arts advocates, we all know, deep down, that Art Matters. But we continue to grapple with how best to talk about that value, to “justify” (a loaded word) or “prove” that the continued investment in infrastructure, arts education outreach and daily artistic input into the population-at-large is necessary to the creation of a tolerant, educated, empathic and energized society. The great work of Randy Cohen and Americans for the Arts on the economic front, including the creation of the Arts and Economic Prosperity Calculator, have gone a long way towards standardizing the arguments around economic impact of arts and culture, and has essentially gotten us all on the same page. But, and this language is getting to be a cliche, economic impact is only part of the answer – half of the answer at most, really – and getting to the point where we can talk about the intellectual, emotional, social, empathic impacts of the arts in the same specific, data-driven way as we can talk about the economics may open up a brave new world of advocacy for money, time and respect from the government, the funding establishment, the education system and our patrons.<br /><br />Of course, in some ways, we’re already good at getting at some version of what researcher Alan Brown calls the “intrinsic impact” of art – mostly in the form of testimonials from arts patrons. A well-formed interview can get you incredible stories of the transformational power of art, and such things, when well-packaged, can prove very valuable in the conversation with arts skeptics about the value of artistic work. But interviews are really, truly only part of the answer here, and as part of the National Arts Marketing Project Conference session, Did the Campaign Work?: Integrating Impact Assessment into your Strategies, we (Theatre Bay Area) will be unveiling a year-long research and development effort to create a web-based service for theaters and other arts organizations across the country to quantify the intrinsic impact of their work, generate easy-to-read dashboards, and provide sample survey and interview protocols to generate a new type of conversation using a new vocabulary. Working with research firm WolfBrown and arts service organization partners in Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, DC, Minneapolis and Philadelphia, Theatre Bay Area will generate a year-long set of activities focused around in-depth work with 18 theatre companies (including some of the most influential regional theaters in the country from Arena Stage to the Public Theater) across the course of a season. This work will include a whole battery of efforts from surveying to long-form interviews, video testimonials, web interface development, and a series of community forums in fall 2010 and summer 2011 – all in an effort to spark a change in the way we, as artists, evaluate and value the arts. Because ultimately, no matter how much we believe it in our hearts, we can’t effectively argue for the value of the arts to anyone if we can’t speak about the parts of art that go beyond restaurant tabs, parking fees and tolls – in a language our debate partners understand.<br /><br />We’re not trying to replace anything, we’re trying to add. In his book No Culture, No Future, Simon Brault notes, “…[A] one-dimensional and instrumental approach that would only justify or value artistic creation solely where it has calculable economic impact would be immensely more devastating for our society than underestimating the cultural sector’s economic contribution.”<br /><br />The expansion of the argument for the arts, which began to work its way into the social and intrinsic impact spheres in the 1990′s, must now move from half-million-dollar-plus one-off studies to egalitarianized, easily accessible, standardized tools that anyone from the smallest to the largest cultural institution can use to demonstrate and analyze their own value and their great effect on the social fabric. We need as many tools as possible, and must, in Brault’s words, “come to terms with variable logic and negotiate with a multitude of new partners.” To that, I’d only add, “in a language as concrete and standardized as that which we use to talk about economic impact.”<br /><br />For more in the Intrinsic Impact: Audience Feedback 2.0 study, visit http://www.theatrebayarea.org/intrinsicimpact, or come to our session!Clay Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05368046512133086509noreply@blogger.com58tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-44344073874267785322010-10-18T14:44:00.001-07:002010-10-19T13:24:32.015-07:00From the road: conversations about intrinsic impact, part 1For the past couple of weeks, I've gotten to travel to five of the six cities that are taking part in our big intrinsic impact study, and it's been a truly fascinating process. As a part of this work, we are sitting down with the artistic, marketing and management staff of each of the participating theaters for two hours to talk through the survey protocol and, more generally, to talk about where research, and specifically research about audience feedback, falls into the artistic selection process. Boy, do responses vary.<br /><br />In some cases, the staff seem to have a healthy conversation going with their audiences, creating what researcher Alan Brown, who is conducting the study via his firm WolfBrown, calls a "feedback loop." In other cases, the response seems muddy, and often indicates that the internal conversation about this question hasn't yet happened - or at least that a coherent consensus hasn't yet been reached. And then there are the companies that have a very clear view of things, and that view is that audience feedback sits nowhere near artistic selection.<br /><br />I don't know that there is a right answer here, although coming at it from a marketing point of view I see some real downsides to not at least taking audience feedback, especially the type of "intrinsic effects" feedback we are talking about in this study, into account at all. After one of the meetings, Alan talked to me about how he is fascinated by those maverick artistic directors who don't really engage in a conversation with their audiences, but manage to succeed (sometimes fabulously). Artists like that exist, and their existence is fantastic - they are able to build experiences that audiences don't even know they want. These people remind me of visual artists like Pollock, Picasso and Van Gogh, who created from their own vision, and who managed to tap into the public's vision over time.<br /><br />What is hard for me is that it seems clear that for every Van Gogh, there are thousands of artists out there who don't quite hit the zeitgeist, but think they will. When you loop it back to theatre, these are the leaders of theatre companies who think they are thisclose to being visionaries, to creating monumental work, but are in fact creating a bunch of insulated work that isn't really connecting. Maybe these artists are aware of this problem but don't feel that changing is a valid way forward. Or (more likely, I think) maybe these artists don't actually know whether or not their work is affecting in the ways they want it to be.<br /><br />Ultimately, of course, the work becomes unsustainable if no one will pay to see it. But what if incorporating just a little hat tip to the audience's emotional, intellectual and social connection - seeing how, as we will be able to do with this intrinsic impact study, the audience's experience matches up against the goals of what theatre companies want them to experience - could shift that trajectory and make that many more successful pieces, that many more affecting experiences?<br /><br />I'm interested in hearing how the conversation evolves over the year, and discovering who uses this information and how. We are prepared for some companies to simply set these results on a shelf and never look at them, though we hope that won't be the case. But even if in the end the leaders of a company decide that this type of work isn't their cup of tea, hopefully they'll figure out why they are resistant, and what the perceived threat is, and how real it is. That's a conversation, and in this case, that's success.Clay Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05368046512133086509noreply@blogger.com202tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-74672332734026244772010-08-19T17:14:00.000-07:002010-08-24T15:30:44.525-07:00Is this theatre? Who gets to decide?I'm in the midst right now of writing the third article in my series on community and theatre that's appearing in <em>Theatre Bay Area</em> magazine, following on the first two about physical spaces and neighborhoods (<a href="http://www.theatrebayarea.org/mag/article.jsp?thispage=mag.jsp&id=583">August</a>) and diversity and demographics (September). This third piece is all about technology, and the new form of community that the web and other technologies has created in the world--a community that is increasingly popular for a wide swath of the population. And in particular it seems to be about where the boundaries of "theatre" really are.<br /><br /><br />So I was very interested to see this <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/theater/20ride.html?_r=1&hpw">article</a> that just appeared at nytimes.com, filed under the theatre section, about a communal bike ride with soundtrack. It sounds really cool, but it hit me in a particular way because it made me wonder: what is the essence of theatre, and when does something stop being theatre and move on to being something else? Is a group of avatars performing an original play in the virtual world <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">World of Warcraft</span> theatre? Is, as was recently written about in the <em>Times</em>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/theater/28bumbum.html">a show put on for an audience of one in which the audience member is pushed from one upsetting situation to another like a television station changing channels</a> theatre? Is a bike ride with music theatre, if it's done by 50 people at once and is choreographed to use the city as the actor?<br /><br />In my interviews for this piece so far, there's been a throughline, particularly with artists, that theatre can be so much more than it is without losing its specialness. I've heard people argue that there are, in fact, very few requirements for a piece of theatre: it doesn't need a specific space, it doesn't even really need actors, or a script, or even the realization that you're seeing theatre. And at the same time, there's an overtone of "theatre is, somehow, fundamentally different." It's not TV, it's not film. Finding that balance, especially as we start wandering into cyberspace not just to market but to make and present work, is difficult--and even more so when, as with<em> Joyride</em>, the show referenced in the nytimes.com piece, trappings of a digital world, gaming, music, synchronicity across personal universes, comes back into the physical space and challenges the traditional work being made today.<br /><br />What do you think? What is theatre, what isn't? Who judges? Does it matter?<br /><br /><br /><iframe height="594" src="http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/Poll/WEB22B4JDU4VYW?width=420&bc=226DB1&bgc=CFE8FC&fc=000000&fs=12&rc=False&rp=True&trc=True&shn=True&tb=False&pr=False&mode=htmldoc" frameborder="0" width="422"></iframe><noscript></noscript>Clay Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05368046512133086509noreply@blogger.com276tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1622774019969581060.post-17335587824305052742010-08-02T12:45:00.001-07:002010-08-03T13:17:17.681-07:0010 Lessons the Arts TeachThe <a href="http://www.arteducators.org/">National Art Education Association</a> has created <a href="http://www.naea-reston.org/advocacy/10-lessons-the-arts-teach">a top-10 list for why the arts matter</a> -- and it's interesting to parse the arguments the document makes.<br /><br />Of the 10 lessons:<br />- none is an economic argument<br />- 3 (#4, 6 and 7) are essentially about thinking critically<br />- 3 (#2, 3 and 9) are essentially about empathy<br />- 2 (#1 and 10) are essentially about the ability to make judgments<br />- 2 (#5 and 8) are about learning nonliteral concepts<br /><br />This document is an incredibly valiant attempt to illustrate the intangible value of the arts, but in a lot of ways I'm afraid it wanders into the same traps that we often do. It traffics in generalities, highlighting words like "ABILITY," "VIVID," and "POETIC CAPACITIES" (yes, they really used all caps) instead of stripping back the language to talk about what's really at the core. The concepts underlying the items are solid--the arts teach children to address situations from multiple perspectives and therefore think critically, empathically and soundly--but relying on nonspecific flow-y language isn't going to get us there.<br /><br />My English teacher in high school (the best, most ruthless editor I've ever had), always said that behind every frilly phrase is a void where a specific fact should be. Perhaps this is why first-person testimonials are so the rage right now, because they allow the simultaneous demonstration of the power of art on a specific and nonspecific level.<br /><br />One of the goals of the <a href="http://www.theatrebayarea.org/intrinsicimpact">intrinsic impact study</a> we're working on is to try and standardize and make more concrete some of these giant concepts that get dressed up in adjectives and trotted about--so that we can walk into a room with a legislator who is trying to cut our budgets and say, yes, here, on this graph, is what our art is doing to the minds of young people. Here's proof that they're thinking in a way they've never thought before, here's proof that they're seeing the world from a perspective other than their own. In the meantime, swanky flyers like this one will get us some of the way down the road--I just hope that we're not shooting ourselves in the foot with miles to go.Clay Lordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05368046512133086509noreply@blogger.com63