Immediate Theatre

As an article in the London Guardian points out, when a theater company calls itself "underground" because they want to appear "cool and edgy." However, the Belarus Free Theatre is just that - an underground theater company struggling to survive censor and surveillance. Their performances are truly courageous and deserve not only our applause but our support as well. You can read about their performances in London here.


Happy Birthday:
George Furth (1932-2008)

Thank you Mr. President

"Being here with tonight's honorees, reflecting on their contributions, I'm reminded of a Supreme Court opinion by the great Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. In a case argued before the Court in 1926, the majority ruled that the state of New York couldn't regulate the price of theater tickets, because, in the opinion of the majority, the theater was not a public necessity. They argued, in effect, that the experience of attending the theater was superfluous. And this is what Justice Holmes had to say: 'To many people the superfluous is necessary.' The theater is necessary. Dance is necessary. Song is necessary. The arts are necessary -- they are a necessary part of our lives."

-President Barack Obama, saluting this year's Kennedy Center Honorees.


Happy Birthday:
December 10: Agnes Nixon (b. 1927)
December 12: John Osborne (1929-1994) and Bill Nighy (b. 1949)

TCG's Stage Matters Video

Stage Matters from Theatre Communications Group on Vimeo.

In need of an advocacy tool to promote theatre?

Want to spark discussion about the challenges and opportunities ahead?

Theatre Communication Guild is pleased to announce the release of STAGE MATTERS, a short video on why / how / if theatre matters in America. The STAGE MATTERS video captures artists, theatre leaders, patrons, educators, corporate executives and politicians around the country as they emphatically speak about the value of theatre and challenges we face in an ever-changing environment.


TCG invite you to watch and share STAGE MATTERS with your colleagues, funders, city officials, and members in your community. The video is made up of two sections; Part 1:Impact and Part 2: Challenges. To watch the entire video or these sections independently, click here.


Happy Birthday:
W.S. Gilbert (1836-1911)

The benefit of homegrown theater and cultural exchange

It is no doubt that Broadway dominates the headlines and visibility of theater in this country. Chicago is a perfect example. We are becoming known on a theater city that is almost on par with New York. But the productions that are making money and drawing tourists are the ones playing down town and imported from Broadway. Indeed the production are part of Broadway-in-Chicago; aptly named. While this blog has discussed some of the drawbacks and implications this question it has toward this city, the London Guardian has taken up the discussion on the world implications.

The big boys, Broadway and the West End, are exporting their product more are not just to smaller cities within their countries, but also to the world. And while the Guardian makes sure to not that this is clearly excellent business, it may not be good arts leadership.

One other idea to throw into the mix is cultural exchange. The Guardian is very careful to point out that sharing our cultures across the globe is important. But it is a two way street and it isn't a financial venture. And to take a moment to give praise, the shows that Chicago Shakespeare imports to their stages are some of the most excellent and diverse that anyone could ask for. Chicago truly has a gem of a cultural asset in the work that Chicago Shakespeare is doing.

More companies should be looking to share cultures like this. Whether it be more international exchange like Chicago Shakes or simply more dialogue between companies to spread the importance of culture and create a greater separation between commerce and art.

Because they aren't the same thing.

Twin City Arts

Did you know that Minneapolis/St. Paul is second only to New York City for per capita attendance at their theaters? NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman does. He writes about some of his experiences from a recent trip to the Twin Cities. There is a very vibrant theater and arts scene that is fully embraced by the community. The catch is - any city can be doing this. How do you get your community on the same track?

Identity: Telling Your story

Here are some good ideas not just about fundraising, but about branding and forming your organization's (think "theater company's") identity.

Theater Appreciation

There was a great quote in on of the articles of the Yale's most recent issue of Theatre. The article is talking about an experimental theater production in New York and all the cultural commentary and structural analysis. However, the overall point becomes accessibility - and it's a notion that we all must consider as we produce our art and thing about who is going to come in to participate in its creation:

"...each is, in its way, elitist: Broadway show reach thousands of people, but at astronomical ticket prices. 'Alternative' theater downton is cheaper but rarely reaches audiences who haven't spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the expensive liberal-arts educations needed to appreciate its ironic stances. Then, too, the juxtaposition of 'high' and 'low' art is itself an inherited - perhaps, by now, subconscious - postmodern aesthetic strategy, once a way to demolish cultural barriers but now more or less a common denominator of downtown performance."
Miriam Felton-Dansky

Felton-Dansky has wonderfully hit upon the conundrum of arts in this country. And although she is talking about New York, we can easily see the same divisions here in Chicago.

So the question remains how do we make theater accessible to all while not playing to the lowest common-denominator and keeping the ticket prices affordable? And this answer is not all about the material being performed on-stage. Some of this question is marketing, mission and key messages as well.


Happy Birthday:
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

The Arts don't hold the exclusive rights to "creativity" any more.

An article in Newsweek has a great discussion on the importance of possessing creativity in order to function in today's fast paced world. Creativity is not just something the Fine Arts require, but also science, business, finance, politics and just about every other aspect of life. The article also goes on to criticize our education system for focusing on standardized tests and learning by memorization as means of killing creativity.

So perhaps as we look at the changing art landscape and complain about the loss of arts funding and educational arts funding, it is really the symptom of a larger problem. It's not just the arts, but creativity that's being killed. Or even when we overlook the problems in our education system, perhaps the arts no longer hold the monopoly on creativity. Technology now allows everyone to be creative. There are now blogs where anyone can be published, YouTube allows anyone to create a movie for all to see, and so forth and so on. The debate is no longer whether or not these people are professionals or amateurs - because they are going to be around forever now and with an important presence - but what is organized art's place in all of this.

I think the answer lies somewhere between finding the great stories and important voices among the cacophony of media and lifting them up for all to here. But also the arts will be a forum for everyone - blog writers, YouTube editors, and lay people - to come together in a common place and have a discussion about what is going on in the world at large are well as their individual worlds.


Happy Birthday:
Sir Patrick Steward (b. 1940)
Wole Soyinka (b. 1934)

Finally the Credit We Deserve

After all the hubbub of Chicago being named the US's theater capital or some other crazy schemes... and after the ongoing fight about the identity of Chicago theater verses the profits of the Broadway tours... Chris Jones has written some lovely words that not only get to the heart of what Chicago theater is but how to make it sustainable. And the even better part is his article is foreshadowing funding and potential funding from Mayor Dailey and the City of Chicago.

Given the ongoing fiscal crisis in the City of Chicago — not to mention the State of Illinois — I think it is unlikely that we will soon see any more of the massive investments that created the downtown theater district or the new Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier. They are politically difficult, to say the least. That’s bad news for advocates of the Uptown Theatre, a must-do restoration that will surely take many millions of some kind of public dollars for it to come to fruition. But it is good news for those whose needs are much more modest. The Daley administration will surely see that it can continue its much-lauded stance on investment in the arts by turning to the neighborhoods, where the tab is not so high.

Happy Birthday:
Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960)

President LBJ on the Arts

"Art is a nation's most precious heritage. For it is in our works of art that we reveal to ourselves, and to others, the inner vision which guides us as a Nation. And where there is no vision, the people perish. We in America have not always been kind to the artists and the scholars who are the keepers of our vision. Somehow the scientists always get the penthouse and the arts and humanities get the basement."

-President Lyndon B. Johnson on the establishment of the National Endowment for the Arts in 1965


Happy Birthday:
Geoffrey Rush (b. 1951)

More Discussion on the Theater Capital Dilemma

The recent buzz about Chicago being the US's "theater capital" has caused an upheaval in this city and beyond. It has changed the way that we think about ourselves in the national stage. But more importantly it raises some bigger questions. Kris Vire wrote a very thoughtful article in the TimeOut Chicago blog last week about the potential harm a New York production of David Cromer's production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Vire argues that while good for promoting Chicago's image and product, many times when productions go to New York, the stars don't come back to Chicago.

Another point he makes is about theatrical tourism. If Chicago is the theater capital as everyone is saying, why are we farming out our productions to New York. His best statment of the whole article comes in the last paragraph:

So what if, instead of continuing the New York–centric 20th-century model, we make our city a theater tourism destination? With others so willing to call Chicago the real theater destination of North America, wouldn’t it be great if we embraced that label ourselves? What if theater audiences actually had to come to Chicago to see Chicago-style theater?

The answer to all of Vire's questions and suggestions is money. Why do the Chicago actors stay in New York? Because New York producers can pay them. Why do Chicago productions move to New York? Because the New York model is set up to make money - the Chicago model is build to develop plays and reside in the community. In New York, everyone is constantly looking for the next big thing. And whether it be in business, dating, or theater they are always going to go to something that is going to advance them in some way. And whether that next big thing is from Chicago or London, the only thing they care about is making a buck and getting the position and standing to make more on the next one.

This, incidently, is why New Yorkers go to the theater (implying a physical building) whereas Chicagoans go to the theatre (a institution of culture made up of a company of artists).

Yes, we would love to see our actors and designers paid for what they do. Yes, our city would love the revenue that theatrical tourism would bring. It would be amazing to be an important industry like theater is in New York. To get that sort of attention and national attention. But what would we have to give up to attain that?

Few people are going to travel to Chicago to see a play. Even fewer are going to come to see a play that does not have a big star in the leading role. And no one will ever come to Chicago just to see a storefront production unless they personally know someone who is playing in the piece. Look at the problems that New York is having marketing shows without a big name in on the marquee. In Chicago we're already complaining about Goodman and Chicago Shakes bringing in outside talent - does anyone think that will get better if we suddenly become a tourism destination?

Do we really want to change our theatre community that much? Do we really want to give up the sense of ensemble-ship and our position as an incubator for compelling theatre? It is our community that has made us what we are. It is the ability for actors to find work and playwrights to find companies willing to make the investment and produce their work that have build our reputation as a theatre city. Sure, not everyone is "making it." Not everyone is performing at Steppenwolf, Victory Gardens, or Writer's Theatre - but it is the hundreds of smaller companies and thousands of other actors that work their way up that make the upper level theatre that much better and the smaller theatres that much more important.

Let New York steal our productions and our actors. We'll know where they come from and that we were the city that instilled the heart before it made the money. And if we really want to change the landscape of theatre in these United States, isn't it more impressive to be able to say that we are providing New York with more successful actors and more profitable productions that New York can provide itself? Isn't it better to say that in order to get to New York you have to make it in Chicago first? While this model may not carry the big dollar amounts behind it, it's the type of theatrical stability I would like to see in this town.


Happy Birthday:
Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936)

Technology isn't just changing the theater; it's changing our brains

NPR just reviewed a book by Nicolas Carr that talks about how the methods of learning demanded of us by technology are changing not only the ways we think, but how our brains are hardwired. The book is entitled The Shallows and it details how the short attention span of Twitter, email, iPhones, Facebook, and blogs (yes, this very medium as well) encourage use to gobble us "fractured and unmoored" information rather than the traditional deep reading that promotes us to "make their own associations, drawing their own inferences and analogies, foster their own ideas."

With The Shallows, Carr attempts to snap us out of the hypnotic pull of our iPhones, laptops and desktops. He reveals why we're suddenly having a hard time focusing at length on any given thing, and why we compulsively check our e-mail accounts and Twitter feeds and never seem to be able to get our work done. (It's because we've been abusing our brains.) He wants us to value wisdom over knowledge, and to use new technology intelligently. "We shouldn't allow the glories of technology to blind our inner watchdog to the possibility that we've numbed an essential part of our self," Carr pleads. It remains to be seen if he's shouted down or listened to.

While I haven't read the book myself, it is a scary thought that we are becoming a nation of robots that can only spit out the information that have been spoon fed or downloaded into our wall blotter. If we no longer value deep reading (or as my professors called it "close reading") how in the heck will our children be able to appreciate or enjoy the theater?

This I Believe

More on Troy Chapman, the playwright behind A Day in the Life of Junebug Jenkins. While this particular posting may not have a whole lot to do with theatre, the message is so very powerful, that I could not help but post it. This is an essay written by Chapman for NPR's This I Believe. I highly suggest that you read it.


Happy Birthday: Stacy Keach (b. 1941)

A Call to Self-Examination

"Even if not a totally African American theater (based in a jazz performing style), at least a LORT theater that actually deals with the diversity of the United States instead of the similarities of England-America-and Europe... Chicago might be the current King of American theater but not yet it's savior."

Some strong and eloquent words from a comment on Chris Jones' blog.

The comment asks a great question: why doesn't Chicago have any LORT level Black professional theatre?

In a time when Chicago is calling itself America's Theatre Capital and fans flock to the ivory towers of Goodman, Shakes, and Steppenwolf, its time that our community asks who we are serving. Our theatres are largely on the north side. Our audiences are predominately white and come from people with money. How do we start to address the disparity? How do we make theatre the national scapbook that Ben Cameron would have it be?

Is this a call to action? Perhaps. But more importantly it is a call to self examination. A call to ask ourselves why we do this thing we do. It this an art that really gets to the core of our shared humanity and talks of the "human condition." Or are these just cheesy words that find their way into so many mission statements that are just a loft way to say we do plays. And the reason we do plays is so our ensemble members can act in awesome roles.

If I am wrong, I would like to know.

Outsourcing just like everyone else

NPR ran an article about how several Columbus arts organization have started outsourcing their administrative offices to save money; one organization as much as $750,000 per year.

This gives us in the arts lots to think about. I wish I the research to back it up, but an earlier NPR article (airing in April or so - it would be great if someone could put us on to this article as well) on how so many people are opting for the private sector rather than going into not-for-profit management; they just don't pay. So now, not only are we being ungrateful to the wonderful people who put their pocketbooks ahead of a greater good that are being outsourced.

But in a larger sense, why not? Everyone in every walk of life is trying to save money. Why not the arts? With all sorts of funding sources drying up, why not find a few ways to save some money. Get more ads for cheaper - more companies buying ad space in bulk is more ad space being sold in newspapers - helps them too. It's a hard know which way to go on this issue, but one thing is certain - there is going to be a lot more outsourcing firms catering to the arts popping up around the country pretty darn soon.


Happy Birthday: Sir Ian McKellen (b. 1939), Greg Vinkler (b. 1951) & Eve Ensler (b. 1953)

Shakespeare in Juvie

Thank you as always to CottMail for this fascinating article:

Tonight, 13 actors will take the stage at Shakespeare & Company in Henry V.' Nothing so unusual in that - except that these are teenagers, none older than 17, and they have been sentenced to perform this play. The show is the culmination of a five-week intensive program called Shakespeare in the Courts, a nationally recognized initiative now celebrating its 10th year. Berkshire Juvenile Court Judge Judith Locke has sent these adjudicated offenders -- found guilty of such adolescent crimes as fighting, drinking, stealing, and destroying property -- not to lockup or conventional community service, but to four afternoons a week of acting exercises, rehearsal, and Shakespearean study. More than 100 youths have participated since Kevin Coleman, the Shakespeare troupe's education director, and Paul Perachi, Locke's predecessor on the bench, started the program. But Coleman is realistic about what Shakespeare can and cannot do. "This does not fix them. Do they get back in trouble? Yes, they do. But maybe less often and maybe not as deep. This extreme experience that they're having starts to change them.'' This is one of three sessions this year; others serve youth in North Adams and Great Barrington. Combined, they have an annual budget of about $63,000. "It's a lot cheaper than lockup,'' Coleman said.

Read more

Lynn Nottage on World Theatre Day

It’s been said that the role of an artist is to keep their eyes open, when everyone else’s are shut.

It’s a beautiful and simple sentiment. We are cultural watchdogs. We stand at attention, observing and reacting. We excavate, uncover, interpret and unravel. We protect tradition and shape new ones. We look inward…and then outward to find ways to better understand our selves.

We live in a world that has become increasingly interconnected through the ascendancy of new media, yet paradoxically more fractured by racism, religion,
politics and economics. Our venerated financial institutions are crumbling and petty partisan fights paralyze our governments. Our insatiable need for oil and precious minerals fuel deadly armed conflicts in places like Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Poverty and suffering have become givens in a world of abundance, and women continue to fight for basic human rights and dignity in most countries. Hate, not love, fuel religious revolutions, poisoning generations of young men and women merely searching for meaning. We look for solutions in the recycling bins, and turn on the television to drown out our woes. This is our world, shaped by our own design, chaotic and unruly, yet beautiful and infinitely fascinating.

As artists and global citizens, the world continues to demand our attention, and as
such we must be intrepid explorers, daring to venture into uncomfortable zones to unearth difficult truths. We must be unafraid to look honestly at the human condition and try to come to terms with its contradictions and flaws. That means approaching our work not as journalists, but as fabulators, storytellers, breaking rules to help reimagine the world. We must be truthful, while spinning yarns. It is the paradox of our creative process that gives us access to places we dare not go in our everyday lives. It emboldens us to ask difficult questions about war, race, religion, poverty, love and hatred.

Theatre is a place where we can collectively share our laughter, shed our tears and loudly demonstrate our joy or frustration. Theatre has the incredible capacity to be soul healing; it allows both the audience and artist to purge toxins and exorcise collective demons.

I challenge all of us to sustain the complexity of our world; to invite a multitude of diverse voices onto the stage. We must open the doors and windows of our theatres to let the world in. It is our responsibility; it is our burden and our gift.

We are fabulators….we are cultural watchdogs.

Judi Dench on World Theatre Day

World Theatre Day is an opportunity to celebrate Theatre in all its myriad forms.

Theatre is a source of entertainment and inspiration and has the ability to unify the many diverse cultures and peoples that exist throughout the world. But theatre is more than that and also provides opportunities to educate and inform.

Theatre is performed throughout the world and not always in a traditional theatre setting. Performances can occur in a small village in Africa, next to a mountain in Armenia, on a tiny island in the Pacific. All it needs is a space and an audience. Theatre has the ability to make us smile, to make us cry, but should also make us think and reflect.

Theatre comes about through team work. Actors are the people who are seen, but there is an amazing set of people who are not seen. They are equally as important as the actors and their differing and specialist skills make it possible for a production to take place. They too must share in any triumphs and successes that may hopefully occur.

March 27 is always the official World Theatre Day. In many ways every day should be considered a theatre day, as we have a responsibility to continue the tradition to entertain, to educate and to enlighten our audiences, without whom we couldn’t exist.

Does Theatre Exist Outisde New York?

A recent posting on TimeOut Chicago bristles as some off hand comment in a New York Times article that basically insinuates that theatre does not exist outside New York City. I'll let you read the two articles for yourself and come to your own conclusions.

But in a bigger sense, it opens up a very important debate. While there is no argument that theatre exists outside New York - let alone great or important theatre - there is something to be said for the NYC model.

It has always puzzled me that Chicago, which is a great theatre town, has to bring in touring productions at all. Why should this even happen when we have so much theatre to choose from and at far more affordable prices? Why do we need to draw away from our own unique voice to draw audiences?

It goes to say something for the power of the almighty buck. Money not only gets you better sets, costumes, lights and etc. but it also get you the more important marketing and publicity. You have to spend money to make money.

Also, something that the New York theatre business has right is artist compensation. Their artists are paid. And yes if you work at Goodman, Shakes, Steppenwolf and the like, you are going to be paid. But what about the Strawdogs, Oracles, and Building Stages of our home town. If they do pay, it's not much. Yet they compete with companies that do pay for press, audiences and sometimes awards.

And if you are comparing Strawdog or City Lit to Jersey Boys, they are not even in the same league. It makes the off-loop theatre look like an insane hobby; hours of investment for little money. So what is the benefit? Personal gain?

Chicago's strength is in is large theater community. But that is also part of its weakness. The work and creativity that comes out of Chicago will always be second to none, but unless it it picked up by those Producers with the big money (most of whom work out of New York) there will be little ripple affect outside the neighborhood and few subscribers that these little gems have.

Both models have a place in this town. Both service their purpose. Both are entirely different.

Why Do We Do Theatre?

Thanks once again to Thomas Cott and Cott Mail for the article.

We all agree that theatre is in crisis and has been for years. Today the major theatres and many of the smaller ones in Los Angeles seemed to be locked in the consumerist model; not only in their choice of material but how they produce and how they cast. "The play's the thing" no longer holds; butts in seats is the thing. I believe theatre that does not serve the play does not serve the community. Quick fixes, like getting movie stars to perform, don't sell future tickets. More importantly, quick fixes do not address what's actually wrong, why we are in crisis. I believe any serious consideration must begin at why we do theatre; what purpose does it serve? I suspect we must rethink the model of regional theatre as the heart of American Theatre. Some of the problems theatre faces exist because these institutions have become behemoths. The purpose of the theatre is forgotten; plays are selected to get butts in seats; paradoxically fewer people come. These theatrical institutions are the equivalent of the giant banks; they cannot fail or be allowed to fail. Consequently, for them, there is no artistic accountability. These behemoths need more and more funding and every dollar they receive diminishes the dollars available to other arts organizations. I've been on the boards of small theatres; I've run small theatres and I talk to other artistic directors. At our theatre and other small theatres in Los Angeles, we're quite sure if we can survive long enough, support will come. The better LA theatres do demonstrate artistic courage. We fall on our face and stand up bloodied ready to go again. We succeed more often than we fail. We do not fear failure but recognize it as fundamental to growth. More importantly, unlike the big organizations, our failures mean something. I think what Los Angeles needs is courage from community leaders. We need funders willing to take risks; funders who see that if they truly want their money to affect art in the community, here is where they need to invest.

Posted by John Perrin Flynn of Rogue Machine Theatre on LA Stage Blog, February 27, 2010


Happy Birthday:
Gates McFadden (b. 1949)
Daniel Craig (b. 1968)