off-stage right

I just finished reading John Heilemann and Mark Halperin’s Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime. Certainly an intriguing read and well worth the time. I am not sure if there was any "new" information in it. What surprised me the most was that while I was reading it I the emotions I felt. 

Just in case anyone is wondering I voted for Obama.  I look forward to the day when I can describe to my grandchildren how it felt to pull the lever in the voting booth for someone I believed to be the best choice for our country and who happened to be the first African American President.  But those who know me know that I was and am a huge believer in and supporter of Hilary Clinton, and I was truly sad to see her lose the democratic nomination.  I firmly feel that she was treated unfairly in the press.  But this post isn’t about politics – so save the comments as that is another blog entirely!

Game Change basically tracks the campaign not ideology or political issues so in the end the book basically recounts what now public knowledge (with some juicy tidbits) – the Obama campaign was run better, better organized and unstoppable while the Clinton and McCain campaigns were a mess.  Obama’s campaign was a one of a kind super machine and whole new model.  The authors constantly point to Obama’s amazing calm and in control nature as a unique force of nature unseen in politics before.   The underlying reality is the country is/was so damaged during the last administration that people were emotionally charged for change and desperately needed hope.

But you can read the book – which is a good read and underlines the value of strategy.  As I said what surprised me the most while reading it was the emotions (visceral and deep emotional responses) that I felt when reading what was in many ways an extended Time Magazine article – a good one but not the type of book I thought would evoke such a response.

In the first few chapters of the book, I found myself wondering why I was so frustrated and angry.  I was reliving my feelings during the campaign.  Here I was reading a book and all the baggage of my personal feelings and opinions kept interfering.  I became VERY aware of this and tried with great effort to clear my mind of this baggage.

As I write I can hear my friend Will Meyerhofer, who writes a great blog called The People’s Therapist, saying something like “you can’t get rid of emotional baggage; it comes from your life – the best you can do is recognize it, be aware of it, and try not to let it get in your way.”  Of course he would say it with much better language and an air of authority but you get the drift. 

Guess what, I was able to let go of some of my personal baggage while I was reading the book by being aware of it.  I even talked about it with several friends. This allowed me to be able to engage in some really good thinking about why I felt the way I did.

Which got me thinking…our audiences bring a lot of “baggage” to our shows and our communities bring a lot of “baggage” to our organizations.  They bring individual emotional baggage from their personal lives; they bring physical baggage like being tired from work or frustrated from traffic; and they bring environmental baggage like the economy, community concerns and tensions.  There is also the baggage they bring from their last visit to the theatre, their last experience with an artist’s work, and everything that happened on the way to the show!

If you add up the baggage of all of the patrons in the audience you could fill the theatre 100 times over!

Do we hope they will leave the baggage at the door or do address it?  Is it even reasonable to think it can be addressed?

Of course this is why we do lots of audience prep – show guides, marketing, outreach, etc.  But can we really address individual baggage.  We can’t really not on a patron by patron basis.  All of the prep work and post follow-up still has to happen, but all we can really do about the individual baggage is focus on creating an environment that it is safe to shed audience members to shed their baggage in.

This means you have to think about how folks get to the theatre, how they are treated when they get there, how easy it is to find their seats and the restrooms, and what materials they are given.

You have to make it safe and comfortable to let go of the baggage and really watch the show.  And you have to deal with the fact that some people won’t be able to shed that baggage.

But most importantly you of course have to think about what you are producing and the community you are producing it in.  You have to know and explore BOTH.  You have to use your staff can and community partners to examine possible responses and concerns.  As a producer of the work you have to address your own baggage and make sure that it isn’t holding back or tainting the production in any way.  It takes a lot of work.  Work you can’t afford to skimp on.  Of course some of this becomes second nature and doesn’t appear as a task on you to do list, you know your community, you know the work.  I have often found that despite all of the thinking that is done, it is easy to skip the important step of talking about it.  We are all over-worked and it is easier to assume that staff members, board members and other close constituencies are in the loop.   In doing this we can lose an important part of the creative experience or worse we can let our personal baggage get in the way of the conversation.

Regular readers of Off-Stage Right might have noticed a whole new look to the site.  I hope you will let me know what you think.  I am quite excited about it!  The best part of the redesign is that ALL of it was done via Twitter.

When I was thinking of changing the look late last year, I wasn’t really sure where to turn to for help.  Then I remembered tweets of Chris Van Patten.  Chris is one of my “twitter friends.”  I have never met him, but I know a lot about him.  We bonded over a great love of David Cromer’s direction of OUR TOWN.  In his tweets Chris was always talking about how he was designing websites and such, so I sent him a direct message asking him if he would help me out.

A few emails and several more direct messages later – tada!

Of course this got me thinking about how amazing Twitter really is.  I have several people who I communicate with on a regular basis.  Some of dear old friends, but most I would recognize if they were sitting next to me in the theatre.  Despite never meeting we chat about theatre, books, and other things that are important to us.  These friends keep me up to date on a variety of topics.

I was trying to describe this phenomenon the other day to a friend and I ended my exaltation with “I can’t imagine how I would have these kind of relationships without Twitter.”

My friend responded, “Well, you could be pen pals.”

Brilliant observation from someone who never has used twitter.

So thanks to Twitter for all of “tweet pals” and my new website design.

First and foremost this post is a lesson to myself.  This evening I had just finished writing out a nice long post on customer service and promptly knocked the battery out of my netbook and lost the whole thing.  I was beyond frustrated because I have been feeling VERY guilty about not posting much on my blog recently.  I was angry, very angry with myself.

I could say that there are a lot of reasons. Of course I am busy but that really isn’t an excuse. If I am going to be honest it is because I am relatively uninspired at this moment.  I have lost some of my faith in the power of theatre.  I spent several days last week catching up on my fellow bloggers great work this month.  My Google Reader feed had hundreds of posts that I delved into.  I was amazed by the in depth examination of Outrageous Fortune, intrigued by the discussions on diversity, and happy to see some really great thinking about where the arts are during these continuing troubled times.

I started several posts and maybe some day I will finish them, but I just couldn’t find the inspiration to say anything at all.

Of course while I have been quiet on the blog front, I have kept up with my Twitter-stream and been reasonably active on Facebook (partly because as part of my job I am regularly on both).  There was a point last September where I failed to do even this.  Let’s not even discuss my months of ignoring Linked-in, plaxo and others.  Didn’t I sign up for a Tumblr account a while back?

Failed – pretty strong word.  Blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc. – come on are these really important?  Actually they are.  For almost two years these have been the tools I have used to research my field and others; to build my network; communicate with friends and peers; to share my options and theories; and most importantly to challenge my own thinking and ideas.  This has been more than important it has been vital to me surviving one of the most difficult and challenging periods of my life and career.  It was through social media that I created opportunities and kept my hope alive in myself, in theatre and in the arts.

So what does my silence mean?  And what does it say?  Is it what it says what I want to convey?

It took a lot of soul searching to realize what it meant.  I don’t say I am uninspired lightly.  I am very lucky at this time to be working on handful of projects.  The main show that fills most of my days (and nights) is a joy; it keeps me going.  The people I work with from the actors to the crew to the writers to our producer are amazing individuals who I learn from each day.   They are certainly inspiring.

So why when I sit with my computer am I at a loss to say anything?

I have already said my fellow bloggers are doing fascinating work.  There are a lot of great shows on the boards.  There are endless news items that I have thoughts and opinions on so why and how can I say I am uninspired?  Is uninspired the right word?  Even I am not sure.  While I am sorting it all out, I have to wonder how is my silence interpreted.  I am human so I wonder.  I am human so I care.

I can’t help but think that it is interpreted as I don’t have anything to say, that I don’t have opinions or that I don’t care.  Perhaps folks think I am busy, perhaps they think I just gave up on the blog.  More than likely folks don’t care.

Needless to say this is NOT what I want to convey.  What I want to convey is how frustrated, worried, even scared I am.  What I want to say is that I want to be inspired, I want to have faith the the art form that has guided me through so much — an art form that at times has left me breathless, at times has challenged my thinking and at times that has provided me with so much strength.

Well, if you are still reading I am sure you are thinking what the heck is the point of the post.  “We get it Jodi.  You have writer’s block.  You need a bit of a pick-me-up.  It happens to the best of us.”  Maybe a few of you are even thinking “Don’t worry Jodi we will be there for you when you get out this slump.” (I sure hope you are).

But I am lucky.  I am individual.  I am my harshest critic and it is likely that I always will be.  The reality is that when I start writing again, eventually folks will come back or they won’t, maybe some new folks will find me, but I am really writing for myself as much as I am writing for anyone else.  Right?  I hope so?

What about organizations that go silent?

I did a quick search on my own blog (it helps to do that sometimes) and I noticed I had addressed this exact issue regarding Twitter inactivity in July – it even had the same title I had given this post originally (so much for new thinking).   At the time, I was following over 1000 accounts and I was trimming inactive twitter users.  And trim I did.  In that post I discussed the lost opportunity for building a relationship. Certainly this is a big concern. (In that post,  I even called out three accounts that were shocking to me in their neglect).

Now I still follow a lot of theatres and a lot of shows on Twitter.  I am a Facebook Fan of an equal amount (many of them the same).  I follow Opera, Dance and Music organizations.  I spend many a sleepless hour looking at the websites of these entities.   So out of curiosity, I went through the 635 accounts I now follow on Twitter (I told you I had trimmed a lot) and I was shocked at how many organizations still had not tweeted in months.  (There were plenty of individuals too).  I was amazed because Twitter has received so much publicity and fanfare over the last 8 months.  There were many organizations that had started an account and tweeted for about a week and then nothing.  So I went to their websites and was shocked to find on almost every home page a link to “follow us on Twitter.”   Over on Facebook were lots of fan pages with little to no information, but back on the websites the old message “become a fan on Facebook” was front and center on the home page.  There were also lots of out of date websites (In this day and age? Really?).

I can’t help but think organizations or shows that are saying nothing create a huge misconception that they have NOTHING to say.  Forget about the relationships that are being harmed, if you don’t have something to share how can you even start a relationship.  Now I hear the folks screaming, “Jodi. we build our relationships with our work, with live and personal relationships.  Social media is just a tool.  A tool we can use or not use.”

Well, you are right.  Social media is a tool.  It is a method of delivery, and you are right, for now.  But, it is slowly beginning to transcend being a tool and method of delivery, it is becoming an experience in its own right.   But even this doesn’t matter!

What does matter is if you are going to ask people to enter the conversation (to follow or fan you) then you have to talk.  Silence in this case is deadly.  Which means, inspired or not, you have to keep up your end of the conversation.

Yes, it means that even though I am an individual, I have to keep up my end of the conversation, because even though I may be writing for myself, I am writing to have a conversation, and I owe it to myself to honor that.  Just like you owe it to your organization to be active or delete the account, streamline the website if you can’t keep it up to date or at the very least don’t ask people to follow or fan an dead account!

As a footnote -  I have to say there are a lot of organizations doing amazing things with social media.  MANY more than those with lapsed or inactive accounts.  I have written about and complemented many of them – Writer’s Theatre, Hartford Stage, Steppenwolf, MCC Theater, Denver Center Theater Company, Northlight, Rude Mechanicals, New York Theatre Workshop to name a few and that’s just the theaters.  There are a lot of folks you can learn from – just follow or fan them or spend you sleepless nights on their websites!

The Los Angeles Times reported some sad news yesterday, but not the least bit surprising.  News like this was coming for a while now it was just a question of which major theatre would be the first.

Pasadena Playhouse is closing (temporarily?) and considering filing bankruptcy.  Unfortunately I think the shuttering of one the oldest theatres in the country – a theatre that has already had one recent turn-around – is a turning point to seeing many more closures and bankruptcies in headlines.  Sorry to be such a “Debbie Downer” but very little I am seeing in the industry leaves much hope for the nonprofit theatre community outside of a few large and several very small institutions.  Since I am a silver-ling kind of gal, at least Pasadena Playhouse is providing (thus far) a map for how to close your theatre.

I had the pleasure of spending some time chatting with its artistic director Sheldon Epps this past summer over lunch, so I am not surprised that the situation is being handled with respect and responsibility.  This is NOT a situation like North Shore Music Theatre which was a disaster waiting to happen and whose board and leadership’s actions were a disgrace to the entire theatre industry.   The news of big trouble came out a few months ago, and the company was pretty transparent about it situation.

This is a theatre that on paper looks like many if not most of the theatres in this country.  THIS IS WHY I AM WORRIED.

The L.A. Times touches on some specifics (towards the end of this post), but the key issues are the same old ones.  Pasadena had a structural deficit in their annual budget because expenses keep going up and the theatre had a fixed capacity for income (Baumol’s cost problem – for more check out this post of Funding Models).  They had a logical plan for upgrading their facility and expanding – it wasn’t grandiose; it seemed smart; and had several components that could be responsibly managed.  But plans (even good ones) cost money and although “Bricks and Mortar Funds” are “easier” to raise, nothing about fundraising is easy in the arts.   The company has a strong relationship with its community and is recognized for the work they do, but this doesn’t translate into increased government support.  Most importantly Pasadena Playhouse had Epps at the helm, who appeared to actually be an Artistic Director in the truest definition of the job – I only say “appeared” because I didn’t really get to see him in action, but I did a lot of research before our lunch, and I do believe Epps possessed a tremendous love for his institution and I don’t recall speaking with anyone who had a better understanding of his community.  I also feel that he prioritized the institution over his own ego – a rare but true sign of leadership.

I fear many other theatres across the company are not making good or responsible decisions, are not respecting or caring for their communities, and are playing a dangerous game of running up debt, shifting liabilities, running through endowment and restricted funding for general operations.  What worries me most is that I fear there are a large amount of theatres that are thisclose to shuttering and they are pretending everything is “hunky-dory” to their community and in some cases to their boards (hmm…sounds a bit like what the banking industry did a few years ago that got the country into so much trouble).    When the news breaks that these theatres are closing, I don’t think their communities will care and I will be surprised if there is any major support to try and help them.

In contrast Pasadena does seem to be taking responsible steps and being honest and transparent about the situation which again I credit Epps’ leadership and the true responsibility that he feels to the community.

Pasadena is providing a great example of what to do by what it isn’t doing -  not dipping into restricted funds and (this is very important) not keeping unused subscription funds.  My only quibble is that there is not enough focus on the fundamental financial dilemma of the theatre (that the financial model we have been using for 50 years doesn’t work and really never did for long-term sustainability).  The below quotes are from the L.A. Times coverage:

The Pasadena Playhouse will close Feb. 7 after the final performance of its current show, “Camelot,” as leaders of the 90-year-old landmark theater search for ways out of serious financial difficulties.
Among the options they are considering is a bankruptcy filing.

Executive director Stephen Eich said the playhouse is essentially out of cash and faces more than $500,000 in immediate bills, as well as payments on more than $1.5 million in bank loans and other debts that have dogged the nonprofit company since the mid-1990s. Thirty-seven employees learned at a staff meeting Thursday that they would be out of work.

Eich said that tapping into $6 million donated for a capital campaign to refurbish the playhouse was not an option. “It just would not be any way for us to solve the problems of the place,” he said….

The playhouse’s first step, Eich said, will be hiring a lawyer to advise officials on such matters as a possible bankruptcy filing. Eich said he isn’t sure if the playhouse’s 8,000 subscribers will be reimbursed.

The article says they are working on a plan to re-open and goes on to explore some thoughts, but no new ideas yet.  I hope they will find some that create long term sustainability, something that really changes how they function, instead of a band-aid, and becomes an example for others rather focusing on a fingers-crossed dream of an angel that funds the status quo or local government funding which would be unstable and not build a foundation for changing the operating model.  It would be great to be able to write a post in the future that the Pasadena Playhouse provided not only an example of how to close but also a map in how to rise from the ashes.   But the below obviously won’t be it:

The playhouse had pinned its hopes on finding someone who would give $5 million to have the 684-seat main stage named in his or her honor, Eich said, but that hasn’t materialized.

Epps said he hasn’t given up hope of a transforming donation. When the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles was in a comparable situation, philanthropist Eli Broad stepped in with a $30-million pledge.

“Some irons have been in the fire and are now, but they take a lot of time and cultivation,” Epps said. “We know that despite the economy, those kinds of gifts are made to arts organizations.”

One question, Epps said, is whether the city of Pasadena will be willing to offer financial help. The city currently provides a $1-a-year sublease on the performance spaces of the larger, privately owned theater building.

How did the situation reach this point?  And what was that expansion plan?  Is this one of those theatres that built a mausoleum that it couldn’t afford to run – the answer is no.  Were they planning some crazy expansion – not really.  They had serious renovation needs and a more or less reasonable plan for a mid-size theatre.  And seemed to be taking things in responsible stages.

It did have an issue that is not uncommon – old debt from the past (read: past mistakes) and no way of fixing the financial model that is the crumbling foundation of the nonprofit theatre environment.

The Pasadena Playhouse’s financial problems surfaced in late September, when it closed a show a week early to save on expenses: “The Night of the Child,” a drama by Charles Randolph-Wright that starred JoBeth Williams.

Eich said at the time that four employees had been laid off, and that the playhouse needed donations of more than $1 million by year’s end to cover up to $600,000 in bills and create a cushion as it headed into the 2010 season.

The nonprofit corporation that now runs the theater had to shoulder about $2.5 million in leftover debt.

Before the downturn, the playhouse had visions of bigger things. In 2007 it announced that architect Frank Gehry was donating his services to design a new, 300- to 400-seat theater to augment the main stage, a 684-seat house in the Spanish Colonial Revival building that is a California historical landmark.

Before tackling that larger project, Gehry was going to redo the existing second stage, the 86-seat Carrie Hamilton Theatre….

Although the playhouse had announced fundraising successes in recent years, including a $3-million gift from an anonymous donor in October 2008, Epps said last fall that some of those were pledges to be paid over a long term.

The playhouse’s debt dates to before the present organization existed. The city bought the building in 1975 and later transferred it to real estate developer David Houk. He relaunched the theater in 1986 as a place to develop shows that would tour other California venues under the banner of Houk’s Theatre Corp. of America. The plan made some headway, but in 1994 it crumbled during a recessionary economy, and in 1995 Houk’s business went bankrupt.

Hopefully Epps will pull off a theatre miracle, but I sort of hope he doesn’t.  If Pasadena re-opens (and I hope it does), I would like Epps, his staff and his board to make a visionary shift in how the company functions at all levels that takes steps towards redefining sustainable and acceptable practices in the field.  I think we have all relied on miracles too often and too much.  Epps has already lead the company through one turnaround but sadly it didn’t last.  Maybe he can do it again, make it stick and in doing so help the entire theatre community.

I love those moments in life when you stop briefly, look around and say “wow, this is my life.”

For me there are more or less two themes to these moments – New York and theatre. I can be walking down a street and look up at the New York skyline and be overcome with amazement that I am in the City and my life has been centered here for more than a decade or  I can be in a rehearsal hall and be struck with awe that I get to work in the theatre.

And then there are moments like last night that the two themes merge and the experience is otherworldly.

New York among its many offerings has an endless supply of entertainment offerings – one such treasure is Feinstein’s at the Loew’s Regency.  Home of some of the greatest cabaret performances of the last 10 years. It is here that you can experience some of the most magical performances to be found.  Legend after legend graces the stage on a regular basis (as I learned last night 7 days a week).

I have always had great admiration for any one who can carry a tune – I can’t.  Not even a little.  I mean physically cannot even to save my life.  I have a doctors note to prove it.  So it isn’t surprising that my jaw drops for those that can.

But cabaret is a giant leap from being able to sing and is even a step up from say a Broadway performance.  It is up close and personal.  It requires a performer to put themselves out there without the guise of a character, without the protection of fellow cast members, and none of the security provided by a proscenium.

In a short time Feinstein’s has become legendary in its own right, so last night when I settled into my seat I was in awe that I was in New York and in this magical venue.  I looked around our table of 12 and was giddy to be surrounded by friends of the theatre.  I was actually electrified that I was in their company and that we were there to see none other than Tyne Daly who we had all worked with early last fall.  If you follow my Twitter and Facebook updates you know the friends I was lucky enough to be with (cheap ploy to get you to go follow my Tweets).

First I have to say Tyne is an amazing actor and an absolutely wonderful person.  She is generous, kind, intelligent and outright fabulous to work with.  I am not a music critic and my readers know I don’t really write reviews.

But I want folks to know how I felt in that room, surrounded by friends, listening to Tyne sing great songs (and looking beautiful) from the likes of Johnny Mercer, Al Jolson, Bessie Smith, and Jerry Herman.

I felt light, carefree, inspired.  The way you are supposed to feel when you experience a performance so deeply that it reaches inside of you and frees you from the confines of the real world into a space that only contains you and the performance you are bearing witness too.

As Tyne tossed witty comment after witty comment out to us and served up song after song, I pondered what she was sharing with us – to enjoy life, to let our imaginations soar, and to cherish the time we have along with each memory, moment and person in our lives.  While she sang, nothing could have removed the smile on my face or dampened the joy in my heart.

In other words the night was perfect and what a great performance delivers.

Go experience it yourself.

I certainly have written a lot about the under-representation women in theatre theatre, and I think great strides are being made to work on the problem.  Here is an example of folks making things better!

At the end of the year the Guardian’s Theatre Blog posted a top blogs list.  It got a bit of a backlash for not being that diverse, not surprising (the backlash) since a thrilling conversation on diversity was the hottest topic in the theatre blogosphere!  What was surprising was the list being a bit lacking since the Guardian’s Theatre Blog is written by Lyn Gardner (YES, A WOMAN).

One response from Drama, Daily created a great list of the women blogging about theatre.   I was honored to be included in the list which the wonderful Issac Butler over at Parabasis quickly wrote a post (does anyone write quicker than Issac – seriously?) and linked to Drama, Daily with an encouraging call to read the work of those on the list.  These two posts have become a great asset in locating a new bloggers for me to follow.

And today, I was quite surprised and again honored to find a shout out from the Guardian’s Theatre Blog!  First, cheers to Lyn for re-addressing the issue.   Second, a thanks to Lyn for drawing specific attention to Off-Stage Right.

From the Guardian’s Theatre Blog:

Noises Off has, in the past, spoken on several occasions about the under-representation of women in the theatre industry. It’s an important issue and one that bears repeated examination – particularly when the person guilty of under-representing people is, erm, me.

In response to my recent list of 2009′s best theatre bloggers, George Hunka (one of those who had been honourably mentioned) made the point that: “Looking at the Top 5 list, I see five white males – no women or bloggers-of-color, nobody over the age of 35 or so … talk about your lack of diversity!” Now, while it is true that I had no idea about the age or skin colour of some of the writers I featured (like Matt Freeman or August Schulenburg), I have to put my hands up to this and admit: it’s a fair cop.

Thankfully, however, there’s always someone out there to set you right. Isaac Butler (yes, one of those white men under 35) is drawing attention to this post on the Drama, Daily blog, which has responded to my list with a list of dozens of female theatre bloggers. It includes some familiar names like Alison Croggon and Chloe Veltman but also a host of other great writers. I particularly liked this post from Jodi Schoenbrun Carter on the Off Stage Right blog, where she discusses the idea of music mash-ups and asks whether the same thing could be done in the theatre (Chekhov mixed with Adam Rapp anyone?). And there’s an interesting post from Monica Reida of the Fragments blog about the influential Cuban playwright María Irene Fornés. Links to many other women bloggers from places like Canada and Australia have been added in the comments below the original Drama, Daily post, so, as Isaac Butler puts it “Click through! Read them! Subscribe to the ones you like!”

Thanks to all for reading and PLEASE check out the lists.  There are a lot of great bloggers out there and a lot of them are female.  You can always check out my “What’s being talked about on the Blogroll” to follow the hot topics of the theatre blogosphere.

Earlier today I was listening to the GLEE soundtrack and got to the songs from the Mash-ups episode.  It got me thinking, most music mash-ups (the combining of two songs) end up being crap, but some end up giving a whole new meaning or perspective to a song.

So, would mash-ups in the theatre work?

Not kidding…

Imagine some O’neil mixed with Miller or take a bigger leap a little Chekov mixed with Adam Rapp.  The combinations are thrilling and endless.  Of course random pairings could result in utter disaster, but as with any new endeavor there are a lot of mistakes before some strikes a chord of genius.

Now many will say it is sacrilegious for me (who has always championed the playwright and the place of the playwright in the process) to suggest mutilating someone’s play with a mash-up but I think there are playwrights who could really run with this idea and do something amazing.  We have been allowing new translations and rewriting of great works by living writers – so we aren’t exactly far from the idea.

So uber-creative playwrights out there – feel free use this idea to create something innovative (but please don’t totally butcher the original work).  Let me know if you come up with something!

Just like the rest of the world I hope 2010 will bring – on a global scale – peace and prosperity to all.  I know that’s a tough one, but I am holding out for it.

For the theatre world, I wish that communities across the country would embrace the value of the arts, therefore providing arts education for every child; increased funding for artists and organizations, and that artists would remember and fulfill their responsibilities to their communities this of course would result in healthy audiences and future artists for the theatre for generations.  Another tough one that I think we can work towards.

Since those two might take a bit longer than a year, I thought I would make some super specific requests that might be a little easier to achieve.

1. Cromer directs a NEW play in New York. No one can deny that David Cromer is a master in his field.  His Our Town is by far the best show running in New York.  He takes the words of a playwright and crafts magic while being completely and utterly true to the work and characters.  If I was producing a revival of ANY American play, he would be the first person I would call which is why I am itching to see what he would do with a new play.

2. Our Town runs for another year in New York.  If Norman Conquests couldn’t stay then Our Town must (in a perfect world we would have both).  I wish this play were mandatory attendance for, well, everybody.  I really think the world would be a better place and people would be kinder if everyone had to hear Wilder’s message through the vision of David Cromer.  (Hey, look there, I found the first step towards achieving world peace – perhaps someone from the U.N. could get on arranging those tickets and we will need someone from London to send over those handy translators things for the Barrow Street Theatre to install).  You think I am joking, but really I am not.

3. Please let someone announce plans/dates for Dolly Parton’s musical based on her life story.  Not a big philosophical, industry-changing request here, I just think it will be brilliant.

4. Let above said musical star Kristin Chenoweth.  Come on, can you imagine anyone else?

5. Lets make a few stars not just bring them in.  I am not as frustrated as some about the “celebrity invasion” on and off-Broadway. As each show seems to have more and more names filling the lead and supporting roles I do have a concern.  I hope we will still see those wonderful star-making roles that make a “unknown” (read veteran of the stage who is not a household name”) into an “over-night” sensation (read been working in theatres all over the country for YEARS). I personally was delighted when the rest of the country discovered the talents of Sarah Ramirez or that magical moment Kristin Chenoweth took the Tony stage and became a world-wide sensation. We theatre folks knew Jesse Tyler Ferguson before Spelling Bee but wasn’t it fun to share his brilliant humor with others – watch Modern Family.  I can’t even begin to count how many times I have seen Golden Globe nominee Michael Stuhlbarg on the stage.  TV and Film (especially TV) are filled with actors who finally were noticed by Hollywood but had been treading the boards for years.  I hope the New York community doesn’t forget to grow a few new stars while filling their shows with household names.  After all in 10 years we need them to return to the stage as celebrities!

6.  May Glee maintain it’s quality and not jump the shark during season two.  This show is doing more to promote the arts than anything else has in my lifetime.  Here’s hoping for a long and creative run.

7.  Transparency and honesty about the toll of the economy on nonprofit theatre.  Am I the only one waiting for the proverbial other shoe to fall regarding the true fate of the nonprofit field.  It seems to me with the exception of a handful of theatres, we keep hearing everyone saying “it’s been a rough year, but we’re fine.”  Before the economy tanked many if not most theatres were running an annual deficit – that famous “structural deficit” – and everybody is just doing fine?  There sure are a lot of whispering conversations and rumors that it simply isn’t true.  There are theatres that have laid off over half their staff and not a peep from them that they are in trouble.  I don’t want these theatres to go away, but I fear that by the time they speak up it will be too late.  The entire industry knows that the economic model of nonprofit theatre is crap and it never really worked in a broad scale, so let’s have a super honest conversation about it PUBLICALLY.  Funders are going to get really sick of the “if we don’t raise X amount in 3 months we will have to close campaigns.”  In fact they already are.  If your company was poorly run over the last few years – admit it and solve it.  If your company is in debt up to its eyeballs – admit it and come up with a plan to get out of it.  If you have a looming deficit – come up with a plan to eliminiate it in the next three years (including the accumulated debt).  Are we worried we will lose audiences?   We won’t if our work is still good.  Are we worried we will lose funders.  We are more likely to lose them if we aren’t transparent.   I fear with all this “times are bad, but put on a happy face” stuff we are digging a hole we won’t be able to get out of…  The reality is that some theatres are going to close or scale back significantly – but it will be bad for the whole industry and those left standing it is one misleading, cover-up after another.  For the sake of the whole industry it is time for those in trouble to stand up and let the world know, then do something about or exit stage left.

8.  The theatre industry needs to do something, anything to get the playwright back from television.  I don’t think that money is the only reason we have lost so many great playwrights to television – although it is a huge reason.  I think control, respect and authority are key factors in addition to money.  Television is the last medium for the writer is in charge (as executive producers).  Theatre seems to have a growing trend stolen from the film world of an auteur/director, except theatre isn’t about editing so the whole concept is more or less flawed.  I think this is a result of the overwrought and deeply flawed development process of readings and workshops and is killing the playwright/director partnership.  We have spent so much time not producing work under the guise of improving it that we have stripped the playwright of much of the control, respect and authority that they used to have in theatre and couldn’t find elsewhere.  It was their story and their stage.  And as it is disappearing in many ways in the theatre it is readily available in television.  But in the current scheme, a director is hired reading after reading, possibly followed by a workshop, rarely followed by a production to WORK on the play.  Well, naturally, if the director wants to be hired again he or she sure better fix something in the play, because if there weren’t big problems to fix why would the play still be in the development process, right? Add in a producer or nonprofit artistic staff who know it is unlikely they will produced the play so they better give enough notes to let the playwright know they care, right?  All along the way, chipping away at the place of the playwright in the process.

9. If you have to adapt – than let’s have some more musicals and plays derived from books rather than movies and song catalogues.  There are simply so many great books out there that should be adapted to the stage, look how well that little show WICKED did, if you need inspiration.

10.  Big one – let’s put all of our minds together and find a way to fund new ORIGINAL plays and to really develop them.  I know I said these would all be specific, but I had to throw a super tough one in there at the end.

On a personal note, here are some of my resolutions:

I will regularly make more more time to read about what is happening in the industry.  I think there will be a seismic shift in how we produce theatre in this country in the next few years, and I never seem to have enough time to study the trends and read all of the studies I want to, so I am going to make the time.

Of course relating to the above, I will write more blog posts.  In the last few months, I have been a slacker (I KNOW).  I will be writing more about the disappearing (eviscerated) line between nonprofit and for profit theatre; the attempts that some nonprofit theatres are making in changing their financial models; how we can remain relevant; and what form that seismic shift above will take!  So here’s to an exciting 2010!

William Hanney seems to be on a mission to convert failed nonprofit producing theatre companies into working ventures.

He came to my attention during the on-going negotiations in Stratford, CT regarding the old Shakespeare theatre building there.  I should note that is still a project in process and has run into some serious backlash from local officials.  Now it seems he is buying North Shore Music Theatre’s space that was foreclosed on.

I have been following the North Shore mess because its demise is a case study in how not to respond to a crisis.  My first round of frustration was expressed in my post North Shore Music Theatre was disaster waiting to happen and the fall-out gives a bad name to theater everywhere. I thought and still feel that someone should take responsibility.

According to the local paper’s (The Salem News) article:

Hanney owns Theatre by the Sea in Matunuck, R.I., as well as Entertainment Cinemas, a chain of 10 movie theaters in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Connecticut. He said he is confident he can return musical theater to the Dunham Road location by running a leaner operation than North Shore Music Theatre, which went out of business in June due to financial problems and was taken over by Citizens Bank.

The Boston Globe reports:

Hanney has made a habit of buying closed or distressed properties and quickly reviving them.

Those purchases include Theatre By the Sea, a summer-stock house in Matunuck, R.I.; Fresh Pond Cinema in Cambridge; and Falmouth Cinema Pub.

Like North Shore, Theatre By the Sea produces musicals, though on a far smaller scale and not year-round. Its upcoming season includes “A Chorus Line,’’ “Little Shop of Horrors,’’ and “Hello, Dolly!’’ There is also a restaurant on site….

He didn’t give positive reviews to the organization’s business structure.

“It was just so top-heavy,’’ he said. “It just had too many people. It was unnecessary. We do [theater] every single year at Theatre By the Sea. We get great reviews and we make money every single year. We run a very successful 200-seat restaurant, which also makes money.’’But Theatre By the Sea is a much smaller operation, with 500 seats to North Shore’s 1,500.

That doesn’t concern former artistic director Jon Kimbell, who has met with Hanney several times leading up to the sale.

I don’t know Hanney or Theatre by the Sea, so I can’t really comment on the likelihood of his success with North Shore.  Looking at Theatre by the Sea’s website I sure looks like generic “summer” theatre fare (and I mean this is that frothy musicals done not so great with a TV star from the seventies or eighties like the guy who played Carmine on Laverne and Shirley.  It seems like Hanney is lining himself up to recreate something along the old straw hat circuit that Jim Mackenzie successfully produced for years on the east coast, but Hanney seems to not have the stars that Mackenzie had instead it seems more often or not it is someone who has done a show or two in NYC and is billed as a New York actor.

My question is do we really need more theatres like this?  Are there really enough audiences over 60 to fill these theatres.  Sure most people may think there isn’t much harm in this type of producing and certainly there is a place for it, but too much of it simply dumbs down theatre and turns off future audiences.

First and foremost, Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s difficult not to think of all of the things I have to be grateful for.  They far out weigh any of the things in my life that I find challenging.

But it got me thinking.  This has been a really challenging year for the theatre industry.  We are still facing an uphill battle as we go into the new year, but we have so much as an industry to be thankful for:

1.  Several nonprofits theatres are not only thriving but producing some of the best and most ambitious work out in years.  Take Hartford Stage and Signature Theatre’s ambitious undertaking of Horton Foote’s nine play The Orphans’ Home Cycle or the Guthrie’s Kushner Festival.  Chicago’s theatre scene is thriving.  Seattle’s scene seems to be undergoing a renaissance.  From coast to coast many theatres are refocusing on mission and on creating great art.  They are facing the financial challenges, re-engaging audiences, and finding a way to continue bringing theatre to audiences of every age group and ethnicity.

2.  Rocco leading the NEA is certainly something to celebrate.  His first interview stirred up some controversy, but since then his batting average has been near perfect.  Rocco Landesman is without question the most exciting thing to ever happen to the NEA.  His recent speech at the Grantmakers for the Arts Conference outlined his initial agenda and is well worth the read.  The Arts Work  blog is also a must read.

3.  The Obama administration in particular Michelle Obama has proven to have an interest and understanding of the arts.  For the first time in a long time we have a leader who can appreciate the value of the arts.

4.  Bloggers are sparking fabulous conversations about the arts.  With newspaper coverage dwindling the real discussion about the arts is happen in the blogosphere.  Independent bloggers like Leonard Jacobs at The Clyde Fitch Report, Isaac Butler at Parabasis are delving into key issues we are facing.  One could get a graduate degree by reading Ian David Moss’ Create Equity.  There are far too many other great folks out there to list (check out the blogroll) – which is why I started posting my favorite posts each week.  I get most of my news from Broadwaystars.com (you know you do too).

5. Social Networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are changing the way we reach our audiences.  Commercial and nonprofit theatre has been embracing this new form of communication.   The arts also have a real opportunity to lead the way in utilizing social networking platforms.  Twitter has had a huge impact on my day to day work.  Art is even being created via facebook (Fatebook) and Twitter (Next to Normal’s new song).

6.  No other TV show has ever had the potential impact that Glee has.  The starts of musical theatre are front and center and gaining more and more fame.  The show celebrates show tunes, performance, all of the positive effects of the arts.  It makes being in the arts cool!

7.  This one will probably generate a bit of disagreement but we have to be thankful for stars on Broadway and off-Broadway.  Hugh Jackman, Daniel Craig, Jude Law, James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden, Hope Davis and Jeff Daniels not only broke box office records, but collectively they were responsible for keeping the straight play on Broadway this fall.  Lots of folks complain producers only wanting shows with stars, but if you look at the list of producers on these shows, you will find that they are the same producers who are on shows like The Norman Conquests and Mary Stuart.  If investors weren’t making money on star vehicles they wouldn’t be as likely to take a leap of faith on more risky propositions.