This week’s interesting articles and blog posts!

July 5, 2009 • No Comments

 

 

    From the papers and websites:

     

  • Now, Sarah’s Folly – NYTimes.com – http://shar.es/Gj5o

  • Female playwrights find it’s still a man’s world — Newsday.com – http://shar.es/GvPV

  • ‘Girls Night,’ Bachelorettes plays – WSJ.com – http://shar.es/G7al

  • Summer tourism to NYC down sharply. Tourists forgoing Broadway for less pricey atttractions. http://tinyurl.com/n6zegy

  • Mayor Michael Bloomberg – A public insurance plan will help heal a broken health care system – http://shar.es/cj5u

  • How Not to be Hated on Facebook – TIME – http://shar.es/cjaT #fb

  • BackStage on the amazing Bernie Telsey http://bit.ly/EkA1b w/actors Telsey tales-note 1st one http://bit.ly/tQGlP

  • City’s Funds For Film and Television Tax Credits Run Out http://bit.ly/DeLkn

  • Critic Peter Marks says that the power of the critic "theater, like most politics, is local," http://is.gd/1lpVZ

  • Bravo, Sarah Jessica Parker launching art-themed reality series http://bit.ly/ayTQZ

  • Playbill profile of MCC Artistic Director Bernard Telsey’s double life as a casting director – http://bit.ly/11dlAF

  • Kaiser on Arts in Crisis http://bit.ly/hQfwE H

  • Nonprofits Employ Tougher Measures as Downturn Deepens http://bit.ly/18ud9h

  • Twitter Revamps Following and Followers Pages – http://bit.ly/LFlWJ

  • Male Nonprofit Executives Earn 27% More Than Female Leaders, Study Finds http://twurl.nl/hfkofm

  • Kennedy Center to Spread the Knowledge http://bit.ly/1gwGiq

  • Productive but Neurotic New York – Crain’s New York Business – http://shar.es/5W13

  • Charles Isherwood of the NYT on the NT Live Phedre http://bit.ly/lbi00

  • It’s official: T.R. Knight is headed to Broadway http://tinyurl.com/nqz2vz

  • Guthrie Theater Wraps Up Highly Successful Kushner Celebration http://tinyurl.com/mdxv5f

  • Recession Taking a Toll on Nonprofits, Bridgespan Survey Finds http://bit.ly/LMxYt

  • Facebook Could Create a Revolution, Do Good, and Make Billions – NYTimes.com http://ow.ly/fYGc

  • Variety – interesting business/creative model for the musical "Ella": http://bit.ly/OpU1z

  • Bard Stars Esparza, White Help Raise $1.3 Million for Public – Bloomberg.com – http://shar.es/74rL

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      From the Blogs (For a daily update check What’s being talked about on the Blogroll regularly.  It is updated several times throughout the day.  Follow me on Twitter to receive a tweet whenever it is updated.)  If there is a blog I am not following and I should please let me know.  You can see the blog roll by category here.:

       

       

      • *’Bums on Seats’ * "PR folk are always asking how… from Hannah Nicklin – Blog

      • The Huffington Post says The Skylight is following… from Artsy Schmartsy

      • Be careful what you say from The Mission Paradox Blog

      • Acceptance Video for the ITBA’s Citation for Excellence from Flux Theatre Ensemble

      • On Theatre Etiquette from Theatre Bay Area Chatterbox

      • July 1, 2009 – Can we practice empathy together? from SEE Blog

      • Paneled on July 8th! from Parabasis

      • What? A Panel About Theatre Blogging? from The Playgoer

      • Ohio Theatre Update from The Playgoer

      • Here’s how to solve the arts funding crisis  from Stage: Theatre blog | guardian.co.uk

      • Have we seen the last of the looooong running musical? from PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE

      • Women Actors Make Way Less Money Than Men from Women & Hollywood

      • Valuing Cultural Diplomacy and Engagement for the arts from ARTSBLOG

      • Creative risk pays off for the Guthrie from Carolyn Jack

      • Gender Bias Gets Confusing! (But Poetic) from Parabasis

      • My last e-mail to Emily from The Hub Review

      • Microphilanthropy from Createquity.

      • Thinking Bigger with your Vision, your Board and your funding from For Impact Daily Nuggets

      • Are Nonprofits Good At Social Media? from The Agitator

      • Is Michael Kaiser a Demigod or Merely Superhuman? from Clyde Fitch Report

      • As Mayoral Control of Schools Lapses, Will Arts Education be affected from Clyde Fitch Report

      • On Quality, Value and Criticism from Flux Theatre Ensemble

      • Goodbye and Thanks from AmericanTheaterWeb

      • First Rehearsal to the Third Power from Steppenwolf Theatre Company Blog

      • Free, Says Gladwell: Such a Little Word… from Clyde Fitch Report

      • How is Tony Voter turnout? from PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE

      • Gentle Persistence from A Small Change- Fundraising Blog

      • Gender Bias in Theatre — Digging a Little Deeper from Women & Hollywood

      • The “Turn-A-Round King goes National from off-stage right

      • The 500th Post: 16 Nonprofit Marketing (and Life)… from Katya’s Non-Profit Marketing Blog

      • Truth, beauty, trust from The Artful Manager

      • Around the horn: Thriller edition from Createquity.

      • Are Audiences Lemmings or Thinking Lemmings? from Clyde Fitch Report

      • Today’s Must Read from Parabasis

      • O, malignant and ill-boding audience! from Struts and Frets: Kris Joseph

      • I’m lost, but I don’t think I am the only one from off-stage right

      • A Balancing Act from The Halcyon Blog

      • Broadway (officially) lends T.R. Knight ‘Tenor’ role from Entertainment Weekly’s Ausiello Files

      • Why Every Nonprofit Is Accountable For A Vision from SPURspectives

      • And then it’s gone… from Theatre Aficionado at Large

      • How convenient are we? from One Producer in the City

      • Women Directors Breaking Through in Theatre from Women & Hollywood

      • Is the Curtain Closing on Live Theater in America? from Culturebot

      • Jerry Lewis, Marvin Hamlisch taking ‘Nutty Professor’… from Culture Monster

      • A ‘West Side Story’ for the Twitter set from Culture Monster

      • Saving Arts Programs? There’s an .App for That. from ARTSBLOG

      • What You Do Isn’t Worth Paying For: The Message Google… from Technology in the Arts

      • What You Do IS Worth Paying For, We Just Can’t: Non-Profit… from Technology in the Arts

      • New York Arts Fund Offers Cheap Rent to Charities from Give and Take

      • Femme Fight from Blank New World

      • Rock and a Hard Place 3: What Actors Want from a poor player

      • Theatre as Case Study? from Parabasis

      • Fisking Emily Glassberg Sands from The Hub Review

      • The Impact of Giving Circles from Nonprofit Law Blog

      • Politics Of Online Ad Targeting from The Agitator

      • Considering the Creative Ecology from The Artful Manager

      • Keeping The Passion Alive While I am Away from Butts In The Seats

      • Question For My Inside The Arts Family from Butts In The Seats

      • Rehearsing opposites from Struts and Frets: Kris Joseph

      • Breaking the ‘5th Wall’… from NEA New Play Development Program hosted by Arena

      • Engaging Dissent from NEA New Play Development Program hosted by Arena

      • I Want To Make Something Really Clear from Parabasis

      • A Good Post From David Dower from Parabasis

      •  An Open Letter to Roundabout from Theatre Aficionado at Large

      • Box? What Box? from Entrepreneur The Arts Blog

      • The Norman Conquests – Table Manners from Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals

      • TWITTER’S TIME HAS COME from Jane Fonda

      • Twitter Guide Book… from Mashable!

      • Theatre is about more than comfy seats | Matt Trueman from Stage: Theatre blog | guardian.co.uk

      • How to Lose Your Audience in One Easy Step from Theatre Bay Area Chatterbox

      • How Broadway Talks to its Audiences Using Social Media from Mashable!

        • Student Matinees create opportunities for all students. They are important and have a huge impact when done well.

        June 21, 2009 • 2 Comments

        Frank Rizzo (Hartford Courant, Variety) who I tend to agree with on most topics posted the a very ill-informed take on student matinees: they are done more or less for funding purposes only and not having any true impact on attendees or developing audiences.  Basically Frank suggests we give students free tickets to attend a regular performance and give up on student matinees.

        Here is my the response to Frank’s post that I put in his comments section – ironically I think that my posting of the comment or trying to crashed the Courant site because I can’t get on it since – so I will check throughout the day to make sure my comment got through:

        I couldn’t disagree with you more about student matinees (of which I have attended dozens).  The logistics of attending a show outside of school hour are virtually impossible to arrange in most cases.

        First and the largest issue, your plan assumes that the students can find transportation to the theater. Without buses, which are expensive many students can’t even get to the theater.  You may argue that they make it to the mall or to the movies which is true, but some parents view malls as babysitting services and frankly malls are cool social settings where kids already gather – not exactly what most kids think of when they think of their local theaters.

        Second, your plan also assumes that children are old enough to attend the theatre on their own.  If we wait for every students theatre-going experience to begin when they are old enough to attend on their own, we might as well write them off?  If you haven’t experienced something, you won’t miss it. The reality is that movies, sports, etc a geared towards children at a very young age.  If we aren’t providing a similar point of entry for the theatre (and all of the arts) we will become even more irrelevant.  And once again we can’t rely on parents to seek out this experience alone.

        Third, the factors above and your plan would likely create an even smaller audience in that those who would choose to attend or could attend are those that could AFFORD the transportation or whose parents didn’t work at night and could take their kids to a show or didn’t have other children or can afford a babysitter.  Our ticket prices are already too high why would we want to create more barriers for attending.

        This is why schools have such strict rules about what can be required as class room activities and field trips.  And I am pretty sure we aren’t going to convince the school system to provide after school buses or teacher support for theatre attendance when the arts are being cut out of many of our schools.

        My childhood and formative years were filled with professional arts experiences via student matinees.  And I had a mother who firmly believed in providing these experiences outside of the school hours but as a school teacher didn’t necessarily have the time, energy or money to make it to the few arts experiences that were available in El Paso, TX.  Without those matinees, I would never have pursued a career in theater.

        A well prepared audience at a student matinee (by both the school and the theatre) can be one of the best audiences around with completely honest reactions.  Certainly adults can and should be encouraged to attend with the students – at 10:30am.  It is an opportunity to give tickets to local partners or a special subscription or discount offer.  Frankly any actor or other theatre artists who wants to complain about it should take a moment and try and remember what brought them to the arts.  And then they should take some action to participate in either the preparation of the audiences or the day’s experience – it can be as simple as asking what the preparation was.  I am not suggesting more work for the actors – the theatre should be doing the heavy lifting, but we all are responsible for making sure theatre is available to audiences of all ages.  Or get used to the fact that our audience will be smaller and smaller.  You don’t miss what you never have.   I know first hand how much work the matinees are and how frustrating they can be but the alternatives are unacceptable to me.  It reminds me the stereotypical self-indulgent directors who are so concerned about their “art” that they have forgotten completely about the audience and the reasons for creating theatre in the first place.

        The point of the matinees isn’t to convert everyone into as die-hard theatre attendee.  It is a chance to reach a few future theatre participants, to enhance the education curriculum and to foster an understanding of the importance of the arts.

        Your suggestion for free vouchers (and a way to make sure the students actually attend)is a fine idea for summers, a one time specific project, or a way to encourage students to attend a show.  I actually have always been a proponent of all student tickets being free or at least lower than the price of a movie ticket (often free tickets remove the value of the experience completely).  But if that is the only access provided, we won’t be doing our jobs as theatre practitioners or meeting the missions of most nonprofit theatres.

        Internships paid, unpaid, in-between – trying to understand the rules.

        June 15, 2009 • One Comment

        One of the most worrisome topics I saw of the Twitter stream of the TCG conference was regarding the Department of Labor and internships.  This hasn’t seemed to pick up much commentary, perhaps because it is difficult to understand or perhaps there are so many other issues this one fell to the wayside.  There seemed to be some significant concern that the Department of Labor was “cracking down” on internships.

         

        The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) governs minimum wage and who qualifies. Of course the first question is does a particular organization fall under the governance of the FLSA.  A quick read left me with the impression that most theaters would.  So then what are the implications regarding interns.   In the article, The Cost Of Unpaid Interns, How to navigate the wage and hour law maze – the NonProfit Times explains the following guidelines:

         

        In Walling v. Portland Terminal Co., 330 U.S. 148 (1947), the individuals at issue participated in a training program that was a prerequisite to employment. The Supreme Court held that employment “trainees” were not employees for purposes of the FLSA during their training period. The Court considered the “economic reality” of their training as well as the circumstances surrounding the training, and concluded that the training program did not contemplate compensation, nor did the employer derive any immediate or direct advantage from the trainees’ work.

        Following Walling, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a six-part test to help determine whether an individual is a “trainee,” as opposed to an employee requiring compensation. If all of the following criteria apply, the trainees are not employees within the meaning of the FLSA and need not be paid:

        1. The training, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to that which would be given in a vocational school;
        2. The training is for the benefit of the trainees;
        3. The trainees do no displace regular employees, but work under their close observation;
        4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees and, on occasion, the employer’s operations might actually be impeded;
        5. The trainees are not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the training period; and
        6. The employer and the trainees understand that the trainees are not entitled to wages for the time training. (Note that as an exception to this criterion, tuition assistance and nominal stipends for students are not considered wages.

         

        Some Google research finds contradictory information as to whether you must meet all 6 criteria and the interpretation of the criteria themselves (not surprising).  Other questions revolve around what is compensation (does housing count – general research seems to say yes it does), what about stipends (seem to be okay for tools, books or other education materials – not food and gas as most of us think of them), and what risk are nonprofits really facing in this supposed “crack-down” versus say law firms, financial services, and other for-profit companies.

         

        Here are just a few my concerns (and opinion, standard disclaimer – I am not offering advice or any legal consultation in what ANY organization of individual should do):

         

        1.  Most arts organizations probably meet numbers 1, 2, 5, and 6 with some ease. However most arts organizations I know need interns to balance out the workload and the affordable workforce (which we be in conflict with the guidelines.

         

        2. Number 3 may seem more subjective in the organizations eyes than an outside evaluator.  For example in theatre many interns work backstage crew assignments.  We may not think of this as displacement of an other employee but in reality it is. Without the intern we would have to hire someone to do the job.  Now, I can easily see and make the arguments, that the fact that we have interns makes the decision to do a show with say a big set with lots of changes possible but would all of our programming stand up to exemplify that was the case?  Overall, I must guess no.  Does this mean that if an intern works in the box office as part of their internship we are in conflict with the guidelines.

         

        3.  Many companies allow interns to take on responsibilities outside of the internship to make extra money (box office, house management, crew, etc.).  Is this in conflict?

         

        All of this is very important to me because I a firm believer that we as artists and organizations have a moral obligation to help train future generations.   But I understand the economic challenges of this training.  It is an unfortunate reality that most organizations can’t afford to pay interns minimum wage and it is heart-breaking because it creates all sorts of issues, the most difficult to accept being that the programs are populated by interns whose families can afford to provide financial support.

        So, if anyone out there has more information that would help other organizations please share!  If you were at the TCG conference and there was some insight provided please share!

         

        Some other articles of interest:

         

        Rites of spring: The hidden dangers of hiring unpaid interns

        Small businesses hire unpaid interns this summer – Associated Press

         

        FLSA and the Summer Intern

        Women in Theatre

        June 10, 2009 • 11 Comments

        Last week over dinner a friend and I had a long discussion about being a woman working in the theatre industry.  We were both relatively disheartened and surprised by the on-going struggle we and our peers go through in both the commercial and nonprofit world.

        Laura Collin-Hughes wrote a great post on this in her Tony Awards follow-up.  And yesterday I got an invite to a discussion of a study being developed by a group of wonderful playwrights (female of course) on this disparity.

        Over the summer I hope to use this blog to discuss this issue – is it an issue? I would really like others to join in, so PLEASE add you comments or email me if you have thoughts about this or would like to be a part of the conversation. It would be really great to have you all help me create a list of topics on how we can address this once and for all.

        Are there too many good shows and not enough audience members?

        May 27, 2009 • No Comments

         

        At one point in early April I made a joke to my husband that the critics were only writing rave reviews – because if shows sold tickets,  producers would buy ads and therefore critics would keep their jobs.  I didn’t really think there was a conspiracy–mostly because I think critics are smart enough to know that writing good reviews for every show wouldn’t save arts journalism (but that’s another post), so could the answer be that there were a bunch of really great shows opening around New York City? 

         

        There were certainly more than enough shows opening.  Off-Broadway the non-profit theaters were at the height of their seasons and even commercial off-Broadway was showing some life with the new multi-plex theaters seeming to be almost full for the first time in a while.   The double digit closings on Broadway in January and early February opened up a lot of theaters.  Most of the closings were limited runs or long-running shows except for the wonderful Dividing the Estate which should have been allowed to stay at the Booth longer (everyone buy tickets to see it at Hartford Stage – go buy now – come back and finish reading the post after getting your tickets), but each closing announcement was quickly followed by an opening announcement.   Theater owners seemed determined to keep their spaces filled.   Producers seemed to scale back shows a bit or resorted to producing PLAYS (hooray!) to keep costs down.  It certainly wasn’t the rush on theaters that the late 90’s and early part of this decade provided but the theaters certainly weren’t going dark. 

         

        And then it happened…review after review: Ruined, Exit the King, God of Carnage, Our Town, Hair, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Mary Stuart, Next to Normal, The Norman Conquests (all three), Rock of Ages, Reasons to be Pretty, Waiting for Godot, West Side Story, Everyday Rapture, The Cripple of Inishmaan, and that doesn’t even name all of the shows that were getting raves – so please don’t get upset if I left your show off -  or the ones that are still to open off-Broadway (high hopes for MCC Theater’s Coraline and everyone is telling me to rush to the Public Theater’s Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson).   It was as if we entered a mini-Golden age for the theatre and so many wonderful straight plays!  They even opened a second  “Plays only” window at the TKTS Booth.

         

        So, I started what seems like an endless odyssey to see all of these wonderful shows that are out there.   Now, I am a pretty regular theater-goer, I see most of the Broadway and off-Broadway season each year and even make it to a smattering of off-off-Broadway productions.   But I am finding myself in a the theater a lot more this spring, there is just so much to see!  And you know what, the critics are right, the shows are well-deserving of their raves.  As a matter of fact, the only reviews I seem to disagree with are some of the “mixed reviews”  (come on way too tough of 9-5 it was as much fun as Rock of Ages and hello DOLLY PARTON’s songs were great and Tovah Feldshuh cannot receive enough praise for Irena’s Vow). 

        So, I am going to all of this wonderful theater and loving it.  More than that, I am proud to be a part of the New York theater industry.  How can anyone not take great pride in all of the wonderful work throughout the City. 

         

        But then at intermission I start looking around at the houses, then after the show, then I start getting there early to watch the audiences come in, and I am deeply, deeply distraught that so many of these wonderful shows with all of these great reviews are playing to partial houses and in some cases partial is bring very polite.  Sure some of the musicals are doing well and I can’t even get house seats at God Of Carnage (and I have tried 4 times) but I have to think if some of these shows were in a less competitive environment they would be playing to higher percentages of houses or would they?

         

        Are there too many good shows out there and not enough audience for them?

         

        My knee-jerk response is to point to ticket prices.  They are so high.  After all the New York Times just reported how Broadway had record grosses this year.  (Note Ken Davenport over at Producer’s Perspective breaks the stats down and shows the drop-off in total audiences that matched these record grosses, so clearly higher prices play into the slight uptick).  But it would be foolish to say that ticket prices were the issue, lets not kid ourselves they are ridiculously high and the premium seats are way out of control – too many held, etc., but come on practically ever show is at the Theater Development Fund’s TKTS Booth (Follow TDF on Twitter if you don’t believe me) and there are so many other discounts out there!  Google a show and you can get a discount ticket!

         

        So is it the about stars?  This season is certainly has more big names involved  on and off stage than any other recent season.   Reasons to be Pretty doesn’t have stars, I hear it over and over.  Well they have done a great job finding a handful of stars to host talk-backs every night for the week or two and that doesn’t seem to solve the fact that this AMAZING show is playing to way too small of houses.  (again, please pause in your reading and go buy tickets to Reasons to be Pretty, really you can come back and finish the post after, I will wait just don’t get lost in their great new web videos, you can go back and look at those later). 

         

        So what is it?  And don’t anyone dare say the word “marketing.”  Frankly some of the best marketing out there is for the shows that aren’t filling up and some of the worst for the shows that are (I won’t name examples because of dear friends involved in the shows but you all have seen some of the commercials and print pieces). 

         

        Is tourism down?  Are all those “staycations” I keep reading about causing this?  I would imagine they are having some balanced effect – New Yorkers who stay home make up for the tourists?

         

        Are the audiences just diminishing?  Have lack of school programs and the value of theater sunk so low that we are now on a trend to just see audiences grow smaller and smaller?  I might think this had more validity if so much of the work out there weren’t so darn relevant and good.  But we can’t completely rule it out.

         

        Or is it perhaps that the balance of long-running shows to new shows is off-kilter.   After all the entire theater business is more or less about balance, so did all those long-running shows that closed throw the audience levels off?  I hate to say it but I think this is the largest factor.  Maybe some of the theaters should have stayed dark a little longer.  After all a couple more shows like Mamma Mia, Jersey Boys, Wicked, Avenue Q or August Osage County might balance out some of the competition.  And certainly it would be great if off-Broadway production costs could be reversed so that you could have once again sustain long runs. 

         

        So the question isn’t really are there too many good shows out there, but there are too many NEW good shows out there.  What will happen next?  Can some of these shows maintain their success or survive their lower numbers and pull off a longer run?  With so many of the shows on Broadway are we setting ourselves up for next season to mirror this one?  The summer and fall already have a rich schedule from the nonprofit theatres (in New York, Chicago, San Diego, etc.) with several of the shows looking like they are possible transfers, so there will be plenty of competition to fill the theaters that do empty. 

         

        I think this means we as an industry have to do some thinking and planning and do it darn quick.  We are digging a hole that is going to be very difficult to get out of if we let it become a trend.  We have to make an environment where a good show can run. We have to make off-Broadway and off-off Broadway sustainable.  We have to reach beyond New York and make sure that theater can be sustainable, vital and relevant throughout the country.   It means dealing with production costs and ticket prices, cultivating future theater audiences, and most importantly learning from the current slate on the boards to find a balance that works.  We can’t just write it off as an anomaly or blame it on the economy (oh my that sort of rhymed), just as the nonprofit theater world must revise its business model to meet a new reality so does the commercial side of the industry.

        MCC Theater Youth Company changes lives (last night they changed mine)!

        May 1, 2009 • No Comments

        It is so rare in the theater to experience the visceral and emotional slap of truth or to have a piece of theater grip hold of your heart to the point that you find you have stopped breathing. But when it happens, you are transformed – not momentarily but permanently. Theater that does this leaves a mark inside of you that does not and cannot ever be removed.

        Last night a mark like that was left on my heart and will forever burn in my mind.

        It didn’t happen in a Broadway house or even at a “professional” show. It happened when a group of high school kids (and 9 who had graduated and grown up a bit) took the stage for MCC Theater’s 2009 Uncensored performance and 10th Anniversary celebration.

        It was a raw, dark, funny, gut-wrenching roller-coaster ride into the hearts and minds of the kids who wrote and performed it. They were truly uncensored as they shared thoughts on life, self-image, drugs, race and sex – lots of sex. MCC Youth Company found a way to give these kids a voice and let them scream from the rooftops.

        During the first half of the evening the current MCC Theater Youth Company (made up of about 50 kids who audition to participate in the year-round FREE training program that focuses on writing and acting), performed Uncensored (monologues and scenes they developed), one of four performances during a regular year.  The second half was a one-night-only reunion of 9 alumni members and 1 current company member performing (one person from each of 10 years of companies) work created over the last 10 years intertwined with the affect that the Youth Company has had on their lives.

        Throughout both performances I was on the edge of my seat.  My heart and mind being banged and dented by the beauty of their work, their pure honesty, their fears, and their abundant hope.   After hearing how the Company had changed and in at least one case saved their lives, the alumni called all current and past members to the stage along with my dear friend who founded, taught and lead the Company for 10 years, Stephen Dimenna.  As I watched the stage fill with kids of every color, shape, sexual orientation and personality and embrace each other and Steve, I could see that they all stood a bit taller and were living a bit larger.  I swelled with pride that I was there in the beginning of this one-of-a-kind program that is so deserving of more than a blog post – all you documentarians and New York Times feature writers get on it.  I couldn’t take my eyes off of the celebration. I thought about the  hundreds of kids who have been Youth Company members who found their voices and a theatrical home, and I realized I was breathless and  the night had permanently left a mark on me.

        Congratulations and Happy Anniversary to all my friends at MCC Theater, not only do they produce some of the best theater in the country, but they are doing so much more to impact and shape the future of the theater.