Sunday Quickies

I hate the idea that this might be lurching our way as well.
Canary in the coal mine: Theatermaking gets scary in Hungary

 To intermission or not to intermission?
 Long Enough To Reach

Down that old road again.
 Make your auditions more color inclusive

I'm still working on this one.
The magic and challenge of 'sunk costs'

I'm not sure I'm buying as original but maybe.
First US performance of Shakespeare in the original pronunciation  

Sunday Quickies

The Obsidian 2010-2011 Season Brochure is now available online. Take a look at what's in store for the year.

Building "Real World" Relationships Online: Alan Cooke of Convio  the money quote for me is:  A lot of organizations are getting people's email addresses after they've attended one performance and then they get an email asking for, for example, a $150 donation. Marc Van Bree has made the point that that's like asking someone to marry you after the first date.

Some thoughts on how to Get That Grant 

On Why It's Time To Listen (or a love letter to theatre bloggers) 

Sunday Quickies on a Holiday Monday

First up...kudos to Lynn Nottage for being one of the inaugural winners of the Horton Foote Prize

At the opening night of our production of Intimate Apparel {2008} Lynn told me that she didn't think her play Ruined would do very much because of the subject matter. Whoa was that ever a miss.


Via The Angry Deaf Guy in Atlanta  comes talkbackr.com  that comes complete with the following blurb

This is your chance to offer an informal, anonymous talkback/feedback mechanism for your audience members. Put the name of your event below, along with a contact email, and follow the instructions on the next page.

Best of all, it's ABSOLUTELY FREE!

This is a bit like the Constructive Criticism blog but a bit different.
 

Can cruise ships keep the theatre industry afloat? 
Oh the mind boggles.

Sunday Quickies

Social Media and the Arts: A must read article from the Globe and Mail. I think I will come back to this one in a few days

Michael Kaiser's Arts in Crisis Tour 

Rada cuts Alexander Technique classes and the crew is not happy

And finally.....the ummm joys of forced audience participation humiliation: Warning: You will be humiliated

Sunday Quickies

Three interesting posts on theatre philosophies:  What's so wrong with proscenium arch theatre?,  Noises off: What's the difference between performance art and theatre?,  Theater Talkback: Doing Your Homework.


When the living playwright writes about the living then things can get a little interesting.  The Play on Madoff, Without Wiesel 

The ever popular continuing debate on theatre tweeting:  Tweeting At the Theatre

Finally:  Two by Wendy Rosenfield:   ATCA 2010: Onward Christian Bloggers and  Seven Minutes in Hell

Sunday Quickies

Lynn Nottage hosts a party to   Forge a Festival for Black Playwrights and the Harlem Stage attacks a hefty deficit by expanding their programming and having it work.   A Harlem Arts Group Exhales

In the ongoing story of subsidiary rights a new round has been won.    NYMF Bows to Dramatists Guild

And a couple of articles that are not perhaps theatre related but some interesting food for thought.

Why Copyright

Out of Line 

Sunday Quickies

A new project here in Toronto is Hub Theatre's "Constructive Critcism" Project. I will be keeping an eye on this and hopefully adding some comments as things get moving. I hope it doesn't go the way of the ill fated "Review the Reviewer" blog that vanished quietly one night.

And speaking of reviews...well this review by Wendy Rosenfield of "Love Jerry" (Nice People Theatre) sure has the Phillie scene going crazy. Really, follow the links and see how polarized this discussion has become.

Nalaga'at Theatre has a pretty interesting play called Not by Bread Alone that is performed by deaf-blind actors. A very interesting piece from all accounts.

The Arena Stage is doing something a bit different by putting playwrights on the payroll as employees and The Guardian wonders if Drama Courses are Rubbish.

Sunday Quickies

It's an interesting thing about previews. I believe in them fully and always schedule at least 4 before an opening but I sometimes wonder at the "get it open so we can make some real money" mentality that truly seems to place the quality of the work in second place.
We have found ourselves bound into a format of 3 weeks rehearsal, jam in tech week {what a misnomer that is} into really about 4 days and then into previews and fall face forward into "community opening" then opening opening { the real one since the critics are invited.} They may not show up but one can always hope.
This is a pretty wacked system. It sacrifices artistic growth to a nebulous ideal of maximizing revenues.
I have been working to push budgets to give Obsidian 4 weeks before tech but that also presents some interesting challenges. We are all somewhat trained to the 3 week model and I don't know if either actors or directors truly know how to expand the process to richly fill 4 weeks.
Anyway this is all a bit of a segue into

Are preview performances worth it?

My rant and the link don't match up too much but hey, you take the road as it comes open.


Something that has been long done here and is a continuing source of very, very slow progress between the indie arts community and Equity.
Artists are doing it for themselves

Is Stephen Sondheim the Shakespeare of musical theatre?

'nuff said.



Late breaking addition: All-too-fleeting pleasure of the Actors Company

Sunday Quickies

At long last the return of the Sunday Quickies.

So to start off an interesting coupling of sounds: Just What Ahk-Sent Is That Onstage? and Accent Speaks Louder Than Race for Finding Friends

There is something intriguing about this as it has often been said that like hires like. But if accent is a stronger binding factor then shouldn't we be seeing more mixed hiring if people sound the same?


If you don't shy away from The Messiness Ghetto and you Want to be a theatre director? then maybe you will reach The Mountaintop pulls off shock win at Olivier Awards

A bit of lighter fare in How to fake tattoos for the stage and the Roundabout Theater changes course with playwrights

Finally an Obsidian salute to Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti: 'I'm not scared'

Sunday Quickies

Rising from the depths of rehearsal and grants just long enough to leave you with a taste of Sunday Quickies.

You got to hand it to Classical Theatre Projects. They make an R & J that provokes nary a dispute here in Canada but they are Just too Racy for Nashville. I wonder if anyone in Nashville actually listens to the words in country songs.

An interesting retreat in Sacramento on how to make the case that the arts matter.

The rest of this post seems to be all about shuffling off the mortal coil. I mean we always hear how the audiences are getting older, how it also seems that actors get older too. Who knew?

Some German actors in an attempt to make things more real get close to too real.

And finally Taffety Punk Theatre Company and their show, suicide.chat.room

And so Shakespeare to wrap this post.

Sunday Quickies

On the home front are a couple of stories that are bubbling along. Over at Praxis Theatre is a hefty post on the Harold Green Jewish Theatre pullout of Yichud Seclusion. The post has some good links in it. Especially the one to Now Magazine. Go, read, play follow the links.
Meanwhile over at the National Arts Centre it looks like the "company" ideal is back.

And up in Montreal, Simon Brault's new book has people paying attention.

Down south of 49 has a couple of interesting updates. First off it looks like a compromise has been reached in the Miracle Worker casting situation. The Drama Circle Critics bring in their inaugural on line member and the Actor's Fund is going on a major housing campaign.

Over the ponds comes some fears on the decline in actors at the regional theatres and finally a meditation on the critics changing roles.

And finally: Big, big props to Lynn Nottage for Ruined being chosen the #1 Play of 2009 by Time Magazine. Way to go Lynn.

Sunday Quickies

So you might want to get into the act and write your very own ending to a George Bernard Shaw play but will you be able to find a woman director to direct it?

You might want to check out this new way of accessing scripts on line. Sounds like a fine idea and I am wondering whether there might be a case to bring this plan to Canada.

I say, of course critics can booze it up before the show as long as the actors get to do the same.

And then some thoughts on theatre photography. A skill that I must say has declined since the advent of digital cameras. Well not as far as the pros are concerned but they are getting less work as everyone thinks they can do an equal job. I have to say that being handed a couple of dvd's after a photo session and having to pick, crop and photo shop my own images loses its appeal after the first couple hundred images.

Sunday Quickies

The Wrecking Ball takes on arts cuts in a big way. And London is taking on Edinburgh Fringe mano-a-mano.

Meanwhile: What is really going on inside the actor's brain.

The whys and wherefores of walking out of a play.

Some thoughts on the building conversation around Precious. Ta Nehisi Coates has some fabulous comments in this post. Well worth reading for the 2009 shadism insights.

Sunday Quickie

It's a bit of a weighted UK entry tonight.

First off: The Regional Theatre Revival, How Cutbacks may save the Arts {I'm not sure I'm buying this yet. I need some more thought on the matter} and an Old Age R+J.
That might be a very cool play to get a hold of.

Last week there was a link to try and get people to suss out who was to get either the bouquets or brickbats for a production. Over a Parabasis comes one helpful hint.

Now this is not about theatre per se but typography. After some of the brittle discussions in the office regarding what font to use where I thought this might be of interest.

Finally Theatre B in OZ has a new artistic Director. I just love the idea that it is a designer. Head over to One Big Umbrella to get all the links.

h/t MK Piatkowski

Sunday Quickie

Theatre can be such a huge varied experience. I mean it's all about making some sort of connection with our fellow humans, right?

So the scale of what constitutes theatre is all over the map. From the entertainment extravaganza of Spiderman to Dream Girls to the potential healing of Theatre of War to how the world has changed with Slam Theatre.

How did our local anchors do this season? Stratford & Shaw. I was down in Stratford the other week and I went to the Book Vault. I can usually tell how the season was just by how the staff is holding up up. They all looked pretty beat.

Some thoughts on the whole theatrical experience goes from the ongoing complaints about playwright's support to the state of theatre to who actually did what for the production to how about that curtain call anyway.

Sunday Quickies

A very varied assortment of topics this week. First up, hot on the heels of e-book readers, an idea that I like to call The Theatrical Kindle: Why would you download plays?

Can an e-performance get you in that partying mood like a good after opening party? Well maybe they aren't as happening as they used to be. Opening nights shed their opulence
Frankly, I have never been to a party like the one's mentioned in this article. Mostly the food is gone by time the actors get to the lobby and all that is left for you is a couple of crumpled drink tickets. Opa!
Back in my theatre school days the Globe and Mail used to review our performances. Thank you Herbert Whittaker. And the great opening night tradition was to drink like crazy, go to Frans on College Str to eat and sober up, and then grab the 2AM edition of the Globe to read the reviews. Things have been downhill party wise ever since.

So now they say that Reality TV shows ‘encourage theatre-going’ and while sitting during a performance you might hear Whispers Offstage? Could Be Actor’s Next Line all the while fuming over Booking fees: the great theatre ticket rip-off.

Meanwhile the Executive Director is sitting in their office humming {apologies to Paul Simon} Six Ways to Know If It's Time to Leave .

Finally, the ongoing controversy of the "Miracle Worker" casting.

Sunday Quickies

The Cape Town Opera Company has a touring production of Porgy and Bess that is set in Soweto. Here is a preview from the Cardiff Centre and here is a review.


Meanwhile Alexander McCall Smith has created The Okavango Macbeth. Maccers as seen through a tribe of baboons. A review is here.

A bit of a retrospective of the work of Neil Simon and just for contrast an article about Throwing Rotten Veggies at the Actors Night


Rethinking arts economies and arts exchange

Some thoughts on Miking Actors in Straight Plays

For the last item I sure am on the fence about using mikes in a straight play. The recent production of Secrets of a Black Boy used them at the Music Hall and I would love to know why that choice was made. It could be that the actors did not have the vocal capacity to fill that space or simply it is an unfillable space without augmentation.
On the other hand I have had trouble hearing actors on the Festival Stage at Stratford. So is vocal training not up to snuff anymore or have we moved to a more naturalistic style of theatre that is better served by mikes.

The debate continues.

Sunday Quickies - Massive Edition

No real theme to the links so I am grouping them into countries.

Lets start right here at home with the Siminovitch nominees. And for more info on the Nominees. Ummm just have to say that the invite this year was pretty ugly. It was not good design by any means.


Moving southwards we come across great thoughts by Elizabeth Streb {follow the links in that article as well}and Anna Deavere Smith. A couple of interesting ideas regarding a Twitter campaign and Talk Backs but really the prize article for me is the one about combining the play with selling the props at every show so that things keep changing.
Now it wouldn't be theatre without some controversy so here is a dose of that.

Heading across the Atlantic we get Judi Dench putting the hurt on young actors, David Mamet as a diminishing playwright, the RSC to relaunch its development studio and some thoughts on the hybridization of film and theatre.


And even though it isn't theatre who could resist a story about Nazi gnomes? Certainly not me.

Sunday Quickie Part the Second

Black Theatre in Great Britain:

The Roy Williams Take.

The Kwame Kwei-Armah Take with a spin to a national black archive.

When we did the International Playwights Forum last year we tried to get both Roy and Kwame but alas only Kwame could make it. At that time he said to me that if I wanted to see how Black Theatre could grow in Canada then I had to get over to England and see what they were doing. He opined that they were 10 years ahead of us.

Kwame Kwei- Armah YouTube Video #1


Kwame Kwei- Armah #2

Sunday Quickies

So there is this theatre in Utah that is doing a reno when all of a sudden: Turning a crisis into opportunity



And another kind of reno. The kind of wading through new play submissions and then dealing with the controversy: The O'Neill Center Achieves New Heights of Chutzpah


Some new to them but old to us ticketing strategy: Companies bet on cheaper tickets to draw bigger crowds

Of special interest to me is taking a look at what is being produced. Scroll to the bottom of the page and see what's hot in Denver.


Behind the Curtain of a Customizable Theater
I am so thinking that Obsidian should have one of these.

And a shout out to: MT Space Impact 09 down in Kitchener-Waterloo.

I was pleased to have been invited down to be part of the Chasing the Money Panel along with Sheila James {Canada Council}, Sanjay Shahani {Trillium Foundation} and Nadine Villasin {Carlos Bulosan Theatre}.

There is a full schedule of events this week so if you can get to KW please do so and support the very fine work that will be presented.