Category
the process
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audiences, augmented reality, conversation starter, new technology, rabble rousing, social media, storytelling, the process, transmedia
I Came, I Tweeted, I Pondered
Over the past week or so I have been near the center of exchanges about theatre and social media that feel alternately like discussions, vent sessions, and policy ponderings. Social media and theatre and the mix of both — discuss. And when you add in questions of the directionality of the media stream and who [...]
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actors, alternatives, community, spotlight, talk about what's good, the process, theatrical ecosystem
I Am An Actor.
11.16.11 | Permalink | 7 CommentsI haven’t been an actor in a long time. I had spent most of nearly three decades (I was a very, very young child actor…) working on one show or another before finding myself torn between those age-old female choices of nurturing myself or nurturing my offspring. Luckily, my first-born was a theatre, and I [...]
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advocacy, collaboration, community, conversation starter, designers, ideas, major regional theatre, marketing, mission, new play development, newplaytv, non-profit theatre, p.r., partnerships, playwrights, rabble rousing, social media, the process, theatrical ecosystem
Everything But
11.09.11 | Permalink | 6 CommentsOver the weekend, @NewPlayTV streamed three interesting, presumably unrelated talks. The first was from Steppenwolf’s First Look Festival, titled How to engage 21st Century Audiences for New Plays, followed an hour later by one from the PlayFest at Orlando Shakespeare Theater on How to Make a Living as a Playwright? Monday night’s was from New [...]
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alternatives, arts administration, board members, ideas, mission, non-profit theatre, producers, the process, theatrical ecosystem
Other People’s Mission
10.28.11 | Permalink | 2 CommentsOther people’s money is not just the name of a play by Jerry Sterner. It is the temptation put before an “agent” when working on behalf of a “principal” that gives rise to “moral hazard.” Other people’s money is also what nonprofit organizations – like theatre companies – use to produce work. There is a [...]
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directors, dramaturgy, history, new play development, playwrights, the process
Divining “The Diviners”
When Jim Leonard was an English major at Hanover College in the late seventies, where I was running a one man theatre department, he responded to a request I issued for “extras” to swell a scene in a play I was staging. He had one line and seemed to be well prepared to say that [...]
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actors, directors, playwrights, the process
I know what it’s like to have failed, baby
09.30.11 | Permalink | 15 Comments“There are still many more days of failure ahead, whole seasons of failure, things will go terribly wrong, you will have huge disappointments, but you have to prepare for that, you have to expect it and be resolute and follow your own path.” ― Anton Chekhov Over nearly twenty years of striving, struggling and occasionally [...]
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crowdsourcing, ideas, playwrights, the process
What Are Your Playwright Best Practices?
09.22.11 | Permalink | 7 Comments“…being a playwright is hard. One of my profs once said to me you have to work hard at it for at least 10 years before you start to see any movement.” –Advice For Playwrights Starting Out by Adam Szymkowicz I read that bit of insight when I was starting out in this genre and [...]
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audiences, collaboration, corporate sponsors, designers, development, devised work, directors, dramaturgy, funding and support, ideas, new plays, non-profit theatre, playwrights, presenting, producers, the process
Devised Theatre: Transitioning to Production
Previously in this column: The members of Bright Alchemy Theatre, a very young devised theatre company based in Washington, DC, have spent the last nine months working on its new project which began with the question: Why do we as a species feel the need to tell stories about our own destruction? This weekend, for [...]
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advocacy, audiences, collaboration, community, conversation starter, funding and support, ideas, non-profit theatre, producers, rabble rousing, supply / demand, talk about what's good, the future, the process, theatrical ecosystem
What You’ve Never Had
08.24.11 | Permalink | 11 CommentsThe non-profit model is living on borrowed time. The current model is dying. Even still, I think we spend more time trying to figure out how to fund a show than actually making the show. Read: The way we make money to make art is not sustainable. Insanity: Doing the same thing again and again [...]
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collaboration, playwrights, rabble rousing, the process
For Consideration: A Response To A Critique Found In An Essay On Theatricality
08.24.11 | Permalink | 8 CommentsI’ve been trying to fully digest the recent HowlRound post On Theatricality by Lydia Stryk. With a slew of comments (15 at my last count), it’s generated quite a bit of conversation. From the get go this blog post got stuck in my craw. I’m not the only one. Playwright JC Lee took issue with [...]
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collaboration, development, ideas, new plays, partnerships, playwrights, producers, the future, the process, theatrical ecosystem
Roll On.
Roll On, Strange Little Plays. Roll On. I will start off saying this: rolling world premieres should be the ONLY way plays premiere. With consecutive and distinct productions a new play gets the essential time and community to mature rapidly, thoroughly, and cradled by friendly forces. Awww. A play becomes itself in production, less so [...]
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collaboration, conversation starter, devised work, the process
Devised Theatre: Maybe There’s No Such Thing
08.15.11 | Permalink | 2 CommentsRachel Chavkin, founding artistic director of the TEAM, a devising ensemble, wrote an article on TCG’s blog that asks the question, “What if devised theatre moved from the margins to the mainstream of theatre making?” She makes the case that the slower, cooperative methods involved in a lot of devised work could make for a [...]
