So many live, perishable experiences hang on the decision to leave the house, the decision to take the trouble to go to the venue before the event no longer exists. I remember weighing the $20 cab fare it would cost me to make it to Mandel Hall at the University...
audiences
A Thai restaurant opens on your block. Or a taqueria, or a sports bar, or a coffeehouse with nightly live music. At some point, if the signs are in a language you understand and the place has windows and the price is right, you’re likely to check it out. Now:...
A while back on #2amt, an extremely provocative gauntlet was thrown, on the OH so touchy subject of money. Filthy lucre. We can’t live without it. Most of us got into the theater profession to avoid having to think about it too much. Yet as some point we all are...
One of the recent #newplay conversations focused on the questions of how we can create more diversity, both in our content, our playwright relationships, and in our audience. Much of that conversation focused on the idea of “accessibility,” i.e. how we are not making theater “accessible” to minority groups through...
Full disclosure. I am by trade a playwright. I may be an artist-in-residence, producer, sound designer, graphic designer, voiceover artist and marketing department for my own theatre company, which, yes, I co-founded. Those are things I do and can do. But I identify myself as a writer. With that in...
And now, a post about theaters of different sizes and how their intermissions help make audiences feel more comfortable. 1). When I was at Steppenwolf for American Buffalo, I noticed that audience members were able to order their drinks before the show and have them ready at intermission. This made...
Concerts. Big concerts—arena size. I often hear and read how potential audiences, if they’re not going to theater, are going to arena-size, celebrity-driven concerts. And if they’re not at a big concert, they’re at home watching American Idol or Lost. None of this is true. Sure, every week tens of millions are streaming Netflix,...
Odds are the first four words ever spoken were “tell me a story.” And the next four? “Once upon a time…” It’s why we have cave paintings, sculpture, theatre, film, television both scripted and “real.” Everything in our world is crafted to communicate something, whether memory or information, association or...
David Loehr caught a little tweet of mine today and @’d me asking if I’d join 2amtheatre and write a 140+ character post about my observation. Note how quickly that communication turned into an action. Here is my inaugural post: This morning I was putting together a training guide for...
Not long ago, I finally went to Great Lake Pizza in Chicago. In 2009, GQ magazine declared that Great Lake makes the best pizza in the United States. Articles about the particulars of the pizza and of the restaurant’s proprietor soon followed. Sharply divided reviews also followed. I loved the pizza I...