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:...
conversation starter
An amazing memo surfaced today, which I first heard about in this Maclean’s article by Jaime Weinman. It’s a memo from David Mamet to the writing staff of his recently cancelled television series, The Unit. Whatever you may think of Mamet–and I know a lot of 2am folk who have...
It’s Friday. These are stories we’ve been following this week. We’re taking the pulse of the #2amt folk–and in some cases, raising those pulses… And here’s a thought. There’s been a lot of talk about transparency and process, we need to introduce audiences to our process, let them see. A...
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...
I have talked time and again over at the Cambiare Productions blog about relationships and trust metrics and “street cred” and…. yes I’m as surprised as you are that anyone reads… but I’m going to restate it here because it needs restating. Ask a theatre artist what they don’t have,...
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...
Friday. You know what that means. Stories, trends, ideas that we’ve been following. And a follow Friday recommendation. If you’re on Twitter, most of us are, too. Search the #2amt hashtag to find us, follow us and get in the conversation. (They’re not at 2am in the morning, trust me.)...
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...