Over 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?...
ideas
Other 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...
It’s always nice to be on the same page as Polly Carl. If you haven’t read her latest HowlRound post, A Theater of YES!, go check it out. One reason I appreciate her train of thought is because it dovetails with my TEDxMichiganAve talk from this past May: [youtube width=”560″...
“…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...
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...
More and more, I remind myself to look out the window of the theater and see if the people on the sidewalk have any relationship to the people or the story on the stage. I moved away from Chicago in June. Saying goodbye to the rough winters was easy. Bidding...
Every March, tens of thousands of people obsessed with technology, music, and film gather in Austin, Texas for 10 days of learning, hand-shaking, business-making, art-creating, and of course, debauchery. Some call it Nerd Spring Break. Others, South-by. But one thing is clear: The Interactive Conference at South by Southwest (SXSWi)...
The 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...
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...
Why did I go into PR? It’s simple, really. I like telling people about things that I’m excited about. Truly and authentically, and that’s it. I’m a music and theater nerd, so I sort of stumbled from oboe performance major and Michael Olmert’s British plays in performance class to student...