I keep writing about collaboration between theatre making organizations, but until now, I haven’t given a very clear picture of what form that collaboration should take. Here’s a stab at it. The following is a collection of events that could be held, some every year others every month, to realize...
On Saturday the 8th of June, I hosted a session of the Theatre Communications Group Conference in Dallas to prompt discussion of ideas to increase playgoing. It drew a great group of people who brought a lot of terrific ideas into the room. TCG staff member Zach Chotzen-Freund was kind...
Thesis: The American Theatre Movement has had a tendency to define itself partly by what it is not – distancing itself from community theatre and mere entertainment. This distancing should be reevaluated to determine whether its ongoing benefits outweigh its ongoing costs. Most American theatre professionals will readily explain how...
Thesis: Introducing bold new kinds of productions will require change. Change can be frightening. This post is basically a sermon intended to help beat back the fear. “How do you give In to the true That wants to become A new part of you?” – Craig Wright I expect most...
Thesis: Celebrity is one of the strongest social forces in America. Increasingly, though, people are responding to apparently oxymoronic “Narrow fame;” that is, being highly salient for some quality among a modest sized niche of people. Theatre companies can take advantage of this phenomenon by promoting their currently unknown performers...
A shade more than two years ago, David Loehr and I met during a gathering at Arena Stage. He encouraged me to do some writing for this web site. Since that time, this is the 20th post I’ve written and the I’m-not-sure-how-to-count themth post I’ve read. The contributors to this...
Thesis: Skills in event creation and performance can be applied to marketing appropriately and effectively. If stunt marketing is selling out, it is selling out in a very classy way. I was in London for a few days in the late spring of 2004. I’d been doing weeks of country...
Thesis: Holding the idea that artists are different in kind from non-artists may create a barrier that discourages non-artists from attending or engaging with your work. Choosing to believe that audience members have a key role in theatrical production may reduce or remove such a barrier. I invoke the term...
Thesis: You can learn more when you innovate if you adopt a few concepts from the scientific method. In my experience, plenty of people in the American Theatre innovate frequently. Whether the subject is artistic style, theater technology, seating plan, or any of dozens of other things, our field is...