Monday night, here in Vancouver, we celebrated The 28th Annual Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Vancouver cultural landscape, The Jessies are our answer to Toronto’s Doras or Broadway’s Tony Awards. They honour theatre excellence over the past year. You can say what...
It’s a familiar sight for any Edinburgh Festival Fringe veteran: an improvised stage on the town’s main street, with a gathering crowd gawking at the performers while smiling minions press flyers into the spectators’ hands. What’s different is that this is Hollywood Boulevard. My first experience with a theatre festival...
After the gusher of cynicism and bitterness surrounding this years Tony Award telecast I suggested on Twitter that instead of whining about movie stars and dime store trinkets representing our business that A.) They were in a different business and B.) Whining that They are getting it wrong doesn’t help,...
The space and conventions around a live performance determine whether it is fundamentally inclusive or exclusive. When an arts organization or producer decides to charge $100 for a ticket, and another decides to put on a show for free, either performance can be “legitimate” and draw a large crowd, if...
O the ill-lit, often lonely corners of the Internet where theater-company blogs reside! O the carefully eked-out production notes and interviews and dramaturgy, still photos and videos and audio conversations—sometimes engaging, sometimes profound, sometimes beautiful—that end for eternity with Comments (0)! Unless a relative, friend, or fellow company member sees it, in...
Our good friend Dave Charest has started a new video series where he talks about creativity and content while trying not to get hit by cars. It’s exciting. He calls them “Walks With Dave,” and we’ll be featuring them here from time to time… Why Create Content? [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRCtUnEhF2Q[/youtube] How to...
Here’s an extra-large helping of stories to get you through the Memorial Day weekend. What have we been following at 2amt this week? Storefronts and stories, history and hopes. Recipes and blueprints, restaurants and royalties. Responsibility and sustainability, creativity and reality. Also, if you’ve ever said, “Bring me the head...
Ah, Dynamic Pricing. The holy grail of entertainment earned revenue. Has worked for the airlines for YEARS. And yet we are still deeply afraid of it. What am I talking about? Assumptions number 3, 4, and 5. Let’s throw out the notion that two people sitting next to each other...
Again and again and again at the Theater Bay Area conference a few weeks ago I heard playwrights being given the cold, hard truth about why their work is not getting produced (and why it is). Here’s the facts: The open submissions process is a lie. Work does not rise...
Or more precisely, just listen, as this is just the audio from Michael Kaiser’s appearance at Portland Center Stage last week. Whether you agree or disagree with his advice and observations, it’s worth a listen. Some of his advice applies more towards the large, institutional theatres and, in many ways,...