I’ve just finished reading this passionate post by Michael Billington on the Guardian’s Theatre Blog imploring Jeremy Hunt, the culture minister of the new coalition government in the UK, not to cut funding for the arts. It’s a fairly straightforward argument, complete with the requisite data showing quite clearly that...
I am a ranter. No surprise I guess that a blogger likes ranting, it would seem to be a blogger’s stock in trade, and I have a reputation as something of a John the Baptist of the CAPS LOCK… but I more specifically mean in real life. I tend to...
I recently had the opportunity to meet up IRL (in real life) with @scottyiseri and @Chris_Ashworth, two gentlemen whose thoughts I have been following regularly through the #2amt hashtag on Twitter. Each time I was astonished, once again, at the value of translating the “idea” of a person… the strange...
Thank God it’s on Friday again. Here are some of the stories we’ve been following at 2amt. This week’s batch includes one word, two words, dirty words, not-so-dirty words, digital analogs, a submission statement and even a touch of Dr. Seuss… Brittney Filek-Gibson on partying down Spinning off of Trisha...
In other words, May the fourth be with you. Here are just some of the stories we’ve been following of late at 2amt. As always, there’s a loose theme or two weaving in and out. This time around, we looking at finding your market and how to talk to them,...
It popped up in my newsfeed again: another article about an opera/museum/symphony theater company’s new initiatives to attract a “younger audience.” I open these articles with a combination of dread and excitement these days. Maybe this time, this new organization (that spent a couple hundred thousand dollars on a market...
In today’s Washington Post, Peter Marks imagines a new hope for theatre with a touch of audacity. (Go ahead and read it. We’ll wait.) The short version is, he considers a world in which the White House could support more live theatre–dramatic work in particular–perhaps coordinated by Rocco Landesman and...
I’m sure they’re clean. I’m sure you’re a good host. I’m sure they’re stocked with ample and appropriate paper products for your anticipated audience, and that the plumbing works. Is that it? A few weeks ago, I wrote how theater lobbies are often functional, neutral spaces—closer in design and function...
If Rocco Landesman claims that artists are entrepreneurs, I think it is important to look at other entrepreneurial models, outside the theater world, to see what they are saying about the work they do, and how their work connects to customers and community. On person I follow pretty closely is...
We price everything backwards in the theater. Tell me if this sounds familiar: You debate with your box office/marketing/artistic staff to find just the right price point that feels “accessible” (read, your friends tell you that this is what “they” will pay to see your work, despite the fact your...