Looking Back at Year Season, Part 2

Main Menu

Written by Tony Adams

Thursday, 28 February 2008 12:17

In Part One , I laid out what we set out to do. Here in Part Two I'll try to assess how we're doing. Some areas are easier to review, others it is tough to tell after only one season. But I'll try my best.

Finances
We closed the year with a $3,000 deficit, which is kind of scary, but also somewhat expected for an unfunded new company in a very competitive market. Rehearsal and Performance Space accounted for 56% of our costs. This is good. Wait. What? Well it could have been much, much worse. We were lucky enough to find free and cheap rehearsal space at a synagogue and a church, and our first two shows were performed on off-nights Mon-Weds. This cut the costs by 2/3rds. The space issue is scary. Funding the shows is tricky, because (most) all the bills have to be paid before opening, yet we don't make anything at the box office until after the bills are paid. Which means of course the wife and I had to cut a lot of checks, which is not great for us, but understandable in the first year.

Artists
We started out just my wife and me. We now have 12 members, all very talented and diverse not just in backgrounds, but in interests and skills. The people that joined the company said they joined based on the mission, and not the shows we were doing; not because they want to be the lead in every show that's chosen. Which makes me think we’re heading on the right track. A couple of (now) members auditioned initially because that had seen one of our shows, which is a good sign as well.

Attendance
The Visit and Yerma were pretty well attended. The Runner Stumbles, well, stumbled at the box office.

Shows

The Visit
I think The Visit was a great debut. A challenging work that's not done that often here. One of the terms that popped up continuously was "ambitious." "Crazy" is how one put it, as among other things Jenn directed it and was 8 ½ months pregnant at opening. We had several artists tell us they wanted to work with us after seeing The Visit, which is one of the best compliments we can get. As far as reviews it was Highly Recommended by the Reader, Critics Choice in the Windy City Times and summarily thrashed by Timeout Chicago.

The Runner Stumbles
The Runner Stumbles helped clarify our mission. While it was a good show and had all of the qualities we look for: strong acting, design etc., it didn't seem to jive with our desire to tell a bigger story. It didn't seem to heal wounds or showcase cultures or bring people together. I think it made us realize the dual importance of what's happening onstage and how that affects the audience, and what types of audiences we want to have. It did nothing to differentiate us from much of Chicago theatre, and that showed at the Box Office I think. But it helped us clarify what we want to do. I think it was a good show despite having leads that did not get along, which was tough on the director. As this opened a month or so after our son was born, I primarily was just producer which was a new experience for me. Usually I have a lot of hats on. But I got maybe the best complement I could imagine from Kevin the director, when he said at all times he felt both challenged and encouraged. It got a good review in the Reader and was summarily thrashed by Timeout Chicago.

Yerma
Yerma helped us to solidify our desired path, because all of the things that we saw that didn't work for the mission for Runner did work for Yerma. Telling a more epic story and having a more diverse audience and artists. It was an extraordinarily tough process, and at times I wondered if it would go up. Three people working on the show had loved ones pass, one to cancer, one to heart attack/stroke, and one to random violence. We cancelled the Thursday show the final week, partially due to 2 of the passings. On the other hand we were extremely lucky. The choreographer I had asked to work on the show never showed, and a friend of someone helping us (Kathi Beste at the Flamenco Arts Center) happened to be an amazing choreographer (Karen Stelling) and flamenco dancer. We did not want to start an all-white company, and I certainly did not want to have an all-white cast in Yerma. I know from experience that a small company on the north side doesn't typically get a lot of non-white actors at auditions, so I made some calls. Luckily someone put me in touch with Charin Alvarez at Teatro Vista who gave me a lot of names and numbers of great actors to call. She rocks. I think we discovered a really important thing. Often the temptation is to put out a notice of auditions, sit back and wait and see who comes. To really do colorblind casting, you have to aggressively pursue that, as opposed to just waiting for people to audition. I think the case could be made for that in casting in general. As far as reviews it got a nice review in TimeOut Chicago and in FlavorpillChicago. The Reader did not make it, though they were coming, then something happened.

Mission
It is hard to gage progress after only one year, but I think we did better than most in our first year, setting the groundwork for the kind of company we want to be, and are moving into our second season making sure we're continuing on that path. Over the summer we did a free outdoor show for kids as well. We did not yet begin after school programs, but we need a space for that--and right now we cannot afford to rent a space for them. It will be hard to accomplish what we want to accomplish without a home. It is difficult to focus on community when we have to move around to do our shows. Space, the final frontier. . . This is a big question and something we're actively working towards. We've identified the perfect location; already have companies interested in renting for the season and being year round resident companies. Now we just need to come up with the money to build it out and buy lighting equipment, oh yeah and chairs.

If you're interested, show pics can be found here.

This was origionally published on Tony's Blog .

Comments ()