Could I ask a favor?
What writer's (or writers') work do you wish you were able to see more of?
Let me know in the comments.
Thanks,
Note: we've already picked our shows for next year do you don't have to worry about me poaching them--At least not for a year :)
I try and keep up with what other folks are doing. In order to see how we are faring, I subscribe to most of the companies blogs that I find. I get on mailing lists to see what folks are sending out. I periodically go through websites and see what other theatres are up to lately.
The League has a list of links to all the member theatres. I spent some time over the weekend going through them.
It is astonishing how many really awful websites are out there among Chicago theaters. (Thankfully, none as bad as this.) I know Kris has written about lame marketing, but a good website should be an absolute basic necessity for any company.
Ugly is one thing. Flash intros suck. But if the site's difficult to read, difficult to navigate and difficult to use--it's useless. (and it tends to make you look it as well.) If it's six months out of date, it's useless. It doesn't even have to be hyper-fancy. That's actually a problem with some sites. There's so much going on it cancels everything out.
A lot of folks don't even know what their website is for. Here's a catch-- what the website is for can change for different companies. Barrel of Monkeys is a completely different organization than Steppenwolf, Steep or The Artistic Home so it should have a different look, feel and purpose on it's website.
No website is perfect, but. . .Ten years ago many small companies couldn't afford to compete with the big boys. Nowadays, there is so much free software and free information on learning the basics of design out there that the only real excuse is lack of care.
What do you think? Which ones are the best and worst of the bunch (And why)?
Let me know in the comments.
I was going to go see Twelfth Night tonight, they close this weekend. I know the lead; I know the director; I was pretty excited. On Sunday, I called to make a reservation. They didn't call me until yesterday to let me know they were sold out for the weekend. "Sorry."
I get that you're sold out. Good for you. Waiting four days to return a call when your show is sold out? Not so good. Now, I haven't seen anything up there to date. Can't say I'm probably gonna anytime soon.
Every study I've read shows that poor customer service will do more harm to repeat attendance than the quality of work. I'm consistently amazed at how many small and large theatres have their heads up their ass when it comes to customer service. There are many other things to do and companies to see, theaters can't afford to fail at serving patrons well.
Lemons into lemonade time: what should I go check out this weekend?
On Monday I went to the DCA to see Staging Conflict: Theatrical Narratives of the Holy Land at the DCA. Theater Mir and Silk Road are doing plays related to the Israel and Palestinine, and had set up a panel discussion around them. I was pretty excited to see the discussion, not just because we are staging two plays that surround Israel and Palestine this summer.
It started off with Venus Zarris introducing the night, at one point mentioning how plays as far back as Lysistrata dealt with conflicts on stage, and introducing the actors, then Mir and Silk road took turns doing scenes from their work. After the scenes, Venus introduced the panel for the discussion, and my heart sank a bit. It consisted of the two artistic directors along with cast and crew from the shows. The moderator was the only voice on the stage not working on the shows.
For the most part the night was very meh. The event quickly revealed itself to be a mere marketing pitch. There wasn't much of a discussion, just the theatres talking about their shows. I think it was a huge missed opportunity for both companies. What could have been a very engaging night morphed into a ninety-minute elevator pitch.
For the most part most of the questions from the audience were more statements than questions. The oddest was from a man livid at Venus' characterization of Lysistrata. Initially she said the women tried to end the war by withholding sex. He was furious because "they tried to end the war by withholding funding." She quickly diffused the crazy, and tried to at least move the essays from the audience to the topic. (Venus, if you're reading, well played btw.)
There were a few times an interesting question was raised, but because there were no voices outside of the two featured production onstage, if it didn't directly relate to them it was brushed off to get to something that could apply to the shows. It wasn't until the last question that staging was really even brought up, but by that point it was too late to have a dialogue as time had run out.
I think it could have been a great night (and a great marketing opportunity) if they had brought in speakers from outside the company, or a greater discussion. But as it was--it was a talking-to from the cast and directors. When we talk too much about ourselves, we make ourselves far less interesting. This event was a thesis statement for that.
It's something I think about on the blog. On one hand I write about what I'm doing. And the company is what I'm doing a lot of the time. Ergo, I write about the company a lot. I hope that I don't come off like monday night.
Speaking of the little guy, his stage debut was in Yerma. In the prologue a shepard (Gerardo Cardenas) carries a child past Yerma (Monica Lopez.)
It is amazing how the need to write grows as the momentum to write shrinks!
I have been thinking a lot about the company lately, as we have been filling out Grant Applications and that entails writing narratives about our Mission, Projects, what makes us different and why we deserve money over some other theatre company.
In addition, I read Tony's blog every day, and have been struck recently by his question about "What keeps you from doing your dream project?"
Sometimes I feel like I have a Dream Project within a Dream Project within a Dream Project (etc., etc... just like looking at myself in a mirror looking at myself, blah blah blah)... every show I do becomes a dream project, because I get so damn excited about doing it... sometimes rehearsals literally make me jump out of my skin with excitement. Halcyon is a dream project... every day I look at what we do, what we want to achieve, what TONY does every day to keep the company moving forward, and I feel like "This is it. This is what I always wanted to do with my life." Beyond that, being able to have theatre in my life while having a husband and kids is a dream project. I never really thought about having kids and marriage until I turned 28 or so, but when I did, I always dreamed of being the kind-of theatre family that brings their kids to rehearsals, and trades off watching other theatre families kids, etc....
Never did I fully understand how hard this would be! I'm doing a 10-minute play right now that Juan is directing (I'm acting, can you believe it?) and the other night before rehearsal my mom said, "this business of doing theatre while you have a baby blows." And at the moment, it did, quite honestly... Juggling theatre and a family means constant re-prioritizing, and compromise, and figuring out who gets to do the fun theatre thing and who's gonna do the fun parent thing (or who has to do the not-fun theatre thing and the not-fun parent thing... or any combination therein)...and I never thought I would be standing in the middle of a rehearsal room blocking a scene while having a baby sucking on my boob! Or giving up going to that party because I have to decide between a six-pack and a bag of diapers... or a more importantly between a bag of diapers and wood for the set...
Honestly, I never thought I would think something could be more important than theatre...and I never knew that at the same time I could be equally passionate about such different things...
Which is why it is so important to me to keep doing it... because I guess my Dream Project is really a Dream Future... I want us to be Joyce and Byrne Piven, I want us to be around that long, have that kind of respect, basically not screw it up! I want to keep being able to collaborative with my husband for years, and do theatre that challenges people's ideas of culture and cultural interaction, that MEANS something, and that our kids will be proud that we do.
I spend a LOT of time right now putting the kids before the theatre, and Tony spends a LOT of time making sure that our theatre dreams ARE around in five years, when we are at a point where we can do more of it together. And when I get frustrated about how it is going right now, I just think about the fact that the DREAM is LONGEVITY...so I guess I'm hellbent on not letting anything prevent me from my dream, even though sometimes in the day to day I have to remind myself that the dream is already happening, even if the Closing Night is a long way off...
More to come...
Tony 2.0 sweeps the stage.
