http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/ten-things-theaters-need-to-do-right-now-to-save-themselves/Content?oid=691862 Comments On: Ten Things Theaters Need to Do Right Now to Save Themselves by Brendan Kiley en-us Copyright 2013 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Sun, 26 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Sun, 26 May 2013 02:45:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by 42 years a working pro]]> Mon, 02 Apr 2012 05:53:10 -0700 The Stranger
Since when does leaving at intermission earn someone a free drink? It's the ultimate faux pas. If you want to peace out at intermission, you can go home. Having someone in the lobby after the show tipsily discussing why they left the performance early isn't going to help build audiences or community. And a free drink will just encourage people to leave at inermission MORE.

Secondly, it is very clear that you are not now, nor ever have been a working actor. It is very easy (VERY easy) to get your new work under an Equity Showcase Code, which stipulates that the union actors in the production must be paid a whopping... anything more than the non union actors. One dollar will do it. So will a metro card. Come to New York: it's how our fringe festivals work, and why we have more of them. There are hundreds and hundreds of new works performed under showcase codes every year.

And your'e right, no one deserves a living wage simply for being talented and educated. But EVERYONE deserves a living wage for work performed. Including those who perform work that can ONLY be performed by someone talented and educated. That right is equal across all industries, unionized or not. Even in freelance journalism.

Jessica (a working actor)
Posted by jessiek01]]> Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:34:45 -0800 The Stranger
Since when does leaving at intermission earn someone a free drink? It's the ultimate faux pas. If you want to peace out at intermission, you can go home. Having someone in the lobby after the show tipsily discussing why they left the performance early isn't going to help build audiences or community. And a free drink will just encourage people to leave at inermission MORE.

Secondly, it is very clear that you are not now, nor ever have been a working actor. It is very easy (VERY easy) to get your new work under an Equity Showcase Code, which stipulates that the union actors in the production must be paid a whopping... anything more than the non union actors. One dollar will do it. So will a metro card. Come to New York: it's how our fringe festivals work, and why we have more of them. There are hundreds and hundreds of new works performed under showcase codes every year.

And your'e right, no one deserves a living wage simply for being talented and educated. But EVERYONE deserves a living wage for work performed. Including those who perform work that can ONLY be performed by someone talented and educated. That right is equal across all industries, unionized or not. Even in freelance journalism.

Jessica (a working actor)
Posted by jessiek01]]> Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:32:14 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Wajo]]> Sat, 25 Feb 2012 16:47:21 -0800 The Stranger Posted by SMNumberONE]]> Fri, 17 Feb 2012 20:35:02 -0800 The Stranger
You mean like writers?
Posted by Amyzing]]> Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:51:56 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Laura Lundy-Paine]]> Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:40:31 -0800 The Stranger
I don't think stopping the pursuit of education is the proper way to feed our starving theatres. Spend a few months abroad. Governments support art in a way that makes the people support art. I think if our country recognized how critical art is in our lives, people would be more apt to go to the theatre on a Friday night than staying in, watching the Kardashians, and binging on junk food.

That's all.
Posted by theneedlepointsnorth]]> Thu, 16 Feb 2012 07:39:57 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Canadian Nurse]]> Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:32:37 -0800 The Stranger
If you have such disdain for the people working in this indusry, why are you even "trying" to "SAVE" theatre in the first place?? GET A CLUE.
Posted by NicDR]]> Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:46:45 -0800 The Stranger
What I'd like to address is the oversight on the part of the writer to acknowledge that there are other options to help make theatre more viable. We can't just lower our standards of pay and raise our standards of product and then do all the same stuff we've been doing for hundreds of years . Audience participation has always been a part of the theatre... (even in Shakespeare) that's not a new idea. And it certainly wont save the theatre. The fact is the theatre is wasteful industry. Notice nowhere are ideas of creating effective systems to address the issues theatres face ever presented.

I think it is important to rethink the kind of art we make - yes, I agree. But, I think we need to work to be more relevant - a new piece about the plight of the working man may be effective for one community, but can we really discredit the power of Death of Salesman. Miller's acute diagnosis of the symptoms of being a worker veiled in the illusions of the American Dream may never be topped. It is our job to know which is going to find more draw in a particular community - in other words, we have to connect to the zeitgeist.

It is imperative to rethink HOW we make our work - no, I do not mean our artistic process. I mean the tools and instruments of our trade... it kills us. And until we sort out those issues we will be rearranging the same old stuff calling it more effective - all the while just maintaining the status quo.

You can look at the color pink and call it brown... and no matter how you yell about it, no matter how many people agree with you, no matter what you do, outside of actually changing the color in front of you into brown - it will always be pink.

All this said - you know your community better than I do - so if you really think the ideas you have proposed will make a difference - I'm all for that. But - maybe - just maybe you might admit that you're angry, unsettled and dissatisfied and that your manifesto for change is really just an idealization of how you want to do theatre by changing very little about how you currently do it.
Posted by kolluri]]> Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:21:12 -0800 The Stranger Posted by paxton]]> Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:14:58 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Erik Gratton]]> Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:38:21 -0800 The Stranger Posted by flippycannoo2]]> Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:07:13 -0800 The Stranger
I would add a #11. Get grade school, middle school and high school students in to see a play! If we don't develop a new generation of theater goers, we are truly doomed.

Great work, Brendan!
Posted by nutotech]]> Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:45:04 -0800 The Stranger Posted by brozyzy]]> Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:02:22 -0800 The Stranger
I'm not saying I think people should go to graduate school. I am saying that I don't think it's anyone else's place to say wether another person should go to graduate school. There are as many reasons to go and many reason not to.

Referring to the comment above about meeting Erik Ehn, who went to graduate school. If you wanted to work directly with him now you're best chance would be graduate school at Brown. 5 years ago? Graduate School at CalArts.

I don't think Erik is a has been. There is a lot of faculty at a lot of schools that aren't. There are a lot of graduate programs worth enrolling in if you've got a reason that makes sense.

That being said there are a lot of crap programs with faculty who are not working much. There are definitely too many people going to graduate school and too many programs out there to meet the unnecessary demand. It's a boated market.

I went to graduate school, and I believe it was the right decision for me. My time spent there HAS led to me being more profitable, financially and artistically. And at all times i was out in the world, making theater on and off the campus. I didn't crawl under a rock and study for 3 years to emerge out of some debt cocoon. And no I didn't have anyone supporting me.

It's also worthwhile to point out that a number of colleges and graduate schools, because their mission is education and supporting experimentation and field advancement, are the presenters, producers and sources of funding for a lot of new work and the artists making new work.

Everything else, I'm with you all the way. But, this generalization that no one or everyone should go to graduate, or do anything really, is lazy thinking.
Posted by iangarrett]]> Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:03:57 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Frostwolf Aazimuth]]> Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:08:45 -0800 The Stranger Yeah, the closed because no one ever came to see their shows.
Shakespeare and well-known works put butts in seats, which sells tickets, and creates a patron base who are more willing to see something they've never heard of.
If you want to do lesser-known works, or new works, you need to have a patron base that already loves you and is willing to take that risk with you.
Don't stop doing Shakespeare - stop doing Shakespeare badly.
Posted by theaterpatron]]> Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:04:48 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Pitt90]]> Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:45:40 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Theater Pro]]> Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:51:10 -0800 The Stranger Posted by Gary Zinter]]> Thu, 14 Jul 2011 15:38:27 -0700 The Stranger
From what I have read I mainly have one response. You clearly have not worked in professional theatre or the entertainment business... or maybe you did and where bad at it. My undergrad professors all had long lists of achievements and still currently work on high profile endeavors. I have run into very few has-beens. I also went there to learn from them and well... I find if someone has been doing something for 40 years they probably know a thing or two. People with degrees in Theatre are doing far better than the business majors who currently fill our Starbucks orders.

Also I have seen shows produced with no money and no time and a short run to boot. It does not go over well. When I go see a show that is performed by Equity actors and has well trained stagehands then the quality tends to be higher. When the show has all of it's lines and no feedback and lighting that isn't just on and off with no color... I can enjoy the show.

As for new works. I love them, I wish it was all I could do as a designer or technician. Sadly there are very few theatres that I know of that do well just doing new works... actually please post one... just one that can afford to pay the electric bill... and I may reconsider. People like to see the same garbage. How many movies have the same plot? How many pop songs are repetitive? People actually tend to dislike the unfamiliar.

Looking for ways to improve the theatre is great. Claiming things like unions, education, and plays that everyone loves seeing (take a child to see Peter Pan done by a good company and tell me some classics aren't worth doing)does not seem like you are thinking it all through.

Sincerly,
Makes a damn good living with talent and quickly disappearing debt.
Posted by BillyHoyle]]> Wed, 13 Jul 2011 21:31:19 -0700 The Stranger
You silly goose.
Posted by yourmountain.mymolehill]]> Wed, 13 Jul 2011 20:53:24 -0700 The Stranger Posted by eckerdhawk]]> Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:54:10 -0700 The Stranger