Nothing makes me feel better about the state of the art and all that than actually making some theatre. We're in rehearsals for Sheila Callaghan's Dead City and we're having a really great time. I've spent so much time thinking about the relationship between the company and the audience lately, or the company and the playwright, or the company and the world, I had forgotten about the bliss that comes from great relationships in the room while you're working. It is a great way to spend your time, and already I'm really excited to share our work with an audience and see what they think.

So, I feel I can say that this part of the model doesn't need to be fixed, at least not for us. And that's good. It does occur to me that we've been spending more time (as the company grows) on all the stuff that came before this. We've been writing grants, working out rights, negotiating for space with a big corporation, scheduling, budgeting, etc., etc., since early last fall. Obviously, that's all necessary and I'm glad we did it, but I really wish we had more time to enjoy this part of it.

Since the money comes down, largely, to real estate, it'd be great if we lived in a place where real estate was cheaper, and we could still find a group of good actors we enjoy working with, and we could get an audience large enough to fill the house on enough nights to pay everyone well enough to quit at least one of their day jobs.

That shouldn't be so hard, right?

UPDATE: I'm re-reading this and remembering that I'm in Columbus, Ohio, and some people might actually think of making art here because the real estate is cheaper. Hmmm.