Want just the feed? OKAY.]]> http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2009/02/news_of_the_day_fox_forums_ste.html http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2009/02/news_of_the_day_fox_forums_ste.html News of the Day awards Leonard Jacobs Secretary of the Arts Steppenwolf Thu, 22 July 2009 10:40:29 -0500 Many of us in the theatre community are excited about the new Obama administration and what it could mean for future support and funding of the arts. Playgoer has a really great post on the subject:

I'd rather put my trust in the state rather than The Nation-State. I trust each state (and local/city/municipal governments) to calculate the value of their arts orgs' contributions to their economy, tourism, and public image. Local government arts "czars" can be more responsive to individual arts institutions--and can even attend them! Yes, there's state programs now. (And in New York NYSCA is already a big deal.) But think how much further that could go. I've personally had it with dreams of some "National Theatre" in the US--but I really like the sound of, say, "The Michigan State Theatre"! I raise this now knowing full well it is the state funding of the arts that's really going down the toilet in this recession/depression. And that's a big shame. The best thing the NEA could do right now, for my money, is to simply inject its relatively healthy national budget into all these state agencies in a kind of blood transfusion.

WHAT?!?!

If that's the case, we're all in deep trouble folks. Minnesota Playlist provides this incredible video interview. He discusses ensembles, financial issues, and the ecology of the arts. Please watch.]]> http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2009/01/the_harrowing_demise_of_jeune.html http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2009/01/the_harrowing_demise_of_jeune.html Regional interviews Jeune Lune Minnesota video Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:43:08 -0500 The Internationalist by Anne Washburn
(This was written before The Internationalist closed, which was January 17, 2009.)
Man, I love this play. I'm so glad we got it up.

This one almost didn't happen. I don't know exactly what's going on in Columbus, maybe I'm getting a bad reputation with actors, somehow, but we're having a hell of a time getting a cast together and getting them to stay committed. Casting issues plagued <>Militant Language for the 6 weeks preceding the beginning of rehearsals, and in the end it got so bad we had to cancel the show.

Some of those people drop out of shows for legitimate reasons, but some people just get a little scared and/or a little flaky. ]]> http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2009/01/3_shows_4_cities_4_weeks_part.html http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2009/01/3_shows_4_cities_4_weeks_part.html Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:11:46 -0500
Foolin' Around With Infinity by Steven Dietz - Granville, Ohio - December 20
Infinity opened at Denison University on December 20th and ran for 2 fantastic performances. This show was a really great experience for me in a number of ways.

For one thing, I didn't direct the show. It's not the first time that's happened, but was really unique in that I was not very involved in the day-to-day decision making and production of the project. It was a relief that the director, Eleni, and the Production Manager, Dave, and Stage Manager, Michelle hardly needed me for anything. I kept emailing and asking, what do you need, what can I do for you, and eventually they did let me put the program together (I screwed it up pretty badly, by the way) and make small set piece (a simulation of an in-wall safe). But most of the time they said, "We're doing fine" and in fact they were. The show was really wonderful, I enjoyed watching it several times, and was very proud that our company has gotten to the point that we can support another director's vision.]]> http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2009/01/3_shows_3_cities_3_weeks_part.html http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2009/01/3_shows_3_cities_3_weeks_part.html Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:31:57 -0500

On Jan. 31, Harvey's opera, "Leave Me Alone" makes its world debut at Oberlin College, just a 45-minute drive from Cleveland, Ohio. And as Pekar might say, if you can't make it, don't sweat it. The production will be broadcast live to an international audience at LeaveMeAloneOpera. For those who can make it to the 8:00PM premiere, it's free. To be perfectly clear, "Leave Me Alone" is not an opera in the classic connotation of the word. It's being called a "Jazz opera," which means it can be pretty much whatever Pekar wants it to be. Pekar wrote the libretto (that's the text of an opera, kids) and framed the whole presentation into a storyline. The music was written by jazz saxophonist Dan Plonsey, of the San Francisco area. Another San Franciscan, Josh Smith, is the music director, and music students from internationally renowned Oberlin College will perform and sing.

The past year has been an enormous one for the growth of our company, Available Light Theatre. Really, it's exactly the kind of thing we've always hoped for, all the way back in 2002 when we started BlueForms Theatre Group. We've got a fantastic, 7-person Board of Directors that includes a lawyer, a CPA, and two of the best marketers in town. I'm jealous of myself, right?

]]> http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2008/12/booya_for_long_term_planning.html http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2008/12/booya_for_long_term_planning.html Artistic Directors business leadership Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:12:51 -0500 NPR today...

All Things Considered, December 4, 2008 · More than 50 student groups across the country are performing Jonathan Larson's edgy rock opera Rent this school year. Like the Broadway show, Rent School Edition is centered on a group of friends in the 1990s dealing with AIDS, gender identity, homosexuality, drug addiction and poverty.

This quotation about naturalism really jumped out at me (and my wife, Acacia) and will no doubt become part of my permanent repertoire.

(The juiciest bit is at the end, so if you're short on time or attention-span, skip to the bold part.

We have to be very clear when we talk about naturalism in the theatre. It's a stylistic choice, and it's a deadly one for the theatre. Naturalism is a style that developed in the '40, '50, and 60's, that supposedly comes from the Stanislavski approach - but that is to misunderstand Stanislavksi. Naturalism is not suited to the theatre because theatre is about communication with the audience. In the end the only question in the theatre is: How does the play become alive? In fact, theatre only exists in the mind of the audience - it does not exist on stage, or in a play. It only exists because the audience brings it alive.

I saw kabuki theatre in Japan, where, in a given scene, weeping takes place on stage in an extraordinarily stylized form. I was transfixed, looking along the row of faces alongside of me and watching how everyone in the audience was weeping, too. The emotion at that moment on stage was real, in the same way as when Don Giovanni is led down to hell and he sings his last act of defiance. The emotion of that moment is also real--it's heightened, it's extreme, but it's completely real. Reality in the theatre is created by actors, and it occurs only in that moment--which is why you will find actors saying "we had a good night" or "oh, tonight wasn't so good." What actors really mean is that they have found that point of communication, so you can have a great production and you can go and see it and it won't mean anything to you at all if this moment of connection between actors and audience doesn't happen. Equally, I have seen pieces of theatre that are rough and appallingly overacted or rude--and yet I've been deeply moved by them. Sometimes, even with terrible performances, actors find a way to communicate with an audience. That's why theatre can't work on video. It's an imaginative act on the part of the audience. And that is theatre's appeal, that's why it continues.

Everyone thought theatre would die with the appearance of cinema, just as everyone thought painting would die with the appearance of photography. But all photography did was to liberate painting to be itself. Without photography, we would not have Picasso or Rothko. Painting would still be trying to do what photography can do much better. We need painting to do what happened on the walls of caves eons ago - to record what we deeply feel, and the complexity of what we feel and imagine. In the same way, film has liberated theatre to be itself. Without film, we wouldn't have Jacques Copeau, who gave rise to Antonin Artoud. We wouldn't have the plays of Beckett or Pinter. So in the theatre, what you do is to create the language to communicate with the audience on that night in that moment.

Ready to do this again?]]> http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2008/12/so_here_we_are_again.html http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2008/12/so_here_we_are_again.html Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:37:02 -0500 Thanks to American Theatre magazine for some nice publicity, and "labdien" (that's Latvian) to those of you joining us for the first time.

Since you're here wondering about Militant Language and the National Premiere idea, allow me to fill in some details.

First of all, the whole thing started in the comments of a post on Matthew Freeman's On Theatre and Politics blog. (You'll find that a lot of theatre bloggers like to combine the two on their sites.) I got inspired by the ideas there, and wrote a post called "Every City Should Have a Dead City". (Funny coincidence, Dead City is a play by Sheila Callaghan, who's on the cover of that very American Theatre magazine that directed you here.) So, I suggest you open new tab in your browser and go read that post. Then come back, we'll wait.

The audience hears some really annoying - yet amusing - Muzak. Maybe something from Grunge Lite.

(You see how we did that? Theatre bloggers often enjoy inserting obscure pop culture references and funny You Tube videos in the cracks around their artistic analyses and political diatribes.)

Ok, you're back? Did you read all the comments? Well, you have to read the comments. A lot of the good stuff is in there.

After you read the comments, you're going to want to read this post, in which I responded to a lot of the comments.

More Grunge LIte.

Done there? Okay, I'll tell you how we got from there to here. You're gonna see some blue words that say "Continue reading 'Welcome American Theatre Readers'". Click those to get the rest of the story, and so I can track how many of you are reading today. Thanks.]]> http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2008/10/welcome_american_theatre_reade.html http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2008/10/welcome_american_theatre_reade.html Issues Site militant langauge Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:52:19 -0500 The best magazine of all-time, The Believer, features an interview with playwright Will Eno in their October issue. Eno is interviewed by Patricia Mulgraw, who, as it turns out, does not exist.

The following short list tops the page under a portrait of Eno.

Reasons to become involved in theater: Loneliness,
You enjoy seeing people suffer under bright lighting,
You enjoy hearing people in pain in rooms with good acoustics

Thanks to everyone (Sheila, Isaac, Ruben, Rob, and Jason) who encouraged me to show-up for Blasted. I showed-up early, looked forlorn, waited and waited, and got the best seat in the house. It was well-worth the effort.

Now, the show is in previews, and this wouldn't be a review anyway. But I will say that I thrilled to it, I was astonished by it. And I hope you don't need me to tell you that it's essential viewing for anyone who thinks the theatre is still important in this day and age. Aside from being the most controversial play of the last 15 years, it also test more thoroughly than any other modern work the theatre's special abilities and responsibilities. ]]> http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2008/10/getting_blasted.html http://www.avltheatre.com/forte/2008/10/getting_blasted.html Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:03:24 -0500 Time and a Few Words. We've also been hard at work prepping a new, more general arts and culture blog focused on the Columbus scene. Look for the launch sometime next month. But I wanted to take a moment now to highlight a comment from last month's discussion that I've been thinking about a lot lately. Guy Y lamented,

I am a little frustrated in the lack of actionable suggestions being offered. I am a theater person who is looking to start a theater ensemble in the next year. What can I do to make the change ... a reality?