http://avltheatre.com/index.php/site/index/ en slay1975@mac.com Copyright 2009 2009-07-09T04:53:59+00:00 http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/wherefor_art_thou_conservative_art http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/wherefor_art_thou_conservative_art#When:04:53:59Z Last night I spent the evening eating Dirty Franks and hanging out with a couple of buddies, and we decided to go see Woody Allen’s new flick, Whatever Works, which stars perennial grump Larry David. After the movie, Brant pointed out that it would be possible to walk away from it thinking that the lesson to be learned was that traditional, conservative, southern Christians would be a lot happier if they’d all just move to Manhattan and get over their sexual repressions. Larry David is a notorious lefty, and Woody has never given conservatives anything even vaguely resembling a break in his movies. So, looking at the personnel and the plot together, it’s not a stretch to label this as a very “liberal” movie. Certainly, if there ever was one, this was it. This led us to talking about a debate that surfaces occasionally on the theatre blogs about whether or not the theatre needs more “conservative” or “right-wing” plays. Playwright Sean Lewis and I have sometimes talked theoretically about how one could go about writing a “right-wing” play, and we always come up short. Perhaps in large part because we’re so steeped in leftist theology. How would Whatever Works end if it was a right-wing movie? I suppose the family would all get back together, reject the empty morals of NYC and move back south. So then we tried to come up with a list of existing conservative plays and we did rather poorly. Luckily, the internet has come to our rescue and I’ve been reading through some old blog posts. Politics, 2009-07-09T04:53:59+00:00 http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/hey_actors_its_a_cell_phone_deal_with_it http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/hey_actors_its_a_cell_phone_deal_with_it#When:21:17:15Z Okay, this post’s title is a little disingenuous. I don’t think the actors should just suck it up. I do think people should turn off their cell-phones. Nevertheless, apparently things have been getting out of hand in Vancouver, as Simon Ogden fill us in right here.In the space of that one week, I personally witnessed or heard reported a ridiculous amount of incidents involving artists vs. audience members here that just knocked the wind out of me. Offhand and flippant derogatory comments on social media sites. Actors onstage yelling insults at audience members who were talking back to them in a play constructed to have planted actors in the audience talk back to them. One actor called an audience member who was struggling to turn off an errant cell phone ringer a ‘bitch’ from the stage. And no, he didn’t do it ‘in character’. I’ve read the play, and that line isn’t in it, for his or anybody else’s character.Whoa. Folks need to settle down. 2009-07-02T21:17:15+00:00 http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/the_theatrenet_is_important_fool http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/the_theatrenet_is_important_fool#When:05:09:18Z I’m mad as hell, y’all. 99 Seats posted something called Shouting Myself Hoarse the other day, in which the author laments the perception that bloggers have no effect in the industry and that the theatrenet is just a bunch of no-nothing idealists digitally complaining to each other. Well, don’t that just beat all? That makes me just mad as hell. I gotta tell you, if not for this big group of no-nothings, I don’t know what I’d be up to these days. I don’t think I’d be running a successful theatre company anymore, I can tell you that. 2009-07-01T05:09:18+00:00 http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/where_forte_at http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/where_forte_at#When:04:27:35Z This ain’t me. This is Jay Smooth (LINK) and he explains it better than most. 2009-07-01T04:27:35+00:00 http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/killadlphia_comes_to_nyc http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/killadlphia_comes_to_nyc#When:02:58:44Z Hopefully you all remember my man author/performer Sean Christopher Lewis, of national premiere Militant Language, national tour I Will Make You Orphans, and now American Theatre-featured Killadelphia. Killadelphia has already played in Ohio, Baltimore, Kansas, and Philadelphia (including at the prison about which it was written), and this week arrives in NYC at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College. Details here. I directed the show and I can tell you it’s been a long, nearly idyllic (if you consider good, hard work an ideal) development process. We’ve had talkbacks after every performance (including one with the prisoners who are characters in the play) and learned about the piece as we worked it in front of audiences. For the NYC show, we’ve added projections and completely re-vamped the ending. It’s a very exciting show to be a part of and we’re very, very proud of what Sean will be performing this week. Check out this preview, in which Sean talks about the the intention behind the piece, then click over the show’s website for more exciting stuff. 2009-04-28T02:58:44+00:00 http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/how_to_write_for_the_american_theatre http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/how_to_write_for_the_american_theatre#When:16:12:03Z A flowchart to help you on your way to fame and success as a playwright. Click here to see it for real. h/t Ghost Light 2009-04-15T16:12:03+00:00 http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/raisin_is_not_cat-nip._stop_acting_like_it_should_be http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/raisin_is_not_cat-nip._stop_acting_like_it_should_be#When:20:01:07Z Am I being overly sensitive? Or waaaay to politically-correct? Check out this paragraph from Saturday’s Star-Tribune article “Flourishing on stage, but missing from the audience.” Interviews with theater patrons, artists and leaders point to a battery of reasons why blacks have been staying away from shows that should draw them, including marketing opportunities missed, a perceived lack of welcome and the economy. (Emphasis mine.)Just previous to this paragraph, the Star-Tribune trumpets the fact that Minneapolis stages are being taken-over by stories with African-Americans - Raisin in the Sun, The Color Purple, Carlyle Brown’s Pure Confidence (the show Louisville’s Courier-Journal described as “Slavery Explored in a Winning Way”). Playgoers looking for darker faces on-stage could also choose a Endgame with a mostly black cast, or Nilaja Sun’s No Child (“which featured actor Sonja Parks in a bravura turn as 16 characters”). For some reason, area artistic directors are stunned that doing plays with black people in them (the paper uses the essentialist but editorially-favored term “blacks”) isn’t instantly upping the numbers of minorities in the audience. Here are my thoughts on the matter. 2009-04-14T20:01:07+00:00 http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/avlt_wins_best_of_columbus http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/avlt_wins_best_of_columbus#When:05:38:43Z Hooray! Available Light was named Best Live Theater in the Columbus Alive's annual reader's poll. Thanks to everyone who voted. We're very proud. Read all about it right here. 2009-02-27T05:38:43+00:00 http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/dirty_math_opens_april_2 http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/dirty_math_opens_april_2#When:05:13:38Z 2009-02-26T05:13:38+00:00 http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/news_of_the_day_fox_forums_steppenwolf_douglasplus http://avltheatre.com/index.php/post/news_of_the_day_fox_forums_steppenwolf_douglasplus#When:13:40:29Z Jacobs blogs about the Arts Secretary issue, Steppenwolf announces, DouglasPlus gives discounts, Oliver noms announced.Leonard Jacobs blogs on the Fox Forum: "Do We Need a Secretary of the Arts?" Steppenwolf announces its 2009-10 season. DouglasPlus is exactly what it sounds like, unfinshed theatre for ONLY $20. Sam French's OOB playfest has a blog. Lawrence Olivier Award noms. L.A. needs a LATE. The man behind "Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire" is gettin' sued. News of the Day, 2009-02-05T13:40:29+00:00