Madwoman's Attic: In The Attic

A new birthday tradition

Apparently, every year now, I must have an article of clothing stolen from me during my birthday 'event'. 

Two years ago, we went for cocktails and appetizers on my birthday and whilst I enjoyed my friends at Fugazzi, someone broke into my car and stole two Regency gowns that were sitting in my backseat. 
(latter half of post). 

Last year, I set down a pair of gloves at Dickens Fair and when I went back for them just a few minutes later, they were gone. 

And this year, my satin trench coat was absconded from the cocktail bar.  It was sitting next to someone else's coat over the back of a couch next to us and I guess whoever it was just picked up both coats. 

Now I feel like I have to leave some article of clothing out for someone to take otherwise my Nights Out with Fabulous People just aren't complete.  Very, very odd. 

Shakespeare Santa Cruz needs $300k by next week

Update 12/22-- SSC exceeded their goal and raised $416,000 in one week.  Congrats!

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I was so devastated by the headline:  "Shakespeare Santa Cruz:  To be or not to be?" that I literally GASPed. 

The board of directors of UCSanta Cruz has had to pull its traditional year-end coverage of SSCs budget deficits because its own budget is being "eviscerated" by the State of California (as called for by Gov. Schwarzenegger).  It's an ugly pickle to be in for both sides of the table-- they've been negotiating for two months over this-- but there it is.  Another non-profit theatre in God's little acre:  East of the Rock and West of the Hard Place. 

Many non-profit arts organizations operate with a certain level of operational deficits.  But regular capital raising campaigns, the development of an endowment as a nest egg, and the occasional lucky large-sum grant often helps raise their financial profile on a fairly regular interval. 

But more and more theatres this year have found themselves in a perfect storm of economic destruction.  If their operational deficits have built on top of each other year after year with nothing to buoy them, they find themsleves La Jeune Lune'd. 

The economic crunch left Oregon Shakespeare Festival with a $750K deficit this year.  Lake Tahoe Shakespeare had to raise $90K in less than a month this summer to keep going another year.  The Tony Award Winning Theatre de la Jeune Lune famously closed its doors with a 2 million dollar deficit in June due, apparently, to mismanagement alongside the fiscal crunch. Milwaukee Shakespeare has also closed its doors, The Public in NY dropped a major new play, and Charleston Stage has cut its staff in half-- all due to loss of funding.  Even the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the U.K. had to ask for a 500,000 pound bailout package from their government to keep it going another year.  (Ahhh, to see arts organizations being given bailout packages from their governments!)

And now Shakespeare Santa Cruz.  I have little doubt that the community of Santa Cruz will find the money to support the festival-- they love it so.  But it still feels . . . well. .. gasp-worthy that all of this should be happening so FAST to such successful theatres in the U.S. 

I guess the coming years will show us some new ways of doing shows-- managing them, producing them, staging them.  Innovation, managing to do more for the community with less, is definitely the name of the game. 

Whole lotta theatre going on.

A whole lotta theatre going on.

So, both of my theatre jobs are fully underway.  Last night I put forth a cycle of plays for the Raisin Cain Players in Selma and it was universally admired and will be scheduled perfectly for the year.  So my life as a director producer swings between Shakespeare for the masses to commercial plays for a small community.  I actually like that blend of things. 

The one thing I've insisted on for the Selma job is that the scripts be superior.  One of my strengths as a commercial director is my taste in scripts.  I know how to choose really good ones-- script that are a pleasure to direct and act, and therefore a pleasure to watch.  A superior script is also better for amateur actors in that since things are clearer, more purposeful, and less dodgy, there is something for amateur actors to grab onto and run with.  A mediocre book leads to a lot of muddy, bad acting choices that I, as a director, have trouble fighting against. 

With the Shakespeare. . . well, it's Shakespeare.  Which doesn't mean it is perfect or not problematic (ever tried to stage the ending of Measure for Measure and make it satisfying?).  But the productions should have a strong understanding of the text and the concepts should support the text and not be grafted on top of it.  It is definitely harder to produce with amateur actors, but that's part of the challenge! 

So, anyway, for the next however-long I get the joy of working some lovely commercial scripts that I've wanted to do for a while and some challenging Shakespeare that always charges me up.  :D

The shows on the books right now are:
The Foreigner (directing and producing, runs May 2009)
As You Like It (producing. . . I might audition, too. It seems to be a habit with me, that show. Runs, June-July 2009).
Richard III (producing, runs August-September, 2009)
The Canterville Ghost (directing and producing, runs October 2009)
A Christmas Carol (directing and producing, runs December 2009-- opens on my birthday)
Annie (directing and producing, runs May, 2010)

And then, of course, we arrive at the unknown WSF 2010 season, where, mayhap I'll direct? We'll see!

*note. .. I use the term "commercial" loosely. .  Shakespeare can and is very commercial in that there's a built-in audience for it.   But commercial to me is anything sellable in a relatively traditional theatre format that is accessible to a pretty broad audience-- even if they've never heard of the show.  Godot doesn't qualify for me (interest and general accessibility factor) and neither do a lot of the Fringe Festival entries. Turn of the Screw did, because it was sellable, accessible, and yet superior in its script-- even in its non-traditional staging.  Anyway. . . We could have discussions for days about the meaning of the words "commercial", "accessible", "non-profit", "audience friendly" and how they relate to superior scripts and where and when and how those shows belong in the world.  Mostly, I just want to avoid mediocrity in the scripts I stage and well-made theater is nearly always "commercial" in some form. 

Prop 8, the musical

A Marc Shaiman (Hairspray) musical number. My favorite part is Neil Patrick Harris at the end.

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Two language related items:

THE NATION:Do you have any thoughts about the ways that technologies like e-mail and texting are changing how people speak and write?  (from Back Talk )

TONI MORRISON:  Language changes--and should--because it is as alive as its speakers and writers. It is stifling or bad only when unclear, mediocre, false or wholly devoid of creative imagination. That may apply to some texting and e-mail, but not all."

and in reference to an entertaining segment on NPR's Talk of the Nation:

Texting: The Gr8 Db8

"Texting has added a new dimension to language use, indeed, but its long-term impact on the already existing varieties of language is likely to be negligible. It is not a bad thing."