Play Out the Play!

Friction isn't a bad thing

A tremendously insightful post by Scott Walters (a U. of NC theatre prof) over at Theatre is Territory yielded this quote:

"The art form is best served by being populated with thoughtful artists who have thought deeply and critically about their own work. What passes for “being supportive” – focusing on the vague and general positive and not speaking criticism – doesn’t allow artists to grow and deepen. Artistic creativity benefits from being burnished, polished to a luster through friction. Without it, the result is rust."

The post is all about theatrical artists being willing to engage in critical discourse-- being willing to have some sense of peer review of work for the rigor and growth of the artform.  Too often people do not speak their opinions about what works and what doesn't for fear of reprisals down the road.  Friction is not a bad thing if people know how to utilize it and get the work done. 

My opinionated nature has certainly led to some backlash-- even some excommunication--, but I don't regret it.  I feel that I work best with people willing to be challenged and willing to fight for their own perspectives.  It's in that space that we achieve something larger than ourselves. 

Anyway, the whole post is located HERE, for your own reading pleasure. 

theatrical quote of the month: April

My theatrical quote for the month of April goes to Jarred Clowes from his comment-response to his bloggerview:

"And lilly is right. . . we will not be renting our set for A Chorus Line... Personally I think it's the best white line that I've ever designed!"

LMAO!!!

A Bloggerview: Jarred Clowes

Jarred Clowes is the technical director for the Spotlight Theatre Company in Bakersfield and is heading up their Spotlight Series of blackbox-contemporary plays.  Having just closed The Pillowman, Jarred is plugging along working through musicals, dramas, and educational theatre.  In its 9th Season, the Spotlight Theatre is well on its way to becoming a LORT-d house (probably the first one in the San Joaquin Valley) within its next five seasons. 

MWA:  What's happenin' in your theatrical world?

JC: Well, I've learned that in order to make a living off theatre... you have to do a lot of it(a lot a lot).  So, "what's happenin'"? is kind of a loaded question. 

One thing I'm really excited about at the moment though is something we're calling The Spotlight Series... taking place, of course, at The Spotlight Theatre (Bakersfield).  For anyone not familiar with The Spotlight, it's a 99 seat proscenium style theatre in downtown Bakersfield. The theatre itself has been around for about 9 years.  In this last year though we've grown significantly (in terms of donor and administrative support).  Our normal season is composed of eight shows, usually a mix of musicals and popular dramas along with a wild card or two per season.  The upcoming season includes, Noises Off, High Fidelity the musical, It's a Wonderful Life, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Albee's The Goat, Carousel, Simon's Proposals and our summer rock and roll revue...
Yeah it's pretty sell-out except for probably The Goat, but we're growing and trying to give ourselves every opportunity to stretch our artistic muscles. 

The Spotlight Series is part of that goal: four shows spread out over the course of the year and squeezed into one of our three week breaks.  The idea was that rather than letting the theatre sit dark, we could utilize the space, assuming the technical requirements for the following show were light, to put on a much smaller and more intimate production.  And of course, this production would be edgier than our normal fare and something we could never put into the normal season, based on our need to continue growing a reliable audience base.  So as of this writing we've just closed our second show of this type, The Pillowman.  The Pillowman, along with Onionheads, the first show of this series, turned out to be rather well attended. Both shows netted in the area of about $2000 each, which anyone in a local theatre scene knows is pretty good... especially considering that it's pure gravy.  With the gravy on top of the gravy being that we get to put up these amazing shows with the support of a real theatre, with real lights etc...

Sorry if that answer turned into a thesis paper but these shows really excite me.

Seen any good work lately?

Apart from my own shows, where all of the actors were amazing of course, I can certainly recall one performance that gave me pause: Kat Brinkley in Little Women (yeah she's my girlfriend...so what? she's awesome!)

How would you describe the present condition of the bakersfield theatre scene?

ouch.  You're trying to get me in trouble aren't you? 

Well...Stars has most of the money but none of the talent, which boils down to second tier community actors on rented sets. The Empty Space has most of the talented actors but no money or organization. BCT has...well...they are [one of] the longest running community theatre in the state. The Melodrama is The Melodrama (I don't know if they even really count as a theatre in the sense of a theatre being a place where plays are put on). The two colleges are struggling to rebuild their programs after several trying years, and The Spotlight, where I do most of my work, has some of the money and some of the actors and is on a general upswing which I hope will continue. 

That being said... I am constantly amazed that from top to bottom Bakersfield Theatre is as good as it is.  Short of the big houses in LA (the Mark Taper, The Geffen), going to a random show in Bakersfield is far more likely to yield a good experience than showing up to a random theatre in LA.  No joke, Bakersfield has way more theatre than you would think, and a lot of it is very worthwhile.  Though, if you'd like a prognostication, I would make a guess that in the next twelve to twenty-four months two of the theatres listed above will fold or move...you heard it here first.

What advice do local theatres need to hear?

Working together will help everyone.  It will.  Even you Stars.

What quality in other artists/designers do you most dislike when you see it?

Bad hygiene.  Just because you're a techie doesn't mean that you can't take a shower...come on man.  Oh and self-delusion...I'll just let that hang out there.

What qualities do you look for in other artists/designers?

What I love are people that love to argue but who also have the ability to be convinced.  There's nothing better than to have your mind changed, because that is the only time that you will ever learn anything. So...opinionated but not stubborn is what I'm looking for.  I'll let you know when I find him/her.

What are your top three theatre reads?

It seems that I only have time to read plays these days...so I'm sure your site will be number one with a bullet!

Where do you think Spotlight Theatre is headed in the next few years?

Funny you should ask because we just finished submitting a new five year plan to our board.  Some of the plans that we're laying the groundwork for include opening up a second space in the next couple years...a space intended to be a home for our Spotlight Series shows.  Our big plan though is to gradually fulfill the requirements that would allow The Spotlight to become a lort-D designated equity theatre.  If we are successful The Spotlight would be the only equity theatre in the central valley (that I know of...drop me a line if you know of another, we'd probably have some questions).

What ideas do you have to keep theatre vital and interesting in the community?

As it stands now, a lot of us do theatre for ourselves, because WE love it.  That's ok...I mean, we'd better love it right?  Not a lot of us get paid for it...  So what we really need to focus on finding is a better way to bring the community back... hopefully as participants yes, but more importantly we need to project that Theatre is vital and that it is a place where they, the people, should be spending their time.  ...I guess that didn't really answer the question... in fact, I think all I did was say something that the question assumed was true in the first place...huh.  Then I guess... ...maybe a bobblehead night?  I don't know, I got nothin' 

What's coming up for you?

Next I'll be designing A Chorus Line and You Can't Take it With You at The Spotlight, and Two Sisters and a Piano at Bakersfield College.  I wont be directing another show until Noises Off in September so I'm happy that, to an extent, I will be on somewhat of a break.

Pre-production-- Twelfth Night

Well, we're in our last week of pre-production meetings for WSF's Twelfth Night.  Actually, we're overlapping pre-production and auditions this week! 

But I sit down for a second sketches meeting with Lars Thorson, the director, on Thursday.  Right before he conducts callbacks for casting.  I'll be hanging out in the back scoping the actors.  I've changed a few sketches of a few characters. . Toby Belch and Malvolio being the principles.  I also have a sketch of Antonio to show up-- straight up Pirate-tastic like he requested.  (I'll probably omit the eyepatch, though!  LOL!).  Toby's costume is straight up Commedia Pantalone-tastic. 

It's been tough combining Italian renaissance, baltic folklore, pirates and commedia as his original precis had in mind, but I think I've done a good job of marrying the Renaissance silhouette with some folkloric touches-- primarily heavy on the embroidered trims and embellishments and a few specific pieces for flavor. But overall, I hope they look like they all exist in the same world. The show is supposed to have a romantic, sea-floral, breeze-strewn feel to it.

Below are my sketches as they stand right now:

 

Get an idea

A good article from a NY theatre critic on the need to bust the timidity and torpor of American non-profit theatre:

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/articles/theater/28267/causing-a-scene

"Gregory Mosher also has hopes for an artistic-director messiah. Mosher led Lincoln Center Theater from 1985 to 1991, and isn’t afraid to suggest radical solutions—like dumping pesky old subscribers. “The ‘next Papp’ is right here, wherever here is—could be Newark, for all we know,” Mosher says. “Joe’s successor is a young person, very likely a woman. . . with a startling idea and the determination to bring it to life. Joe had many wonderful qualities, but above all he had a compelling idea.”

Catching Up wtih Paul Jones

Paul Jones is the former instructor of theatre arts at the College of the Sequoias and a teacher of some of the local areas more prolific talents.  Now retired from teaching, he and his wife Karen relocated to southern Oregon to take advantage of the rich theatre community there. 

Here are Paul's responses to MY TEN QUESTIONS (thanks to the guys at The Next Stage and Theatre is Territory for the inspiration for such bloggerviews). 

1. What's happening in your theatrical world?

    That world is very full and busy. Closed an incredible production of Jeffrey Hatcher's play "Sockdology" at Camelot Theatre (www.CamelotTheatre.org) in Talent in early March. If you don't know the play it's about what happens to Laura Keenes' acting company following Lincoln's assassination. It's part fact and fiction and the acting involved three different styles and we played real people. One of the best and most rewarding productions and casts I've ever worked with . I played Thomas C. Gourley. Because of plans Karen and I have for this summer I reluctantly turned down roles in "Promises, Promises" and "Lend Me A Tenor".

     I played the role of Fire Chief Beatty in a production of "Fahreinheit 451" in 2006 at Camelot (had a ball) and now the Jackson County Library system is holding their annual 'Jackson County Reads' program. One of the novels they will be reading and discussing will be "451" and I have been asked to read sections from the play. In the play, Bradbury pulled most of Beattys' 'lectures' into a 25 - 30 minute monologue/dialogue split into two scenes at the end of Act 1. I'm doing two readings at two branches of the library followed by other speakers, Q&A and discussion. Since it will be a reading I don't have to rememorize it. I'm also involved in original play readings at Oregon Stage Works in Ashland for the first time.


2. Seen any good work lately?

    Is the Pope Catholic? In the lower Rogue Valley area there are: two fully professional, Equity, theatres - Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Oregon Cabaret Theatre; two semi-pro theatres - Camelot Theatre Co. (yes we all get paid) and Oregon Stage Works; as well as community theatres with the Ashland Community Theatre and the Barnstormers Theatre in Grants Pass; Southern Oregon University Theatre Arts and every High School has a theatre program; and the Craterian/Ginger Rodgers Theatre in Medford books in a variety of theatre, music, dance touring productions. I admit that since retiring I do not attend much educational theatre except an occasional production at SOU (they did an incredible "Urinetown"). The Festival opened their 2008 season in Feb. and Karen and I have only seen "Fences" and "Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter", both surperb, so far. The Festival is the first of many reasons why we moved here. Both Karen and I volunteer as ushers and/or ticket takers for OSF in the Elizabethan Theatre in the summer earning hours toward comps for all the shows the following season. This will be our fourth summer. In that capacity I've seen quite a few people from Ashland.


3.  How would you describe the present condition of the Ashland theatre scene?

    Very healthy and growing in the whole area! Camelot Theatre, my new theatre home, is presently in the planning stage for a new facility.  We have to move as Talent is redeveloping it's small down town and will be cutting Main St. right through the present theatre. So we have to get out of the way by 2010. Due to my extensive theatre and design background I am involved in that process. The excitement I feel about this is the same as when I first arrived in Visalia and the COS Theatre had just started construction. Glorious chills up the spine!


4.  What advice do local theatres (our area or yours, either way) need to hear?

    It's the same advice I have always given - DO GREAT THEATRE CONSISTENTLY. Never settle for good. Also, know your audience, but incorporate productions in the season that will bring in new patrons and challenge both the theatre and the audiences. Lastly, RISK! Theatre is not safe. If you want something safe, take up skydiving. Jones axiom #1: "A ship in the harbour is safe. But that is not what ships are built for". The same for theatre and all the arts.


5.  What quality in other artists/designers do you most dislike when you see it?

    Ego centered selfishness. By that I mean someone who puts themselves above others and think they are better than their fellows or the work or the playwright. These people are dictatorial, mean spirited and small. Run away!

6.  What qualities do you look for in other artists/designers?

    Discipline. Sharing. Honesty. Giving. Receptive. Openness. Eagerness. Teamwork. Humility. Respect for others and the work. Intensity. Gentleness. Humor. Laughter. Excitement. Rejoice in the work and those who you work with. Celebrate success as a 'company achievement'. Generosity. Accept responsibility. Positiveness. Consistency.  Two power words: "I'm sorry". Believe that "My word is my bond". The work (production) is more important than the individual. Love!


7.  What are your top three theatre reads?

    Well, you got me on that one. I am reading "1984" the novel in preparation for the play. Also reading a present from friends: "Acting Wales, Stars of Stage and Screen". Brief bios of Welsh actors. I am Welsh you know. Since retiring I've not read many books on theatre other than scripts or novels the play is from or biographies of people. In prep. for playing Ben Franklin in "1776" I read Walter Isaacson's "Benjamin Franklin, An American Life" and David McCollough's "John Adams". Both great.


8.  What has been your biggest challenge in transplanting to Ashland?

    Actually we live in Phoenix. Don't get confused, we are the "other" Phoenix located seven miles north of Ashland and four miles south of Medford. A perfect location as we are about ten minutes drive from any place we want to be. The blasted move itself was the greatest trauma! Getting rid of a ton of stuff and packing the rest after twenty-seven years in Visalia. What a headache. Went through a few bottles of Scotch I can tell you. Also, we bought our house in July of 2004 but the owners were building a home and it was not ready until Nov. So they became our renters.  We rented a small place in Ashland and with nothing to do had time to finally relax, rest, explore Ashland, get together with old friends here and make new ones. Then we had to move AGAIN!


9. Your biggest reward or success?

    1. My wife, Karen and our thirty six wonderful years together.  2. The great students I had the honor and joy to teach, work with and become friends with! You know who you are.

                   
10.  What's coming up for you?

    Next will be "1984" playing O'Brien. I do love playing heavies. The Artistic Director, Livia Genise, wanted me in "Brigadoon" at Christmas but it follows "1984". We only have one space for production which run Thurs. through Sun.(four weeks for plays and five for musicals) and rehearsals on Sat. afternoon, Sun. through Wed. nights. So when "1984" opens we start immediate rehearsals for Bridge-of-Doom. No nights off. I told her that two acting roles in a row is against my retired religion. I did direct "The Dresser" and then did the Governor/Innkeeper role in "Man of La Mancha" because once a show opens the director is the most useless thing in the theatre (Jones Axiom #32) and I don't have to be at performances. We do have a Directors Night in which the cast stays on stage after with the director and engages the audience in a Q&A. and closing night (matinee) of course.

    No directing this year as Livia wanted me for my acting more than directing. And then I turned her down on three shows. But she and I are quite close and we have our heart to heart lunches to talk about everything including directing and acting. So it's time for one.  This lady is really amazing!

The Hard Way

Simon over at The Next Stage has sent this meme over to me in which I must speak about three things I learned the hard way.  So, here are mine, such as they are:

1. The biggest one for me-- and it is a continual battle-- is to "Beware of Muddle". 
When directing or designing, I really have to work hard at keeping my vision clear, not letting other demands cloud it up. There have been two productions on which I've pulled double duty (as both director & actor or designer & stage manager).  While in both of those cases, the final product was fine-- even exceptional on some scores-- the split focus majorly impeded my leadership and threatened to derail a number of very important working relationships.  Frankly, it's a miracle those shows survived as well as they did. 

2. Beware of Precious.
I have an earlier post on being aware of staging or playing things so that they're beautiful but lifeless.  It also applies to the unwillingness of many directors to EDIT or SIMPLIFY their shows.  Early in my theatrical life, I worked with a lovely and talented director who, unfortunately, was simply unwilling to keep things simple and edit things out.  Once she had an idea for the show, it was in.  And it didn't matter if it wasn't materialized until final dress, cutting it was not an option.  As her stage manager, this is intensely frustrating.  Moreso because I knew that the life of the show was weighed down by her inability to edit and the safety of the actors was in question by her large and last minute additions.  There is a difference between the very precious ideas as they exist in our heads and the form they take on the stage.  A good director can't feel that any element is beyond question.  In fact, every element of a production needs to be questioned, questioned, and questioned again to prove its fruitfulness for the story.  Having stage managed bloated productions for ten years, I can honestly say I came from the school of hard knocks on this one. 

3.  Beware of Expectations
My mother has said since I was a child, "Beware of having too many expectations.  You're sure to be disappointed."  I think that just until these last three years or so, I had expectations that if I did good work, people would automatically appreciate it.  I expected that if I was "easy to work with and accommodating" people would appreciate and reward ME.  And I expected that everyone would come to understand my work. 

I can honestly say I've been disappointed on all counts.  But that's my own fault.

Most of the people in the theatre community are not going to sing your praises if you're doing good or challenging or forward-thinking work.  They're going to feel threatened.  Some will get over it and acknowledge its worthiness, but probably only grudgingly.  (And I have to say that I am guilty of this point, which is why I started writing reviews.  To force myself to acknowledge good work as well as bad).  But still, most of the theatrical community or theatre-goers will pat you on the back, say "good work", and then proceed to rave and publicly acknowledge the most mediocre of work.  So don't expect anything different.  It'll save a lot of frustration in the end. 

Around the same time, I started realizing that while I was trying to make everyone like me and like working with me, I was watering down a lot of my own standards for production.  I was excessively accommodating as a director, a yes man to the company's board, and universally liked as a hard-working contributer to the players.  And, I was completely overlooked the vast majority of the time.  The moment I began questioning things, demanding more substantive work, and-- granted-- being a bit of a bitch, I found people who wanted to be challenged in their work and broke away from those who didn't care to improve the quality of their work.  (Sometimes, you have to make a few bad decisions to create something new for yourself.)

So, I guess that's my top three.  There are certainly others and there will be more to come, I'm sure.  In the words of Shannon McNally:  "I never learn nuthin' but the hard way, cuz at the time it felt SO good."

The Value of Theatre: Paul R Jones.

Why do we Americans always have to put a 'value' or price tag on everything. I suppose it is an unfortunate necessity in this day and age with a generation who want life to be an Ipod. Theatre is not easy. It demands mental and emotional commitments that require much from participants on stage and in the audience. It also requires, as Thornton Wilder so aptly stated: "a willing suspension of disbelief". The "willing" is the key and, perhaps, the most difficult.

    Theatre has and will always BE for me. It is life itself. The coming together and sharing what it is to be human. For well over 2,500 years, theatre has brought people from all walks of life together to share, to experience, to escape, to laugh, to cry, to feel joy, to feel dispair, to debate, to argue, to mean, to understand, to accept, to reject, to transcend, to BE. We, or at least I, value theatre because it IS. I cannot live without theatre by either doing as a creator or sharing as part of the audience. That was my mission for over thirty five years in educational theatre and continues today in my new life as an actor and director. The frustration with the former opened the door to my incredible new life in theatre.

    I think the only way to create "value" in theatre for a new generation is by them experiencing great theatre. Getting people to go to the theatre cannot be taught or required if there is to be real meaning and 'value'. But how to do that? In areas where great theatre is limited or difficult to get to get to and there is no inspirational mentor to point the way and share that love, I have no idea. However, here in southern Oregon all these aspects come into focus with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and it's incredible and successful educational and outreach programs. The 'value' here is in the experiences and the "doing" thus creating life long love for theatre.

 

Enough rambling,

Paul R. Jones

The Value of Theatre: M. Peterson

Theatre exists, as some guy named Hamlet once said, to "hold the mirror up to life."  To show us, in an objective fashion, who and what we are in both a positive and inspirational glow, and sometimes harshly in a more negative but realistic light.  It is perhaps the shadows cast by these metaphorical lights which Plato referred to as dancing on the wall in his famous cave allegory.  The Shadows are not the reality, but their very presence proves that a deeper level does in fact exist.  Similarly, theatre is not life, but it serves as a reflection of life, to show us what is that we may not yet be aware of, or what might be which we have not yet even imagined.

M. Peterson
Artists' Repertory Theatre, Fresno, CA

The Value of Theatre: Tom Nance

"Theatre, as in all art, should bring about an immediate life defining response and then if truly successful the response will linger and change a part of the participants' beings.

This theatre experience is analogous to the sport experience where what is remembered is the unusual and heroic. For example baseball fans remember the 1988 World Series where Kirk Gibson with two bad legs and a stomach virus come to bat in the bottom of the ninth with the Dodger trailing 4-3 with two outs and one man on first. With the count 3-2, Gibson slammed the ball over the right field fence and then hobbled around the bases to score the winning run. What the baseball fans remember are the courage and the triumph when everything told them that failure had the better chance.

As a community theatre actor, I have seen courage so many times back stage: the actor rushing onto the stage without missing a cue even though shards of glass still sparkled in his hair from the car accident which totaled his truck just a few hours before performance, or the young man just recently out of the emergency hospital after being bitten by a brown recluse spider. The young, pale skinned man would deliver his lines and then go off stage to vomit into a plastic lined trash can. Only once did the young actor miss a cue because he was sick, and that time two other actors filled in his lines flawlessly with one of the three specials illuminating an empty part of the stage as the only indicator for the audience that anything was amiss. Nor will I ever forget, the actress who performed the very night her mother died. The actress felt that once again her mother was watching her performance.

Now, these types of heroics are common place in the theater and other endeavors as well, but many within the non-theater community know nothing of these achievements. But the plays themselves in live theatre bring these same heroics for the actors, technicians, and audience to share: Henry Drummond standing up for his adversary Matthew Brady's right to defend his beliefs, Tevye confronting the crumbling traditions in his people's life while heroically clinging to his faith in God and his family, or Ma Joad fighting to keep her family alive when all the men in her life have been either killed, run off, or emasculated by a compassionless society.

Of course the theatre has more to offer than just heroics. Theatre can be mindless entertainment, tearing eyed nostalgia, or mind humbling satire. It's because of theatre's diversity that it does have so much to offer the community. Technology will change the operation of society but does little to change humanity. Art does that. As Paul Gauguin said, "Art is either plagiarism of revolution." Theatre at is best is revolution in that change only happens when the unexpected occurs. Live theatre is filled with the unexpected.  It is life itself."
~Tom Nance, local actor