Extra Criticum

Art vs. Commerce: Two world views collide within 12 hours of each other

Last night, we had our first Brevity Fest, at which about a dozen writers and musicians shared new work for an audience of roughly 75, who filled a cozy venue called El Cid where drinks and food were served and lots of people were moved.

This morning I took a meeting with a publicist who told me that nothing I've done is even worth discussing (or his time) unless and until I have a breakout hit.

Both are real. Both are valid. But one of these things moves me deeply while the other leaves me cold.

NBCU Corporate Memo De-Coded

Earlier today, NBC Universal president Jeff Zucker sent out a 'team update' memo about the upcoming transition... but as it's in that same gooblety gook speak that the corporate suits like to talk in, I've gone ahead and de-coded it for you.. Enjoy! (thanks to Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood for posting the original letter)

"Late Night" Thermometer

With Conan's last Tonight Show now a memory, I thought I'd do a quick run down of the winners and losers in the latest edition of the late night wars.

A cool way to promote a brand new musical online

Prospect Theatre has a teaser video on their website for their new musical, The Hidden Sky. In it, we see only screen pans across drawings but we hear some of Peter Foley's arresting score underneath a narration which, given the sci-fi content of the piece, provides us with the background. It's an innovative approach worth examining.

Die Fledermaus - a New Year's Eve tradition all 'round the world

Our opera company celebrated the New Year with a tradition that has lasted at our company for more than two decades and, if operaworld legend is to be believed, has been around almost since the late 1800s when Johann Strauss wrote the charming operetta in which Act II ends with a company-wide champagne toast.

Opera companies all over the world regularly offer a performance of this old standard on New Year's Eve as a special perk for special subscribers and, at least in our case, the result is a great fundraiser and a really fun party at which supporters of our company get to reconnect with each other and with their loyalty to us and our mission. Naturally, this got this gal thinkin...

Why do we (dramatists) swallow star casting without question?

My sister’s visiting the city and she asked me if I could snag her a pair of tickets to A Little Night Music. This charming little show has always been a success and I fully expected to have to work a bit to find good seats but I didn’t expect to be faced with wall-to-wall sold-out performances all week long. Of course it’s never bad news when theatre is sold out in my book but, still, I couldn’t stop wondering if the crowds were lining up for the show or for the cast.

Note to board: Please don't recline during board meetings!

This post'll be short.Apologies for being absent from the blog for awhile but the Fall production schedule here has been brutal.

But something happened this past weekend that really got my panties all in a knot. (is that the expression? well, you know what I mean).

In a country without real govt. funding of the arts, this is what a project announcement looks like

As a big fan of my friend Taylor Mac's work, I eagerly opened the latest email from HERE Performing Arts Center announcing his latest show. What struck me about the following text is how much of it is devoted to financial support.

Check it out. It's mind-boggling. To make it simpler I've color-coded everything that has to do with funding in RED and everything else in GREEN.

I Live in New Jersey or My Inner Snob

I arrived in Brooklyn when I was 22. It was the presidency of George Bush the Elder (remember him?). I was as naïve and frightened as any boy who has spent his entire life in school would be.

For me, it all happened there. I became an actor. I unbecame an actor. I found my calling as a playwright. I married twice - once badly, once well. My son was born there. Hell, I was practically born there. And now I was leaving. For NEW JERSEY (Rolo, please add ominous organ sound).

I'll Distribute It Myself, Thank You Very Much

I just read an editorial in the Los Angeles Times by Martin Scorsese addressed to Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It seems LACMA is canceling its weekend film program, and this gets under the maestro's skin. Here’s his piece.

http://tinyurl.com/ml4c3v

I’d like to add a few things. I hope Marty won’t mind.

This is further proof, if any more is needed, that Hollywood hates film. It loves products and entertainment and the revenue those generate. But it hates films.

Balancing Budgets: How do we do it?

It's budget-approval time here. Yay! And, I'm practically pulling my hair out over some of the choices I'm confronting.

Pick 3 (but not 4) of the following:

1. 2nd Act costumes for the chorus in The Magic Flute.
2. a 3rd French horn player for the Richard Strauss opera.
3. replacing 14 damaged seat cushions in the hall we perform in, even though we only rent it and technically they should be replaced by the owner but it's not the owner who will field complaints from annoyed subscribers who have to sit on a wobbly seat.
4. ads on public transportation. something we've only toyed with before but that everyone tells me we must do if we're ever going to take our audience development to "the next level."
5. an assistant choirmaster to help with the administrative burdens of prepping and organizing rehearsals of all our choruses throughout the season.

Sometimes I hate my job. I feel like an accountant instead of an artist, for godsakes! Yuk!!

Who Can Turn the World On With Her Smile?

I am a huge Mary Tyler Moore fan. So yes when I went to college in Minneapolis I had lunch in the IDS Tower at "Mary's Table" (I will not reveal whether or not I spun my heels and tossed my hat on the Nicollet Mall tho... some things should remain private). :)

Anyway, for those of you who love Mary with the same devotion that I do, season five is coming out on October 8th according to TVShowsonDVD.com

Earlier this year there was a report that all three of the remaining seasons of the Mary Tyler Moore Show would come out at the same time in a 'complete series' box set... meaning if you had already bought the first four seasons, well, you'd have to buy them again in the "complete set" in order to get the three seasons you didn't have. But this seems to contradict that. Hope it's true.... once I have the complete series: marathon!

It's About Fuckin' Time

I'm sitting in my office at the Dramatists Guild, half-dazed from the heat beating through my window countered with the screams of some Michael Jackson imitator seven floors down on the street level. Half in one world and half in another (my natural state these days), I'm brought back to office-reality when one of our cheery office assistants slides my mail across my desk and announces, "Mail!" (Btw, I find this fascinating. Why announce what's obvious? It's not like you're sliding a pizza or an old boot across my friggin' desk and trying to pass it off as mail.)

Anyway, I'm sifting through my mail -- which generally consists of "you're doing this right" mail, and, "you're doing this wrong, asshole" mail with a few season announcements, show announcements, and gym postcards announcing the end of summer is in sight (really?), and shouldn't I lose the twenty pounds I've been meaning to lose? -- when a brochure catches my eye: the announcement for Playwrights Horizons 2009-10 season.

Detroit the next artists' mecca? Who woulda thunk it?

In May I posted:  "What city will be the next New York?" and lots of folks joined in a freewheeling speculation as to where artists might next land in light of the mounting impossibility of making ends meet in NYC.

Well, check this out? Courtesy of Thomas Cott's You've Cott Mail: