EXTRA CRITICUM

In Denver: A window into a new community of playwrights emerging

I'm in Denver for The Dramatists Guild. Yesterday I offered a Self-Production Primer, a 4-hour starter kit workshop on some fundamentals for playwrights interested in producing their own work. Whenever I teach one of these in a new city, I always find it an interesting window into that local community. Spending a half a day with a roomful of people who are making theatre on a grassroots level gives you a flavor for the feel of the local culture.

And in Denver the feeling was great. Two things struck me most immediately about the 20 people gathered in that room at the Denver Center Theatre rehearsal building.

Oh where oh where did our firewall go? Marketing firms and name brands are getting into the "Art" game. Should we care?

This item recently caught my eye.

Heineken, Stella Artois, and Sony are among those to have commissioned one-off immersive live theatrical experiences in recent months. Now, however, London culture marketing agency pd3 is pushing the model further by financing the development of its own theater projects.

The move--which will bring a theatrical interpretation of five Brothers Grimm fairytales to central London later this year--will demonstrate both new creative and commercial opportunities for both brands and theater producers, the agency claims. FULL STORY HERE

It seems that more and more big name brands are getting into the commissioning business. Is this any different from the Archduke commissioning a new piece of chamber music from Beethoven? There's a lot of talk these days about a direct line leading from Rembrandt straight through to Andy Warhol, a line defined by an exciting new noun/verb: branding.