EXTRA CRITICUM

Down for the Count

I knew it was bad, but I didn’t know it was THIS bad. A friend forwarded an email to me at the end of last week, announcing the closing of an Off-Off Broadway theatre space, the Manhattan Theatre Source. I have a soft spot in my heart for the Source because I’ve worked there in a variety of capacities (producer, writer, director, educator), consulted with the board, had a couple of small pieces produced there, know a lot of the people involved in its formation and growth and have watched it struggle year after year to stay afloat. So it wasn’t a huge surprise that the Board finally had to say, in essence, we just can’t make it happy any longer. We’re beat. We’re done. We’ve fought the good fight for twelve years.

I was curious why this is happening now; why, after its twelfth year? So I called someone I know on the Board and asked. The answer was simple, he said: rent.

History repeating itself? The Met is back... with a vengeance!

At a recent board meeting (during which, incidentally, questions of programming do not generally come up, aside from in a reportage sort of a way... that is, after all, supposed to be my dept.) one of our longest standing board members blurted out a suggestion. Essentially, it boiled down to this.

Last month, the Met live telecast featured a production of Turandot. And, hey, why haven't we done Turandot? That's one heck of a great opera!

I had to take a deep breath and count to ten. (One, two, three, four, five--oh to hell with it!) See the fact of the matter is, there's a new kid on the block. And he's bigger and stronger and better funded than all the rest of us put together. Oh, and he's playing for keeps, too. His name is Peter Gelb. And his mission? Simple. Restore the Metropolitan Opera's international footprint to its former glory. Trouble is, his plan doesn't exactly take into account the needs of us little guys.

E.S.T. Auctioning off entire contents of its upstate retreat

As a sad symptom of the financial health of our overall economy, not to mention the state of the arts in this country, Ensemble Studio Theatre is selling its upstate property, as well as all its contents. The property had long served as an upstate summer retreat for artists affiliated with the theatre. But times are tough. And I suppose holding on to the property has become more of a fiscal burden than a benefit. Here's the info, if anyone's planning a trip up north during foliage season.

A GREAT theater-going experience...

(I was going to write this LAST week, but, Osama seemed to be everywhere...)

I had a GREAT theater going experience last week.  Absolutely fantastic.  And it had NOTHING to do with the play.  Which was a real eye opener for me...

My wife and I went down to San Diego, just for the day, and I thought, hey, let's go to the Old Globe, let's see a show.  It had awhile since we saw a show, so why not?

Be Careful What You Wish For: Everyone's backstage now. And, it's a bit crowded. Not to mention, uncomfortable.

Theatres everywhere are opening the doors to their rehearsal and production process in hopes of expanding ticket sales. Here are just a few examples of the myriad videos available online in which cast, crew, directors, writers talk to the camera about what they intend to do and how they intend to do it.

Three Pianos video promo

The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism, Socialism (with a key to the scriptures)

Mark Taper Forum backstage tour

Bonnie & Clyde

There's just one problem. No one has any evidence that any of this meta-content actually increases ticket sales. Or, if there is real hard evidence of this, I haven't seen it.

If you want to bump it...go to Philly! (For the Peek-A-Boo Revue)

 Ah, Paris…home of the Moulin Rouge, the Folies Bergere, the Crazy Horse Saloon, where Josephine Baker shook her bananas, and where artists and poets chased the green fairy in the Belle Epoque and beyond…providing much art and merriment in a time that inspired this year’s Philadelphia International Arts Festival. 
 
Ah, Philadelphia, home of the world-famous Trocadero, a Victorian-era theater, once a vaudeville and burlesque house, where the likes of Gypsy Rose Lee and Tempest Storm strutted their stuff, now a performing arts center. Sister cities, indeed!

New plays a-cookin in Philly (it's a bake-off!)

Plays & Players' homestage, on Delancey St. in Center City (left)

 What’s better than a 72-hour play? Well, a 24-hour play, but then I’m hardcore.

In fact, the “bake-off” (a term used for a writing exercise popularized by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel), in which dramatists are given several “ingredients” they must incorporate into a play that has to be written in 72 hours or less, has become a popular genre-within-the-genre of live theater.

Lark Play Development Center, I covet your restrooms.

The other night I had the pleasure of visiting the Lark's new digs, located at 311 W. 43rd for a table read of a very talented friend's new play. The play was great. But since it was a first read (first ever, ever) I will not even mention it by name. Its virgin status ought to be preserved. ;)

But I had the good fortune to visit the loo during a brief break and -- wow! -- I love what the architects have done! Readers of this blog are by now familiar with my rantings about venues. You know that one of my numero uno pet peeves is the sorry condition so many small theatre spaces are kept in. Check out: Please! Take out the garbage! for more on this topic.

More Troubadour Innovation

Duane's excellent post about Lucy Wainwright reminded me of one of my personal favorite folk singers who has been on the road for the past 20 yrs. and is no stranger to the non-traditional venue.

In fact, this coming Saturday, April 2, Cosy Sheridan will be playing to an audience assembled in a livingroom in a Chelsea loft in Manhattan as part of Thomas Boyd's Music Over Manhattan series.

I'll be there. Care to join me?

For Cosy's complete tour schedule visit her website.

Presenting the Intrepid and Independent Lucy Wainwright Roche

cross-posted to Lapis Loquens Blog

Flux doesn’t begin to describe the current business models for many artists in the U.S.  Popular music was the first sector plunged into chaos.  Book publishing, film and theatre soon followed.  The chaos has been different for each sector, but chaos it has been.  I try to follow developments in these other arts, looking for insights that might apply to the theatre world.

Sometimes one person really can make a difference

As I've toured here and there screening our little film, We Pedal Uphill at museums and schools and independent theatres, I've developed a somewhat wry refrain when asked by enthusiastic audience members how the film can be seen more widely. I usually meet their gaze and suggest (rather dryly) "You could pick up the phone and call a theatre owner and ask him or her to screen the film." This usually gets a laugh.

Little did I know, I was actually giving out some useful advice.

Blowin' in the wind (so to speak) in Philly

I’m very excited that the city of my birth, that is, the City of Brotherly Love, that is, where the Phillies play, is having an excellent international arts festival, and I’ve been invited to write about it. I’m certainly planning on grabbing one o’those cheap buses with the free Wi-Fi and making my way 99 miles south for some of the events. I had a chance to see a sneak preview here in NYC a few weeks ago, and have been going over the festival brochure and marking it up with “got to see” and “this looks good!”

The King's Speech Production Design Most Unorthodox

Big thanks to E.C. pal Aaron Mack Schloff for pointing us to this juicy tidbit. Remeber that fabulously distressed studio from The King's Speech, the one in which Geoffrey Rush did his best work? Well... apparently some other men have also done some of their best work there in roles of a different sort. Who knew that that distressed wall (which, you've gotta admit is pretty amazing) also served as a backdrop for naked gay British blokes in a porno shoot?!!

Here's the full story on Queerty.com.

Culture on the Road: Tracy Jacobson and The Music Bus Tour

OK. This is almost too cool for words. A young bassoonist named Tracy Jacobson has a new start-up. She calls it The Music Bus Tour and it will officially launch this May. Here's the basic gist: A bunch of classical musicians board a bus and criss-cross the nation for a few weeks with one simple mission: to bring classical music to ears that otherwise might never hear it in unexpected places such as libraries, public parks, bars, restaurants, churches... you name it.

Some unlikely venues are best left alone

Last night my pal Brenda and I took a chance on an evening concert in the Winter Garden at Ground Zero. The attraction for us, mostly, was the performance by the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra of portions of a work-in-progress about legendary city planner, Robert Moses. But, for me, another draw was the unusual venue for the concert.

I had never been before but the Winter Garden is essentially a cathedral to corporate power -- an enormous marble sarcophagus of a lobby with a ceiling height that rivals Grand Central Station's main terminal, except here done in a late 20th C. style, complete with windows everywhere and about a dozen 50' palm trees soaring up toward a sky that will forever remain beyond glass.