Debate over Daisey’s response to Teresa Eyring’s article

July 14, 2008 by Dennis Baker 

I was going to try and sum up the theaterosphere’s reaction to Mike Daisey’s response to Teresa Eyring’s article in the American Theater Magazine.

Ethan Stanislawski beat me to it and does a good job at it. The post is “The Don Hall/Mike Daisey/Scott Walters/Adam Thurman debate”.

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Second Indie Theater Convention

July 9, 2008 by Dennis Baker 

nytheatre i is gearing up for the second indie theater convention this Saturday, July 12th at Barrow Street Theater. It starts at 2pm and I will try to make it over after a reading of Hamlet I am doing with the Instant Shakespeare Company. Below is some of the detailed specifics that can be found on the website. Apparently there is some disagreement surrounding Indie theater. Come check it out for yourself!

Doors open at 1:30pm. Come early to chat with Rochelle and myself, and with folks from the League of Independent Theater (LIT) (we’re expecting John Clancy, who was one of the founders of FringeNYC; Shay Gines of the New York Innovative Theatre Awards; Erez Ziv of Horse Trade Theatre Group; Paul Bargetto of East River Commedia; independent producer John Pinckard; and hopefully some other folks who have been involved in getting this new organization off the ground).

The presentation starts at 2:00pm. There are really two main focuses of the Convocation — first, to talk about some initiatives and programs that I believe will be genuinely valuable to the NYC indie theater community; and second, to provide a forum for folks involved with indie theater to share their ideas and feedback with us and with each other.

Rochelle (NYTE’s managing director) is going to kick off the event. Then I will take the floor for a few minutes with a view toward accomplishing a couple of important things — to review some of what’s been happening in our community since the 1st Ever Indie Theater Convocation two years ago; and to share some news about specific programs that we’ve either recently launched or are preparing to launch that are designed to educate mainstream audiences about indie theater and entice them to become active audience members in this sector of NYC theatre.

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Burbank students protest to perform Laramie Project

July 1, 2008 by Dennis Baker 

About a month ago students from John Burroghs High School in Burbank performed The Laramie Project off campus at the near by professional Colony theater after the principal prohibited them from performing the play at school. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the students did not take no for an answer and begin to rehearse the play at a student’s backyard. “They dubbed themselves the Don’t Tell Bailey Theatre Company in honor of their drama teacher — who could not be involved because it wasn’t school-sanctioned — and started to advertise the play via e-mail and a MySpace site. That brought an unexpected bonus: Leigh Fondakowski and Kelli Simpkins, two of the creators of “The Laramie Project” as members of the Tectonic Theater Project, decided to join the 23 cast members for three days of rehearsals this week, flying in from New York City and Chicago.” The students asked the Colony theater if they can perform on their stage and the theater not only allowed it but provided them with costumes, props, programs and help with sound and lighting.

This feels like a small world as I substitute taught for four years in Burbank and subbed specifically for Scott Bailey’s drama class. As an actor and teacher his class was one I always enjoyed having the opportunity to teach. The students were excited and serious about theater. They had fun and enjoyed the class. This was all a reflection on the good job Bailey was doing.

With al these thoughts I was shocked by the lat paragraph of the article. Principal Emilio Urioste Jr. took away Bailey’s drama assignment for next year, although Bailey will remain on the faculty teaching English. The article states that Bailey is challenging the decision with a union grievance. I hope this is continued to be reported on because I feel this news to be just as shocking as the students’ story. The only details given about the reassignment was that Urioste “noted that he and Bailey have disagreed over the direction of Burroughs’ drama program — Urioste hoping for big musicals that can merge talents from the drama, music and dance departments, while Bailey has stuck to his preference for more intimate and adventurous plays.” Something more had to happen for Bailey to be reassigned or was media scrutiny enough for Urioste to not only recount his decision regarding the play, but to also remove Bailey as some sort of threat. Hopefully the decision will be reversed.

UPDATE: Scott Bailey He has taken a post at Charter High School of the Arts — Multimedia and Performing, which is also known as CHAMPS, where he’ll teach English and be involved in the theater program this fall as reported by the Burbank Leader.

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Small is Beautiful

July 1, 2008 by Dennis Baker 

The Odds Are As Big As Their DreamsThis is what happens when I email Scott Walters a story. He beats me to writing about it! All the same he writes a good post entitled Be Quiet! We’re Making Progress! about the New York Times article, The Odds Are As Big As Their Dreams. A group of actors from Los Angeles desire to gain “credibility” and strike it big by putting on an Off-Off-Broadway production John Osborne’s Epitaph for George Dillon. He goes on to question what it means to have credibility as an artist in theater and asks can that only be found in New York. Crosby highlights how deep this addiction runs when saying, “I can say now that I’ve done theater in New York,” because she and her friends uprooted and bought a production for $20,000, “which gives you some credibility.”

I look at the numbers of what these actors did to produce 12 performances of this show and I question if it is worth it. I understand the desire to try and hit it big in New York. To gamble in hope you might just be the one show that is loved and transfered to a bigger house. But at the expense to sell all you own? Why not try it out in LA first to see if there is an audience for this play? Just because you want to put on the production does not mean you should do it. Larry Moss read this play thirty years ago. What is the life of the play? How has it been received over all? It is something a current audience is going to connect with? These are all questions that can be explored in a smaller venue. I question why it had to be New York or nothing? I realize the the fact that New York is the hub of theater will not go away anytime soon, but why kill yourself?

I think it comes down to an American set of standards that has forgotten that Small is Beautiful. Yea it might be cliche, but it does not make it less true. In this group’s desire to gain “credibility” in New York they forgot about all the other possibilities. LA has a big enough theater scene where if this play is good it could have gotten some recognition. I say LA (also a huge market) because the idea of producing this show in some theaters across the U.S. is probably not even on these actors radar and in today’s market can not be compared to the desire to hit it big in New York. Even the phrase, “hit it big” is so common in the theater world it runs opposite to the small is beautiful mentality. But that mentality is not what people want to hear or read about.

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