American Actor Myth Propagated

15 Responses to “American Actor Myth Propagated”

1. Uke Jackson on December 31st, 2009 3:06 pm
   

   I saw this on Scott’s page, too. Only thing is — it doesn’t seem to be such a myth. The great heartland has little to offer by way of genuine opportunity in the theater arts. sure, if you want to be part time/amateur your entire life. Nothing wrong with that. But it’s hardly why someone spends 10s of thousand$ on a theater education, one would guess.

   The real myth is that a degree in the arts helps at all except for a very few elite schools.
2. Dennis Baker on December 31st, 2009 3:23 pm
   

   Using Scott and Tom’s SETC Presentation, the weekly AEA job unemployment rate is 85.2% and 55.1% of AEA members not working at all last season. I don’t think there is much work no matter whether it is in New York or not. That said, Washington DC, Portland, Philly, Austin are all communities that have numerous opportunities to audition for theater. I did not even mention the state the Associate Artistic Director works in. Though they are considered smaller markets, I would think the Associate would suggest for a student coming out of school, to consider starting there.

   The deeper issue is if the heartland does not offer opportunities, then why not create them. As The Prof mentioned many, many blog posts ago, if the actor’s true goal is to be on stage and act the great plays of Williams, Inge, Miller, etc., then in a smaller community one can create opportunities and actually perform. In New York, an actor will spend years just trying to get an audition, let alone actually perform.
3. Uke Jackson on December 31st, 2009 4:49 pm
   

   In NYC, there are sure to be more like minded souls — even those who want to do well-written 20th century bourgeois plays — and thus it would be easier to form necessary alliances. People start their own theater companies all the time in NY. I would guess the incidence of that happening is far surpassing the per capita / numbers/ equations so beloved by academe, and the reason is the size of the talent pool.

   Happy MMX, Dennis!
4. Uke Jackson on December 31st, 2009 4:51 pm
   

   I would also add that young actors cultivate relationships with living playwrights, wherever they may be, instead of continuously trying to resurrect the dead because some teacher told them these plays are important.
5. Dennis Baker on December 31st, 2009 5:00 pm
   

   Happy New Year to You, Uke. The 20th century bourgeois plays were just an example. In encouraging people to de-centralize, I would also encourage theater artists to create original work born out of living within the community.
6. Scott Walters on January 5th, 2010 4:39 pm
   

   Uke seems determined to trot out all the old chestnuts to support centralization. Do we have to rehash and debunk this constantly? The NYC theatre scene is vastly over-populated — if actors were deer, we’d have to shoot most of the herd. If, among EQUITY actors, there is almost 86% unemployment, there IS NO PROFESSION. At best, it is a hobby. The start-up costs for starting a company in NYC are exorbitant compared to less urbanized areas. If you are going to do OOB, with the 99-seat limit, you should be able to get an audience of 99 people a night just about anywhere, if what you have to offer is worthwhile. In a Web 2.0 world, proximity is far less important than in the decades when the myth was formed. I am closer to Isaac Butler, who lives 700 miles away, than I am to the head of the North Carolina Stage Company, whose theatre is about 10 mins away. In other words, the reasons that support the NYC centralization, upon closer examination, are all bogus.
7. Uke Jackson on January 5th, 2010 8:00 pm
   

   Scott, if I had my druthers, I’d be working with a troupe of traveling actors — each and every one able to play a musical instrument, sing and act. Some of them would have acrobatic skills. We would play public squares and live off the “hat” and return to NYC for an annual run and to get charged up. However, that’s not the world we live in.

   I can’t imagine starting a troupe with any recent crop of grads, union or not. They refuse to promote, want free tix for everyone they know, AND want to get paid. Theater schools should be teaching students some basics of survival , and how to work with living playwrights. In 2008 I had a cast of 10 in my musical. Almost all of them were theater school grads (a large proportion from NCSA) and what a spoiled unrealistic bunch they were.

   One day after rehearsals one of the cast asked me how to get an agent, or an audition for commercials — something to that effect. Suddenly everyone was all ears. I told him to go get a Ross Reports and start sending out his head shot and resume, and inviting people to the industry night. Of the cast of 10, 8 HAD NEVER HEARD OF THE ROSS REPORTS. ALL OF THOSE 8 RECENTLY GRADUATED FROM THEATER SCHOOLS — NCSA (5), BAYLOR (1), KENT STATE (1), WESTERN MICHIGAN (1). At least I can’t accuse theater professors of “trotting out the old chestnuts” to prepare their students.

   I quite agree about Equity and theater being a hobby. You should read Wally Shawn’s comments in the Papp book about when he first became a playwright and thought he was becoming “part of the theater” only to discover that there is no “theater community” in America, and how he discovered that there is one in England.

   Believing that a good show can draw a crowd of 99 seats every night, during a 4 or 5 week showcase of 4 or 5 nights a week shows a lack of real world experience, or dis-ingenuousness meant to bait.

   I read a stat recently that said England — 60 million population — sells as many theater tix as we do here on an annual basis. (I’ve likely got the math not quite right but I have the gist of it.) How does one create a hunger for theater among the citizenry that would rather stare into the reflecting pool of their computer screens, or veg out in front of the TV, than go see something live? I don’t know the answer to that. But somewhere in the answer is something about education.

   I had a high school English teacher who took us to see Midsummer Night’s Dream at McCarter Theater. It got me hooked. I’ll never forget the 6’4″ Puck galumphing around the stage. I totally got it about casting choices after that. Would that production have been as good without the proximity to NYC and the talent pool there?

   The fact is that all the canon or classics or whatever the term academe chooses — all those plays were created and staged in the capitals of their language and time. To suggest otherwise is as dishonest as taking tuition from students without even giving them an audition. Feeding false hopes at huge financial costs probably does more to turn otherwise possible theater lovers bitter about the art than ill-formed productions OOB ever will. Foregoing 99% of the tenured theater professorships across the country and having one or two theater appreciation courses per campus would probably do a lot more to increase attendance than the current Ponzi scheme.

   Rant over. You’ve probably heard it all before anyway. That’s the nice thing about ivory towers. You can float your messages out the window on paper airplanes, and no one really expects them to fly.
8. Scott Walters on January 5th, 2010 9:47 pm
   

   Heard it before? Shit, Uke, I’ve SAID it before. I wouldn’t work with a group from NCSA for all the tea in China. And yes, if they are going to a conservtory like that, they ought to come out knowing the Ross reports. I teach college, and I make no bones about it: I am not “training” students for “The Profession.” If they want that, they need to go down the road to Winston-Salem. I have no interest in The Profession.

   As far as 99 seats — well, there are community theatres all across this land that fill much larger spaces than that pretty regularly. You may not like what they do, but they do it. I think there are audiences out there, and I think people will come out of the house. But I don’t think they’ll come out for the kind of stuff The Profession provides. I think we need to go back to storytelling rooted in place ala Robert Gard in Wisconsin or Frederick Koch in NC.

   As far as plays written in capitals — sure, the plays we study today were written in capitals. But the plays we study today are informed by the big city ideology. Here’s a fact: in 1900 In Iowa alone there were 1300 opera houses all of which hosted concerts, all of which provided a decent living for singers. So I don’t buy the idea that a centralized scene, which was created by the Theatre Syndicate at the turn of the 20th century, is the only way, or the best way for a country the size of ours.

   As far as ivory towers go, while it can blind one to reality, it also allows one the freedom to actually look at the status quo objectively. This one is dysfunctional.
9. Uke Jackson on January 5th, 2010 11:00 pm
   

   Thanks for straightening me out on that, Scott. I’m new to this whole theatrical blog thing and, obviously, late to the discussion. There’s a ton of good stuff out there and I’ll likely not ever get to all of it (and be able to write and do offline reading). I do enjoy your blog.

   My blogging is borne out of frustration with the status quo, and plain old self promotion. I make no bones about it. Truth be told, there’s probably some jealousy involved. I wish I’d gone to college. I might have even made a good professor. The day after my perfect SAT scores arrived, I quit school and enlisted, at the encouragement of my parents, who knew they couldn’t afford to send me to college and had no idea about financial aid or any of that. So I went off to war.

   Pig headed as I was (am?) I became a self educated writer. My first play won a contest at McCarter Theater. It was written while I was locked up for possession of marijuana. I’ve blogged about all this — likely before anybody was reading what I wrote, not that I’m overwhelming the bandwidth with copious hits now. The judge let me out for one night to go see the premier.

   Anyway, I’m a more interesting person for all of that, and I live a good life and it’s been a helluva ride so far — and I’m far from done. So, take me with a grain of salt always, please.

   Maybe you’re right about regionalism and storytelling. I’ve been inclined in that direction myself over the years. Someday check out the CD the Delaware Riverkeeper brought out of my storytelling and music. There’s a free download of one of the stories on my web page http://www.ukejackson.com. It’s sort of theatrical.

   For me, though, the best times are when I’m working on a new show. It’s even better than the recording studio. To make writing scripts worthwhile/fulfilling –and I do love writing plays and musicals — I have to get them mounted and the opportunities for me to pull that off are in the city. I guess I still hold out hope that someday after I’m gone someone will know I passed along this way. (Lotta “I”s in there.)

   Oh yeah — my wife’s an NCSA grad, former soap opera and stage actor, and now a school teacher. Neither of us can accept the idea of contributing to the corporate malaise of this country but we do need health insurance.

   I’ll try and keep up in the future.
10. Uke Jackson on January 5th, 2010 11:07 pm
    

    ps. Yes there are community theaters out there. Some of it is good. Some of it is very good. Some of it is dreck. None of it is brilliant, though. Maybe I’m just a sucker for the bright lights.

    And yeah — dysfunctional sums it up well.
11. Uke Jackson on January 5th, 2010 11:14 pm
    

    And let me add — the kids all did a fine job on my musical last year, given the conditions we were working uder — underfunded, self-produced, and I had a music festival in production at the same time. I learned my lesson. Joe Papp I’m not.
12. Scott Walters on January 6th, 2010 9:23 am
    

    My apologies for the NCSA crack. I don’t have problems with NCSA specifically, but rather with conservatories in general for undergraduates. I happen to think that artists ought to develop a brain before they start creating work, but that’s another topic.

    Your story prompted me to read through more of your blog. While the specifics of your life and mine aren’t similar, in a general way we connect. Me: son of working class family, firsr to go to college, little financial support, so it took me ten years to get my undergrad degree. I’ve never been in prison, but I teach classes at several an hour from Asheville.

    When I read your blog, I can’t quite put you into a category, which is good. On the one hand, you seem like a radical calling for a general strike and you love Joseph Papp (me too), on the other you hang out with Ken Davenport and scorn Barack Obama. You play the ukelele, perform in bands, write plays about Byron in Hell, and record stories about Boogerberry Man. Either you are a kindred spirit to me, or my greatest enemy — I can’t tell!

    Anyway, I have added you to my RSS feed, and will try to point toward your blog soon.

    Yes, community theatres are mostly bad. Why? In my opinion, because they are taking their cues from NYC. They could be doing things that are relevant to their community, forging relationships with local playwrights, and doing what the Little Theatre Movement did in the 1910s (before they devolved into the community theatre movement).

    The quest for health insurance in this country keeps a lot of people locked into the system, which may, in fact, be the purpose and why there is so much resistance to health care reform. I agree with you that the reform pushed through Congress is pretty lame. We don’t like the old-time power brokers like Lyndon Johnson, but he could get shit done that was pretty radical.
13. Uke Jackson on January 6th, 2010 10:15 am
    

    Scott, I saw your comments on my blog. Thank you for checking it out.

    I don’t scorn Barack Obama so much as feel betrayed. I thought he would be a genuine leader. Not sure if this in any of my posts, but he’s the first pol I ever sent contributions to — until toward the end of the campaign when he started sounding like a war monger on Afghanistan, which is the only campaign promise that he seems intent on keeping.

    I never heard of the Little Theater movement. I’ll have to Google it.

    Don’t worry about the NCSA comment. Sara went there for high school and after playing with a touring Shakespeare company in the mountains down your way, headed to NYC. She got her degree(s — she’s now got a Masters) and teaching certificate on a part time basis, kind of like you I guess.

    As to Ken — he’s alright. He’s young and successful and full of himself. I’m not a fan of all he’s produced by any means, but at least he’s out there taking a flying fuck at a rolling donut. I give him credit for that. He actually wrote me an email saying he enjoyed my review of the Papp book, so I guess people are starting to read my blog.

    Long before Obama came on the scene I said that the lack of a single payer system has as much to do with corporate control over workers as it does with insurance company profits.

    I’m still trying to figure out what RSS feed is.

    Yeah, I’m a tough one to categorize. We likely are kindred spirits. There’s no way we’re enemies — at least not I’m not seeing it that way.

    However, I’ll leave you with one of my fave lines from the great Leonard Cohen, as it’s sure to drive you a little nuts:

    “They sentenced me to 20 years of boredom
    For trying to change the system from within
    I’m coming now I’m coming to reward them
    First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin”

    
14. Scott Walters on January 6th, 2010 10:48 am
    

    Uke — RSS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU
15. Uke Jackson on January 6th, 2010 11:29 am
    

    Thanks! I’m off to sign up now.

Feel free to leave a comment...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!

Twitter Updates