Community Arts Network Website Closing

August 31, 2010 by Dennis Baker 

It was announced today that on September 6th the Community Arts Network (CAN) website will be closing. CAN has been a great resource for me in the past year as I learn more about community-based arts and what was the history of the movement, along with all the great work that is currently happening. I have referred many students to their Places to Study page to see what schools are offering degrees in arts and community/civic dialogue. I am even having my Introduction to Theatre students read field notes about two LA community-based theaters that was written for the Grassroots Ensemble Theater Research Project.

Linda Frye Burnham and Steven Durland stated “we have spent much of the past year trying to develop a stable environment for CAN to move forward, but in the current economic environment those efforts have not been fruitful. With no money for staffing or basic operational costs we have no choice but to stop. It is our plan to seek funding for the purposes of preserving the CAN’s content in an online archive so it can be accessible, but until we find such funding the site will be dark. We will attempt to accomplish this task as soon as possible.

We hope this decision does not signal the end of efforts to establish a CAN 2.0 that will build on CAN¹s history and network and provide vital services for the network that has developed around CAN during the past 11 years. There has been much hard and significant work done in that direction by extremely dedicated people and we hope they will continue to move forward with those plans.

It does signal that we, Linda and Steven, will not be in the leadership of that process. We sincerely hope those efforts continue, and we will contribute what wisdom we have as it might be found useful, but we can no longer be a driving force in that process. We have initiated a CAN Facebook page where were inviting folks to post information and to initiate and participate in discussions.”

Filed under: Acting, Chicago, Civic Theater, Devised Work, Educational Theater, Ensemble, Los Angeles, New Works, New York, Theater/Theatre
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Pilots’ Income = Actors’ Income

July 14, 2010 by Dennis Baker 

“The only reason people stay flying (or acting) is because they love it and management (theaters with executive directors making $400,000) take advantage of that.”

“I took out $100,000 and by the time I pay it back at this rate, it will cost me well over $500,000 with interest and fees and penalties, it something I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it because it is one way I get down really quickly about my chosen field.”

Filed under: Acting, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Theater/Theatre
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The Future Of Theatre

June 2, 2010 by Dennis Baker 

The below video put me over the edge. It started when I was taking an applied theater course at NYU. Learning about the work of Rhodessa Jones and Cornerstone Theater Company, I saw theater in context of true community. Being raised in the commercial theater context, I believed that participating in theater and community meant going to watch a play and sit in a dark theater, and then leave afterward with very little interaction with the other people there.

Soon after I signed up to attend Sojourn Theatre Summer Institute, I read the below quote from artistic director Michael Rohd, “One thing that gets said a lot about theatre is that a bunch of people come into a room and they laugh and they cry together in the dark, and that builds community. But I’m starting to think that’s bullshit: People crave something that involves more than sitting and watching.” I will be participating in a six day workshop June 21-26th, in Portland. This will be a time where I will determine if my artistic journey will take on a new path. To quote Cameron, one “not out of economic necessity, but out of deep, organic conviction that the work [I am] called to do can not be accomplished in the traditional hermetic arts environment.” To dive deep into becoming the professional hybrid artist that I feel I am already becoming. To become the person I already am.

My goal is to blog daily about the experience with my work at Sojourn, even though my days will be packed with ensemble work during the day and observing rehearsals in the evenings. Here is a little about the show Sojourn is creating, from their website. “On the Table is a theatre production involving inter-city travel, public dialogue, video and participation within the performance itself. Sojourn Theatre, in partnership with Molallas Arts Commission, The City of Portland and numerous local and statewide organizations, is creating this original world premiere theatrical event as an opportunity to start conversations that bridge urban/rural Oregon and wrestle with issues of identity, resources, values, and governance. Exploring the histories and connectedness of community partner sites Portland and Molalla, it goes beyond metaphorical bridge-building to physically move audiences across urban/rural boundaries.

Act I occurs simultaneously in Portland and Molalla, with a cast of actors performing for a fifty person audience in Portland, and a separate cast of actors performing for a fifty person audience in Mollala. Act 1 tells the stories of two families, one in each community, in the year 1975. Act 2 puts both audiences on buses with the actors driving towards each other. Act 2 brings the stories of these two fictional families from 1975 up to the present, so that when the buses arrive at a location halfway between Portland and Molalla, the story has reached the current moment of 2010. Act 3 brings all 100 audience members together, seated at tables of ten; each table consists of five Portlanders seated next to five Molallans. The play concludes, strangers meet and share a meal during this final act, and the buses then take everyone home.”

Some of my favorite quotes from the video:
We are engaged in a fundamental reformation.

Move from a time of audience numbers plummeting, but the number of art participants, people who write poetry, who sing songs, who perform in church choirs is exploding beyond our wildest imaginations. These people are being called PRO-AMs: Amateur artists doing work at a professional level.

We live in a world not defined by consumption, but by participation.

We have tended to polarize the amateur and the professional, the single most exciting development in the last five to ten years has been the rise of the professional hybrid artist. The professional artist who does not work mainly in the concert halls but around women’s rights or human rights around global warming issues or AIDS relief or more.

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Filed under: Acting, Arts Entrepreneur, Chicago, Civic Theater, Creativity, Devised Work, Educational Theater, Ensemble, Los Angeles, NYU Steinhardt, New Works, New York, Theater/Theatre
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Ford Foundation Grants to Aid Arts Spaces and Their Communities

April 4, 2010 by Dennis Baker 

At first this announcement from the Ford Foundation about a new $100 million grant scared me:

“As part of an effort to increase the impact of its giving, the Ford Foundation is to announce a plan on Monday to dedicate $100 million to the development of arts spaces nationwide over the next decade. The plan is by far the largest commitment the foundation has ever made to the construction, maintenance and enhancement of arts facilities.”

Oh great, more money poured into building new buildings. But then the article turned a corner:

“In addition to helping arts groups build new spaces and renovate and expand old ones, the latest initiative aims to encourage the construction of affordable housing for artists in or around some of these spaces and to spur economic development in their surrounding areas.”

“That group, Artspace Projects, has received more than $1 million toward, among other things, transforming an abandoned public school in East Harlem into such a development, in partnership with El Barrio’s Operation Fightback, a New York community organization.”

“The project is to include 72 units of housing for artists and their families and a large space that can be used for art exhibitions, cultural events, conferences and gatherings of community groups.”

“I think people are beginning to understand that spaces for artists and art are more than just buildings, structures,” she said ["Judilee Reed, executive director of LINC]. “The way these spaces animate their communities and the relationships they have to their communities is ripe for development.”

Maybe this is the beginning of something to get excited about.

Filed under: Arts Entrepreneur, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Theater/Theatre
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NYLACHI Theater At Its Best

January 22, 2010 by Dennis Baker 

NYLACHI is an acronym coined in the theatrosphere to describe the theater ecosystem in New York, Loa Angeles, and Chicago. The insanity that is this video is a good visual demonstration for the need for decentralization of theater.

Filed under: Acting, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Theater/Theatre
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“Artists are placemakers; they are entrepreneurs.” – Rocco Landesman

January 9, 2010 by Dennis Baker 

I love that he “discovered” arts in a midsize Midwest town [is] anything but middling, after getting in hot water for stating “I don’t know if there’s a theater in Peoria, but I would bet that it’s not as good as Steppenwolf or the Goodman,” in this New York Times article. It is interesting he uses the term entrepreneur.

Theater people are still mixed with Landesman, with The Prof stating, “My uneasiness, perhaps predictably, is with his seeming NY-centricity”, Isaac Butler agrees stating, “I realized when we were doing Caroline or Change on Broadway as a commercial production and a non-profit was doing Barefoot in the Park that something was deeply wrong”, and Ken Davenport thinking Landesman was a good choice, “I think Rocco is a fantastic choice for the chair. He has fantastic business sense, and great artistic taste. In today’s economic firestorm, we need exactly that kind of leadership.”

An MP3 version or an transcript can be found here.

Filed under: Arts Entrepreneur, New York, Theater/Theatre
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Self-Producing Theater Artists

January 7, 2010 by Dennis Baker 

The talk of the “town” is the new TDF book Outrageous Fortune, waiting for my copy in the mail. From what I am hearing it is a grim look in the life of a playwright and the state of affairs for new works in American theater. It has gotten director Isaac Butler to declare, “If I want to make a living from theater, going the institutional route is almost certainly the way to do it” and “I no longer wish to pursue making a living as a theatre director in the American Theatre Industry.” J. Holtham quotes it numerous times and states,

Plays are finished in production. Period. I think just about everyone can agree with that. That’s why this discussion matters. It’s part of the Pursuit of the Hit Play, the perfect, unit set, small cast play about large themes and big issues that will run forever and provide subsidies for the original theatre in perpetuity. So much of our industry is oriented in this direction, it’s like a black hole, pulling everything that has worked in the past to create just those kinds of plays and better ones out of whack. This is the insurmountable problem that I was talking about. And the system goes around and around. Unless, you hop off the merry-go-round, write your plays and produce them. Spots, problems, mistakes and all. And learn. That’s the way I’m going this year.

While all this I agree with, what I can’t get out of my head, is the idea of self-producing in large markets. Does Los Angeles, Chicago and New York really need another theater, no matter what kind of theater it produces? I know this has been beaten over the head by the likes of The Prof, and Doug Hall has been doing it for eighteen years in Chicago, but I think it is going to be the next issue that is addressed once all the new self-producing theater artists get going, and there’s the rub.

Butler’s thoughts are similar to my own. The one difference becomes that I am married with an infant. For the last eight months, I have not been able to do any theater except for one understudy gig because I was allowed to not be at rehearsals when I needed to be home with the baby, as my wife works three nights a week as a nurse. The downtime has caused more reflection and conversation in the theatrosphere. We will be moving back to Los Angeles this summer, as we are from there and her parents live there. While that gives us support, and potential time for me to work in theater, for me to be a freelance professional actor, I have to ask myself the question The Prof asked Butler, “does my dream of directing acting full-time include the non-stop travel that such a career seems to demand, at least if you are participating in the regional theater circuit. How often do you want to be away from your family for 4 – 6 weeks at a time?” The answer seems to become self-produce or move on. Butler continues,

The Mission Paradox blog had a fantastic post awhile ago that I can’t find for some reason where he discussed that the fundamental problem of many theatre companies is that their hidden mission is simply to propagate their members’ work and help their careers and thus they begin to fall apart when they move towards actually fulfilling whatever it is their stated mission is because it turns out none of their founders were actually interested in that in the first place. I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to start a company devoted to Me. I mean, I guess I could like the do in the dance world and just start The Isaac Butler Company or whatever, but I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.

Personally, that is why the idea of the smaller markets of Portland, Austin, and Philly are intriguing, and ever more still are the rural markets of less than 100k, where one could raise a family, be part of a community, and possibly create theater. But then again, leaving Los Angeles puts us in the same position we are now in, no support. This may change over time as kids get older, but for now I am on a quest, to explore and examine how self-producing, entrepreneurial artists are making theater, where, and what kind of theater they are creating. The research list includes: Community Supported Theatre at Stolen Chair Theater, New Leaf Theatre, New Works/New Communities at California Shakespeare Festival, Cornerstone Theater Company, and Cambiare Productions, just to name a view. Always love to hear more.

In the end, the artist’s passion will lead the way. Holtham sums it up well, “find the solution that fits for you. You have to figure out what you value, what the priorities are and follow them where they take you.”

ERPA Clip 5 Jon Stancato/Stolen Chair Theatre Company from The Field on Vimeo.

Filed under: Acting, Arts Entrepreneur, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Theater/Theatre
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American Actor Myth Propagated

December 31, 2009 by Dennis Baker 

Filed under: Acting, New York, Theater/Theatre
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Actors’ Equity Association EPA Auditions

December 28, 2009 by Dennis Baker 

Does AEA require producers to hold auditions for role that are not available, as Paul Russell states below? There are numerous AEA auditions postings I have seen online that tells actors when certain roles are not available.

Or as Paul Russell points out, what seems even more weird, is AEA requiring chorus auditions for productions that do not have a chorus? In New York, equity actors wait in line very early in the morning to sign up for an audition time slot, schedule around their day jobs, and pay for transportation. Why hold auditions for chorus roles, when the production will not have a chorus?

If you’re still idealistically holding onto the ‘audition-even-when-jobs-are-not-available’ folly then I challenge you this: Tell me the contents of the Val-Pak mailer (or similar) you received in March 2008. Or better still; name me the last time you filled out an application for a civilian job knowing that there was no available employ. (While you’re muddling in mental gymnastics the rest of us will plow forward.)

A lot of money is being wasted. And not solely from the pockets of producers. Actor dollars are being depleted without purpose as well. If an actor (AEA or non-union) has to take time-off from a survival job to attend an audition for which there is not opportunity for work; there’s money lost.

And at those required calls the producer and their casting representatives are not allowed by AEA to declare that, “Yes, Virginia there are no jobs.” An observer might find that to be a rather dishonest practice by a union that continually touts protection of its members.

Filed under: Acting, New York
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Devoted and Disgruntled – Under the Radar Festival

December 25, 2009 by Dennis Baker 

I found this through the Community Arts Network Blog. “Devoted & Disgruntled” is an event in New York City, January 16-17, 2010, that aims to bring people together in Open Space to explore the question “What are we going to do about theater?” Part of the Under The Radar Festival, D&D is presented by London’s Improbable Theatre, which has been producing such gatherings annually for five years; this is its first U.S. manifestation.

It is the weekend I am hoping to be at the Winter Wonderland Stage Combat Workshop. If that falls through, them this is definitely on my list. Click the image to be taken to the website for more information.

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Filed under: New York, Theater/Theatre
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