Review: Blue Before Morning

October 21, 2008 by dennisbaker 

(This review was originally published on Blogcritics.)

The blue of the morning just before the sun breaks the horizon can be a quiet, peaceful time, a time of peace that can be hard to find in the other hours of the day.

Blue Before Morning by Kate McGovern centers on the journey of three characters who are escaping from their pasts. As the story unfolds the characters find themselves on an unexpected trip from New York to South Carolina. During the road trip their pasts come to the surface and propel each into an unlikely future.

Ava hails a cab as she is running late to catch a bus to South Carolina. When she misses the bus she convinces the cab driver, Jerry, to drive her south. They soon meet Ella, a pregnant woman who has decided to leave her boyfriend. The three travelers begin to share stories, and questions begin to rise about each person’s life. The connections each character has to the destination are revealed through flashbacks: Ava is an NYU student who is coming home to deal with family issues; Ella is escaping from a boyfriend, Steve, who is willing to change his life to raise a family; Jerry’s wife Rita and family live in South Carolina. In their twelve hour journey there are twists and turns that pull the characters apart and bring them closer together in hopes of second chances and missed opportunities.

This new work went through a four-year workshop process through terraNOVA Collective’s Groundbreakers Writer’s Workshop. All that hard work is most evident in the first two-thirds of the play. The dialogue is sharp between the three main characters as they move from being strangers towards their destined connections. But McGovern rushes the last few scenes as she tries to tie up the three plot lines, leaving the audience with some confused moments.

Veteran cast member Chris McKinney carries the show as the cab driver Jerry. Kether Donohue as Juno-esque Ava and Jenny Maguire as Ella complete the traveling trio with compelling richness. Phyllis Johnson brings class to the role of Rita, Jerry’s wife. Jennifer Dorr White is strong as Eileen, Ava’s mother, in what seems to be a one-note role. Flaco Navaja brings freshness to the role of Steve, Eileen’s boyfriend, who desires to create a better life for his new family.

Director Gia Forakis has assembled a strong ensemble, and orchestrates solid transitions between past and present to create memorable moments that highlight the script’s strong points. The production is well supported by a creative set by Derek McLane and video design by S. Katy Tucker.

Blue Before Morning by Kate McGovern; with Kether Donohue (Ava), Phyllis Johnson (Rita), Jenny Maguire (Ella), Chris McKinney (Jerry), Flaco Navaja (Steve) and Jennifer Dorr White (Eileen); Directed by Gia Forakis; sets by Derek McLane; costumes by Suzanne Chesney; lighting by Bruce Steinberg; original music and sound by Katie Down; production stage manager, Kathleen E.G. Munroe. Presented by terraNOVA Collective, at DR2 Theatre, 103 East 15th Street, Union Square; (212) 239-6200. Through November 8. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes

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Review: Fifty Words

October 11, 2008 by dennisbaker 

(This review was originally published on Blogcritics.)

In Michael Weller’s new play Fifty Words, Jan and Adam are reveling in their Brooklyn brownstone at the freedom of their first night home alone in nine years without their son, Greg. While this might be a time for great passion it also leads to years of built up tension finally being revealed.

Adam states “There is no stress in Brooklyn tonight,” but the audience knows that is not true. In the beginning of the play we see two characters that seem to be excited at the idea of being home alone but at the same time stop themselves from saying certain things and keep themselves at a distance. A simmer has started and we are just waiting for the pot to boil over. What boils over is an evening is failed dreams, difficult challenges, and disappointments that all contribute to the unraveling of this middle class marriage.

While the play reminds us of the domestic classics from Strindberg, O’Neill and Albee what this play focuses on is that love is many things all at the same time. The show’s title comes from Jan’s suggestion that there should be 50 words for love, the way Eskimos have so many words for snow. The play weaves through an extreme of emotions all grounded in Jan and Adam’s desire to connect and find meaning in what has become of their marriage and their lives.

While Weller’s dialogue is clean and sharp the strength is in performances by Elizabeth Marvel and Norbert Leo Butz. They are lead by the direction of Austin Pendleton who juxtaposes fast paced dialogue with long pauses to let the audience reflect and transition deeper into the evening. The subtle shift of time is aided greatly by the lighting of Michelle Habeck. Neil Patel’s set design is clean and concise and Mimi O’Donnell costume’s fit the story. Josh Schmidt wrote the original music; and Fitz Patton created the sound.

Fifty Words By Michael Weller; Norbert Leo Butz (Adam) and Elizabeth Marvel (Jan); directed by Austin Pendleton; sets by Neil Patel; costumes by Mimi O’Donnell; lighting by Michelle Habeck; original music by Josh Schmidt; sound by Fitz Patton; production stage manager, Pamela Edington. Presented by the MCC Theater, At the Lucille Lortel Theater, 121 Christopher Street, Greenwich Village; (212) 279-4200. EXTENDED through Nov. 8. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes.

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Theaters To Do List

October 10, 2008 by dennisbaker 

Brendan Kiley wrote an article for Seattle’s The Stranger entitled Ten Things Theaters Need to Do Right Now to Save Themselves: In No Particular Order. Below is the top ten with my reactions. Th article focuses on the fringe as the main type of theater that should implement these changes. What do you thing?

1. Enough with the goddamned Shakespeare already. The greatest playwright in history has become your enabler and your crutch, the man you call when you’re timid and out of ideas. It’s time for a five-year moratorium—no more high schoolers pecking at Romeo and Juliet, no more NEA funding for Shakespeare in the heartland, and no more fringe companies trying to ennoble themselves with Hamlet. (Or with anything. Fringe theater shouldn’t be in the game of ennobling, it should be in the game of debasement.) Stretch yourself. Live a little. Find new, good, weird plays nobody has heard of. Teach your audiences to want surprises, not pacifiers.

Goes big right off the bat. I am torn by this one as I both agree and disagree. I am sure we have all seen one too many shows of Midsummers or Romeo and Juliet. But when Shakespeare is done well it is it amazing. There are also so many students every year that see a production and then are turned on to the work. Maybe we modify this recommendation that we put a cap on the amount of Shakespeare a theater company can do. One show per year?  One every other year?

2. Tell us something we don’t know. Every play in your season should be a premiere—a world premiere, an American premiere, or at least a regional premiere. Everybody has to help. Directors: Find a new play to help develop in the next 12 months. Actors: Ditto. Playwrights: Quit developing your plays into the ground with workshop after workshop after workshop—get them out there. Critics: Reward theaters that risk new work by making a special effort to review them. Unions, especially Actors’ Equity: You are a problem. Fringe theaters are the research-and-development wing of the theater world, the place where new work happens—but most of them can’t afford to go union, so union actors are stuck in the regional theaters, which are skittish about new work and early-career playwrights. You must break this deadlock by giving a pass to union actors to work in nonunion houses, if they are working on new plays.

New works are a must! I love when I see a play that I don’t know and it takes on me on a ride of discovery. I think this can also go for published work as well. Maybe poll the audience of what plays they have seen so a theater knows which ones to avoid.

I think the union/non-union issue is the bigger issue. Just coming back from a theater conference in San Francisco this is a major issue for the actors in the Bay area. Most theaters there are non-union which leaves the union actors with little opportunity to work on new works or anything at all for that matter. There is a 99-seat code in Los Angeles and a workshop code in New York. Why can’t we get a code across the board or at least in all the major theater cities?

3. Produce dirty, fast, and often. Fringe theaters: Recall that 20 years ago, in 1988, a fringe company called Annex produced 27 plays, 16 of them world premieres—and hang your heads in shame. This season, Annex will produce 10 plays, 4 of them world premieres, which is still pretty good. Washington Ensemble Theatre will only produce three plays, one of them a world premiere. (An adaptation of… Shakespeare!) What else happened in 1988? Nirvana began recording Bleach—and played a concert at Annex Theatre. By the next year, Nirvana was on their first world tour. The lesson: Produce enough new plays and Kurt Cobain will come back from the grave and play your theater.

I am not 100% sold on producing that many shows in a season. I worked with a theater company in Los Angeles that prided itself on performing two shows in repertory.  I think for the smaller theaters it can stretch its already limited personal and budget. While it might be great for all the actors who want to work, the quality pf the show can suffer, which then effects the perception of the work being done for future shows. Also these artists also have full time jobs and other major responsibilities so while I agree maybe more than three shows per season I think twenty-seven is a bit much.

4. Get them young. Seattle playwright Paul Mullin said it best in an e-mail last week: “Bring in people under 60. Do whatever it takes. If you have to break your theater to get young butts in seats, then do it. Because if you don’t, your theater’s already broke—the snapping sound just hasn’t reached your ears yet.”

I think all theater companies should have some education ties to it. That does not mean that they have this education department that creates a touring show, but they should have a connection with a local English teacher where they can come into the class and present scenes and work with the students. Most kids think Shakespeare is boring until they experience how active the text is and then kids begin to love it. If the kids connect with the visiting actors they will ask the parents to go to that theater. There is you under 60 audience members. Then it is also the theaters responsibility to do work that appeals to both young adults and their parents at the same time. That does not mean you have to produce a fairytale, but you can’t have your whole season be crazy, sexual, avant-guard theater either.

5. Offer child care. Sunday school is the most successful guerrilla education program in American history. Steal it. People with young children should be able to show up and drop their kids off with some young actors in a rehearsal room for two hours of theater games. The benefits: First, it will be easier to convince the nouveau riche (many of whom have young children) to commit to season tickets. Second, it will satisfy your education mission (and will be more fun, and therefore more effective, for the kids). Third, it will teach children to go to the theater regularly. And they’ll look forward to the day they graduate to sitting with the grown-ups. Getting dragged to the theater will shift from punishment to reward.

But when you do produce your avant-guard play that is not appropriate for children, in stead of alienating the parents give them the option of childcare so they can still come see the show. Yes, there are legal issues here that will need to be worked out, but it could be well worth it. How many theaters are offering childcare? Imagine if you were the first. You would be the talk of the PTA and the buzz around all the playgrounds. Get those soccer moms to work for you!

6. Fight for real estate. In 1999, musician Neko Case broke up with Seattle, leaving us for Chicago. (It still hurts, Neko.) When asked why in an interview, she explained, “Chicago is a lot friendlier, especially toward its artists. Seattle is very unfriendly toward artists. There’s no artists’ housing—they really like to use the arts community, but they don’t like to put anything back into the arts community.” Our failure abides. Push government for cheap artists’ housing and hook up with CODAC, a committee that wants developers on Capitol Hill—and, eventually, everywhere—to build affordable arts spaces into their new condos. (CODAC’s tools of persuasion: tax, zoning, and business incentives.) Development smothers artists, who can’t afford the rising property values that they—by turning cheap neighborhoods into trendy arts districts—helped create. To get involved with CODAC, e-mail frank.video@seattle.gov.

A definite must. Lean on the government to recognize artists as important and worth the time and money.

7. Build bars. Alcohol is the only liquid on earth that functions as both lubricant and bonding agent. Exploit it. Treat your plays like parties and your audience like guests. Encourage them to come early, drink lots, and stay late. Even the meanest fringe company can afford a tub full of ice and beer, and the state of regional- theater bars is deplorable: long lines, overpriced drinks, and a famine of comfortable chairs. Theaters try to “build community” with postplay talkbacks and lectures and other versions of you’ve spent two hours watching my play, now look at me some more! You want community? Give people a place to sit, something to talk about (the play they just saw), and a bottle. As a gesture of hospitality, offer people who want to quit at intermission a free drink, so they can wait for their companions who are watching act two. Just take care of people. They get drinks, you get money, everybody wins. Tax, zoning, and liquor laws in your way? Change them or ignore them. Do what it takes.

Embrace the idea of third space that made Starbucks what it is today. Third space is that place that is not work or home where people come together to talk, socialize and share ideas. The theater is a perfect place to do that. Make the lobby a third space. If that is not an option work with a local bar that you can encourage your audience to attend after the show. Theater is meant to create ideas and dialogue so lets give people that place to have that dialogue.

8. Boors’ night out. You know what else builds community? Audience participation, on the audience’s terms. For one performance of each show, invite the crowd to behave like an Elizabethan or vaudeville audience: Sell cheap tickets, serve popcorn, encourage people to boo, heckle, and shout out their favorite lines. (”Stella!”) The sucky, facile Rocky Horror Picture Show only survives because it’s the only play people are encouraged to mess with. Steal the gimmick.

I am hesitant to agree with this. I think there are some great shows that this can work and if a theater wants to explore melodrama (maybe Greek plays) than this might be suitable. I am not sure beyond that.

9. Expect poverty. Theater is a drowning man, and its unions—in their current state—are anvils disguised as life preservers. Theater might drown without its unions, but it will certainly drown with them. And actors have to jettison the living-wage argument. Nobody deserves a living wage for having talent and a mountain of grad-school debt. Sorry.

When referring to fringe theaters I agree there is no money to be had for any of the artists there. Work done is for the love of the art and to grow as artists. I do not think this comment should apply to the bigger regional theaters.

10. Drop out of graduate school. Most of you students in MFA programs don’t belong there—your two or three years would be more profitable, financially and artistically, out in the world, making theater. Drama departments are staffed by has-beens and never-weres, artists who might be able to tell you something worthwhile about the past, but not about the present, and certainly not about the future. Historians excepted—art historians are great. If things don’t turn around, they may be the only ones left.

Interesting comment in light of what I have been writing about the Rutgers MFA acting program. I do think more artists are going into financial debt over education which will catch up to them much like the sub-prime loans and housing bubble. Those artists will have to work more to pay off those debts and that means less time creating art. I think all artists need some education how to live financially simple.  And also be encouraged that doing the work is very important.

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New York Theater’s Fall Ten Must-Sees

September 26, 2008 by dennisbaker 

With theater tickets so expensive it can be hard to decide what to see. Theatermania posted its ten must-sees for the New York theater fall season. The list hits a wide range of genres and there seems be something in the list for all the different types of theater-goers. New York magazine does not limit their list to ten. Below are the summaries of the plays picked by theatermania.

All My Sons
Schoenfeld Theatre, October 16-January 11
The new Broadway production of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons stars John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest, Patrick Wilson, and Katie Holmes. Simon McBurney directs. Miller took his inspiration from a true story about a successful business man who knowingly sold the government defective airplane parts during World War II with tragic consequences. The truth comes out and his life unravels when his son prepares to marry his business partner’s daughter.
Photo Credit: Andrew Eccles

Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds
Various venues, September 24-December 13
This amalgam of events — organized by Carnegie Hall — celebrates the achievements of Leonard Bernstein. Highlights include a salute by the New York Pops featuring such vocalists as Christiane Noll and Lillias White (October 17); a Standard Time concert by Michael Feinstein (October 22), a series of screenings of classic telecasts ranging from Trouble in Tahiti to Candide and Wonderful Town at the Paley Center for Media (November 8-23); and the City Center Encores! mounting of On the Town (November 19-23).

The Cripple of Inishmaan
Atlantic Theater Company, December 9-March 1
Atlantic Theater Company co-produces Academy Award winner and four time Tony Award-nominated playwright Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan with Druid, Galway. Tony Award-winning Garry Hynes directs.

Set in 1934 on an island off the west coast of Ireland, Hollywood filmmaker Robert Flaherty arrives on the neighboring island of Inishmore to film his movie The Man of Aran and excitement ripples through the sleepy community of Inishmaan. For orphaned Billy Craven, who has been relentlessly scorned by the island’s inhabitants, the film represents an escape from the poverty of his existence. He vies for a part in the film, and to everyone’s surprise, it is the cripple who gets his chance.

Doctor Atomic
Metropolitan Opera, October 13-November 13
John Adams’ contemporary masterpiece explores a momentous episode of modern history: the creation of the atomic bomb. Director Penny Woolcock makes her Met debut with this gripping story that changed the course of history. Baritone Gerald Finley, above, plays J. Robert Oppenheimer, the title character.

Equus
Broadhurst Theatre, September 5-February 8
Read New York Times Review.
Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths star in Peter Shaffer’s Equus. Thea Sharrock directs. In Equus, psychiatrist Martin Dysart (Griffiths) investigates the blinding of six horses, a savage act committed by a mild-mannered stable boy, Alan Strange (Radcliffe), whose home life is filled with bigotry and religious fervor. As Dysart reveals the mysteries behind the boy’s demons, he realizes he is confronting his own.

Fifty Words
Lucille Lortel Theater, September 10-October 25
Something’s gone very wrong behind the idyllic façade of Jan and Adam’s Brooklyn brownstone. At 9:10 p.m., they’re reveling in the freedom of having waved off their young son, Greg, to a neighborhood sleepover. By 9:15 p.m., they’re both in tears. By 9:25 p.m., things are way past tears. Alternately funny and frightening, Fifty Words is an expansive look at modern marriage, as seen through the looking glass of one couple’s long night’s journey into day.
Photo Credit: Joan Marcus

New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF)
Various venues, September 15-October 5
The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) is a three-week celebration highlighting the next generation of musicals and the vibrant community of writers and artists working in musical theater today.

Pal Joey
Studio 54, November 11-February 15
Roundabout Theatre Company presents a new Broadway production of Pal Joey, featuring music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart. This production features a new book by Richard Greenberg, based on the original book by John O’Hara, with music direction by Paul Gemignani, and choreography by Graciela Daniele. Joe Mantello directs.

Set in Chicago in the late 1930s, Pal Joey is the story of Joey Evans, a brash, scheming song and dance man with dreams of owning his own nightclub. Joey abandons his wholesome girlfriend Linda English, to charm a rich, married older woman, Vera Simpson, in the hope that she’ll set him up in business.

The score includes such classic songs as “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” “I Could Write a Book,” “You Mustn’t Kick It Around,” and “Zip,” among others. The new production also features “I’m Talking to My Pal,” a song that had been dropped from the score during its out-of-town tryout, and will be heard on Broadway for the first time.

Road Show
Public Theater, October 28-December 28
The new Stephen Sondheim-John Wediman musical Road Show, formerly called Bounce, spans 40 years from the Alaskan Gold Rush to the Florida real estate boom in the ’30s. The musical is the story of two brothers whose quest for the American Dream turns into a test of morality and judgment that changes their lives in unexpected ways.

Romantic Poetry
Manhattan Theatre Club’s Stage 1, beginning September 30
From John Patrick Shanley, the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Doubt and Henry Krieger, the two-time Tony-nominated composer of Dreamgirls comes this crackpot musical romance. Connie of Woodmere has just married Fred of Newark, but her exes are back in the picture and not sure they approve of the union. Mary of Greenpoint climbs Frankie of Little Italy’s fire escape with amorous erotic intent — but things go awry as she reaches for her dream.

DENNIS BAKER LLC’s choice:
If You See Something Say Something
Joe’s Pub, October 15-November 30th
In this groundbreaking monologue, Mike Daisey tackles a story at the heart of our world today: the surprising, secret history of the Department of Homeland Security. This is woven together with the untold story of the father of the neutron bomb—called “the perfect capitalist weapon” for the way it kills civilians while leaving cities and industries intact—and a pilgrimage to the Trinity blast site, where atomic fire rewrote history a half a century ago and ushered in an age of American supremacy. Combining damning fact and searing personal history, Daisey takes us on a journey through the dark heart of America, in search of answers for what it means to be secure, and the price we are willing to pay for it.

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Literature to Life Festival

September 17, 2008 by dennisbaker 

Someone was inspired after my Educational Theater post and emailed me about the Literature to Life festival happening this weekend in New York City. I am signed up for a full festival pass and I was hoping to see most of the shows and blog about the event. Unfortunately I do not know how much of the festival I will be able to attend. Class work is picking up for me now and I have a thirty minute group performance of Romeo & Juliet due in two weeks. From the videos I have seen online there seems to be some quality performances. If you have the time I recommend it. Hopefully I will see you there!

THE AMERICAN PLACE THEATRE PRESENTS THE 2008 LITERATURE TO LIFE® FESTIVAL “CITIZENSHIP AND CENSORSHIP: RAISE YOUR CIVIC VOICE”, ON SEPTEMBER 20 AND 21, 2008.

The annual Literature to Life Festival is the only public opportunity to see The American Place Theatre’s renowned Literature to Life® educational theatre performances. This year’s Festival features 8 verbatim-adaptation performances of significant American literature along-side presentations by leaders of activist organizations. Audiences will engage in a new conversation: one between citizens and educators, leaders of renowned activist organizations, and characters from great American literature brought to life by a great American theatre.

To kick-off the Festival, on Saturday, September 20th, at 7pm, The American Place Theatre will present the premier Literature to Life performance County of Kings: the beautiful struggle written and performed by Lemon Andersen and directed by Elise Thoron. This new, original work blends memoir, spoken word, hip hop, and theatre in Andersen’s unique voice. Lemon Andersen, a critically-acclaimed poet best known for his Tony Award winning work in Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam on Broadway and HBO, brings his jarring coming-of-age memoir to life at The American Place Theatre, following the footsteps of John Leguizamo and Eric Bogosian. This performance is an opportunity to see County of Kings: The Beautiful Struggle before its appearance as part of the 2009 Under the Radar Festival. This performance will be followed by the Festival opening-night reception.

Closing the Festival, on Sunday, September 21st, at 7pm, The American Place Theatre will present a preview of the newest Literature to Life production, Flight by Sherman Alexie, directed and adapted by Wynn Handman. Flight tells the story of a young Native American teenager named Zits who struggles to overcome actions of violence. This humorous and heartbreaking story will be presented throughout the year to educational audiences nationwide – the Literature to Life Festival is currently the only public performance of this important new work.

Performances run on hour followed by a dialogue with a partnering activist organization. Showtimes are at 1pm, 3pm, 5pm, and 7pm each day, with a reception following the 7pm performances. Click here for specific times.

Single-Performance tickets are $20; Single-Day tickets are $55; Full-Festival Passes are $100. Educators attend for free (limited availability). Tickets may be reserved by calling The American Place Theatre at 212-594-4482 x10. For more information, logon to www.americanplacetheatre.org/stage/.

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One Man’s Method for Better Acting: Just Stop Doing It

August 7, 2008 by dennisbaker 

The title of this blog comes from a New York Times article written back at the end of last year about the actor Bill Camp.  I have been thinking about this article for a while.  There is a lot in the story that I feel connected to in my current season of life.  In it James C. Nicola, artistic director of New York Theater Workshop, is quoted describing Camp as a sterotype New Englander, stoic, decent.  “I think he’s like like Jimmy Stewart: warm, decent guy, with a lot of stuff going on inside.  But he’s not going to trouble you with his drama.”

In 2002 the talent agency that represented him suddenly went under, and he was asked to come and pick up his headshots. Other agents expressed an interest in taking him on, but he declined. “I needed to stop,” he recalled. “I wasn’t enjoying acting the way I do now. It became about getting the next job, thinking too much about that. It’s hard to stay away from that as an actor. The vitality of striving, the joy of making something was starting to wane. I needed to know that I can do other stuff, that I can live not being an actor.”

At the time he and Ms. Marvel were in California, where she was acting in the television series “The District.” Mr. Camp took a series of nontheater jobs. He cooked in a restaurant, worked as a landscaper and a night watchman; he repaired cars.

Ms. Marvel, who met Mr. Camp at Juilliard in the late 1980s, supported her husband’s decision. “It’s always up for debate whether we should keep doing this or not,” she said. “You’re really in a boxing ring taking blow after blow, and it’s really a matter of whether you can keep standing. Also, I think it’s important for an artist to live in the world.”

My life feels the same way.  I am currently working full time in New Jersey and starting in September will commute to NYU three times a week for classes at night.  This leaves no room for auditions or acting.  The pros of working full time and still being able to go to school are obvious.  My family is able to save money to move back to Los Angeles, save for retirement and begin to pay back school loans.  Also the skills I am learning at this job can be done on a freelance level, which is good for the life of an actor.  I could do this job anywhere, all I would need is a laptop and a internet connection.  Pretty amazing if you think about it.

There is still something that plagues me.  Since the debacle I have not been consistently auditioning for a couple of years and I feel rusty.  More than that I feel I need to get out there and prove that all the negative things said about me as an actor in the last couple of years are not true and that the negativity can be overcome.  With all this recent negative input into my art I have had  very little positive to counterbalance it.  That leaves me to question will I go back to pursuing acting as a career? Am I good enough? What expectations are lost and what need to be adjusted or regained?

I am always reminded of what the prof says, only 13% of equity actors are working at any given time.  That is a lot of actors not working as actors. A veteran actor of twelve years is having the same doubts and wrote into Backstage asking, “Should I just face the fact that I’m not going to “make it”? If after all this time I can’t support myself, should I quit?” Jackie Apodaca’s answer was what has been said many times in the past. Do what you love and if it is acting, “Take this minor setback in stride, and try to look at your new job as research for all those working folks you’ve yet to play. With your track record, the drought is not likely to last long.” There are low points in everyone’s acting career.  Points where they are not auditioning and wondering if they should quit it all together.  Moving forward in one’s acting career does not mean he/she is always auditioning or acting.

Mr. Camp’s life has completely changed since his two-year, self-imposed exile, and not only in career terms. After many years of dating, he and Ms. Marvel finally married on Sept. 5, 2004. Shortly before the ceremony his father died. And in June 2006 Ms. Marvel gave birth to a son, Silas. That too has fed Mr. Camp’s acting, his wife said. “It makes you a better human being, doesn’t it?” she said. “Anytime we can make ourselves and our art less precious, it improves.”

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Second Indie Theater Convention

July 9, 2008 by dennisbaker 

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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Small is Beautiful

July 1, 2008 by dennisbaker 

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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Mike Daisey’s Final Roundtable: Ideology vs. Experience

June 26, 2008 by dennisbaker 

I had the great opportunity to take Karen and some friends from the NYU Steinhardt Educational Theatre program to see Mike Daisey’s closing performance of How Theater Failed America. They loved it (as I knew they would) and the panel discussion afterwards brought up some interesting ideas.

Th topic of the panel was Theater in 2033. The first question asked was from an actress who claimed she couldn’t get cast in Equity EPAs when actresses like Katie Holmes are making Broadway appearances. It felt awkward as this actress would not let it go of her frustration of not being able to be seen by ADs like Oskar Eustis. Playwright Richard Nelson put the issue to rest by saying something to the regards of “Forget about that! What’s going on there, on Broadway, has nothing to do with the art you want to do!”. The play presented such bigger issues that I was frustrated with this actress being so narrow minded bringing the issue down to why she could not get a job.

Other topics discussed were the future of theater education and the need for “Children’s Theater” to be recognized more as legitimized professional theater and not the thing actors do to get their equity card as well as how long it took actress Jayne Houdyshell to buy a house, basically all of her 35 year career.

Out of all the highly experienced panel members I was drawn most to the ideas of Oskar Eustis, the Artistic Director of the Public Theater. One idea mentioned was the fact that the American theater should go the way of the American public libraries. Free for all. As talked about all over the theater scene the budget to run the American theaters is a drop in the hat of the national budget. I appreciated that he made sure to say that this was not going to get any artists rich, but that it would be a healthy alternative to the capitalistic view that is running the current non-profit theater system.

Naturally he used the example of the Delacorte theater in Central Park. The current play Hamlet received bad reviews from the New York Times, but is still “selling out” shows because of the very fact the tickets are free and the production value is of quality. He presented to the Public’s board the idea of having free tickets for the shows in the downtown space. The board could not imagine such a thing. Which brought Eustis to the crux of his point. That ideology will always trump experience. Experience says that when tickets are free people will come to the Public’s productions, but the ideology says that theater can not be run on this model as it has to make money and there are no other options but to sell tickets. Eustis said the national ideology surrounding how theater is run in America must change. He has hope because the current administration in the big institutional theaters will soon be gone and the next generation can “take them over” and issue reform. He also wanted to make clear that the current state of American theater needs some respect. The current theaters were not there fifty-sixty years ago and therefore the current situation is better than the options back then. Eustis seems to have his feet in both worlds. He is one that has experience with the current institutional theater model but also realizes that change is needed and that change can only happen from the inside. He is an artist and an administrator in the best sense of each of the words. This balance of both minds is needed if there is hope in ushering a new ideology for the American theater.

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Educational Theatre - NYU Steinhardt

May 31, 2008 by dennisbaker 

Monday I start a new chapter in my graduate school education. I will be starting the educational theatre program at the Steinhardt school at New York University.

The NYU program emphasizes the applications of theatre in a range of community and educational settings, with concentrated study in drama education, applied theatre, and play production for artists and educators. The program is recognized as a national and global leader in theatre and drama education; artist-in-residence strategies; theatre for and by young people. They produce plays year-round with accompanying workshops and applied theatre projects in the Black Box Studio, the Provincetown Playhouse, and community venues. The program has recently committed to a prison theatre project in New York where our students have opportunities to devise and implement work in the most challenging of environments.

The program offers teacher certification degrees at the B.S. and M.A. levels. Here, students are trained as theatre educators and are placed in field settings with cooperating mentors. As well, students can take the M.A. and Ph.D (Educational Theatre for Colleges and Communities) where they explore and research the power of theatre in a range of contexts. I will be taking the MA course for Colleges and Communities. This means that I will only have to take 36 units (three semesters) of classes verses the two year program in which the second year is spent on a working towards a teaching credential.

As I plan to still work full time during these three semesters, most of the classes I will be taking will be at night. The two night classes offered during the summer are Problems in Play Production: The Development of New Plays and Drama Education I. Each run for three weeks Monday through Thursday. I will also be taking a one unit two day course entitled Exploring Social Issues and Conflict Resolution through Drama.

Problems in Play Production: The Development of New Plays is the first class I will be taking. The course is described as studying theories and methods of play development including script analysis, rehearsals and presentation of works-in-progress. Development of student written scenes through in class performances and an overview of recent scripts and new trends in theatre for young audiences. This class follows the rehearsal process of staged readings of the New Plays for Young Audiences. Three plays will each rehearse for a week and then performed for the public that weekend.

At first I was precarious taking a class in “Children’s Theater”. I have not seen a lot of children’s theater and what I have seen did not interest me too much. Reading through the assigned articles for the first class I came across an article by Maja Ardal that I really enjoyed. In it she describes that there should not be “Children’s Theater”, but plays that can interest adults and tell stories that young audiences can relate and connect with. In describing the play of I Claudia by Kristen Thompson she says,

Thompson created a work from the depths of her passion and imagination that happened to connect with a broad range of ages. She did not plan the production for young people, and so her material was never tailored or compromised to attract and suit students and families. It simply did. That is the perfect scenario, yet I believe it is almost impossible to achieve in a theatre that only has a relationship with parents and teachers, because the TYA [Theatre for Young Audiences] theatre is utterly dependent on the attendance of young people.

She goes on to explain about a show that was written for a children’s theater in Toronto. It was recognized by colleagues and with awards, but since it started at a children’s theater people did not come to see it. It moved to an adult theater and the audiences showed up. The adults would either bring their children or once they saw it realize their kids would enjoy it as much as they did and would come back with their familes. “The city of Calgary was represented at the theatre! This was, in my opinion, the perfect theatre experience. The play was successful because it was produced by adult theatre companies. It became a ‘Theatre’ and not an ‘Educational’ experience.”

Ardal sees a clear reason for this. She goes on to explain that a mixed audience is the perfect atmosphere for children to learn and that the play does not need to control all the details of work on stage in fear that the children’s moral lives are at stake.

Children are not literal-minded as many would have us believe. They understand metaphor and they understand imagery. They understand that theatre is an experience to reflect upon, not to obey, that theatre is an imagery world of ‘what if’ and not the ‘only world’. We need to show children the messy aspects of life. As artists we are not here to answer. We are here to question, and to invite our audience to question with us.

This article gave me hope that this class will be something that I will enjoy. If the discussions are anything like this article than I think I will fit right in.

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