DENNIS BAKER » Theater/Theatre

Teaching Artist Interview

Dennis Baker — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 01:34:50 +0000

Recently interviewed by Michael Wiggins (@teachingartist) for the Association of Teaching Artists blog. Here is a quote to get your curious, “Teaching artists are the migrant workers of the arts education field.”

Praxis Theatre’s Exit Interview Series

Dennis Baker — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:00:54 +0000

Simon Rice starts the Exit Interviews series with the idea that, “Theatre schools are indeed strange places, seemingly full of contradiction.” I am a big fan of Praxis Theatre’s blog, and would probably be a fan of their work if I was living in Canada. One can dream. I thought the series was appropriate for my readers, as many are hear trying to figure out of if BFA/MFA programs is what they need or want.

Some quotes from Horne interview:
“I spent three out for the fours years being really terrified of fucking up and getting kicked out. What you should be doing is fucking up.”
“There is the competition of who can cry the most.”
“I think there are three people still from my class that are acting.”

“You can’t get lower than a B without getting kicked out. Then it becomes a scare tactic if half way through the term when they show you your marks and its a C+ and your like fuck, I have to, but I don’t know how you get better. How did you come up with this number? It is not because I got a certain number of math questions wrong. Those numbers I understand. I am just not as interesting as this other person?

Exit Interviews Part I: Theatre schools are strange places
Exit Interviews: Christine Horne

#NewPlay #LAThtr Meetup Summary

Dennis Baker — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:00:47 +0000

You read the #NewPlay #LAThtr Meetup Summary over at 2amtheatre.com.

I did not add the next meetup dates since it is a national website. You can view all upcoming #LAThtr meetups at the 2amt Los Angeles Meetup page. for quick reference the next three meetups are:

Sunday, February 20th at Celebration Theatre
Sunday, March 27th at Boston Court
Sunday, April 17th Location: TBD

List of 2011 Los Angeles Theater

Dennis Baker — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 01:46:15 +0000

I am a day late on my weekly Tuesday post, but here it is none the less.

I was tossing away some back issues of American Theatre magazine when I came across the 2010-2011 season preview article. I ripped out the pages and started highlighting theater companies and shows I am interested in seeing. There are various reasons for the below list ranging from from wanting to meet the director of a specific show to curious about the theater company as a whole. In light of the #NewPlay Los Angeles (#LAThtr) Meetup (more meetups are scheduled) last Saturday, I want to get out and see more work.

I would love to hear what shows are you wanting to see this year?

Theater Companies:
Watts Village Theater Company
Coeurage Theater Company
Theater Unleashed
Rogue Machine
Need Theater

Productions:
The Comedy of Errors at A Noise Within, directed by Michael Michetti
King Lear at Actors Co-Op, directed by Marianne Savell
The Watts Project at Cornerstone Theater Company, dir. Guillermo Avilez-Rodriguez
A House Not Meant To Stand at Fountain Theater, dir. Simon Levy

Clarification of Comment on Creating New Theater Company

Dennis Baker — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:00:27 +0000

A link was shared on twitter about Rebecca Novick’s chapter in the book titled 20Under40. The linked inspired Mark Petrie, blog writer for Knightsbridge Theatre, here in Los Angeles. I wrote a comment, see below if you do not want to jump over to the post, though I do recommend it.

I don’t think self-producing theater artists is the same as creating a new theater company. In light of all the facts laid out in Outrageous Fortune, it is clear that one needs to create their own work, but how that is done needs to be the main thrust of the exploration. In cities like New York and Los Angeles, there are hundreds and hundreds of theater companies, and we need deeply examined reasons for creating a new theater company. Clear reasons that make sense to audience members. Producing the same popular play that was produced by another theater company last season, or Shakespeare set in a different time period, is not standing out of the crowd. What are some models of creating theater that are not being done as much? Is there something to learn from theaters like Sojourn that are focused on creating work specific to communities, or site specific theater that interact with its audience members outside of the normal theater building? Regional theaters seem to be taking notice as Alabama Shakespeare Festival is producing plays about specific communities within the state. Another model to look at is Stolen Chair’s Community Supported Theater. Or instead of using other models, what is a model your theater company can come up with the no one else is doing? Maybe the question should be, what is the thing that your theater company is doing that no other theater company is doing? Be the first at something, and not the fifth company in your area to produce the current popular play.

———–

I am glad you brought up the topic.

The first question I would ask, is what does the author mean by the “same old model”. I think that has to be addressed before a full critique can be had.

If the assumption is made that she means what would be considered 99-seat theater in Los Angeles, or small theater companies in New York, the second part of the sentence that needs to be examined is “unexamined multiplication of companies .”

Does that mean artists that create theater companies so they can make art and “work”? Isn’t that why the 99-seat AEA contract was created, so more AEA actors could do theater in Los Angeles? Is that inherently bad? No. But when the median income of an AEA member (including Stage Managers) is $7,475, and the weekly jobless rate for AEA members is 85.2% and percentage of AEA members that don’t work at all in a year roughly 55%, that leaves a lot of actors with the time to create theater companies. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily, but that is a lot of supply. Is there the demand to back it up? Hard to say? Since many 99-seat AEA theaters have to charge its members dues to pay rent as they can not afford to pay the rent and cost of productions from ticket sales alone. I think it can be said that the supply does not fit the demand. When there are more people on stage than in the audience, there is a demand/supply issue. Granted, that could be due to quality, and the Darwin argument would be that they would be weeded out. But if the rent is being paid for by the members, the company can still exist. Does this mean that theater companies should not be created? No. Does it mean that a theater should do Shakespeare when there are four or five other theaters companies doing Shakespeare? I think that would classify as “unexamined”.

What are examined ways? Still working on that. Maybe we should read Novick’s chapter as a starter. Regarding Novick creating Crowded Fire Theatre Company, what is the context behind it? The mission/history page does not mention her name. It says the theater company is in its 13th season. For all we know, she could have started it, and left after the first year. Also what she learned from that experience could be the source material for the chapter. She is available on twitter (@rebeccanovick) if your curious.

As I mentioned on twitter, would love to see you at the #NewPlay Los Angeles Theater (#LAThtr) Satellite Meetup. I don’t know if this topic will be part of the conversation, but your passion for Los Angeles Theater would be great for the conversation.

#NewPlay Los Angeles Theater (#LAThtr) Satellite Meetup

Dennis Baker — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 03:39:57 +0000

Janurary 29, 2011 – #NewPlay Los Angeles Theater (#LAThtr) Satellite Meetup

NEW LOCATION: Atwater Village Theatre 3269 Casitas Ave. LA, CA 90039

Circle X Theatre Company and Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA, with the partnership of LA Stage Alliance, will host the New Play Los Angeles theater satellite meetup to coincide with the final day of the national convening, entitled Scarcity to Abundance: Capturing the Moment for the New Work Sector, organized by the American Voices New Play Institute at Arena Stage in Washington, DC.

The Los Angeles event will be held Saturday, Jan. 29 from 9am-1pm. Participants will view the pre-recorded roundtable discussions from the national convening, and discuss the themes within the context of the Los Angeles theater community.

The national convening will focus on the following: identifying the rich and vital activity that already exists in the new play sector, exploring the gaps and challenges facing the field and strategizing the means of continued and closer collaboration to advance the new work infrastructure moving forward. This convening will build upon the outcomes and initiatives that grew out of last yearâ€™s convenings: Defining Diversity, Black Playwrights: the Stories We Tell and Devised Work

Circle X Theatre Company and Ensemble Studio Theatre-L is located at the Atwater Village Theater, 3269 Casitas Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90039. There is street parking.

We need an accurate head count for space, please RSVP at: http://www.meetup.com/2amt/54701/

You can follow the discussion on Twitter at #LAThtr and #NewPlay

UPDATE: To further the Institute’s commitment to documentation and dissemination of all findings, the events of the convening will be live-streamed on #NewPlayTV, with commentary shared by commissioned tweeters (#NewPlay) and bloggers on The New Play Blog. In order to view live-streamed events, please access #NewPlay TV online at http://www.livestream.com/newplay. In partnership with 2AMt, Arena Stage is setting up viewing parties across the country. Plans are underway in Dallas, Austin, San Francisco, Minneapolis, DC, New Orleans, and Chicago. All findings from these communities will be published on the 2AMt blog. In addition, along with the final convening report to be published in the spring, the new online journal Howlround: The Journal of the American Voices New Play Institute will release a special edition specifically around the convening. – Full article, with full conference schedule, on BroadwayWorld.com

UPDATE: Bitter Lemons article

WillFul at Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Dennis Baker — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 17:00:36 +0000

This is the show that I am the most excited about for 2011. I am a big fan after participating in the 2010 Sojourn Theatre Summer Institute, and OSF holds a special place in my heart as I attended shows there while in high school and did some training there. It is great to see Michael and Shannon collaborate with OSF on a theater production.

I hope to take some of the ensemble theater students I will be working with this semester up there when the show opens in August. Apparently, I am not the only one excited as the show opens the beginning of August and is nearly sold out for the first month.

show

General State of Blogging & Writing

Dennis Baker — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 23:36:07 +0000

Tom Loughlin and I seem to be at the same place in regards to our blogging efforts, more specifically the lack of blogging. (Side note: Great news about Loughlin pursuing entrepreneurial theatre degree for the SUNY Fredonia students.)

I know a part of that comes from the feeling that a blog post should be this great source of information on a given topic, with paragraphs flowing and flowing. I usually save the short, quick stuff for Twitter (@dennisbaker). That being the case, I am giving my self the freedom to post smaller messages. This might motivate me to use the WordPress iPhone app more, instead of waiting until I have hours in front of the computer to write a profound post, in which those hours never come.

Spending the first semester as a new adjunct at two universities, as well as family life, has kept me away from writing and performing. As I enter the second semester, two of my four classes remain the same so I hope to have a little more time to get some thoughts down. I am excited to be advising a group of students, and alumni, who are interested in devising, ensemble-based new work. As the advisor, I will take on a more reflective work coming into their rehearsals a couple of times a month (they will be meeting once a week) observing and helping them form and articulate what they want to create. I think this will help sharpen my reflective practitioner skills, as I will be able to help facilitate, while at the same time have some distance to reflect and write more formally on the experience. I need to start submitting to academic journals, and I think this project will be my first article topic. That being said, the actor in me wants to be in the mix of it and part of the physical creation, but unfortunately the timing of the meetings, and the extra finical burden of driving out to the school one more day in the week, will not allow me for deeper involvement.

I have also been commissioned by Theatre Journal to write a performance review of the Los Angeles Poverty Department’s production of State of Incarceration that runs January 28th and 29th. I saw a workshop production of it back in November and was struck by the topic of the California prison system filled to 150% capacity and the stories created by an ensemble, some prisoners once themselves. Hopefully all goes well and I will be published by the end of the year.

Community Arts Network Website Closing

Dennis Baker — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:46:51 +0000

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 CANÂ¹s 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.”

Pilots’ Income = Actors’ Income

Dennis Baker — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 04:16:27 +0000

“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.”