Friday, September 10, 2004

 

An Administrative Meeting for Our Small Theatre Company

PEOPLE PEOPLE PEOPLE I've just found the solution to the financial woes of Our Small Theatre Company! Via ArtsJournal, the National Theatre (UK) has reported a profit this year, as reported in The Guardian!

The National Theatre, under artistic director Nicholas Hytner, was granted a deficit of £500,000 for the past financial year. The National responded by playing to packed houses and general acclaim. As a result, it extravagantly declared a profit of nearly £50,000 for the year.

Profit?! In theatre?! Can you imagine? I could stop temping at the coal plant...Jennifer, we wouldn't have to get your relatives laid in exchange for money...the Brits have it all figured out:

The bald truth is, as Mr Hytner noted in the National's annual review: "Subsidy works." In the case of the National, it generated £23m in income, and received £14m in arts council grants. The subsidy allowed it the financial freedom to innovate and attract record box office sales. Part of this was the result of a string of hits, ranging from the irreverence of Jerry Springer - The Opera to the high drama of Michael Frayn's Democracy. But the other half of the equation was a decision to offer 150,000 tickets, sponsored by Travelex, at just £10 each. That spurred a rush of new visitors to the National...

You see? It's all so simple!

People, all we need to do to get this Our Small Theatre Company back in the black is go get a... [consults XE.com] ...$25 million dollar grant from the N.E.A.!

What's that you say, Willow? Too ambitious? Okay...then we'll just get roughly 1/3 of our annual budget, like the National. Then we can offer... [consults XE.com again] ...$18 tickets, a deal that will bring them running from all...over...

What'd you say, Maurice? Our tickets are all $10-$15 already? Oh...and people still complain about the price, huh?...I see.

So, Willow, Jennifer's uncle is coming into town Saturday...

posted by Dan 10:25 AM
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Brief Peek at the Knucklehead

In my first week at NYU, I've managed to make a complete ass out of myself. How bad? I couldn't name who or what won the Pulitzer for Best Play this year.

I know, Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife. I know, I know. NOW. After I looked it up. Must break addiction to Google.

They'll flunk me, if I don't get thrown out first.

posted by Dan 10:09 AM
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Thursday, September 09, 2004

 

The Rita & Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Plugging I

This week's plug comes not from me, but through Kayla Solomon, one of the playwrights from Lil' Pervs. Ondine, by Jean Giraudoux, best known in this country -- I think -- for The Madwoman of Chaillot. The plot concerns a love triangle between a knight, a princess, and a water-nymph. In spite of the fairy-tale sound of the story, it's for adults. I'm looking forward to seeing it, as Madwoman is a favorite of mine.

Ondine
by Jean Giraudoux
Translated by Roger Gellert

at walkerspace
46 Walker Street, NYC
between Church & Broadway
two blocks south of Canal Street
Subway: A/C/E, N/R, or 6 to Canal; or 1/9 to Franklin

September 9 - October 2
Thursday - Saturday at 7:30 pm
Sundays at 2:00 pm
Special Performance Wednesday September 29 at 7:30

General Admission $15
Tickets 212 868-4444
www.smarttix.com

posted by Dan 9:09 AM
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Wednesday, September 08, 2004

 

Humpadango (Link Day)

And now, we return to honest date-stamping...

If you -- like me -- need a gift that says "I Don't Know You Well Enough To Get You Something You Want, But I Know You Well Enough To Know That You Are Easily Amused," welcome to Archie McPhee's. Specifically, check out their action figures. It occurred to me that you could probably by a bunch of these guys, and be set for all those not-a-friend-but-not-a-stranger birthdays for five years. Can you guess which one I would like (hint: not Shakespeare) (I mean, do I sound like a guy who wears a comedy/tragedy mask pin and a Ye Olde Jester Hat?!) (don't answer)

posted by Dan 11:37 AM
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Tuesday, September 07, 2004

 

Review Roundup I

Oh, ho ho ho, the new season just started, and I already missed a deadline. Ha ha ha oh crap

Here it is, better late than never:

• OOBR isn't as big as local heavyweights like the Voice or the Press, but they will do you the courtesy of reviewing your show, even if your 501c3 is still in the mail.
  
  Reviewer Doug Devita takes on one of the many successful plays that has finally come through to New York, Nobody Knows I'm a Dog, by Alan David Perkins, was written in 1995 about the then-fresh world of Usenet and cyberspace.
  
  Plays that take place -- or are thematically engaged in -- the world of the internet have always been...let's say a challenge...for me to watch. To me, there's great obstacles in making what happens in cyberspace dramatic and theatrical. Depictions of people at their computers that come within a stone's throw of realism are going to end up with a lot of characters sitting around. Theatrical portrayals of a virtual world are very often interesting, but they don't quite capture the duality of the experience: the user as a Warlock or Superhero and the user at home eating Hostess cupcakes and poking the spacebar.
  
  Still, since computers are such a huge part of our lives, as writers we need to keep finding ways to work with them in our form. Anybody who's seen or read a play that has a fresh angle or device with the online world, whether it was a success or failure, please comment.



• Keeping with past discussions on political theatre and stale perspectives, two from the Voice coincided with the Republican National Convention in New York, and -- you won't believe it -- they weren't pro-Bush! First, David Ng reviews I'm Gonna Kill the President: A Federal Offense, by Hieronymous Bang, a great "nom de" if ever there was one. Ng found the foreplay better than the act, though. Second: a British import, Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, by Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo. I thought Michael Feingold's review was an op-ed at first, but eventually he got around to the play. Guantanamo follows an Emily Mann-style of using only "spoken evidence", but Feingold admits that this can still be used to suppress important facts when looking at the issues. In any case, both reviews ought to add fuel to Laura's fire.

UPDATE: Boy, do I feel like a jerk. Mike Mariano pointed out that the OOBR reviews are two years old. They came and reviewed a show of mine four years ago, and I have been negligent in going there regularly. For the post, I thought I'd pluig them, as trhey were a smaller outfit. Small and silent, apparantly. They still do listings, though.

And I'm still interested in cyberspace in theatre.

posted by Dan 11:59 PM
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