Who should go to the OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE Discussion? Actors

I thought I might be able lay low and abandon my series of short screeds about who should come to the March 1 Outrageous Fortune discussion (details below), but my colleague, the actor and incomparably astute analyst of the Seattle theatre scene, Rebecca Olson was not having it.  This from a recent Face Book round robin:

Rebecca Olson
I'm still waiting to hear why actors should go to the Outrageous Fortune discussion. Especially since it starts at 9 am, and you know how us actors are about getting up early.
Fri at 11:56am ·

Paul Mullin
Rebecca, I'm feeling very lazy about banging the drum for OF lately. I've got a little of SP's skepticism, so I've kind of petered out. But if you give me one good reason why actors should go, I'll write the essay.
Fri at 12:29pm

Rebecca Olson
I thought you were supposed to tell me why to go? (Yawn. Stretch.) Maybe I'll go take a nap, then drink some whiskey and bitch to someone about how local actors are not appreciated by the Big Houses. That's probably more helpful.
Fri at 12:44pm

Paul Mullin
Wow! And I thought Chris Comte was unaccountably nasty. You've raised the bar, Olson. What was that you were saying about warm fuzzies, SP?
Fri at 12:53pm

S.P. Miskowski
@Rebecca, if it helps to inspire you, I can tell you what the city's most glamorous AD says to friends about the acting pool in Seattle.
Fri at 1:07pm

Scot Augustson
SP: Seattle has a glamorous AD?
Fri at 1:29pm

Rebecca Olson
…. Okay - here's why actors should go: because we're all in the same Seattle boat, together - and if we stick together and support each other (as the wise Mr. Dietz gently reminded us) it will only help - that includes reaching across the disciplines. And if that's too warm and fuzzy just appeal to our vanity: what actor doesn't want a playwright to write a role just for them? This is another incentive to make friends with local playwrights and get their plays produced.
Fri at 1:35pm

Paul Mullin
Perfect. I'll write the essay.
Fri at 1:38pm  

Of all the artists that play at this game of theatre, playwrights and actors are the most closely related.  If you go back far enough on the timeline of artistic evolution you can see that we were once the same species, called “storyteller.”  Then at some point, between 3,000 -10,000 years ago, when civilizations as we understand them came to fruition, a split occurred, allowing for what biologists call “speciation”.  Actors continued to tell stories, in a live and interactive, i.e. theatrical way, but someone else actually provided the script.  This speciation was never completely delineated, however.  There are still plenty of fertile hybrids. Shakespeare, Moliere, Shepard, and myself (see how I worked that?) all started as actors and then mutated.  Many, like me and all those I just put myself in the company of, continued acting long after they took up the pen.

A false opposition has taken root here in Seattle, one that often pits actors against playwrights and vice versa.  Playwrights will sometimes mock actors for their short-sightedness: their willingness to sacrifice all artistic vision for their hopes of the next gig and the eternally elusive “living wage.”  Actors will sometimes join the entrenched artistic administrators in their dismissal of local playwrights as essentially backwoods whiners with nothing genuine on the line.  But the fact is, we are close cousins.  We share nearly all of our creative DNA.  And we are artistic equals.

We do not, however, need each other equally.  You read that correctly.  Actors do not need playwrights as much as playwrights need them.  What Greg Carter once argued at the 2008 Stranger Shit Storm is true.  There are enough excellent plays already extant in the canon that even if another good one were never written, there would still be plenty of strong material for actors and directors and designers to work with simply by pulling classics off the shelf, be they Hamlet, The Adding Machine, or Glenngary Glen Ross.

You really don’t need us, my player cousins.  And if you have never had the experience of originating an utterly new character for the stage, then I am not likely, nor inclined, to sell you on its merits.

So come if you feel like it.  Or not.  We need you.  Desperately.  But we are also your family, and it is a shabby family indeed that makes a cousin beg.

 

Theatre Puget Sound hosts
Outrageous Fortune
March 1, 2010
9AM – 1PM

Detail: 9am – 10:30 Presentation by author Todd London

Break – snacks
10:40 – 12:00pm Q & A in large group
Break – lunch type snacks
12:10 – 1pm small group breakouts and report back

Center House Theatre

rsvp: [email protected]

Theatre Development Fund, the national service organization, is convening a meeting of playwrights, artistic directors, funders, theatre managers and others in conjunction with Theatre Puget Sound at the Center House Theater in Seattle on March 1, 2010 from 9:00am-1:00pm to stimulate conversation and action to support new American play production. Tory Bailey, executive director of Theatre Development Fund, Todd London, artistic director of New Dramatists, and co-author Ben Pesner will lead the gathering, which will begin with a presentation of the results of an intensive study of new play production in America and then open out to an inclusive conversation.

TDF has just released the book OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE NEW AMERICAN PLAY written by Todd London and Ben Pesner, with research consultant Zannie Giraud Voss. The book, drawing on six years of research, examines the lives and livelihoods of American playwrights today and the realities of new play production from the perspective of both playwrights and not-for-profit theatres. The study represents the most comprehensive field study in the history of the not-for-profit theatre to analyze new play production practices and the economics and culture of playwriting in America. Set against a backdrop of dwindling audiences for dramatic work, OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE NEW AMERICAN PLAY makes clear the urgent need for new conversations and practices if the American play is to flourish.

The March 1 meeting will share the study findings and facilitate the beginning of a conversation in which participants can identify possible ways to improve conditions for the production of new American plays, community by community. We hope that a wide group of individuals from the theatre community in the Seattle area will join this conversation.

Comments

[Louis Broome]

Playwrights absolutely need actors, no question. But I think actors need playwrights - the living, breathing kind - just as much. Somewhere over the rainbow is a popular, profitable and vital theater built on a solid foundation of NEW stories. The canon-based, museum theater we now fail to enjoy doesn't appear to be doing much for actors, playwrights or anyone.

[Scot Augustson]

Paul, who are these actors you speak of? They've a whiff of straw about them.
You and me must be hanging with a completely different crowd. Most of the actors I know are very pro-new work. They enjoy being part of the whole process.
Are there some actors who don't honor commitments? Sure. Are there cut-throat careerist actors who'll step on your solar plexus to get ahead. Sure. But by & large most see the value of new work are are thrilled to take a whirl on the casting coach...I mean are thrill to help create new plays.

[Paul Mullin]

Scot,

How dare you accuse me of creating straw players? You sir, are a communist and a fascist, and so is that goon of yours you loosed on me the other night.

Maybe it's somewhere in the middle, Scot. You do tend to run with a game crowd of actors, but I know plenty that would would walk over their own mothers away from a new play for an opportunity to swash a buckle in some Big House Alexander Dumbass adaptation.

It's back to the Equity thing. If they really wanted to do new work, they'd demand some sort of 99-seat waiver like in NYC or LA. 'Cuz Chris Comte would have us believe that such a change is simply theirs for the collective asking. And Chris would never prevaricate with us, would he?

[Rik Deskin]

Okay, with all due respect. There is no need to disparage Chris Comte. This guy is dedicated to working on behalf of actors to help making a living a little easier and he is dedicated to his volunteerism on behalf of Annex Theatre.

Now to the Equity thing. We in Seattle have the Equity Member Project code for up to 99-seat theater that is in leiu of the Showcase Code. We have a Liaison Committee populated by local AEA actors including myself and Chris that meet frequently to help make things easier in regards to AEA, actors and local orgs. We are very supportive and encouraging of new works. What we are not supportive of is irresponsibility on the part of producers. We want to help the Seattle Theatre Creative Industry really become that. We want Seattle to be that place (and it really is, we just all need to believe it) where theatre is created, has a valid voice and excellence like our brothers and sisters in NY & Chicago and other theatre hubs.

Paul, Scott and all. As an actor, I am personally dedicated to seeing new works brought to the stage. As hard as that mission is as it gets virtually no support from local agencies and no advocacy from our "critics."

I have helped 52 new plays of various lengths by local and national playwrights to be seen, heard, performed and/or produced. 31 (and soon to be 32 with local playwright Kirsten Fatland's "Black Men Smile At Me" coming up in May) have been with Eclectic Theater Company, the little company I founded in 2000, dedicated to producing and presenting original, contemporary and classic works.

Most of my best experiences have been working with living, breathing playwrights. I love being part of that process. And I also love exploring the world of theatre and the history of theatre by performing in the classics as well as the already published plays. It helps to inform me as an actor and as a theatre artist.

Anyway, I do agree that actors should come to the Outrageous Fortune discussion. Will they? Some will. I will. But there are those that will not attend out of apathy, selfishness and a feeling of being alienated from their art. I hope they can overcome themselves and attend. That goes for all theatre artists that are on the fence. We need your collective voice.

[Paul Mullin]

Rik:

You're right. Chris and I banter back and forth in a way that people outside the fray might mistake as nasty. Chris deserves a lot of respect for his efforts in this community. I do believe he, and apparently you, are on the wrong side of the Equity Showcase issue here in Seattle, however.

I know the Member Project Contract and its terms, since I used it on my horror late night series PSYCHOPOMP PRESENTS... back in 2004. (Chris was very encouraging and easy to work with arranging this.) But unless it has changed significantly since then, it is disingenuous for you and Chris to characterize it as anything even CLOSE to comparable to the 99-Seat wavier and showcase codes that LA and NYC members enjoy operating under.

I could get into all the inside baseball nitty gritties of why this is so but the most glaring point of difference is that a continuously operating theatre company such as Annex cannot use it. So if you want to do a Member Project you essentially have to form a new theatre company each time you do. This has the effect of making it practically a dead issue in Seattle. Kind of like giving a toothless baby a nice fresh apple.

[Rebecca Olson]

Lest this become another bitch session about AEA, I’d like to bring things back around to a topic that is far more interesting to me: myself. As an actor, I wholeheartedly disagree with you that actors don’t need playwrights. Yes, I could continue to perform Shakespearian monologues alone in my condo until the end of time, but if the theater is going to survive and flourish – if I want to be an actor in theater performing on stage for an audience in 20 or 30 years, then I’m going to need playwrights writing new stories. Period. Whether audiences realize it or not (and I think a lot of them do realize it but we don’t give them credit for it), they want to see new plays – just like they want to see new movies, and new TV shows, etc. I don’t mean we should stop doing plays that have already been written and which we think are really good and would like to see again; I mean (and I know I’m not alone here) that we also need to continue to infuse theater with new, fresh, raw stories. What would the visual art world be right now, if 100 years ago they had said “Well, Impressionism is pretty much it. I think we’re done here. Let’s just keep re-painting all the classics now, and not bother to paint anything new.” Visual art would be nothing more than an antiquity. Instead, visual art draws on it’s history, but continues to be a dynamic, living, force that shapes everything from marketing to modern fashion to architecture. So my feeling is, unless I want to move to Los Angeles and learn how to become a reality TV star (which I’d rather not), then I need playwrights to help me keep theater relevant so that people want to see it. It’s not *all* up to playwrights, obviously – but we certainly can’t do it without you. And, scene.

[Rik Deskin]

Paul,

You are correct about the differences between the EMPC and the Showcase codes. The latter favors producers and companies whereas the former favors the actors. I know the discussion has been brought up between the AEA Liaison Committee and Staff, and what we've heard in the past is that the Showcase codes have undermined AEA wages in the LA & NY Markets to the detriment of members there. I'm looking for an official answer from the Committee on this and will get back to you.