As pledged, I am walking upside-down through the list I posted earlier of those whom I think should show up to the March 1 public discussion of the incendiary new treatise, Outrageous Fortune. Today’s pick: boards of directors.
Over-generalizing, Seattle theatre artists are neither overly fond nor trusting of the people who sit on the boards at performing arts institutions in this town. The larger the house, the stingier the trust. Can you blame us? We watched while the board at the Empty Space killed that 40-year old institution over a $70,000 debt. We reeled helplessly when Giant Magnet’s board summarily fired Artistic Director Andrea Wagner without so much as an explanation. We blinked in dumbfounded deference when the board at Intiman signed off on Bart Sher’s hand-picking his New York-based successor without so much as a conversation with any of us, the artists who live here.
What we understand with painful clarity is that these boards hold the ultimate power of life or death over our not-for-profit theaters, plus the power of hired or fired over the leaders who run them; and yet we really understand very little about how they function or why. I myself regret the fact that while I am familiar with nearly every theatre artist who has been working for more than a few years in this small town, I do not personally know a single board member at any of Seattle’s Big Houses. And even more chillingly, I have a feeling damned few of them know me or my work. I plan on changing that, because I have started to believe that the boards will play a key role in making Seattle theatre world class.
So, in the extremely unlikely event that you are a reading this and you sit on the board of one of Seattle’s many theaters, please consider attending the event described below. Come, listen, talk, and then decide whether you agree that locally grown new works fulfill an integral role in a healthy theatre ecology. Or conversely, help me understand why keeping your distance from artists like myself is actually a better idea. For my part, I would love to personally say hello, shake your hand, and introduce you to some of the rest of the artists who make the the existence of the institutions you oversee possible.
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.
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