lincoln Center Day 9
Day off on Monday- back into the swing of things today. Started with a Talk With Bernie Gersten the Managing Producer of Lincoln Center, the man who accepted the Tony for Coast of Utopia ( he also co-founded with Joe Papp the NY Shakepeare festival and the Public)
I want a Board of Directors that "urges us on in our follies"
Theatre is working if it is open and not imminently closing
Relook at word choice- Should we pursue success? No. Should we pursue popularity? Yes. To be popular isn't a bad thing, despite what reality TV and papparazzi have done to the word. Success implies pursuing $ Popular implies accesible and liked by many
It is hard to make a living in the theatre, but easy to make a killing
There is a 20% Recovery rate in the Non-profit theatre world. 20% of the shows will recover money or make money to cover the other 80%( hopefully)
Grasshopper and Ants. Commercial Theatre is all about the now. Non-Profit is the Ant, storing up for the winter, because we know that 80% of our shows will flop
We inherit the Theatre of "Now" and our job is to renew, reinvigorate, recombine, or revolutionize
Peter Brook's saying about all you need for Theatre is An Actor, an Audience, and a space is true. But to create a professional theatre add one more thing- Money. I think we want to do the former, without thinking about the latter. You can only go so far, or do so much with no one being paid or money not being spent.
Trapeze Artists- Flyers and Catchers Theatre's and the people who run them are the catcher's for the Flyer's- the artists.
Raise $ or Raise Ticket prices. If you raise money are you beholden to the people or companies. If you raise ticket prices can your ideal audience afford it.
Commercial Theatre is perpetuating the "elitist" myth by the ticket prices they demand
Actors have accepted the reality that it is more practical to job out and try to make more money than to commit to a rep company and stay someplace for a year. Partially why there is not a rep company in NY, or anywhere else for that matter.
We then heard from Richard Eyre- Former Artistic Director of The National Theatre of Britain ( also recently directed Notes on a Scandal if you saw that movie)
If you go through every line, every stage direction and ask what it means, your ideas will end up on stage. That is how his Richard III with Ian McKellan came about.
Directing isn't about having the answers, it's about having the questions
You need a mentor- someone who takes you on and believes in you.
there is no shame in silence, it can be an ally to not know
Do You build a Container and then play within it, Or Play and then build a conatainer. Is there worth in both, does one work better than the other?
We are creating a model society every night. A Utopia in rehearsal. The audience corroborates it.
Get everyone to talk, encourage all to question.
Writers will talk to much to pre-empt criticism
Only a Garden can teach Gardening. I will reapeat this because I believe that this was one of the most important things said today. Only a Garden can teach Gardening.
Peter Brook told Richard Eyre after he asked Brook if he could be his assistant. "don't waste your time being an assistant to anyone. Assistants are repetitiors not leaders"
You get there by time and developing nd reveloping your aethstetic
Be evangelical about theatre. Do good work and talk about it enthusiastically.
Theatre is poetry because everything is a metaphor- everything stands for something else.
Get rid of the idea of elitism- Cheap tickets, and good theatre
All bad art is bad because it generalizes, all good art is good because it specifies
You are the facilitator or animator not the originator, unless you are the originator
You don't have to be an auteur
MArlon Brando was actually a sticler for punctuation in Streetcar named desire, he would go to Kim Stanley and say she had missed a comma, he treated it like verse while still using the "method" or Adler or whatever the hell he did and we want to argue about.
Can you direct a collaboration without directing the play?
Risking a gesture of aspiration
What's the question the actor is asking? Which door do I come in? Or Why do I come in that door?
What is a living wage? What could you really do it on?
Most actors will get in trouble, the smart ones will ask for help. Cast smart actors, and don't say anything.
I'm going to be working with Actors from the Actors Center this week so it should hopefully get interesting. We are having some really good dialogues during lunch and dinner and of course I'm not taking notes, I'm taking part. But we can all talk about this some other time. Night All
I want a Board of Directors that "urges us on in our follies"
Theatre is working if it is open and not imminently closing
Relook at word choice- Should we pursue success? No. Should we pursue popularity? Yes. To be popular isn't a bad thing, despite what reality TV and papparazzi have done to the word. Success implies pursuing $ Popular implies accesible and liked by many
It is hard to make a living in the theatre, but easy to make a killing
There is a 20% Recovery rate in the Non-profit theatre world. 20% of the shows will recover money or make money to cover the other 80%( hopefully)
Grasshopper and Ants. Commercial Theatre is all about the now. Non-Profit is the Ant, storing up for the winter, because we know that 80% of our shows will flop
We inherit the Theatre of "Now" and our job is to renew, reinvigorate, recombine, or revolutionize
Peter Brook's saying about all you need for Theatre is An Actor, an Audience, and a space is true. But to create a professional theatre add one more thing- Money. I think we want to do the former, without thinking about the latter. You can only go so far, or do so much with no one being paid or money not being spent.
Trapeze Artists- Flyers and Catchers Theatre's and the people who run them are the catcher's for the Flyer's- the artists.
Raise $ or Raise Ticket prices. If you raise money are you beholden to the people or companies. If you raise ticket prices can your ideal audience afford it.
Commercial Theatre is perpetuating the "elitist" myth by the ticket prices they demand
Actors have accepted the reality that it is more practical to job out and try to make more money than to commit to a rep company and stay someplace for a year. Partially why there is not a rep company in NY, or anywhere else for that matter.
We then heard from Richard Eyre- Former Artistic Director of The National Theatre of Britain ( also recently directed Notes on a Scandal if you saw that movie)
If you go through every line, every stage direction and ask what it means, your ideas will end up on stage. That is how his Richard III with Ian McKellan came about.
Directing isn't about having the answers, it's about having the questions
You need a mentor- someone who takes you on and believes in you.
there is no shame in silence, it can be an ally to not know
Do You build a Container and then play within it, Or Play and then build a conatainer. Is there worth in both, does one work better than the other?
We are creating a model society every night. A Utopia in rehearsal. The audience corroborates it.
Get everyone to talk, encourage all to question.
Writers will talk to much to pre-empt criticism
Only a Garden can teach Gardening. I will reapeat this because I believe that this was one of the most important things said today. Only a Garden can teach Gardening.
Peter Brook told Richard Eyre after he asked Brook if he could be his assistant. "don't waste your time being an assistant to anyone. Assistants are repetitiors not leaders"
You get there by time and developing nd reveloping your aethstetic
Be evangelical about theatre. Do good work and talk about it enthusiastically.
Theatre is poetry because everything is a metaphor- everything stands for something else.
Get rid of the idea of elitism- Cheap tickets, and good theatre
All bad art is bad because it generalizes, all good art is good because it specifies
You are the facilitator or animator not the originator, unless you are the originator
You don't have to be an auteur
MArlon Brando was actually a sticler for punctuation in Streetcar named desire, he would go to Kim Stanley and say she had missed a comma, he treated it like verse while still using the "method" or Adler or whatever the hell he did and we want to argue about.
Can you direct a collaboration without directing the play?
Risking a gesture of aspiration
What's the question the actor is asking? Which door do I come in? Or Why do I come in that door?
What is a living wage? What could you really do it on?
Most actors will get in trouble, the smart ones will ask for help. Cast smart actors, and don't say anything.
I'm going to be working with Actors from the Actors Center this week so it should hopefully get interesting. We are having some really good dialogues during lunch and dinner and of course I'm not taking notes, I'm taking part. But we can all talk about this some other time. Night All
posted by The Necessary Theatre at 7:21 PM
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