December 2008

Know your audience

december-toc.jpg

Craig VanDerSchaegen. The crowd at Fringe-for-All at the Ritz Theater. Courtesy Minnesota Fringe Festival.

They sit in the dark; their reactions scare us to death. Who are they? What do they want? They may be the most important actors in your production, yet you know the least about them. Will they judge or join in? In this issue, we stare back at the audience.

Articles

They, the people

By John Middleton
Posted Monday, December 1

Does demography make you cringe? How can they put numbers on art? Relax.

Read the full article

Northside

By Jeff Redman
Posted Monday, December 1

The only theater in north Minneapolis survives by knowing their neighbors, from Katie to Carissa to Ellen and her friend Shirley.

Read the full article

Humans with pulses

By Joseph Scrimshaw
Posted Thursday, December 4

Lonely theater artists (LTA) seek HWP (humans with pulse) for GT (good time), maybe a couple laughs. Must be willing to pick up tab.

Read the full article

Decisions, decisions

By Matthew Foster
Posted Thursday, December 4

Habitual theater-goers Kay and Jay Jackson share their secrets about how they make decisions on what to see.

Read the full article

Doing data

By Sara Stevenson Scrimshaw
Posted Thursday, December 4

We use lots of energy collecting audience surveys then don’t use the results. Let’s root out the disappointing truth.

Read the full article

Electric Arc Radio

By David Salmela
Posted Monday, December 8

An ongoing series of staged readings about four writers living in a house?!? How did they wind up with such a cool crowd?

Read the full article

Excerpt from “You Asked For It”

By Greg Allen
Posted Thursday, December 11

An excerpt from “You Asked For It”

Read the full article

Watch out

By Marya Hornbacher
Posted Thursday, December 11

Prof. Paul Woodruff wrote a book on the “art of watching and being watched.” You should avoid reading it if you possibly can.

Read the full article

Beyond “Offending the Audience” or how I came to write America’s most (and least) wanted play

By Greg Allen
Posted Thursday, December 11

The Neo-Futurists buy pizza for their audience whenever they sell out. Twenty years ago, they never imagined they'd be buying so much pizza.

Read the full article

$hiny object$

By Matthew Foster
Posted Monday, December 15

Before they’ll buy a ticket, your audience wants to see that you’re competent. Welcome to graphic design.

Read the full article

Who? Where? What?

By Alan M. Berks
Posted Thursday, December 18

We called around the state to find out where people are going, where they come from, and what they look like. An overview here.

Read the full article

Have some respect, please

By Alan M. Berks
Posted Monday, December 22

Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding is fine—I saw it once, and it was fine.

Read the full article

Out there in the dark

By Brad Dahlgaard
Posted Monday, December 22

A photo gallery of Minnesota audiences.

Read the full article

Blogs

The last year

September 2010
Personal best

August 2010
Fringe points of view

July 2010
Gone fishin'

June 2010
Wild grass

May 2010
What's that sound?

April 2010
The healing arts

March 2010
All the world's a stage. . .

February 2010
Reel live

January 2010
Feeling Minnesota

December 2009
Jingle blogs

November 2009
Making art, work

October 2009
So very close. . .

Now playing

The Taming of the Shrew, Sept 11-26, 2010.  Theatre Pro Rata.

The Taming of the Shrew

See it this week at The Gremlin Theatre in Minneapolis. Presented by Theatre Pro Rata.

Theater talk

Featured Artist

Jen Scott

Jen Scott

Jen Scott plays DEADWOOD: The Last Bleeping Episode playing at The Bryant Lake Bowl Theater this month.

Find performers, designers, crew, writers, composers, choreographers, and administrators for your next project.

More talent profiles
Post your own

Twitter feed

Commonweal: Required Reading - what would you add to this list of essential theatre reads? http://bit.ly/dneYjx #2amt #mnpl

sailert: Agree. RT @almeberks: #mnpl Scottsboro Boys was wow. Complicated, beautiful, affecting, intelligent, entertaining, disturbing. More please

maxsparber: TC Arts are "in many ways, ahead of the rest of the country" -- NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman http://bit.ly/TCarts #mnpl #2amt

More tweets