Toy Theatre, Gay Marriage, and success via failure. Its news and notes from past week -4.9.2012

It’s April – Happy Spring! -------- New works Toy Theatre after Dark at Open Eye Figure Theatre This week I want to highlight not a new play but an opportunity to see and potentially even make new work. Toy Theatre after Dark presented by Open Eye Figure Theatre is billed as “A week of miniature puppetry spectacle, classes, discussions, and networking.” For several years Open Eye has used the Toy Theatre after Dark events to showcase local as well as national puppetry talent. There’s a rich and interesting bunch of puppet makers and operators in the Twin Cities. Open Eye has been a big part in growing and promoting this talent. One compelling aspect of the Toy Theatre programs is that it features events and performances for both adult and all ages audiences. I’ve never been any good at manipulating puppets but I love the magic and beauty they can possess and if anything could make a puppeteer out of me it’s a workshop led by Open Eye’s Michael Sommers. This years Toy Theatre after Dark has workshops and performances running from April 13th through April 21st. -------- There is no success unless you’re willing to constantly redefine success. I was reminded of this idea by reading Josh Linkner’s entry on the Fast Company Expert blog, The Dirty Little Secret Of Overnight Successes . -------- This New York Times Arts Beat entry making the case that a theater critic should see a play twice before coming to a firm conclusion on it’s merits made me realize that as a performer I’ve often had to perform a show twice before I could decide on it’s merits. Theater Talkback Second Helpings -------- Minnesota Public Radio’s State of the Arts blog recently ran an item about the marriage amendment that will be on Minnesota ballots this November. The main focus of the blog entry was on responses from a series of respected Twin Cities artists and leaders of arts organizations to a question posted on the State of the Arts facebook page which was, “why do so many artists and arts organizations support gay marriage?” Why do I hate this question? A few bits of disclosure before I try to extrapolate why this question makes me more than just bristle: I know and enjoy talking to the person who runs the State of the Arts blog, Marianne Combs. Also, I’m married to one of the question respondents, Laura Zabel. And, Minnesota Playlist, the entity that has me writing this very sentence, is a part of the Minnesotans United for All Families Coalition, which is an organization that is featured in the blog post and that is completely focused on defeating the proposed marriage amendment. All of these relationships influence me as I read about and write about this topic. As does, probably, how much coffee I’ve had to drink today and whether there are currently dirty dishes in my sink (hang on, now I have to go check). Alright, why the harsh reaction to the question, ”why do so many artists and arts organizations support gay marriage?” On it’s face this actually seems like a really good question and one I’d really like to hear answers to. I’m very interested in why artists think the way they do. I support gay marriage and like the idea of creative, interesting people explaining why others should support gay marriage. And I’m a huge fan of asking questions on Facebook. It’s the kind of digital community crowd-sourcing that I think Facebook is great for. But when I spend more than five minutes mulling over this question I get heartburn and my voice starts to get shrill. One fairly minor component I dislike is the way it groups artists and arts organizations together in a way that singles them out as special with subtextual hints at them being inherently more progressive. I admit that’s a decent size step to take away from the question itself but I know a fair amount of artists who assume artists as a group are uniquely progressive. I’m pretty sure I toy with that idea myself from time to time as a doer of comedy (it’s a phrase I’m using, just accept it) that people who make and do comedy use logic and reason to come to ethical and progressive points of view more often than non-comedy people. But I don’t know if that’s even remotely true and doing comedy or making art of any kind doesn’t make me a better person. I may have already tipped my hand but I should still explain the main component of this question that I have a problem with. I support gay marriage. Strongly. In my perception the only reason this issue is being dragged on as something that needs deciding is because of a small group of people with an outdated worldview fueled by retrogressive religious beliefs. I view gay marriage as a civil rights issue about which future generations will laugh uncomprehendingly. I hate this question simply because we are still asking it. The fact that anyone is still wrestling with the idea of gay marriage means that the world and the people who live on it aren’t as awesome as we could be. And that make me sad. And I wish a blog on MPR could be a place where a writer could sometimes have a point of view that takes advantage of the informality of blogs and uses it as a quasi-bully pulpit. Instead of getting opinions from involved members of a community and using them to express a point of view while remaining neutral, I want to see heavily read news blog writers take a day off from writing about what everyone else is up to and just put up three or six paragraphs explaining why opposing gay marriage is wrong and anyone who doesn’t see that should please stop reading their blog. But that’s not going to happen. So instead I’m going to go wash those dishes in my sink and probably send some chocolates to Marianne Combs because I really do like her and her work and hate it when my strong opinions knock up against people who haven’t actually done anything wrong. -------- This ten-minute video by Works Progress focusing on artist Carolyn Swiszcz makes me happy. And at the end she very succinctly explains why any individual artist (read that as me) should keep making his or her work. -------- That’s what I’ve got from the past week. Let me know where I’ve gone right or where I’ve gone astray, I sincerely appreciate the feedback. And I hope your week is properly lit. -Levi