Big ol' virtual suggestion box 2009
Editorial
Here are a series of propositions we solicited from you. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
What we’d like to see more
- More site-specific work.
- A bookstore dedicated to theater where actors could preread audition scripts.
- More experimental work that is funny.
- More living wage employment in the arts across the board.
- More diversity of work from the thousands of years of theater history. (Just because you didn’t read it in your theater survey class, doesn’t mean that it isn’t high-quality and relevant.)
- A performing arts intramural softball league! (Let’s see Starting Gate take on the Jungle – on the field. The Guthrie could field a bunch of different teams from all the different departments.)
- No more smoking on stage.
- More affordable rehearsal space.
- Less Shakespeare.
- Live djs.
- More smoking on stage.
- A stage manager-of-the-year award.
On time-management
- Start shows on time.
- List the show’s run time in the program.
- Run shows at different, more creative times (like Tuesday early evening, Friday late night, Saturday late afternoon, Sunday brunch).
- Coordinate opening nights and seasons so that fewer theaters overlap shows and dates.
- Theater artists should make a point of seeing shows early in the run rather than on closing weekend, so we can all help spread word of mouth better.
On education
- Professional theaters of all sizes should bring more shows to area schools and be more involved in general with education.
- Actors can teach teachers how to hold the attention of a room. Improv performers can help them learn to handle chaos in the classroom.
On outreach
- Independent theaters should be more aggressive about recruiting kids and adults in homeless shelters and halfway houses to see shows by offering free tickets.
- Theater touring the Twin Cities suburbs (because some people are scared of parking downtown and those people need theatre, too).
- Considering how many actors live here, someone in the Twin Cities should host unified regional theater auditions for all the Midwest (especially Actor’s Theater of Louisville).
- Everyone should have a cry room, not just for kids.
On economics
- What with so many of the small groups trying to stay alive, why don't some of us form a collective and share staff and funds?
- Along the same lines, to young theater artists: instead of starting your own company that will have half the labor it needs, why not join forces with an existing company that needs twice the labor they have.
- UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE