BLOG: Across the Nation

The Fall Did you know that in between the interminable seasons of "hot and muggy" and "cold and even colder", Minnesota actually has two other seasons? It's true! Science tells us that squished in between the summer and winter seasons, there are actually seasons called "Fall" and "Spring"? And, did you know that the "Fall" (or "Autumn") season is coming up quickly? I know that Fall is coming, not because of that slight metallic tang of chill in the air just as dusk recedes into night, not because the birds of summer, now grown fat on nature's bounty, are beginning to take wing for warmer climes, but because our news media outlets are publishing their Fall Guides to Some Arts Things. You can find guides to what plays to see in the coming months from City Pages and MPR; and the Pioneer Press even went so far as to have separate guides for theater and dance. (Congratulations to Mixed Blood's Colossal for pulling a hat trick and winding up on all three lists.) Due to the absurdity of our arts seasons being disconnected from the calendar year, Fall is the time in which theater seasons turn over. It means that those precious seasons, so lovingly curated and so long ago announced, are actually beginning (though John Q. Public will scarcely note the difference). This also means that we are flying blind on a rocketcycle straight into awards season for the performing arts community. Nominations have been announced for the Sage Awards for dance, and the Twin Cities' own noncompetitive (but totally competitive), Ivey Awards are coming up this month. In the mean time, things are still happening in the rest of the country. Let's hop across the continent and see what's going on. Way Over in Philadelphia Last week we talked about Philadelphia Theater Company. This week we will talk about Philadelphia Theater Company. And so it goes. There appears to be some actual good news for a change for PTC. The millionaires have come to the rescue. So, the lesson is learned: it doesn't matter how much you bore or alienate your audience, as long as you name a theater space after a rich person. As it turns out, PTC isn't the only mid-level regional arts organization in Philly with cashflow problems. The Pennsylvania Ballet recently axed its entire artistic and administrative leadership after a long struggle over reviving the company's failing fortunes. What do PTC and the Penn Ballet have in common besides a need for new money? Both organizations have been on the business end of a thorough going-over by Michael Kaiser. The outgoing leader of the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts has a reputation for turning around organizations like this, and he's been heavily in demand in Philly. However, Kaiser has some predictions for the changing arts landscape that shouldn't make these companies and their kin very happy about the future: "We are at the beginning of a major change in the way people receive their arts, and I believe online will become the source and a major competitor to live arts, and it appears to me that we will see a bifurcation of arts organizations, with the large ones, who will make revenue based on selling performances online, and local organizations who service the community. I am very nervous about the midsize regional organization, whose ticket prices are so high that they are not going to be able to compete, yet so large they can't be a community organization." Back The Other Way in LA But forget about the old, stuffy east. Let's head out west, that golden land where dreams are made… In Los Angeles, Actor's Equity is set to build its first permanent audition center in the city. This means that the union sees a definite shift in power away from New York, and it is moving in tandem with that shift. So, it's all sunshine and roses for LA theater now, and according to AEA there's definitely nothing else going on. Except, there's this rumor circulating around the LA scene that Equity will make moves to change or eliminate LA's 99 seat waiver program. If you're in any market besides LA, you have probably never heard of the 99 Seat Plan. It's complicated, but, in a nutshell, Equity worked out a waiver program specific only to Los Angeles County that allows Equity actors to work for severely less than Equity wages as long as they are performing in a theater that seats less than 100 audience members. Born out of LA's infamous Waiver Wars in the '80s, the original 1988 plan recognized the sad reality that actors were really just using LA theater as a way to audition for film and TV roles, and even though the plan has been tweaked several times over the years, it has endured. However, the agreement has spurred an explosion of 99 seat theaters in LA, as producers follow the letter of the agreement (though not exactly the spirit). It's now such an entwined part of the LA landscape that people write satirical guides to producing 99 seat theater. But it could all be coming to an end soon. Earlier this year, Equity unceremoniously fired Michael Van Duzer, the union's long-time liaison to the 99 seat theaters who helped steer Equity through its turbulent ties to LA theater. This is not a good sign that Equity wants to continue with the 99 seat plan as it makes a permanent home in the city. What does it mean for LA theater? Since about 80% of the theater there is done by 99 seaters, there have been dire predictions about the decimation of the theater scene, but there have been plenty of people stepping up to give the counter argument that LA theater needs to face economic reality and that allowing theaters to actually fail will be better for everyone in the long run. Down in Missouri You may not know it from this column, but I have been devouring news from Ferguson, Missouri. This still unfolding story captures everything ugly about America right now. It's the train wreck that I can't look away from, the one major news story that consumes my thoughts after I stop listening to the news, and probably the most important domestic news story that none of us really understand. And yet, I haven't mentioned it once in this column. At the beginning of recent Savage Love podcast, Dan Savage devoted a good deal of his time to dissecting his feelings toward Ferguson. That's a podcast whose central premise is that a saucy gay man lectures people on swinging and fisting; but, in this column devoted to theater--which is supposed to be about holding up a mirror to man and his society--I haven't said one word. You'll have to forgive me for that. Even though I am rapidly picking up every word I can on the subject, I don't know where to begin. Apparently, artists are supposed to have reactions to these things, even if the general public is content with ignoring the artists. I honestly don't know how to react artistically to this. I don't even know if it's right for artists to go barging in before anyone has even figured out what the hell is going on. Is this about poverty? Racism? Class? Militarization of police? Is it all of these things? Is it deeper than that? Is it just some transient anger that will pass with the next news cycle? Down in St. Louis, a group of artists has been meeting to discuss how they should react to this. Even though they are right there next to ground zero, even they haven't really come up with anything more than the vague idea that “above all, artists can do something.”  But, what is that "something"? I have avoided saying anything about Ferguson, because so far there hasn't been any kind of rumble in the theater world. You could say that this is because American theater is predominantly occupied with its past and with pleasing the upper-middle-class white folks who go to it and the upper-class white folks who donate to it, and is therefore fundamentally unable to react to anything meaningful in the present; or you could admit (as I usually do) that it just takes time to make theater that is meaningful. It's a collaborative art form, and that's just the nature of collaboration: it takes time. The Tectonic Theatre Project may have created The Laramie Project out of a real-life incident, but not until two years after the incident occurred. But, if you want to process this in real time and try to figure out what you as a theater artist can do for this situation, Penumbra Theater will be hosting a public discussion on September 10 all about the events in Ferguson and what any of us can do.