Current trends in theater

Here’s a handful of developing trends in theater that I think are worth keeping an eye on. Especially if you create theater, these trends may suggest creative or economic possibilities that you may find useful. 1. Rejection of the existing nonprofit model: While nonoprofit theater is likely to always exist, American companies are increasing rejecting its most recognizable form. Specifically: the creation of a physical theater that runs a rolling season of plays. Many companies are choosing not to concern themselves with a physical space at all, and, with the growing popularity of “pop-up theater,” are even looking to nontraditional venues to produce their plays. Others have begun to focus on developing a few plays that can travel and enjoy regular remounts at festivals and venues that focus on showcasing these sorts of shows. These sorts of plays may have lifespans of several years, or even decades, as compared to the lifespan of most plays produced in nonprofit theaters, which is weeks. 2. Increased collaboration between area theaters: A recent local example of that was the Bricklayers production of “Mother Courage,” for which both Bedlam and the Open Eye Figure theaters collaborated to help mount this production by a Chicago company that made extensive use of local talent, including star Barbra Berlovitz and costume design by Sonya Berlovitz. This approach helps spread out the expense while also potentially reaching a larger audience. The Guthrie has been doing a fair amount of this as well, opening its black box space to other local theaters and turning its larger stage over to Penumbra for an annual show. 3. Increased internationalism: “Mother Courage” is also an example of this, as the masks used in the production were designed by Collectif Masque from Paris. Thanks to the Internet, it has become increasingly easy to engage such collaborations, and, nationally, we’re starting to see productions in which an American company invites another company from abroad to spend several months cocreating a show. Additionally, theater companies are starting to show an increased interest in international subjects -- “Call Calcutta in a Box” by Rimini Protokoll, which came to the Walker Art Center last year, was a good example of this, consisting entirely of a dialogue between an audience member and an Indian call center worker. 4. Playwright-produced theater: There have always been a few playwrights who have taken charge of their own career, taking the reigns as producer, but this phenomenon is becoming increasingly common, particularly thanks to the encouragement of some well-known playwrights such as Mac Wellman, who often produces his own shows. Additionally, as a result of the book “Outrageous Fortune,” it has become obvious that playwrights have been pushed into an outlier position in the world of theater, and I think we’re increasingly going to see playwrights incorporated into the production process in a more direct role, as a producing partner. Obviously, we in Minnesota have a pretty dramatic example of this in the Workhaus Collective, which not only consists of playwrights who produce their own shows, but has partnered with an institution, the Playwrights' Center. 5. Rolling premieres: “Outrageous Fortune” also pointed out that American theaters have “premiere-itis” -- many are not interested in relatively new plays unless they can be the theater to debut them, which leads to new American plays often only ever getting one production. Theater companies have begun to collaborate to solve this problem by participating in a sort of group premiere -- several theaters in several cities all have some involvement in the creation of a play, which travels from town to town, and is advertised in each as being the “area premiere.” Aditi Brennan Kapil’s “Agnes Under the Big Top” is an example of this sort of thing, having just debuted at the Mixed Blood and soon moving to the Long Wharf Theatre in Connecticut for its East Coast premiere. I am not sure that this is more than a quick fix for the problem, which, ultimately, is that American theaters of often very bad at promoting new plays without some sort of gimmick, such as declaring it a premiere, but at least it extends the life of a play from one production to several.