Diversity?

Theater: Smoke Protocol

Having done outdoor theater on more than one occasion, I can tell you that it's tough. What with the bugs, the wind, the rain, the police sirens, the noise from the jets overhead, and the increased chance that an intoxicated person may stumble on to your performance and start shouting just terrible things, being out of doors leaves a lot of things to chance.

Now Oregon Shakespeare Festival has discovered a new challenge on its outdoor stage: wildfire smoke. Because large-scale fires in Canada and the Pacific Northwest have been messing with the local air quality, the company has recently formed a "smoke team" to roll out a new "smoke protocol" for determining if and when a performance needs to be cancelled.

Mostly, though, I wanted to share this because the term "smoke protocol" sounds pretty cool. Please consider it as the name of your edgy new rock band or the title of your next Tom Clancy-esque spy thriller.

Once more for the smartphone set

You, the avid readers of News and Notes (both of you), may have noticed over the past few weeks that I have said some things about audiences and cell phones. And then I've said some more things. And then even more. In fact, the two of you are probably talking to each other right now and saying something like, "God, why doesn't he just shut up about this? I'm going to cancel my subscription right now!"

Unfortunately, you can't actually have a subscription to News and Notes that you can cancel. (The moment I have a function like that, I'll let you know so that you can subscribe and then immediately cancel in order to register your disgust.) Fortunately, I will let someone else say something about audiences and cell phones.

Earlier in this unfortunate debate we are having, I linked to an article at Clyde Fitch Report by Scott Walters which looked back at theater history and suggested that our rather recent insistence on a quiet, passive audience may be what has made theater unappealing to the masses. Walters received a lot of thoughtful feedback to his article, such as "You are an idiot", and has since published a followup article in response.

As Walters puts it (and as I have also tried to articulate), the problem isn't really about cell phones, per se, but about how we, the theater people, have inadvertently walled ourselves off from the rest of the world with our rules and expectations; and, well, let's just let him have the floor:

"Over the years, I have participated in many, many convenings of theater people at which we wrung our collective hands about the 21st century audience. We dreamt about a more diverse audience drawn from different ages, races, sexualities, classes. We assert that such diversity would bring vibrancy to the theater, and a kind of liveliness that has been missing for decades. But the answer as to why the theater audience has become so homogeneous is dramatically illustrated by the conversations that followed my article: we want a diverse audience as long as “those people” behave like “us"... The fact is that theater has become a conservative art form — not necessarily in terms of content (although even that is being worn down), but in terms of what really matters: the culture surrounding the art form. We work very, very hard to make sure that the dysfunctional system remains intact. Ultimately, the issue of cellphones in the theater is trivial, but illustrative of the problem. My article was not defending texting in the theater, or chatting on cellphones, but rather was commenting on our stubbornness in holding on to rigid rules of etiquette that make noise of almost any kind in a theater a reason for condemnation and even public shaming."

Or, as I like to think of it: even though a drunk theater patron climbing onto the stage looking for a bathroom is annoying, going into a rage, ripping out your bar and kicking all the beer drinkers out of your theater won't make anyone want to come to your theater.

About that diversity…

It's that time of year, when New York's theaters start announcing what will be playing on Broadway and Off, which means it's another year of plays by white men. Though the most diverse musical in years is now owning Broadway and a musical created by a predominantly female team cleaned up at the Tonys last time, the leaders of the theater world have apparently decided that these are just flukes, and soon we'll all come back down to earth and remember that caucasian dudes are just the best. Even Manhattan Theater Club, one of the few companies on or Off-Broadway run by a woman, announced a season written almost entirely by white guys.

Manhattan Theater Club does have one new play in its upcoming season written by a woman (which was hastily announced after the outcry above). In fact, lots of big theaters make room in their season for "the female play" or "the gay play" or "the black play" amongst all the pale males. Before you start hanging the "Mission Accomplished" banner, however, consider this: relegating diverse work to "the black slot" in your season automatically assigns a level of preciousness and otherness to your attempt at diversity. It's the old dynamic of tokenism, being The Only One in the Room.

Now, you well meaning white guys in the room should know that, despite what Donald Trump is telling you, nobody here is actually looking for special favors, handouts or guarantees. What diversity in theater (or anywhere, really) means is that everyone has the room to fail that is afforded to white men.

Lead on

But do we need to wait for big changes in leadership to bring the hope of more diversity in theater? If you go over to Howlround, they will tell you, emphatically, "NO!" (Though, in fairness, everything on Howlround is emphatic all the time). The past few weeks, the little website with a lot of words has been running a series of articles from up-and-coming leaders engaged in TCG's Spark Leadership Program.

While the full slate of articles in this series gives plenty to chew on, there were a few about how to create more diversity in theater that caught my eye:

-Polly Carl on how shared leadership can foster diversity by creating a diversity of thought and experience at the top.

-Snehal Desai on how an existing theater can go about creating diversity. -Karena Ingersoll and Deena Selenow on how a theater company that says it wants diversity can actually start walking its talk.

There's also an article comparing ideal leadership traits for the 21st century theater with comic book super heroes, because the nerds have won, and there's nothing you can do about it.

You're special

Hey, actors! Tired of not getting that role? Worn down by the constant grind of looking for work? Feeling like you've made a huge mistake?

What you need is a special skill! Instead of slogging through and disappearing into the crowd at every cattle call audition, where it's abundantly clear that there are at least 500 people with your same look who are probably better than you anyway, why not step out from the crowd? Learn to shoot a gun, eat fire, walk a tight rope, drive a stunt car, walk on broken glass or any number of other dangerous and weird things that prove to the director that you are desperate enough to do anything, anything, to avoid another night of silently crying into your ramen and wondering if your dad was right about "maybe having a backup plan".