The business of improv, the sale of the Old Log, and no credit where credit is due

I was informed this week of John Munger's deteriorating condition and his move into hospice care. If John has touched your life in any way, please visit his Facebook page, where an outpouring of love and affection for a man, a teacher, a dancer, pales against anything I could write here. There are so many love-filed postings for a man who inspired many. If you have stories to share of John, please let him, and those who care about him, know. Local The business of running a theatre shouldn't be ignored. I've written previously on the supply-side economics of improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade, but Carla Waldemar writing for MinnPost takes us through the many business decisions at the Brave New Workshop. Not every business decision proved to be a money-maker for the BNW, but in recent years, funds have increased primarily through diversifying revenue streams. --- Today is the final day to register for Who's in Charge?, a conference on leadership and diversity in Minnesota theatre. I'm happy to see that my alma mater, Hamline University, will be hosting the conference next week on May 6th and 7th. The panels and presentations range from "personal narratives from the artistic trenches" to editor of HowlRound Polly Carl leading a session on "generating and sharing knowledge." By coincidence, I'll be on the campus that day. However, the why is a heavily guarded secret. What isn't a secret is that the Black Sea and the Mirror of Korea are excellent places for lunch. Greater Minnesota The sale of the Old Log is being finalized, and the frontrunner would appear to be Twin Cities software developer and theatre enthusiast Greg Frankenfield. I'm a theatre enthusiast too, but my pockets don't run quite as deep. The Old Log's history is extensive, dating back to its founding in 1940. The announcement of the sale came as a surprise to me, but I suppose I can't expect the Old Log to continue on as it was forever. I do hope that Frankenfield continues to operate it as a theatre--I'd hate to see it changed into something else. --- PlaceBase Productions seeks to "bring the stories and natural history of the Minnesota River to life in a one-of-a-kind Paddling Theater experience". The audience will paddle by canoe along from Granite Falls to the Upper Sioux Agency State Park, stopping to experience actors portraying historical characters on the river banks. There is an amazing appeal to this idea, and I want other companies to emulate PlaceBase with this type of historical theatre immersion event. If you're considering attending, let me know in the comments. You can read more about the event here. A Trip Without Memory One of the most complicated news items I read about this week was the developing story of an idea: director Timothy Douglas staged The Trip to Bountiful with African American actors in 2011 at the Cleveland Play House, to great acclaim, and it moved to the Roundhouse in Bethesda, Maryland. It was mounted again this year at the Cincinnati Playhouse. During the staging at the Cincinnati Playhouse, Douglas learned that Trip and his concept of an African American family at the center of the play would be used in Broadway production, directed by a colleague and produced by someone else. Douglas had a great idea that cast the show with a new perspective that audiences responded to, and now it seems like Broadway is appropriating said idea without attribution or credit. What little credit going to Douglas is downplayed. As discussed in the link above, copyright requires a work to be reduced to a fixed form, which proves difficult for ideas and concepts and slippery when applied to a theatre production. Though he doesn't seem to have any legal standing, Douglas had an unique idea and now it's being used without credit. I don't believe that would be difficult to remedy, even if it were by credit and a fee for consultation. But SOMETHING. It feels like he's being cheated otherwise. Impress Me It is difficult to find good people to work with, and when you do, it's a given that you want to continue to lean on the people you've grown to trust. But even though a director may want trustworthy folks who know how they work and can understand their shorthand, a director may also want new blood and talent interacting with their core group. New people bring new ideas, and can spur ideas onstage. This is one of many reasons why auditions are necessary. This Week in Criticism Okay, maybe this is more appropriately titled "The Last Week in August 2011 Criticism", but reading over "The Good That Comes From Bad Reviews" by Jason Zinoman reminded me that you should be passionate about the media you consume, and make your bias and opinions clear as possible. That's the critic's responsibility to the audience. The Root of Evil Last week I spoke about flying out to New York City to see that production of Orphans (there I go, talking about it AGAIN), but now I really want to fly out to see Alan Cumming's one-man Macbeth. It's Ron Rosenbaum's review and rumination on evil in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing that sparked this impulse. Rosenbaum, who wrote Explaining Hitler and The Shakespeare Wars, is not a stranger to exploring Why Bad Guys are Bad. What he takes away unnerves and fascinates me: "This Macbeth acknowledges the evil within us but suggests that there is an evil pervading the very structure of Being itself in this world—a world ruled not by morality but by bloody insanity. A world that comports more with the Gnostic vision that this world was created not by any benevolent God but by an evil demiurge posing as God, beyond God’s control, or worse, doing God’s bidding." A bleak, insane vision. But you don't go to Macbeth expecting unicorns and rainbows. To Willy Shakes Happy belated birthday to the one, the only, William Shakespeare! We owe a lot to Shakespeare, including the expansion of our own language by some 2200 words, among them "addiction", "bedazzled", and "assassination." --- If you have feedback or comments on any of the articles above, or suggestions for future blog and news items, please leave them in the comments or e-mail me at [email protected].