Subsidize. Recognize.

Moving Pictures In last week's action-packed episode of News and Notes, we found out that Minnesota's Legislative Auditor is making plans to do a critical evaluation of the Minnesota Film and TV Board. The Board, tasked with luring TV and film productions to the state, was rejoicing over receiving $10 million from the state to spend on tax rebates and incentives for the Snowbate program. As with any program funded by tax dollars, Tea Party types are all in favor of hacking away at it, 'cause the government. Not content to be a punching bag, the Film and TV Board president Dan Satorius, has come back swinging. His opinion piece in the Star Tribune this week makes the case for the Board and its programs. In the weeks to come, there will be plenty of piling on from all sides, so if you're in the business of moving pictures and you'd like to get your opinion in, the Film and TV Board is holding its first town hall meeting of 2014 on Wednesday, January 29. Elsewhere in the Land of Recorded Images Last year, NBC gave the world the production that no one had been asking for: a live broadcast of the stage version of The Sound of Music filmed on a vacuous sound stage and featuring a country singer who can't act in the lead. Even though the actual entertainment value contained within said program was fairly low, America showed up to hate-watch it in droves just so they could say mean things about it later (by the way, Carrie Underwood says you need Jesus, you mean people.) Well, congratulations, America. Since you handed NBC their highest non-football-related ratings since the finale of Frasier, they have responded like a giant lab rat who will continue to hit the button over and over again expecting another food pellet. The company announced recently that this year they will attempt the same stunt again, this time with Peter Pan. I guess it's a tradition now. So decades from now, when you and your children tune in for the annual hate-watch at NBC, and your little ones turn to you and say, "Mommy! Daddy! This is really awkward and kind of boring! Why does NBC inflict this upon us annually?" (your kids' vocabulary is quite advanced, as it it turns out) you can answer truthfully, "Because we asked them to, honey. Now be good and make that list of 14 Ways NBC Mangled Oklahoma! like I told you." Empty Spaces With Gremlin Theatre still looking for new digs and the Theatre Space Project still working on rehabbing its new home, St. Paul lost two regular theatre spaces this year. Two small houses may not seem like much in the context of the entire metro, but it has created a noticeable rush on available time at the remaining spaces in town. However, St. Paul will be adding one more space to its roster. The Twin Cities Community Land Bank will purchase the old Victoria Theater on University Avenue in the city's Frogtown neighborhood with the goal of rehabbing it into a small theater space. It will be awhile before it's up and running--the volunteer-run Victoria Theater Arts Initiative that will control the space is still seeking dollars and workers--but St. Paul has taken one more step toward stealing Minneapolis' small theater thunder. Over in Minneapolis, if you stand in the shadow of the big blue giant on the riverfront and listen very closely, you know what you will hear? That's right. Nothing. For the first time since the Guthrie Theater moved into its new digs by the river, there is absolutely nothing going on at the space. Of course, anyone who bothered to read the Guthrie's calendar when they announced their 2013-2014 season would have noticed this hole in their programming, so that's not really news. What is news is that the big G put almost all of its employees on furlough for a week. Even though the Guthrie is trying to spin the down time as a chance to finally get those darn floors resurfaced it's no secret that the company went in to this season knowing that they would be making major cuts. The unexpected $438,000 loss on the 2012-2013 season probably isn't helping matters. Let the Giants Fall? Of course, it's an old tradition around here to pick on the Guthrie. After all, it presents an easy target as a large legacy organization that sucks up most of the money and limelight while other organizations in its shadow struggle. Over in the UK (which pumps far more money into its state-funded arts programs), the Guardian's Lyn Gardner made the case for allowing large legacy organizations to rise and fall on their own merits. Her argument is that our obsession with maintaining storied, stagnant institutions cuts into funding the smaller, grassroots companies that are actually pushing for innovation and adaptation. Of course, this argument is as old as market capitalism itself, and taken to its extreme (I refer you once again to the Tea Party link above), it could be used to say that no theatre should be subsidized, since it should always be adapting and responding to its market. On the other hand, that's the same logic that will give us many more boring live broadcast musicals in the future. In the meantime, much of the government and foundational granting is moving away from funding arts directly and toward funding various ideas of "community building". The fact that theatre in the United States (aside from Broadway, which is its own multi-headed beast) has to rely so heavily on subsidy to survive has been leading artists to predict its death for decades now. If you want some alleviation from this sad state of affairs, then Joseph Haj has some inspiring words for you on why theatre is not dying. Getting Paid Last week, we heard about the crowded Actor's Equity Association meeting that was attempting to address the dwindling paychecks of performers in touring companies. It's telling that the meeting did not produce any results that anyone could report, since, as Chris Jones reports in the Chicago Tribune, the falling pay has a lot to do with Equity's own negotiations with the industry. As a consumer, you may think that this will translate into cheaper tickets for you, but, as Jones explains in his article, it may end up hurting the quality of your entertainment more than you may think. Meanwhile, over at HowlRound, Lydia Stryk makes an argument for a guaranteed basic income for artists that is "unconditionally granted to all on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement". To a bunch of red-blooded 'Mericans, this may sound a little bit too much like socialism (or communism or fascism, I guess; I can't tell the difference 'cause USA! USA! USA! Wooooo!) that only those weirdo Europeans would practice. Over in socialist Europe, however, even with all their vaunted arts subsidies, there is still no guarantee that artists can make a living. The city of Madrid is now forcing its street performers to audition for the right to hold their hats out. OK, Maybe We'll Settle for Just Being Recognized But for some reason, we all continue trying at this thing called theatre. We don't always succeed. I was recently introduced to a tumblr site that collects what they call "Terrible PR Pictures from the Theater of the United States". Granted, a lot of the press pictures listed there are objectively bad photography, but the site also strips all identifying information (and links or credit to the theatre companies), which can teach you a lot about how removing context can change how a picture is viewed. Viewing this site led the writer over at Arts Junkie to share his thoughts on what companies can do to make sure they have better publicity shots. But if we can't get paid and can't get a decent photo, maybe someday someone will give us an award for something. If you want to take part in deciding the someday that this something gets someone that award, the Ordway is currently taking nominations for their Sally awards.