The NEA Says...

The View From the Top

Good news, everyone! President Obama has finally made a high-level arts appointment! No, we still don't have a nominee to replace Ralph Remington as the NEA's theater director; but we do now have a new appointment to the National Council on the Arts. So, hooray, I think.

Look, I'll be honest, I don't know exactly what the National Council on the Arts does. However, they seem to have the ear of the NEA chair, so putting Diane Rodriguez, a noted actor, writer and director, in the mix couldn't hurt for those of us wishing the NEA had some more change to spare for the theater world. Of course, Rodriguez is also the board chair for Theatre Communications Group, which represents the interests of the larger regional theaters, so we'll wait and see if any of her advice makes something trickle down to the rest of us bottom feeders.

But, it wouldn't be my style to lay out some kind of semi-good news for you without sending you straight into downer mode, would it? Nope. So, following the terrible advice of a Shakespearean blowhard, I will be true to my own self:

Ladies and gentlemen, the aforementioned NEA has just released a pair of new reports on the state of arts attendance in the U.S., and while I would love to focus on the lovely-sounding one titled "A Decade of Arts Engagement", it's really not encouraging that its sister is titled "When Going Gets Tough" and leaves out the whole "the tough get going" part.

There's no two ways to slice it: America's attendance at core arts organizations has been on a steady downward trend for a decade. Those of you out there trying to sell tickets probably already know this, but you should know that it's not just you.

Maybe it's because the internet has made it practically free for people of all stripes to find the things they want to see and hear (and occasionally masturbate to) from the comfort of the their own home. Maybe it's because the arts institutions have failed to adapt to a culture that's way too comfortable with a pair of sweatpants, pizza and Netflix. Or maybe we just have no real clue as to what's going on. The conclusions of the reports don't give definitive answers, but they do confirm some things we desperately want to be true (“Arts attendees placed greater value than non-attendees on listening to others’ opinions and understanding diverse perspectives.”), while also confirming gender normative stereotypes (“Women are more likely than men to dance.”)
 

Now Playing

If you are one of those people who are not afraid to put on some real pants and get off the couch, then you should know that the Walker Art Center's annual festival of "huh?" (otherwise known as Out There) is currently under way. The Walker's Philip Bither has searched the entire world for the best example of two naked guys beating the crap out of each other that is not currently streaming from a gay BDSM website, and, by god, you're going to get it. Sure, someone more sophisticated than myself could probably express a deeper artistic truth to something like Still Standing You, but the show's description leads with a quote from a review in the Toronto Globe and Mail that reads “To say that this contemporary dance piece is memorable is an understatement: You can’t forget watching two naked men manipulate each other’s penises in a game of one-upmanship," so I'm going to go with that angle.

If you're not so interested in what wacky shenanigans are going down at the big box of Reynold's wrapped non-euclidean geometry, then maybe you might want to mosey on over to the Southern Theater this weekend (where, coincidentally, Walker's Out There Series got its start some 27 years ago). That's because the grand experiment that is ARTshare will kick off this weekend. Ever since the Southern announced its new all-you-can-watch theater subscription service, everyone's been asking "Will this actually work?"

Since I need to alert you to an obvious conflict of interests in writing about ARTshare, I'll let you know that my theater company is one of the 15 groups that will share in the program; and I'll also let you know that even I don't know if it will work. It is a grand experiment in every sense of the word, which is very exciting to me (not least of which because I'm hoping that if the experiment fails, comic book wisdom applies and I wind up with superpowers). In an age when theater attendance is declining (see the NEA report above), somebody's got to try something new, and you should know that other people across the country are watching to see what happens. At any rate, I'll be there this weekend for the inaugural performance.

No Love for Critics

One of the perks of being a theater reviewer is that every theater company in town is desperately throwing free tickets in your face all the time. Well, not literally—that would be annoying as hell—but, generally, press enjoy a blissful freedom from money when it comes to attending theater.

Or, at least they used to. We've discussed previously the strange confession of Wall Street Journal reviewer Joanne Kaufman that she frequently ditches shows before their completion, which resulted in her becoming "disinvited" from a number of shows (meaning, "no more free tickets for Joanne). We've also talked about the Toronto theater that stopped giving out tickets to critics for opening night.

Now, jump to the other side of the globe, where Opera Australia has been "disinviting" critics who dared to be critical of Opera Australia. There was a time when almost no theater producers would dare to cut off the free ticket supply train; but in a world where bloggers and social media can easily replace big swathes of arts criticism, it's probably inevitable that we will start to see more defiance like this.

Sydney-based arts writer Deborah Jones shared a few thoughts, nominally about the situation with Opera Australia, but more broadly about the need to disentangle the ideas of "free speech" and "free tickets". And, for you aspiring arts writers out there, I would very much like you to peruse this list of arts writing cliches you should probably ditch. It will make me much more likely to want to give you a free ticket.

See, We're Not So Bad

More good news, everyone! According to a recent German study, actors are more likely than most people to be non-hostile narcissists. I know, that sounds bad. After all, narcissists are self-absorbed and overly convinced of their own talent and importance; but at least you're the "non-hostile" type, which means your raining ego won't hurt anyone. So, hooray again, I guess.

If you're one of those self-aware narcissists who's looking to stay firmly in the "non-hostile" camp, then Playbill's Hey, Johnny! advice column might have some good resolutions for you to follow, such as "I resolve to ask people questions about themselves when I'm at cocktail parties, even if they're not in theatre." So, here's to being better narcissists!