Jason Grote, a while back, wrote a bit of a diatribe about his experiences at the Obies. To follow-up, he's written this piece (which I think is necessary reading) after a conversation with the publicist.
I think he's pretty clear here that his initial criticisms were not intended in any way as against the concept of the Obie Awards and what they provide for the theatre community as a whole. Criticism is not the same thing as calling for public execution.
The Obies are a part of the institutional memory of Off and Off-Off Broadway. Let's hope whichever corporate parent that now holds the purse strings understands that the Village Voice's strength is its connection to the New York community, and its voice (no pun intended) would be hindered by a reduction in its role as unifier and advocate for the arts in New York City.
About Me
- Freeman
- Matthew Freeman is a Brooklyn based playwright with a BFA from Emerson College. His plays include THE DEATH OF KING ARTHUR, REASONS FOR MOVING, THE GREAT ESCAPE, THE AMERICANS, THE WHITE SWALLOW, AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR, THE MOST WONDERFUL LOVE, WHEN IS A CLOCK, GLEE CLUB, THAT OLD SOFT SHOE and BRANDYWINE DISTILLERY FIRE. He served as Assistant Producer and Senior Writer for the live webcast from Times Square on New Year's Eve 2010-2012. As a freelance writer, he has contributed to Gamespy, Premiere, Complex Magazine, Maxim Online, and MTV Magazine. His plays have been published by Playscripts, Inc., New York Theatre Experience, and Samuel French.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
The Impending Theatrical Blogging Event
The Brick Theater, Inc. presents
The Impending Theatrical Blogging Event
at
The Pretentious Festival
Tickets are FREE!
Sunday, June 3, 9pm-10pm.
At The Brick Theater
The New York community of Theater Bloggers blog about blogging as a theatrical event, live, at The Brick Theater or anonymously at a undisclosed locations. Audience members are encouraged to join the blogosphere conversation on laptops provided at the theater for this event. Experience a conversation about the current state of theater and the web from some of the city’s sharpest writers and artists. Live and online at the same time!
Announced participants include
• Aaron Riccio for Theater Talk, That Sounds Cool and metaDRAMA
• Ian W. Hill for Collisionworks
• Isaac Butler for Parabasis
• Jaime for Surplus
• James Comtois for Jamespeak
• Leonard Jacobs for The Clyde Fitch Report
• Ludlow Lad for Off-Off Blogway
• Matt Johnston for Theatre Conversation and Political Frustration
• Matthew Freeman for On Theatre and Politics
• Moxie the Maven
• Rocco for What's Good/What Blows in NY Theatre
• The Playgoer
and many more!
For reservations, visit www.bricktheater.com.
The Impending Theatrical Blogging Event
at
The Pretentious Festival
Tickets are FREE!
Sunday, June 3, 9pm-10pm.
At The Brick Theater
The New York community of Theater Bloggers blog about blogging as a theatrical event, live, at The Brick Theater or anonymously at a undisclosed locations. Audience members are encouraged to join the blogosphere conversation on laptops provided at the theater for this event. Experience a conversation about the current state of theater and the web from some of the city’s sharpest writers and artists. Live and online at the same time!
Announced participants include
• Aaron Riccio for Theater Talk, That Sounds Cool and metaDRAMA
• Ian W. Hill for Collisionworks
• Isaac Butler for Parabasis
• Jaime for Surplus
• James Comtois for Jamespeak
• Leonard Jacobs for The Clyde Fitch Report
• Ludlow Lad for Off-Off Blogway
• Matt Johnston for Theatre Conversation and Political Frustration
• Matthew Freeman for On Theatre and Politics
• Moxie the Maven
• Rocco for What's Good/What Blows in NY Theatre
• The Playgoer
and many more!
For reservations, visit www.bricktheater.com.
The Impending Theatrical Blogging Event (Two for the Price of Two)
Heed!
On Sunday June 3rd at 5:15pm, Interview with the Author takes the stage. It shall bring you great joy when you look upon it. It is at the Brick Theater, as a part of the Pretentious Festival.
On that same evening, at 9pm, I shall take part in The Impending Theatrical Blogging Event as a part of the Pretentious Festival as well. This event will feature a gaggle of theater bloggers, all blogging onsite and off-site, at the same time, as a theatrical event. It will be...well...whatever it is. You'll love it. You have no choice.
If I were a wise person, I would attend Interview with the Author, stick around for Bric-a-Brac at 7pm (or go grab a beer at the Alligator Lounge up the street) and return for the Impending Theatrical Blogging Event at 9pm.
I would be filled to the brim with Freeman. Yes, I do mean that the way it sounds.
...like I am a cup of coffee.
So:
Sunday June 3rd
5:15pm Interview with the Author (buy tickets now!)
7 pm Bric-a-Brac
9pm The Impending Theatrical Blogging Event
Monday Morning: Hungover from the majesty of introspection and beer.
Need I say more?
On Sunday June 3rd at 5:15pm, Interview with the Author takes the stage. It shall bring you great joy when you look upon it. It is at the Brick Theater, as a part of the Pretentious Festival.
On that same evening, at 9pm, I shall take part in The Impending Theatrical Blogging Event as a part of the Pretentious Festival as well. This event will feature a gaggle of theater bloggers, all blogging onsite and off-site, at the same time, as a theatrical event. It will be...well...whatever it is. You'll love it. You have no choice.
If I were a wise person, I would attend Interview with the Author, stick around for Bric-a-Brac at 7pm (or go grab a beer at the Alligator Lounge up the street) and return for the Impending Theatrical Blogging Event at 9pm.
I would be filled to the brim with Freeman. Yes, I do mean that the way it sounds.
...like I am a cup of coffee.
So:
Sunday June 3rd
5:15pm Interview with the Author (buy tickets now!)
7 pm Bric-a-Brac
9pm The Impending Theatrical Blogging Event
Monday Morning: Hungover from the majesty of introspection and beer.
Need I say more?
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Genre
Recently, I was having a late-night chat with a few friends, and we were discussing the term "experimental." The consensus was that the term simply brings up a series of genre images: actors speaking in chorus, disconnected images, naked people hanging from scaffolding, Richard Foreman, The Wooster Group, multi-media, etc. The term has become, for the most part, divorced from its roots, which is to experiment with the form. It's become a genre term, much like Alternative Music was in the 1990s. Foreman, for example, isn't experimenting, one could argue, but is presenting the sort of theatre that he has established as his style for a very long time.
Theatre has a limited palette of descriptors. Drama, Comedy, Tragedy, Experimental, Absurdist. Noh Theatre. Kabuki. Puppet Theater. One-Act, Two-Act, Three Act, Five-Act. Ten-minute play. Monologue. Musical. Improv. Comedy Sports. When we get creative we take a few terms and shove them together. Dark Comedy. Tragicomedy. Dramedy. Play with Music (as opposed to musical.)
There is Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway or Indie Theatre. There is Chicago's Off-Loop, so-called Regional Theater.
Think, then, of the vast array of descriptors in music. Classical and Neo-Classical. Jazz (Smooth Jazz, Fusion Jazz, Dixieland, Traditional). Rock (Hard Rock, Acid Rock, Heavy Metal, Punk Rock, Grunge). Hip Hop (Grime, Crunk, Hardcore, Trip-Hop, Gangsta Rap), Blues...need I go on? Endless derivations and schools of thought and music, all with their particular audience, all easy to find, all easy to quantify and identify.
Thinking about even the term experimental, we still use that term to describe the aesthetic of the 1960s... the Open Theater and the Living Theater.
As we try to reach out to new audiences or consolidate our relationship with existing audiences... perhaps part of our challenge is to more adequately describe our work. The irony of language is that it creates rather firm limits on our imagination if single words are allowed to describe too many things (that is "good" that is "interesting.") As one of the mediums that embraces word play, we can do far more to create new genres or more accurately explain the many types of theater that are present in today's world.
We can stop describing theater by region or size of house or general outcome (Tragedy shall make you cry, Comedy shall make you laugh), and describe the actual feel. Think about words like Crunk, or Funk, or Smooth Jazz. They are Onomatopoeia. They make us immediately imagine what it is that we are going to hear. What we are about to pay for, perhaps.
Think of Elevator Repair Service. From their website:
"The group's theater pieces are built around a broad range of subject matter and literary forms. They combine elements of slapstick comedy, hi-tech and lo-tech design, both literary and found text, found objects and discarded furniture, and the group's own highly developed style of choreography. "
and
"Since its first production in 1991, the company has received frequent high praise in the New York, national and international press. New York Magazine has called ERS "the best experimental theater group in town," while New York Newsday has called the group's work "wacko enough to be truly inspired." Reviewing its 1996 piece, "Shut Up I Tell You" ArtForum noted that "in an admittedly spotty theatrical season E.R.S. . . . stands out not only for its humor and intelligence, but also for its defiant theatricality . . . one of the most intriguing theatrical events I've experienced in some time." The Village Voice says of "Total Fictional Lie," "The work, here, has integrity, intelligence, and precision as well as imaginative skill; and its actors have talent for days." And The New York Times praises TFL for its "fresh and surprising perspective."
That's a very long description, unspecific, and hardly fitting a company with so unique a voice and perspective.
Here is The Wooster Group from its website:
"For over thirty years, The Wooster Group has cultivated new forms and techniques of theatrical expression reflective of and responsive to our evolving culture, while sustaining a consistent ensemble and maintaining a flexible repertory. Wooster Group theatre pieces are constructed as assemblages of juxtaposed elements: radical staging of both modern and classic texts, found materials, films and videos, dance and movement, multi-track scoring, and an architectonic approach to theatre design.
The Wooster Group has played a pivotal role in bringing technologically sophisticated and evocative uses of sound, film and video into the realm of contemporary theatre, and in the process has influenced a generation of theatre artists nationally and internationally. The Group's work is unique because it attracts not only the theatre-going community but also artists and enthusiasts of many other cultural disciplines, such as dance, painting, music, video & film. "
It would take a bit of an effort to see, quickly, the similarities or differences between ERS and Wooster from these descriptions. These are two of the most distinctive theatre companies in country. How do they describe themselves? "Ensemble-based, multi-media, experimental."
I'd take Crunk any day.
Anyone have a better name for what these two do?
Here's a little brainstorm of in-no-particular order genre names for new plays and genres:
Atomic
Bourbon
Cult
Dreck
Electric
Faux
Glamour
HackJob
Iron
Jarhead
Kool-Aid
LitUp
Mnemonic
Non Cents
Opposition
Pop
Qui Nguyen
Ransack
Saturated
Troubadour
Unison
Vox
Wartime
Xenomorph
Zipper
What can I say? I'm no expert. Anyone have some other ideas? Hit me. Anyone recently seen a play that you would called "Vox?" Or "Unison" Theater? or "Pop?"
UPDATE: George Hunka responds to this post here. Or, at least, he appears to. As usual, George and I don't see eye to eye on this subject.
Theatre has a limited palette of descriptors. Drama, Comedy, Tragedy, Experimental, Absurdist. Noh Theatre. Kabuki. Puppet Theater. One-Act, Two-Act, Three Act, Five-Act. Ten-minute play. Monologue. Musical. Improv. Comedy Sports. When we get creative we take a few terms and shove them together. Dark Comedy. Tragicomedy. Dramedy. Play with Music (as opposed to musical.)
There is Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway or Indie Theatre. There is Chicago's Off-Loop, so-called Regional Theater.
Think, then, of the vast array of descriptors in music. Classical and Neo-Classical. Jazz (Smooth Jazz, Fusion Jazz, Dixieland, Traditional). Rock (Hard Rock, Acid Rock, Heavy Metal, Punk Rock, Grunge). Hip Hop (Grime, Crunk, Hardcore, Trip-Hop, Gangsta Rap), Blues...need I go on? Endless derivations and schools of thought and music, all with their particular audience, all easy to find, all easy to quantify and identify.
Thinking about even the term experimental, we still use that term to describe the aesthetic of the 1960s... the Open Theater and the Living Theater.
As we try to reach out to new audiences or consolidate our relationship with existing audiences... perhaps part of our challenge is to more adequately describe our work. The irony of language is that it creates rather firm limits on our imagination if single words are allowed to describe too many things (that is "good" that is "interesting.") As one of the mediums that embraces word play, we can do far more to create new genres or more accurately explain the many types of theater that are present in today's world.
We can stop describing theater by region or size of house or general outcome (Tragedy shall make you cry, Comedy shall make you laugh), and describe the actual feel. Think about words like Crunk, or Funk, or Smooth Jazz. They are Onomatopoeia. They make us immediately imagine what it is that we are going to hear. What we are about to pay for, perhaps.
Think of Elevator Repair Service. From their website:
"The group's theater pieces are built around a broad range of subject matter and literary forms. They combine elements of slapstick comedy, hi-tech and lo-tech design, both literary and found text, found objects and discarded furniture, and the group's own highly developed style of choreography. "
and
"Since its first production in 1991, the company has received frequent high praise in the New York, national and international press. New York Magazine has called ERS "the best experimental theater group in town," while New York Newsday has called the group's work "wacko enough to be truly inspired." Reviewing its 1996 piece, "Shut Up I Tell You" ArtForum noted that "in an admittedly spotty theatrical season E.R.S. . . . stands out not only for its humor and intelligence, but also for its defiant theatricality . . . one of the most intriguing theatrical events I've experienced in some time." The Village Voice says of "Total Fictional Lie," "The work, here, has integrity, intelligence, and precision as well as imaginative skill; and its actors have talent for days." And The New York Times praises TFL for its "fresh and surprising perspective."
That's a very long description, unspecific, and hardly fitting a company with so unique a voice and perspective.
Here is The Wooster Group from its website:
"For over thirty years, The Wooster Group has cultivated new forms and techniques of theatrical expression reflective of and responsive to our evolving culture, while sustaining a consistent ensemble and maintaining a flexible repertory. Wooster Group theatre pieces are constructed as assemblages of juxtaposed elements: radical staging of both modern and classic texts, found materials, films and videos, dance and movement, multi-track scoring, and an architectonic approach to theatre design.
The Wooster Group has played a pivotal role in bringing technologically sophisticated and evocative uses of sound, film and video into the realm of contemporary theatre, and in the process has influenced a generation of theatre artists nationally and internationally. The Group's work is unique because it attracts not only the theatre-going community but also artists and enthusiasts of many other cultural disciplines, such as dance, painting, music, video & film. "
It would take a bit of an effort to see, quickly, the similarities or differences between ERS and Wooster from these descriptions. These are two of the most distinctive theatre companies in country. How do they describe themselves? "Ensemble-based, multi-media, experimental."
I'd take Crunk any day.
Anyone have a better name for what these two do?
Here's a little brainstorm of in-no-particular order genre names for new plays and genres:
Atomic
Bourbon
Cult
Dreck
Electric
Faux
Glamour
HackJob
Iron
Jarhead
Kool-Aid
LitUp
Mnemonic
Non Cents
Opposition
Pop
Qui Nguyen
Ransack
Saturated
Troubadour
Unison
Vox
Wartime
Xenomorph
Zipper
What can I say? I'm no expert. Anyone have some other ideas? Hit me. Anyone recently seen a play that you would called "Vox?" Or "Unison" Theater? or "Pop?"
UPDATE: George Hunka responds to this post here. Or, at least, he appears to. As usual, George and I don't see eye to eye on this subject.
Blackbird is a Librarian
Love this. I take it that we should not only be overjoyed that the British Invasion Mark 2.0 has brought us so many wonderful plays, but grateful they can tame our rowdy, Blackberry obsessed, plebian audiences.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Memorial Day
Monday of a long weekend.
In order to keep this solemn day in our hearts, let us remember the tragedy of spending $300,000 on a workshop of a Broadway musical. A musical that was already relatively well-tested as feature film ("Cry-Baby").
Apparently, this beats spending $25,000.00 for a reading.
This kind of waste would make the Department of Defense salute.
In order to keep this solemn day in our hearts, let us remember the tragedy of spending $300,000 on a workshop of a Broadway musical. A musical that was already relatively well-tested as feature film ("Cry-Baby").
Apparently, this beats spending $25,000.00 for a reading.
This kind of waste would make the Department of Defense salute.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Star Wars Animated - Tales of the New Republic
Great. That's a whole lot more money and time I'm going to spend trying to relive my childhood. I thought I was free! I thought I was free!
UPDATE!
Apparently this is a very good fan trailer. Whoops.
This, though, isn't. And, um, it's much better.
UPDATE!
Apparently this is a very good fan trailer. Whoops.
This, though, isn't. And, um, it's much better.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Fare thee well
Theatre Conversation and Political Frustration. A shame, but it happens. Blogs are self-generated content. Sometimes the need for that sort of expression just isn't there anymore for an individual. Matt (and I can say this 'cause I know the guy) is doing quite well.
Scott Walters Interview
Scott Walters, in the theatre blogging community, is pretty essential. Here's why: He's aching for a fight and he has a strong point of view. I might not agree with him at all times, but I respect his right to have his say. That's the wonderful thing about the internet: it's Democratic.
He is quick on the draw, at times. He can get people pretty riled up. But that's ok with me. He's not New York-Centric, and he has a unique perspective.
So I'd suggest you read the interview with him here. Watch as the Comments Section over there grows.
He is quick on the draw, at times. He can get people pretty riled up. But that's ok with me. He's not New York-Centric, and he has a unique perspective.
So I'd suggest you read the interview with him here. Watch as the Comments Section over there grows.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Do you see more productions because you read theatre blogs?
Trying out this polling stuff, which I always find a bit fun. Here's a question I've been curious about.
Of course, the comments section is open for further depth about the polling results.
Of course, the comments section is open for further depth about the polling results.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Presidential Candidates on Arts Funding?
Shouldn't the arts community (there are a lot of us after all) be requesting a statement from each presidential candidate about their arts funding priorities?
Of the major Democratic Candidates for President, only Dennis Kucinich mentions the Arts on his website, with basic and supportive platitudes and no hard pledges.
Of the Republican Candidates, I found not a single mention of the Arts on their websites.
Now, I'm not a simpleton: I know that the candidates are simply responding to and framing the issues they realize will sway voters in a national election. Iraq, Immigration and Healthcare will get these people elected, the NEA won't.
I'd be curious, as things move foward, what, if anything, is mentioned in interviews, debates and public statements about the arts and arts funding. Am I missing something? Has anyone heard the arts mentioned? If so, where?
NOTE: This from Playgoer, along these lines.
Of the major Democratic Candidates for President, only Dennis Kucinich mentions the Arts on his website, with basic and supportive platitudes and no hard pledges.
Of the Republican Candidates, I found not a single mention of the Arts on their websites.
Now, I'm not a simpleton: I know that the candidates are simply responding to and framing the issues they realize will sway voters in a national election. Iraq, Immigration and Healthcare will get these people elected, the NEA won't.
I'd be curious, as things move foward, what, if anything, is mentioned in interviews, debates and public statements about the arts and arts funding. Am I missing something? Has anyone heard the arts mentioned? If so, where?
NOTE: This from Playgoer, along these lines.
"His stomach ached with loneliness."
Thanks to Phantasmaphile for showing me this image, which makes me giggle with mirthful despair
She found it, I'm told, herein.
Dear readers...Admit you love the Sea Monster. Admit it.
"Legally Blonde" Unfairly Judged
The Broadway-Musical-Based-On-A-Movie-About-How-Hard-It-Is-To-Be-A-Pretty-Stick-Thin-Blonde has been...disrespected? Because it wasn't actually nominated for a Best Musical at the all-important Tony Awards?
I weep for the integrity of Broadway Producers and Television Executives. What is the world coming to?
I weep for the integrity of Broadway Producers and Television Executives. What is the world coming to?
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Spoiler Alert! - Interview with the Author
- Interview with the Author has been noted here, here and of course here.
- You can get your tickets here. They're only $10.
- It will feature not only the Author, but playwright David Johnston (Candy and Dorothy, Busted Jesus Comix, The Oresteia) and actor David DelGrosso (who played Jack, the Gentleman Caller, in The Most Wonderful Love). In what capacity? You'll have to come find out, won't you?
- It will be directed by Kyle Ancowitz and produced by Blue Coyote Theater Group.
- I would like to apologize, in advance, to Sarah Ruhl and Paula Vogel.
- You can get your tickets here. They're only $10.
- It will feature not only the Author, but playwright David Johnston (Candy and Dorothy, Busted Jesus Comix, The Oresteia) and actor David DelGrosso (who played Jack, the Gentleman Caller, in The Most Wonderful Love). In what capacity? You'll have to come find out, won't you?
- It will be directed by Kyle Ancowitz and produced by Blue Coyote Theater Group.
- I would like to apologize, in advance, to Sarah Ruhl and Paula Vogel.
The Obies
Jason Grote gives a first hand accounting of attending the Obie Awards last night. Check it out.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Around the Theatrosphere Today
Over at Parabasis, more on Class.
Mr. Excitement asks for your Obie predictions.
Playgoer puts Brantley and Hilton Als in the Crossfire, with competing views of August Wilson's legacy. (Gotta love that picture of Brantley!)
George Hunka quotes someone I've never read about someone I've never heard of.
And, of course, Matt Freeman generously sends you links to them all. You're welcome.
Mr. Excitement asks for your Obie predictions.
Playgoer puts Brantley and Hilton Als in the Crossfire, with competing views of August Wilson's legacy. (Gotta love that picture of Brantley!)
George Hunka quotes someone I've never read about someone I've never heard of.
And, of course, Matt Freeman generously sends you links to them all. You're welcome.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
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