Hypothetical: if my actions made it plain to you that I neither knew nor cared that you existed, would it be rude, or perhaps just presumptuous, for me then to insist that you care deeply if I died? Or would it just be weird?
Essentially this is the position that Seattle’s regional theaters put me and every single one of my local but nationally known playwrighting colleagues. “You have to understand,” say good friends of mine working at the Big Houses. “We are simply trying to survive here. Surely, you don’t want to see us go out of business. Surely that wouldn’t help your career as a playwright.”
Surely not.
Let me state categorically that I do not want to see any of Seattle’s Big Houses go out of business. (My play Louis Slotin Sonata was the Empty Space’s last production before being killed by its board, so I have a deep and personal understanding of the pain such an irrevocable loss can inflict.) Let me state further that I understand that such a catastrophe would surely not help my career as playwright. Here’s the problem. Would it hurt?
Probably not.
If I have seemed at times radical or outrageous in my banging on the Big Houses, let me assure you, gentle reader, that among my nationally known local playwright colleagues I am, in fact, a moderate voice. Allow me to introduce to you, if you do not already know him (and sadly I fear that the artistic leaders at all of the Seattle’s Big Houses suffer from this specific ignorance), Louis Broome, author of the Ovation Award-winning Texarkana Waltz.
This is from his recent blog reviewing Outrageous Fortune.
If the tax-exempt laws that have sickened theater were repealed, the very next day almost all of the theaters would shut down and a bunch of administrators would be out of work. The players – the actors, playwrights, designers and directors, who were already out of work most of the time anyway – would no longer have the theaters to blame for their sorry state. They would have to either give up the theater and get day jobs, or figure out a way to make theater pay the rent.
I love Louis. I love that he is part of this conversation. I see a lot of holes in Louis’s broader manifesto, i.e. all theatre must be for profit. But I am not prepared to wager he will not fill them in time and with cunning. I am dubious of and vaguely bored with his calls for revolution. But I half-wonder if this is not just my own personal aversion to that word. Others, younger and less jaded, will not necessarily share this particular semantic qualm. Louis stands as a healthy reminder, for anyone who cares to listen, of just how broken the theatre has become and just how frustrated we playwrights are with the administrative machines that have knowingly continued down a path they can see leads nowhere, all the while warning us artists not to say anything negative less we hasten their demise.
So you see, we playwrights run a spectrum. Some care deeply and unconditionally that the Big Houses exist. Some, like Louis, could not care less. And some of us, like myself, have decided at long last to make our caring contingent on getting a little love in return. So show us you care, you happy few who make your living off this thing of ours. Show up on Monday, March 1. It will mean a lot to us. And we have long memories.
Theatre Puget Sound hosts
Outrageous Fortune
March 1, 2010
9AM – 1PM
Detail: 9am – 10:30 Presentation by author Todd London
Break – snacks
10:40 – 12:00pm Q & A in large group
Break – lunch type snacks
12:10 – 1pm small group breakouts and report back
Center House Theatre
rsvp: TDFRSVP@tpsonline.org
Theatre Development Fund, the national service organization, is convening a meeting of playwrights, artistic directors, funders, theatre managers and others in conjunction with Theatre Puget Sound at the Center House Theater in Seattle on March 1, 2010 from 9:00am-1:00pm to stimulate conversation and action to support new American play production. Tory Bailey, executive director of Theatre Development Fund, Todd London, artistic director of New Dramatists, and co-author Ben Pesner will lead the gathering, which will begin with a presentation of the results of an intensive study of new play production in America and then open out to an inclusive conversation.
TDF has just released the book OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE NEW AMERICAN PLAY written by Todd London and Ben Pesner, with research consultant Zannie Giraud Voss. The book, drawing on six years of research, examines the lives and livelihoods of American playwrights today and
the realities of new play production from the perspective of both playwrights and not-for-profit theatres. The study represents the most comprehensive field study in the history of the not-for-profit theatre to analyze new play production practices and the economics and culture of playwriting in America. Set against a backdrop of dwindling audiences for dramatic work, OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE NEW AMERICAN PLAY makes clear the urgent need for new conversations and practices if the American play is to flourish.The March 1 meeting will share the study findings and facilitate the beginning of a conversation in which participants can identify possible ways to improve conditions for the production of new American plays, community by community. We hope that a wide group of individuals from the theatre community in the Seattle area will join this conversation.