Tag: The Seattle Times

Intiman Asks Artists for Ideas: Sure Sign of the Apocalypse

July 8, 2011

Even if I do say so myself, I have been very good about shutting up and keeping shut since promising to do so a few weeks ago. However, when I ran across Misha Berson’s Seattle Times article “Intiman Interviewing Artists about Company Revival” I simply could not stifle my eagerness to hear what my colleagues in the Seattle theatre scene had to say. So I posted a link on Face Book and sat back waiting for friends’ responses. I didn’t have to wait long:

Stephen McCandless Spend less than you take in. Lather. Repeat.

Rik Deskin I want this to work out for them, but I’m a little miffed that they have disregarded my offer to honor Intiman subscriptions at Eclectic Theater Company. The offer was made before they posted the companies currently listed. Oversight? Probably.

Keri Healey It makes me furious that the timeline for this research into the future artistic direction of the theater is framed by the board (at least in this article) as important “if we want to start approaching funders.” Right back to the old dependent-on-funders model that got them where they are. Why not rethink that construct, too, as they look at alternatives for operating models? What I wonder about is how the implosions at Intiman and Giant Magnet might change the way local funders look at all arts organizations in the coming years. I suspect the level of trust funders have with arts organizations dropped quite a bit recently.Jim Jewell Keri, you are without doubt right on. We need to develop a different stance, more proactive and self-sufficient and more engaged with the audience, if we are going to win back that trust.

Kasia Patora To be honest, my initial response was the same as to when Hulu asks me to “choose my ad experience”: free market research.

Rik Deskin I really believe that Intiman needs to throw out the old book of running a theater and start from scratch, taking insight from ACT, … Jim Jewell and like Stephen McCandless says: don’t spend more than you make. Also, like ACT’s current model, embrace the wealth of local smaller companies, local theatre artists, and most importanly, embrace your goal of making Seattle a World Class Theatre City, cultivating, investing and developing Seattle’s voice. Not New York. Not Chicago. Not Moscow. Seattle!

At this point, Culturebot editor Jeremy M. Barker asks if I’d seen what Isaac Butler had written on his blog Parabasis. The post was so brief I don’t mind quoting it in its entirety here: “Intiman is inviting local theatre artists to submit blueprints for reviving the company. My guess is Paul Mullin wasn’t invited.“
Isaac’s right. Intiman hasn’t invited me, nor are they likely to. One can hardly blame an institution for not extending a solicitation of ideas for its survival from someone who publically called for its swift and merciful death; but a larger question remains: just who are the artists who Intiman plans on polling? And why wouldn’t a discussion of this nature take place publically? (Intiman board chair Bruce Bradburn told Misha that “…throughout July there will be individual discussions with artists about their visions for the company’s future.”)
Comments kept rolling in:

Scot Augustson I find myself more interest in elves than in Intiman’s Future. (And easier to believe in.)

Michael Baker The only way this works is if the artists kidnap the Board à la 9 to 5 and hold them for ransom, while livestreaming it on the web. Also, there should be Dolly covers by Rudinoff.

Mike Rainey I had the impression that the board was more or less the underlying cause for the problems in the first place. It’s like a fart asking how we can make this place smell better.

Jeremy M. Barker HA!

Stephen McCandless I maintain that the Intiman doesn’t need “new ideas”. The management was totally incompetent. To shut down in the fashion they did sternly suggests that their operating principle was “How can we be broke, we still have checks.”

Jim Jewell BTW, plans are quickly coming together for convening a community discussion (not so much about Intiman) about what we are doing well, poorly and what we need to do next. A strictly no-bullshit affair that is going to launch new projects, not float suggestions. Keep an eye and ear out.

Stephen McCandless (continuing) They went over budget, spent their reserves, spent their endowment – all over the course of several years. And when their MD leaves suddenly and suspiciously, only then do they cop to a problem – and even then have no idea how large it is until an outside consultant set them straight. There [was] no one at the wheel. Nobody paying attention. No administration. You can’t just let go of the steering wheel and they claim you need “new ideas” about vehicle suspensions. YOU DON’T. YOU NEED A DRIVER. Who authorized the spend-down of a one-million-dollar endowment and didn’t simultaneously raise concerns about the theatre’s finances? Who? It took years for this to go wrong. Years. And they act like it’s an emergency that reflects on the state of American Theatre. Talk about a sense of entitlement. I might as well try doing a cartwheel and then talk about how the resulting trauma reflects on the state of American Gymnastics and our chances for gold at the next Olympics.

Michael Baker I’ve been an Intiman booster for years, but I can’t fathom this. It actually strikes me as insane–if this “Intiman” (who is that, exactly) were a person, you’d assume heroin addiction. Talking to artists? What about the Intiman subscribers and donors who rallied to support them, only to be told that a) Intiman needs to shut down anyway, and b) they’d spent subscription for next season on debts? How about explaining, in minute detail, exactly how this happened, first. I can only guess that hasn’t happened because of how clubby the board is. The subscribers should form a class action and take the Intiman back themselves.

Paul Budraitis The article doesn’t say that they’re only going to consult with artists and no one else. i understand that financial mismanagement was the root of the problem and that it must be a primary component of their restructuring, but why shouldn’t they talk with local artists – ones who the article states have worked previously with the theatre – while in the process of getting back up off the mat? if they hadn’t done this, someone would be complaining about the fact that they haven’t even bothered to talk to local artists about the future. i say good for them for remembering art while all everyone else wants to do is talk about money.

These are smart people, many of them deeply familiar with the challenges of making theatre both from an artistic and an administrative side. Most of them take great pains to disagree with me as often and as vociferously as possible. I don’t know who the Intiman plans on reaching out to for advice, but if their list doesn’t include at least one of the names chiming in above, then I gotta wonder whether the sounding board they say they seek isn’t really just another echo chamber. I will also be interested to see if Misha Berson and The Seattle Times do any critical follow up on Intiman’s stated plans to include artists’ advice. Given their track record, very little of what the Intiman’s board says should be taken at face value.
P.S. Everyone quoted above has indicated to me that they are okay with being quoted. If by some chance I am mistaken about that, please just let me know and I will remove your quote. Conversely, if you want to add to discussion, please feel free to comment below.

Posted at 8:32 AM in Seattle, Theatre, Theatre News | Comments (1)

Tags: Bruce Bradburn, Culturebot, Intiman, Intiman Board, Intiman Interviewing Artists about Company Revival, Isaac Butler, Jeremy M. Barker, Jim Jewell, Kasia Patora, Keri Healey, Michael Baker, Mike Rainey, Misha Berson, Parabasis, Paul Budraitis, Rik Deskin, Scot Augustson, Stephen McCandless, The Seattle Times
On Institutional Arrogance

February 13, 2011
Seattle has already lost the print edition of the Seattle PI and the … The Empty Space. We need to fight against the Darwinian trend of saying that only the strongest survive, and take action against the slow erosion of the cultural tapestry of Seattle. We are a city that prides itself on its intellectual acuity.

Kate Whoriskey
Artistic Director of the Intiman Theatre
I am often accused of arrogance. The aspersion does not bother me much. I try to remind everyone who will listen that the last thing they should be looking for in a playwright is reticence. Dramatists can be wrong—often are— but after all boldly framed public dialogue is what we wright when we write. Institutional arrogance, however, is an all together different, more heinous sin. My recent work blurring the line between journalism and theatre with NewsWrights United has opened my eyes to the prevalence of this poisonous phenomenon in both fields.
Back in June 2010, at a panel on monetizing on-line news David Boardman, the Managing Editor of The Seattle Times, made a stunning statement about the recent death of his former competition, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “The reality is: it’s not like something was lost.” This is not the first time someone at The Times has gone out of their way to kick the corpse of The P-I. If you choose to watch the video (Boardman makes his remarks at timestamp 52:50 in the video provided below) you will notice that the journalism insider panelists barely blink at Boardman’s chilling dismissal of Seattle’s longest running daily newspaper. In fairness, they might have been reluctant to register the churlishness of one in the rare position to offer them a paying job in their chosen field. (As a playwright I have long since been liberated from this kind of fear, since no artistic director is willing to pay me, or any local playwright, at a rate comparable to even what an Equity actor makes, let alone a living wage.)
The Seattle Times survives through the idiotic exigencies of fate. It could have easily been the other way around, and in their hearts they know it. The jury remains out on newspapers. So “Fairview Fanny”, as The Times is traditionally nicknamed, would do well to watch her step in the cemetery lest she dance into her own grave.
The chasm gapes even wider and closer for The Intiman Theatre, one of Seattle’s three Big Houses. In a recent email to everyone in their database the Intiman made it clear that unless a half a million dollars is raised by the end of March, and then another half million by September, the theatre will cease operations. In the business, we call this a “shoot-the-puppy” campaign: a deeply desperate move, fraught with risk, but also deeply arrogant. At its core the implicit message is:

Our survival matters so much that you should overlook our ineffectuality, our malfeasance, our self-dealing, our cowardice and even the very arrogance of this plea. We matter more than the artists we underpay. We matter more than the audiences we fail to reach. We matter more than the smaller organizations you will not be supporting so that you can help us survive, because we must survive and you must pay now for nothing more than the chance to watch us live another day.

Allow me to honor the clarity of Intiman’s ultimatum with some clarity of my own: I hope they die. I hope they do it soon and with a minimum of suffering. And most of all I hope they do it without siphoning precious funds from the rest of us who make theatre in the Pacific Northwest.
In her note on the Intiman’s blog which I quoted at the top of this post, Artistic Director Kate Whoriskey invokes the ghosts of The Empty Space and The P-I as if she actually suffered their loss instead of showing up on the scene quite recently and long after those beloved institutions succumbed. She merrily previews the upcoming season: “I will be directing my husband in The Playboy of the Western World,” assuming we would be delighted by this nepotism. She must imagine we were similarly delighted when we learned that she had been hand-picked for her position by her predecessor Bart Sher without any input from the community, the patrons, and very little, it seems, even from board “Without the Intiman, will we be as strong?” she implores in closing. And all I can think of is the Lone Ranger joke. He and Tonto are surrounded by a band of Apaches. He says, “Looks like we might die here, old friend.” And Tonto replies, “What’s this “we” shit, Kemosabe?”
Seattle theatre is alive and thriving. Buy me a beer and I will name you at least 100 theatre organizations in Western Washington more deserving of your donation than the Intiman. For now I will give you three for free and attempt to tier them to your tastes:
- If you like raw gusty innovative new stories which actually take place here now in Seattle, then support the project for which I currently serve as Executive Producer, NewsWrights United. We are world premiering our second edition The New New News: A Living Newspaper this Friday. Our ticket prices are considerably more affordable than the Intiman’s. If you can’t make the show, you can still support us here. (I don’t hate our odds of surviving past September.)
- If your tastes are more conservative, but you still want to support a smaller endeavor; if you love the classics and want to see them done with verve, talent and bold new insights, support Seattle Shakespeare Company. They have a production of Three Penny Opera coming up that I am itching to see, since it’s by my favorite German playwright and it stars one of my favorite undersung Seattle actors, John Bogar. You can donate to Seattle Shakes here.
- If your tastes are still more conservative, and/or you are rich enough to consider such smaller theatres beneath the consideration of your largesse, give some money to A Contemporary Theatre. The day before Intiman sent out its desperate plea, its fellow Big House downtown announced that for the second year running it had booked a budget surplus. You can donate to an already healthy ACT here.
All three of these organizations prove that at every level of operations we can do better than what the Intiman has been doing. We know this in our hearts. What we do not know is if the Intiman can do better than what the Intiman has been doing. I tend to doubt it, and that is why I believe it is time to let it die.
Please do not misunderstand me. The shuttering of the Intiman represents a loss nearly as terrible and irrevocable within Seattle’s cultural ecosphere as the loss of the P-I is within Seattle’s journalism world (Mr. Boardman’s fear-born callousness notwithstanding). I will not dance on the Intiman’s grave. But I will also not be a party to keeping the institution on life support past the time of its viability, especially when doing so means diverting funds from theatre arts organizations that have been more successful in reaching and expanding their audiences, like, frankly, NewsWrights United, Seattle Shakespeare Festival and ACT.
The Intiman has been arrogant for a very long time. If Kate’s note is any indication, they have no intentions of improving their tone-deaf messaging. They want you to believe this current crisis was the fault of one lone mismanaging scapegoat. But as Michael Strangeways pointed out on the SLOG comments board: “Brian Colburn… didn’t steal the money, or spend it. Years of overspending and waste and the laziness of the Board has led to the woes of Intiman. It wasn’t one man/woman, but many, including fair haired child Bart Sher.”
Losing the Intiman will be a tragedy, but we will survive. We can even hope to be a better community for it in the long run, if we guard against institutional arrogance. We need to remember that artists matter more than institutions, that audiences matter more than funders, that plays matter more as works of art than career stepping stones. As Mark Handley, author of Idioglossia, remarked on Face Book:

I’m too much of an evolutionist to take this seriously. Every one of the theaters that produced me as a young man are gone, squeezed out by creeping provincialism. People seem to think that this is ALL (read: $60 ticket, NY director, LA actors) or NOTHING (as in: nothing, gone, kaput, out of business) is the way to go… *sigh*

So yes, harsh as it sounds: please let the Intiman die with dignity. Its time is done. In its place, let’s build something new, local and accountable. We actually already have the pieces in place for that. The Intiman will not live to see the promised land, but if Kate Whoriskey is serious about making Seattle her home– claiming its unique triumphs and defeats as hers too– then perhaps she will still be living here when we finally grow into a “world class” theatre town.
* * *

Seattle Channel Video can be played in Flash Player 9 and up
(Above is full video of the panel discussion “Town Square: Revenue Models in the Changing Media Landscape” from which I referenced David Boardman’s glib remarks about the death of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. If you dare, surf a little past the Boardman quote and you can see me holding Publicola’s Josh Feit’s feet to the fire on his equally glib Pollyannaish assessment of arts coverage in the current environment. If you decide to watch the entire event, you will witness the nearly monolithic patronizing attitude of the panel (David Brewster excepted) to questions from an audience who is clearly not buying their uniformly optimistic outlook. Oh, journalists love the concepts of honesty and transparency, as applied to others.)
Posted at 8:32 AM in Seattle, Theatre, Theatre News | Comments (1)

Tags: Bruce Bradburn, Culturebot, Intiman, Intiman Board, Intiman Interviewing Artists about Company Revival, Isaac Butler, Jeremy M. Barker, Jim Jewell, Kasia Patora, Keri Healey, Michael Baker, Mike Rainey, Misha Berson, Parabasis, Paul Budraitis, Rik Deskin, Scot Augustson, Stephen McCandless, The Seattle Times
Maurice Clemmons is in the Air

February 9, 2011

Over the last 48 hours on-line news sources have exploded with fresh stories about Maurice Clemmons, the prematurely released Arkansas felon who, on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, 2009, walked into a coffee shop outside Tacoma, Washington and murdered four Lakewood Police officers as they drank their morning coffee. Clemmons then led law enforcement on a two-day wild goose chase throughout Western Washington before being shot dead in Seattle by a lone cop. In those two days it became clear that local journalism would never be the same, not in Seattle, not anywhere.
It is this very urgent transition which we cover in our latest production The New New News: Living Newspaper, investigating the on-line reportage of the Clemmons Manhunt in a section we call “#WAshooting” after the Twitter hashtag used to track tweets concerning the ongoing chase. We are fairly certain that our upcoming opening, (Friday, February 18) has exactly nothing to do with the recent rash of articles about Clemmons, but we welcome the renewed interest in the case nonetheless, and not just because it might cause the curious to check out our show. The story of Maurice Clemmons will not go away, nor should it, because its implications affect the future of Western Washington, U.S. national politics and the nature of journalism across the globe.
Certainly the once-and-possibly-future presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is hoping we forget about Clemmons. While Governor of Arkansas, Huckabee granted clemency to the 8-time felon, who otherwise would have been incarcerated until 2015, in part because Clemmons claimed in his application that he came from “a very good Christian family.” (One need not wonder what Huckabee’s decision would have been if instead “Muslim” had been the adjective modifying the subject of that clause.)
Likewise, it is not hard to trace a deterioration of relations between Western Washington police and the communities they serve since Clemmons’ murderous rampage. Had Maurice never left his Arkansas prison would Seattle Police Officer Ian Birk have given Native American wood-carver, John T. Williams, more than four seconds to put down his carving knife before shooting him dead?
We will never know the answer to that, but we do know with certainty that active crime investigations will never be covered the same anywhere in the future. From now on, journalists, law enforcement, regular citizens, and yes, even criminals, will all be privy to instant information, some of it deeply flawed or downright false, as it emerges on Twitter or whatever tool we will be using to share data. We examine this fundamental shift in The New New News. I could tell you how, but really, I’d rather show you. The first copy drops on West Seattle’s doorstep a week from Friday. Why not order your “subscription” now?
Cross-posted at NewsWrights United: The Blog.

Posted at 8:32 AM in Seattle, Theatre, Theatre News | Comments (1)

Tags: Bruce Bradburn, Culturebot, Intiman, Intiman Board, Intiman Interviewing Artists about Company Revival, Isaac Butler, Jeremy M. Barker, Jim Jewell, Kasia Patora, Keri Healey, Michael Baker, Mike Rainey, Misha Berson, Parabasis, Paul Budraitis, Rik Deskin, Scot Augustson, Stephen McCandless, The Seattle Times
The New Posters are Here! The New Posters are Here!

January 20, 2011

Could I be more excited?!
The new posters are in for The New New News: A Living Newspaper, and NewsWrights United’s magnificent Managing Producer, Jim Jewell, will be handing them off to Keep Posted for delivery around the Puget Sound. Soon you’ll be seeing one on the wall of your favorite tragically hip coffee shop!
Could I be more pleased!?
No, I don’t think I could.
(Haven’t been so happy about a poster since this.)
For more information on the show, and how to order reservations in advance, click here.

Posted at 8:32 AM in Seattle, Theatre, Theatre News | Comments (1)

Tags: Bruce Bradburn, Culturebot, Intiman, Intiman Board, Intiman Interviewing Artists about Company Revival, Isaac Butler, Jeremy M. Barker, Jim Jewell, Kasia Patora, Keri Healey, Michael Baker, Mike Rainey, Misha Berson, Parabasis, Paul Budraitis, Rik Deskin, Scot Augustson, Stephen McCandless, The Seattle Times
Extra! Extra! The New New News to Drop at a Seattle Doorstep Near You!

January 18, 2011

It’s official. We have the dates and we are rolling out the press release to local and national media as I post this. The second edition of NewsWrights United’s Living Newspaper: The New New News will be delivered at three—count ‘em, THREE!—theatrical doorsteps throughout Seattle: North, South and Central. I am enclosing the release, authored by our magnificent Managing Producer, Jim Jewell, so that you can have all the coveted details:
*****
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 13, 2011
Media Contact: Jim Jewell, Managing Producer
jim@newswrightsunited.org
206.359.1738
NewsWrights United presents…
The New New News:
A Living Newspaper about
Journalism in the Age of New Media
SEATTLE, WA – NewsWrights United will be delivering the next edition of their Living Newspaper to neighborhoods throughout Seattle this spring with The New New News: A Living Newspaper, opening February 18, 2011 at Olympic Theatre at South Seattle Community College (SSCC). The New New News will remain at Olympic Theatre through February 20, 2011 before moving to Erickson Theatre on Capitol Hill February 24-27, 2011 and finally to Stage One Theatre at North Seattle Community College (NSCC) March 2-13, 2011.
      The New New News: A Living Newspaper was written by NewsWrights Executive Producer Paul Mullin and Creative Producer Dawson Nichols, in collaboration with Editing Producer Tom Paulson, and will be directed by Nichols.
      The New New News: A Living Newspaper examines journalism in the age of new media, paying special attention to the implications to information and democracy created by the collapse of newspapers, the 24-hour news cycle and the demands of monetizing media. The play follows the staff of The New New News, an online news provider dedicated to coverage of online news, after their primary financier has given them just 12 hours to double website traffic or be shut down. Coverage of the Maurice Clemmons manhunt and The Seattle Times’ subsequent Pulitzer win, NW sports-writing legend Art Thiel’s efforts to launch and monetize his own sports site, hyper-local political bloggers, live-and-mobile streaming and the ascendance of Twitter underscore The New New News crews’ efforts to create immediate and compelling news. The New New News examines the choices journalists make when their livelihood is on the line and success is measured by the eyeball and the minute.
      This is the second Living Newspaper produced by NewsWrights United, serving a similar function as the first while breaking new ground. “It’s Not In The P-I was about the death of a newspaper,” says Nichols. “The New New News is about journalism in the new media environment – who produces it, who consumes it, how it is different from the journalism we have known. Like the first play, this one is local and timely, addressing these issues through stories and people that are rooted in Seattle.”
      These are familiar themes for NewsWrights, as they view part of their mission as the revitalization of both theatre and journalism, and localism as a key to success. Jokes Mullin, “Immediacy comes in two basic flavors: one of time and one of space. When you bring journalism into a theatre, you bring the two different flavors together for an explosively tasty combination! It’s better than peanut butter and jelly.”
      This newest Living Newspaper will once again be produced in cooperation with NSCC’s theatre program (which is led by NewsWrights’ producer Nichols), and will bring together professional actors with NSCC students. The professional cast includes Michelle Chiachiere, Mark Fullerton, Joe Ivy, Catherine Kettrick, Joe McCarthy and Jordan Williamson. Dan Schuy from NSCC serves as Technical Director, Lighting Designer and Set Designer.
    The full performance schedule for The New New News: A Living Newspaper is as follows:
Olympic Theatre at South Seattle Community College (SSCC)
6000 16th Ave. SW, Seattle, 98106
Friday February 18 and Saturday February 19 @ 7:30pm
Sunday February 20 @ 2pm
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/148545
The Erickson Theatre on Capitol Hill (part of Seattle Central Community College)
1524 Harvard Ave, Seattle, 98122
Thursday February 24, Friday February 25 and Saturday February 26 @ 7:30pm
Sunday February 27 @ 2pm
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/148614
Stage One Theatre at North Seattle Community College (NSCC)
9600 College Way North, Seattle, 98103
Wednesday March 2 at Noon
Friday March 4, Saturday March 5, Friday March 11 & Saturday March 12 @ 7:30pm
Sunday March 6 and Sunday March 13 @ 2pm
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/148619
All performances Pay What You Will. Advance reservations available at Brown Paper Tickets for each performance venue as listed above.

NewsWrights United would like to thank 4Culture, Vulcan, Shunpike and their many individual donors for supporting The New New News and other programs of NewsWrights United.
###
About NewsWrights United
NewsWrights United was founded in 2009 by playwrights Paul Mullin and Dawson Nichols and former P-I reporter Tom Paulson to produce It’s Not in the P-I: A Living Newspaper About a Dying Newspaper. Managing Producer Jim Jewell and Dramaturg Wes Andrews joined the team in summer 2010. NewsWrights United’s mission is to produce and advance the form of the Living Newspaper – local, topical stories pursued with journalistic rigor and presented through the medium of live theatre.
About Shunpike
Shunpike is a 501(c)(3) non-profit art service organization whose mission is to strengthen the Seattle arts community by partnering with small and mid-size arts groups to develop the business tools they need to succeed. Working in close partnership with these groups, Shunpike helps solve problems quickly and impart vital skills in finance, organizational management and arts administration.

Posted at 8:32 AM in Seattle, Theatre, Theatre News | Comments (1)

Tags: Bruce Bradburn, Culturebot, Intiman, Intiman Board, Intiman Interviewing Artists about Company Revival, Isaac Butler, Jeremy M. Barker, Jim Jewell, Kasia Patora, Keri Healey, Michael Baker, Mike Rainey, Misha Berson, Parabasis, Paul Budraitis, Rik Deskin, Scot Augustson, Stephen McCandless, The Seattle Times
NewsWrights’ Awareness & Fundraising Event – How’d we do?

November 19, 2010

NewsWrights United held its first ever awareness/fundraising event, Journalism: a.WAKE.ning? this past Monday night. After taking a few days to recover, I thought it was high time to take a look at how we did.
Goal 1: Raising Awareness
The Excerpt Reading
The evening’s kick off entertainment came with Dawson Nichols’ staging of the first scene of our working script for upcoming second edition of our Living Newspaper: The New New News, featuring the inestimable talents of Robert Agostinelli, Shawn Belyea, Khanh Doan, Amy Love, Joseph P. McCarthy, and our own Wes Andrews. It is rollercoaster fun for a playwright to watch talented professional actors read, after very little rehearsal, words one collaborated to wright. One moment you stand horrified helpless witness as they mangle laugh lines you crafted and treasured so dearly; the next moment thrill blossoms again as they find whole new laughs you never expected or designed. Shawn Belyea embodied the definition of a professional actor– versus, say, a very talented and eager amateur– when he managed to wring the biggest laugh of the night out of losing his place in the script.
The Panel Discussion
Our Consulting Producer, Tom Paulson, ran this discussion of the current state of journalism, with such local luminaries as legendary sports columnist Art Thiel, new media maven, Monica Guzman, Mark Higgins, Metro Editor for The Seattle Times, Brendan Kiley, Theater Critic and Features Reporter for The Stranger, and Chris Grygiel, coordinator of political coverage for the Seattle P-I.com. Personally, I found this panel discussion the most exciting portion of the evening. Tom pointed hard-hitting questions at everyone in the room, and not one of the panelists shied away from answering frankly, a rare occurrence, as you would know if you have attended similar discussions in the last couple years. Journalists have been very leery about hashing through the woes of their industry. For a quick rundown of the various points-of-view represent, I cannot do better than the rundown provided by Jake Ellison over at Seattlepostglobe.org, which you can check out by clicking here.

One moment seemed to leap out for nearly everyone in the room. Several good friends gave me their feedback in the days after and nearly all of them specifically mentioned the earnest and well-argued exchange between Art Thiel and Brendan Kiley regarding the definition of a journalist. Is it, as Art argued, an expert in a certain field or, per Brendan, an aggressive novice? One friend clearly felt Brendan played the wrong-headed asshole in the debate; the other friend, however, remarked on how freaked out he was by what he viewed as Art’s vehement defensiveness. To a playwright this sounds like magic. When you can produce something on stage from which different audience members can draw diametrically opposed notions of who the villain was, then you are most definitely cooking with gas.
GRADE FOR AWARNESS RAISING – 95% – “A”
Goal 2: Raising Funds
Of course, the second and co-equal goal for Journalism: a.WAKE.ning? was to raise additional funds for our upcoming second edition: The New New News: A Living Newspaper. We did that, posting a considerable surplus for the evening, but we could have done it better. We are a new organization and still learning out how to do the all things we need to do to survive and thrive. We will get better at this.
GRADE FOR FUND RAISING – 82.7% – “B-minus”
And now to you . . .
Because we continue reaching for our support goals, I would like to ask you right now to consider joining the NewsWrights team as a supporting member. We have a wide spectrum of levels at which you can join. I ask you to consider coming on as at least a “Cub Reporter” for a donation of $25.
At the $50 level you will be listed in our program as a “Columnist” and in recognition of your generosity, you will receive, while supplies last, a limited edition Seattle P-I ball cap just like the one you see Artistic Producer Dawson Nichols smartly modeling in the photo to the right.
At the “Desk Editor” level, representing a $100 gift, you will receive two hats, plus two reserved seats to any performance including one of our three opening nights, as we deliver the paper to Seattle’s doorstep in three neighborhoods: West Seattle, Capitol Hill and Northgate.
At the $1,000 “Media Mogul” level you will receive all of those perks, plus coverage of any local story you want by NewsWrights United, because we, like certain cable TV news operations, can clearly be bought.
Finally, if all you can spare is $10, we would be deeply grateful to have you join our team as a “Newsie”.
The bottom line is we want your support– any support– because your support represents your “buy-in” to our mission, and that keeps us strong both fiscally and spiritually. So please consider joining us at whatever level you can. It’s as easy as clicking on our trusty upside-down NewsWrights Support Fedora, below. It will take you to our Shunpike donation page.
Thank you so much for filling our hat with your support!
(Also, if you have not already done so, please consider “liking” our Face Book page here. For now, it is the very best way to keep track of our doings and some very evocative discussions around current journalism issues. )

Posted at 8:32 AM in Seattle, Theatre, Theatre News | Comments (1)

Tags: Bruce Bradburn, Culturebot, Intiman, Intiman Board, Intiman Interviewing Artists about Company Revival, Isaac Butler, Jeremy M. Barker, Jim Jewell, Kasia Patora, Keri Healey, Michael Baker, Mike Rainey, Misha Berson, Parabasis, Paul Budraitis, Rik Deskin, Scot Augustson, Stephen McCandless, The Seattle Times
At Least One of Our Theatre Critics is also a Journalist

November 5, 2010

Brendan Kiley just broke some more substantiated details on the crisis at Intiman Theatre over at The Stranger’s Slog.
So my question for The Seattle Times would be, where was Misha Berson on all this?
There’s an old joke about the Seattle ethos of crippling “niceness”.

In Chicago, the car behind you will honk as soon as the light turns green.

In New York, the car behind on you will honk exactly one second before the light turns green.

In Seattle, the light can cycle through green yellow red… green yellow red… green yellow red… forever before anyone will discover that you’ve keeled over dead of a heart attack.

So, was Misha just going to wait until a press release was pushed out? Or should our only surviving daily newspaper step up and occasionally do some shoe-leather arts reporting without solely relying on the story the perpetrators choose to tell us?

Posted at 8:32 AM in Seattle, Theatre, Theatre News | Comments (1)

Tags: Bruce Bradburn, Culturebot, Intiman, Intiman Board, Intiman Interviewing Artists about Company Revival, Isaac Butler, Jeremy M. Barker, Jim Jewell, Kasia Patora, Keri Healey, Michael Baker, Mike Rainey, Misha Berson, Parabasis, Paul Budraitis, Rik Deskin, Scot Augustson, Stephen McCandless, The Seattle Times
Misha Versus Joe

March 25, 2010

It is a long-standing fantasy among show people to perpetrate a “turn-about” and review the reviewers, but really, if want to do what you do best, stay at your own level and not sink to mere criticism, the proper “turn-about” for stage folk is to stage the critics. That is exactly what we did here.
Misha vs Joe from NewsWrights United on Vimeo.
Misha Berson, Theatre Critic for The Seattle Times was not happy with this portrayal and made her displeasure clearly known to all of the producers including myself. Others, especially ex-staffers for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer complained about how we savaged their former colleague, Joe Adcock; but I completely disagree with this appraisal and I suspect Joe might too. For me the piece lands clearly on a final note of love. The genuine pain I felt upon Joe’s departure was not shared by many in my community, but I have to hope this is because they did not know him very well, or care to. One Big House artistic director reportedly remarked on learning of Joe’s retirement: “Ding dong, the witch is dead!” I suspect that same AD will feel the same when/if I finally leave town, dead or alive. I say, be careful when casting anyone as the witch: for all you know, many may picture you surrounded by ugly flying monkeys. For my part, I want to dance with the Big House witches, not wish them dead. I wish my dear witches would wake up. And I am determined to do everything it takes to make that happen.
I have seen how theatre gets covered in other towns Seattle’s size. I am glad we have Misha and Brendan Kiley and all the others. In the current crisis of journalism, every critic we lose is an irrevocable loss. Alas, I suspect Misha does not feel the same about me. After all, playwrights are a dime a dozen, and happily we do not depend on the survival of any one institution. Formidable is the power of nothing to lose. At this ripe moment in the history of our art form, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Posted at 8:32 AM in Seattle, Theatre, Theatre News | Comments (1)

Tags: Bruce Bradburn, Culturebot, Intiman, Intiman Board, Intiman Interviewing Artists about Company Revival, Isaac Butler, Jeremy M. Barker, Jim Jewell, Kasia Patora, Keri Healey, Michael Baker, Mike Rainey, Misha Berson, Parabasis, Paul Budraitis, Rik Deskin, Scot Augustson, Stephen McCandless, The Seattle Times