Behind the Judging System

On Monday, July 21, we announced the nominees for the 2008 New York Innovative Theatre Awards. We have this event early in the summer so that we can use the 2 months leading up to the awards ceremony to really promote the nominees and their outstanding work.

Every year around this time, we receive a number of emails asking us how the nominees are selected. The IT Awards are based on a peer evaluation system. The nominees are selected by a combination of 3 judges from other OOB productions. Each of the judge's ballots are worth 25% of the production's score. The final 25% comes from the average of the audience ballots for that production. There is a fun little video that details this process and a PowerPoint presentation about it. Basically we've set up the infrastructure and maintain it, but the community itself selects the nominees.

Judges are assigned randomly from our pool of judges, which numbers at about 350 at any given time. The only exception to it being entirely random is:

1. We try to have at least 1 At-Large judge* for every production.

2. Judges are asked in advance in which boroughs they are willing to see shows. We only assign them productions in the boroughs that they indicate.

Each year the ballots are all tallied and verified by an independent public accountant and go through careful fraud detection and analysis.

Okay, I do get to see who the nominees are about 6 weeks before they are announced to the rest of the world, but I am always surprised who they are. I've heard through the grapevine that some people think we favor our friends….which amuses me and frustrates me all at the same time. We have gone to such lengths to make sure that this is all legitimate. Nick, Jason and I are not permitted to vote as judges for the awards. So if I really loved a show, the best I could do is cast an audience ballot, which I do for every registered production I see. But that and that alone is the extent of the power I have to get a show nominated. Honestly I was very disappointed when we first made the decision that we could not be judges, but in the long run, it was the right decision. (And I do have to say that one of the things I appreciate about the OOB community is that we are skeptical, we don't just accept things at face value and we are always questioning the status quo to make sure they are on the up-and-up, so even though it may be trying at times, I would rather be questioned about it and address it than have people just think we are trying to pull a fast one.)

It is also important to note that The IT Awards were founded to help bring recognition to Off-Off-Broadway and to help nurture the Off-Off-Broadway community. The judging system is a direct result of trying to provide opportunities for artists to see each others' work, free of charge. It is a venue for artists to see and become familiar with the work of other Off-Off-Broadway companies and artists, some of which they might otherwise never know.

If you have questions or comments, I'd love to hear them. You can email me at shay at nyitawards.com.

Shay Gines

*At-Large Judges are judges in the IT Awards judging pool that come from the greater New York theatre community such as reviewers or other well rounded theatre aficionados. As such, they do not represent a specific company or production and can see upwards of 100 Off-Off-Broadway productions every season.

Puppets. Puppets? Puppets!

It's been a very puppet-y couple of weeks for me. It started at Ontological-Hysteric Incubator production of La Santa: Pistola y Corazon by Sintroca, an "Image Based Performance Company". I'm not 100% sure what makes a production company image based, but I do know Innovative Theatre when I see it. The show was an engrossing mixed-media event blending live music, dance, Raymond Chandler film noir, world languages and…puppetry. I liked it a lot and look forward to their next stage creation.

Summer, in general, brings me back to the best parts of my otherwise depressing suburban childhood. The summer of 2002, I arrived at the O'Neill Playwright's Conference approximately a week after Avenue Q had taken the Music Theater Conference by storm. Two summers later, I listened to "Fine, Fine Line" about 1,000 times to get over a painful break-up. When, earlier this summer, I caught their touring company's visit to Charm City Cakes on Ace of Cakes, I was amazed by the show all over again.

I loved IT Award recipient Basil Twist's work on Carrie, starring Sherry Vine, at PS122 and have come to believe that puppets are a brilliant way for OOB to save money. They are the ultimate in elaborate, interactive props AND dual role casting without an extra costume. Every efficiency-minded troupe should seriously consider "hiring" them.

And, of course, "three makes a meme" so tonight, I head way out west for Ars Nova's Jollyship The Whiz-Bang. Puppets ahoy!

Hillary Cohen, New York Innovative Theatre Awards Development Manager

PS - Be sure to take our survey, and encourage your friends to do the same.

Blogroll & a survey!

Hello lovely IT readers!

I researched this week's blog by dipping into my Google reader to catch up on the Arts blogoshere, and was smacked into realization that I was WAY out of it. Job submissions and auditions don't necessarily allow you to catch up on your arts blogs…

I remembered an event I had intended to go to, and was sorry to have missed:
Saving our Cultural Capital: the challenges facing Independent venues and artists in Manhattan. It featured some amazing organizations (The Tank, Chashama, Fractured Atlas, New School for Management and Public Policy, to name a few), and speakers (Manhattan Borough Pres. Scott Stringer and The Flea's Jim Simpson), and I am kicking myself for not going, but thankfully createquity did a wonderful job of wrapping it up.

One of my favorites is Technology in the Arts, which always gets my creative juices flowing in a really interesting way. Check out this post for ArtistData – a site for musicians (beta) in which you can enter performance info ONCE then sync it to all of your social networking sites (facebook, myspace, etc.) could you imagine what that could do for independent theatre?

I found an informative article on Beth's Blog: How non-profits can use social media about WikiSpaces, which my friend over at Resources for emerging arts leaders is an advocate for, as well.

Things should get interesting (we hope) this week with the National Performing Arts Convention happening in Denver: check with the Artful Manager and Technology in the Arts this week to see what they're up to.

And it IS festival season! To read everything you could possibly could about EVERY SHOW in a festival this summer, check out nytheatre.com, and Martin's blog nytheatre i.

DON'T FORGET to take the New York IT Awards' newest Demographic Survey

The first completed groundbreaking study was on OOB production budgets and how productions spend their money, published here: STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF OFF-OFF BROADWAY BUDGETS.

The published analysis opened the New York theatre community's eyes to the economic potential of Off-Off Broadway. You can read the NYTimes article here: 'Examining the economics of Off-Off Broadway' The New York Times, 4/12/08

We are inviting the entire Off-Off Broadway community to help us reach our goal of 6,000 participants by October. In order to get involved in our groundbreaking research, you can take the survey here. When you have taken the survey, take a moment to tell your friends.

All of our surveys are anonymous and take about 5 minutes to complete. We will use the information provided for statistical purposes only. Plans for broader and more in-depth surveys such as an audience demographic survey and an economic impact survey are currently in development. These future studies may be conducted in partnership with other respected New York theatre community organizations.

xoxo,
Morgan Lindsey Tachco
Community Relations Manager

Advice for working with an OOB publicist

Go OBAMA! (That's my News and Politics...)

Here is some insight on working with a Publicist/Press Agent.

* Once you decide to work with a press agent the most important thing you can do is have coordinated communication with them and make it a collaborative process. Make sure that you provide them in a timely manner with the following:


Name of Show
Playwright
Director
Cast List and contact info plus bios
Company Name and bio/mission
Dates
Schedule
Theater (and address)
Ticket Vendor
Available Discounts/codes
Website Address
Running time of show
Synopsis
Photos, from previous productions, from rehearsals, headshots and high-quality production photos
Video, from previous productions
Past Press
Script

* Working with a publicist should require more interaction from the company, not less. Constantly present your publicist with story ideas, contacts to press, and follow-up with them to make sure that you feel that they are working in your favor. However, do not contact the press on your own, once you hire a press agent, it is their job to be the sole contact on behalf of the production with the media.


* If you don't know how to write your bio, contact the press agent for support. S/he should be able to walk you through the process so that you will have a bio to build upon.


* Make sure you have a great headshot (if you are an actor). That is your tool to promoting yourself. Before picking your final photo, have at least 3 people look at the options, including a publicist.
Please contact me if you have any questions.
Katie Rosin
Publicist IT AwardsKampfire PR
917-438-9223
katie@kampfirefilmspr.com

Fresnels, Festivals, and Floorspace

Among the myriad subjects to be honored with a coffee-table book (e.g./ "Movie Stars on Vacation" or "Extreme Bonsai") I would like to add my own original idea for a new topic: "Dressing Rooms of Off-Off-Broadway". Imagine how exciting it would be to leaf through the colorful pages of the bazaar crevasses and nooks that make up the wacky spaces where so many actors prepare their craft.

If the actual theatres of O-O-B'way are out-of-the-way and often carved out of most remote parts of the concrete jungle, then you can only guess what the inner sanctums of these spaces must look like. I have done plays where the dressing room was also the lighting storage closet; we had to change from our street clothes into our costume changes all the while avoiding the long cords and sharp edges of fresnels. There have been dressing rooms located behind (or even under) the audience, meaning that once the house was open – you had to be backstage and the dressing room was 2+ hours away. If you forgot something, if you needed a mirror to check your costume, or if you could simply overhear the audience above you commenting on the play you're in…too bad!

Recently, I finished doing a one-act festival where there were 7 of us (men and women) in one dressing room, along with a clothes rack, three chairs, and two toilette stalls. Moving in and out of each others' way came easily; pretending not to hear when someone was peeing was natural…but what was unexpected was the amount of fun we all had being stuffed into such a space. As I looked around me I realized that, while it may not be like the movie-version I had imagined in my childhood, I am indeed living the life of a New York actor. Plus, I have acquired the skill of changing clothes in front of many people while standing in a 2foot x 2foot square. Ahhh, theatre!

Share your crazy OOB Space story with us - fill out this quick online form.

Desmond Dutcher
JudgeWrangler
NY IT Awards

DUE MAY 1

TURN IN YOUR APPLICATION NOW
Applications for the Honorary Awards are now online. Do you have a great Off-Off-Broadway theatre company? Do you know an organization or someone specific who has made a significant contribution through service or leadership to the Off-Off-Broadway community? Then please help us recognize them.

Applications for the Caffe Cino Fellowship and the Stewardship Award are now available online at the IT Awards website.

You may be asking yourself "well, what about the Artistic Achievement Award?" Good News -- The Artistic Achievement Award no longer requires an application. If you know someone who you think should be considered, please write to the Honorary Awards Committee by filling out this quick online form.

Applications are due at 5pm on 5/1/08.

Complete list of the 2008 Honorary Awards Committee.