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We are so excited to introduce a new program. Each week we will invite a member of our community to be a guest blogger. They will post at least one blog (but they can post as many as they like) and respond to your comments and questions.
Our very first guest blogger will be Jeffrey Keenan. A prolific theatre artist and good friend, Jeffrey has seen it all and done it all.
In the seven years between 1997 and 2004, Jeffrey Keenan wrote, directed, produced and/or acted in over 30 professional theatrical productions in and around Washington D.C., including The Shakespeare Theater, The Kennedy Center, The Olney Theater Center, and the Woolly Mammoth Theater Company in addition to refounding and leading in 1997 The Actors’ Theater of Washington (currently Ganymede Arts), to explore and investigate the American GLBT experience. In those seven years, Mr. Keenan’s productions, actors and designers were nominated for numerous Helen Hayes Awards and national Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Awards. His productions grossed more than $1,000,000 dollars in theaters never larger than 125 seats. The Washington Post once called him “perfection.” In the summer of 2004, he tired of consistent poverty so he sold out. He now works for a Manhattan law firm making more money than he’s ever made before in his entire life. He had the great good fortune to move to Manhattan three years ago and was honored to be asked to write the 2006-2008 New York Innovative Theater Awards shows. Mr. Keenan is thankful every day that he lives in a city with so many incredibly diverse and creative theater artists and he wants some of them to hire him to direct again for those moments when he's not rolling around in his piles and piles of cash.
Jeffrey will be blogging about year-end funding concerns, a topic that affects us all.
Please check back January 4 - 9 to read Jeffrey's blog(s), join the conversation, share your thoughts and maybe discover something new.
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Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
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Happy Holidays everyone.
We are wishing you all full houses, loads of excellent reviews and many fulfilling OOB creations this year.
Happy New Year!
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Happy Holidays everyone.
We are wishing you all full houses, loads of excellent reviews and many fulfilling OOB creations this year.
Happy New Year!
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Friday, December 11, 2009
Support us with Letters from Santa
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Do you have nieces, nephews, children of your own or friends with kids?
If so…. The IT Awards needs you.
We know it is a tough year and most folks don’t have $100 or even $20 to donate. That’s why this year we decided on a fundraiser that is fun, in the holiday spirit and creates so much joy for such a small price.
PERSONALIZED LETTERS FROM SANTA TO YOUR CHILD
Personalized, Addressed to your Child and Postmarked from the North Pole
$5 Personalized typeset letter to your child
$10 Personalized handwritten letter to your child
During this magical and exciting time of year, every child is anticipating their visit from Santa and the joys and surprises of Christmas morning. Enhance their Christmas experience with a handwritten, personalized letter from Santa, addressed to your child and postmarked from the North Pole. Even the most skeptical child will believe the authenticity of this special keepsake.
And if you are really in the holiday spirit, you can really help out by helping us spread the word about this service.
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Sunday, December 6, 2009
New Housing for Actors
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Crain's Business reported that the Actors Fund will be opening a new 160-unit residential building in Newark, NJ specifically for low income performing and entertainment professionals. The fund is looking for additional real estate in NYC to continue its goal of providing affordable housing for actors.
If you haven't checked it out, the Actors Fund, it is a fabulous organization that understands the difficulties of being a performing artist and provides some really important services. Their mission is to "help all professionals in performing arts and entertainment. The Fund is a safety net, providing programs and services for those who are in need, crisis or transition." They provide all kinds of financial, health care and housing programs.
All OOB actors should be aware of this organization and the kinds of services that they have available. Check out their website for more information.
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Crain's Business reported that the Actors Fund will be opening a new 160-unit residential building in Newark, NJ specifically for low income performing and entertainment professionals. The fund is looking for additional real estate in NYC to continue its goal of providing affordable housing for actors.
If you haven't checked it out, the Actors Fund, it is a fabulous organization that understands the difficulties of being a performing artist and provides some really important services. Their mission is to "help all professionals in performing arts and entertainment. The Fund is a safety net, providing programs and services for those who are in need, crisis or transition." They provide all kinds of financial, health care and housing programs.
All OOB actors should be aware of this organization and the kinds of services that they have available. Check out their website for more information.
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Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Shop to help the NYIT Foundation!!
If you're avoiding department stores and heading straight to Amazon.com for your 2010 holiday shopping, think of your favorite (and only) New York Innovative Theatre Foundation!
By following the Amazon.com logo via this link on our website to make your purchases, 10% of your purchase is donated to the New York Innovative Theatre Foundation, at no cost to you! It's the simplest way to help the Off-Off Broadway community this holiday season. Spread the word!
2010 holds promising things for all of us - we are so proud to celebrate this community year round, and we thank you for celebrating us!!
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Where is the New Young Audience for Indie Theatre?
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Last month, Isaac Butler posted a provocative column on his website, Parabasis, entitled No-Brainer Secrets Revealed!, about the best ways for theatre to reach younger audiences. Butler surmised that the best way to bring them in is to do uncompromising work and offer it at a reasonable price. The work will speak for itself. If you build it, Butler said, the audience will come.
Easier said than done? Doug Strassler followed up on this topic, digging further into the topic of where the new young audience is for Off-Off-Broadway. Doug asked for opinions and here is one sent to us from John Patrick Bray.
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I think at last we've found an area where academia can respond to these concerns. I'm a PhD student at Louisiana State University. I produced a night of one-act plays during the week of Halloween: "It's Scary, Y'all! Horror Fest 2009." As part of my funding, I teach an Intro to Theatre course to non-majors. I presently have 96 students in my class. There are about 7 or 8 of these sections, each averaging about 95 students per class. Half of the Intro classes were assigned to see the show.
Horror Fest aimed to be gory, scary, and fun. During the course of the evening, one character had their face ripped off; one had their eyes gouged out; one had 6-inch screws power-drilled into his torso; a strange lizard women crawled through the audience. Audience members actually leaped, hid their faces, etc.
For the next couple of weeks, students approached various cast members, directors, and me saying stuff like "I never knew you could do that in the theatre!" That's just the point. Because commercial American theatre has allowed itself to fall into the trap of producing plays that have no more than 6 characters (or 6 actors), a unit-set, and a generally middle-America-friendly theme, it has become obsolete. It is as if American Theatre is singing its own eulogy, pretending to be dead when it is far from, and boring young audiences in the name of being non-offensive. Unfortunately, for many potential audience members, commerical theatre IS theatre, and Indie theatre remains on the, to wit, Fringe.
I believe Off-Off Broadway invites the kind of experimentation and revitalization of American drama that our theatre desperately needs. I've seen a number of productions OOBR over the years with troupes such as The Vampire Cowboys, The Rising Sun Performance Company (I am a member), and others that have renewed my faith in live performance. OOBR is also American Drama's best kept secret.
I just said that OOBR renews my faith in American theatre. While I'm certainly the choir being preached to by articles such as Butler's, I argue the reaffirmation of faith is just as important as attracted new members of the proverbial congregation of theatre.
And what about "new members?" How do we get the young audiences to OOBR theatre? Tell them about it. Like college football over professional football (pardon the sports metaphor; LSU is home of The Tigers), the stakes are so much higher, the passions run deeper, the successes are much greater, and the failures that much more beautiful. I, personally, would rather see a beautiful failure OOBR than a moderate success in any commercial theatre. Is it possible to get Young Audiences to feel this way, too? Absolutely. How? Just by getting them to our theatres by any means possible, Beer Pong included!
What's your opinion?
John Patrick Bray is a PhD Student of Theatre at Louisiana State University. He earned an MFA in Playwriting from the Actors Studio Drama School at New School University. His plays include Hound, Trickster at the Gate, Liner Notes, As We Speak, and the one-acts "Goodnight Lovin' Trail" and "Southern Werewolf." He lives in Baton Rouge with his wife and son.
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Last month, Isaac Butler posted a provocative column on his website, Parabasis, entitled No-Brainer Secrets Revealed!, about the best ways for theatre to reach younger audiences. Butler surmised that the best way to bring them in is to do uncompromising work and offer it at a reasonable price. The work will speak for itself. If you build it, Butler said, the audience will come.
Easier said than done? Doug Strassler followed up on this topic, digging further into the topic of where the new young audience is for Off-Off-Broadway. Doug asked for opinions and here is one sent to us from John Patrick Bray.
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I think at last we've found an area where academia can respond to these concerns. I'm a PhD student at Louisiana State University. I produced a night of one-act plays during the week of Halloween: "It's Scary, Y'all! Horror Fest 2009." As part of my funding, I teach an Intro to Theatre course to non-majors. I presently have 96 students in my class. There are about 7 or 8 of these sections, each averaging about 95 students per class. Half of the Intro classes were assigned to see the show.
Horror Fest aimed to be gory, scary, and fun. During the course of the evening, one character had their face ripped off; one had their eyes gouged out; one had 6-inch screws power-drilled into his torso; a strange lizard women crawled through the audience. Audience members actually leaped, hid their faces, etc.
For the next couple of weeks, students approached various cast members, directors, and me saying stuff like "I never knew you could do that in the theatre!" That's just the point. Because commercial American theatre has allowed itself to fall into the trap of producing plays that have no more than 6 characters (or 6 actors), a unit-set, and a generally middle-America-friendly theme, it has become obsolete. It is as if American Theatre is singing its own eulogy, pretending to be dead when it is far from, and boring young audiences in the name of being non-offensive. Unfortunately, for many potential audience members, commerical theatre IS theatre, and Indie theatre remains on the, to wit, Fringe.
I believe Off-Off Broadway invites the kind of experimentation and revitalization of American drama that our theatre desperately needs. I've seen a number of productions OOBR over the years with troupes such as The Vampire Cowboys, The Rising Sun Performance Company (I am a member), and others that have renewed my faith in live performance. OOBR is also American Drama's best kept secret.
I just said that OOBR renews my faith in American theatre. While I'm certainly the choir being preached to by articles such as Butler's, I argue the reaffirmation of faith is just as important as attracted new members of the proverbial congregation of theatre.
And what about "new members?" How do we get the young audiences to OOBR theatre? Tell them about it. Like college football over professional football (pardon the sports metaphor; LSU is home of The Tigers), the stakes are so much higher, the passions run deeper, the successes are much greater, and the failures that much more beautiful. I, personally, would rather see a beautiful failure OOBR than a moderate success in any commercial theatre. Is it possible to get Young Audiences to feel this way, too? Absolutely. How? Just by getting them to our theatres by any means possible, Beer Pong included!
What's your opinion?
John Patrick Bray is a PhD Student of Theatre at Louisiana State University. He earned an MFA in Playwriting from the Actors Studio Drama School at New School University. His plays include Hound, Trickster at the Gate, Liner Notes, As We Speak, and the one-acts "Goodnight Lovin' Trail" and "Southern Werewolf." He lives in Baton Rouge with his wife and son.
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