My Career In Theatre: What A/An ____________ [ADJECTIVE] Road!

Contributed by Robin Rothstein

For me, working in the theatre has been a thrilling and ever-changing road map. I've been down quite a few roads in my career – actor, playwright, lyricist, producer, arts advocate, and commercial theatre professional, to name a few.

It’s not unusual, though, to wear different hats over the course of a theatre career and it’s also no secret that it’s a tough industry, loaded with personal and financial risk from indie theatre on up to Broadway, and beyond. But this is partly what makes it so rewarding and exciting, right? And the industry is expanding every day – artistically, commercially, globally. You can create opportunities everywhere if you know how to look for them.
What’s been so cool for me is being part of both the indie theatre world and the Broadway world. I owe a LOT to both for giving me a wide range of knowledge and experiences. In the indie world, I’ve been fortunate to have my writing produced in New York festivals over the years, including, once again, the NY Indie Theatre One Minute Play Festival coming up this May, and I’ve learned about local politics by getting into the trenches alongside my colleagues at the League of Independent Theatre (LIT), where the fight for more financial support for the arts goes on. My interest in arts advocacy also inspired me to join my community board where I was promoted to Chair of the Arts & Institutions Committee. I continue to use that as a platform to raise awareness and to remind people how instrumental the arts are to the well being of society, both culturally and economically.

And it is at this intersection, between the arts and economics, where I now find myself. Having worked in the touring division at Broadway Across America for a number of years now, I have seen time and time again how important commercial touring shows are to keeping theatre alive across the U.S., and how “the road” feeds back to Broadway in the tourist dollars that were part of the record numbers reported for 2015. This same paradigm of the arts benefiting local economies can be found across the country. It has also been a known fact for years that artists and arts organizations help the local economy here in NYC.

The past few years have been especially rewarding for me, as I took the initiative to combine my creative writing expertise, my theatre business know-how, and my interest in the arts promoting community prosperity. I got an idea for a project that fulfilled me artistically, and that I also believed had enduring commercial potential. This project was my family musical, MAD LIBS LIVE!

It took nearly eight years for the project to get from the “light bulb” going off in my head in my mom's kitchen to the world premiere Off-Broadway this past November at New World Stages. And while there were many challenges and unknowns all along the way, I wouldn’t trade a moment of it! What an exciting road the MAD LIBS LIVE! process has been and continues to be, as our team is now busy preparing for the exciting touring and licensing opportunities beyond our Off-Broadway run.

There will continue to be roads to choose from, but as long as I keep choosing, I’ll be on the right road, even if I end up making what feels like a wrong turn. (I’ve learned those can often turn out to be right turns in the end.) And as I move forward with MAD LIBS LIVE! and other endeavors, I can't wait to see where these next roads take me! 

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Robin Rothstein is a critically acclaimed playwright and commissioned book writer and lyricist whose writing has been produced in New York, across the U.S., and internationally. She is also Director of Operations at Broadway Across America and Chair of the Arts & Institutions Committee of Community Board 2, Manhattan. For more info on MAD LIBS LIVE!, please visit MAD LIBS LIVE!

Cocktails (all except Molotov…) for everyday heroes

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Contributed by Guest Blogger of the Week, Saviana Stanescu.

Natalya Kalyada, co-director of the Free Theatre of Belarus was arrested today in the Independency Square (!) in Minsk “during a peaceful demonstration against the falsification of the Presidential Election” - read more about it. 

The news is extremely troubling even as we know FTB’s history of fighting bravely against censorship and dictatorship through - yes – THEATRE. Mixed with smart and consistent activism, able to reach the international theatre communities and spread the word about the totalitarian regime in their country, a former Soviet republic still struggling to achieve normalcy and democracy. I must add: good and imaginative theatre, meant not only for subversive and educational purposes, but enhanced artistic bliss.

Some people familiar with the recent history of Eastern Europe know that most of the countries over there – including mine, Romania – still struggle with the transition towards democracy and stability, even if more than 20 years have passed since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Corruption, economical problems, violence, a gap between generations and mentalities, periodic political chaos, lack of (trust in) a solid legal system and reliable state institutions, etc are still present, in various degrees, in all Eastern European and Balkan countries. But people over there are still making vibrant, engaging, sophisticated, diverse theatre worth of a global audience.

Of course, extreme situations are generally the ones bringing that region (and others) to the world’s attention, in theatre and otherwise. That’s when we remember and invest in the word “solidarity”. And indeed international pressure DOES WORK. So please spread the word about Natalya being arrested, it’s crucial that the leaders of Belarus are being made aware of the fact that their actions can’t be hidden. They will be held responsible by the global consciousness/community, they can’t just play their brutal power game the way that other dictators did (still do?) when the Western eyes weren’t on them…

Yes, let’s abandon ourselves to SOLIDARITY. A beautiful concept. Our dear daily individualism can give some room to idealism and mutual trust. We care, we can make a difference.  We can feel a little heroic caring for those heroes from afar. We can help. And that help won’t be a hidden act, it will be on lists, emails and maybe even make the news. Our generosity will be visible, our solidarity will achieve something.

Well, yes, we can’t care about ALL the people who live and work in difficult conditions, we can’t see all the everyday heroes on this planet of course. At least, we see those who are brave, talented, consistent, fighting political pressures and totalitarian regimes. We can’t oppose all the totalitarian regimes, we can’t fight all the dictators, we can’t eradicate poverty everywhere in the world, we can’t do everything. We do something.

I agree, we do, but these days when we talk about dictatorships and death, catastrophes and poverty, solidarity and charity, with a Cosmo cocktail at a Holiday Party, maybe we can just look around for a moment and see a colleague we haven’t talked with in a while because we don’t need anything from him/her, because we are busy looking over his/her shoulder and rush to the producer/boss/celebrity in the room… Maybe that “invisible” colleague is not that important, maybe s/he has just been laid off and we don’t want the boss to put our image in that company, maybe s/he has asked us for money or a promotion that we can’t offer even if we know they deserve it. But we gotta keep things light, it’s a Holiday Party after all. Yet we are still concerned with the problems of the world. “Oh, remember the Chilean miners? What a story. They are now on a tour in London, they’re so jovial and their public speaking is really good. They’re even flirting with the ladies!”

Cool people say those things while the “invisible” Chilean cleaning lady wipes the wine spilled in a corner of the floor… Then they take a cab to a charity event where millions are thrown in various directions (and who knows, maybe some cool dictators get the hold of them…) and the cab driver chatters annoyingly about a Dream Act for his children…

So my question is why the hero inside us is not automatically activated when we pass by homeless people, when we can help a poor neighbor, when we talk with a colleague lower in status than us, when some indie artists make a political piece in a small theatre on our block? Why don’t influential artistic directors and producers commission more diverse political works, why don’t they encourage artists from here and abroad to speak about global problems (reminder: abroad doesn’t mean only the UK…)? Why don’t they support immigrant artists - people who escaped oppressive political regimes and are here now? Or just people who escaped something and want to move on, to create beauty out of their traumatic memories? Why don’t they encourage young American artists to create more globally aware pieces? Why the same people are supported over and over again? Why didn’t Ruined move to Broadway? Why aren’t more “Under the Radar” festivals? Why don’t more producers dig under the radar to find the next big thing? No, not the one who brings more money, but the one who has something important to say to the world.

I know, I know, they are rhetorical questions. But maybe it’s worth throwing them in our IT party cocktail… Cheers!

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Guest Blogger of the Week: Saviana Stanescu

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We would like to thank Greg Walloch for his great blog last week.

We are very excited to announce this week's guest blogger  Saviana Stanescu

Saviana Stanescu (www.saviana.com) is a Romanian-born multi-award-winning playwright. Her work has been widely presented internationally and in the US. Recent New York productions include “Aliens with extraordinary skills” off-Broadway at Women’s Project (published by Samuel French), "Waxing West" (2007 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Full-length Script) and "YokastaS Redux'’ at La MaMa Theatre, "Suspendida" and “Vicious Dogs on Premises” (with Witness Relocation) at the Ontological Theatre, “Polanski Polanski” and “Aurolac Blues” at HERE Arts Center, “The E-Dating Project” at Strasberg Institute for Theatre&Film, and the site-specific "I want what you have" at the World Financial Center.

In 2010 “Aliens with extraordinary skills” (Inmigrantes con Habilidades Extraordinarias) was produced in Mexico City at Teatro La Capilla, while “Final Countdown” (Cuenta Regresiva) ran at Teatro El Milagro. “Bucharest Underground” won the 2007 Marulic Prize for Best European Radio-Drama. In Stockholm, Sweden, Saviana’s play “White Embers” produced by Dramalabbet made it in the TOP 3 of Best Plays in 2008, and in NYC is published by Samuel French as one of their 2010 OOB festival winners. Ms Stanescu has published books of poetry and drama including “The New York Plays”, “Aliens With Extraordinary Skills”, “Waxing West”, "Google me!", "Black Milk", and "The Inflatable Apocalypse” (Best Play of the Year UNITER Award in 2000). She co-edited the anthology of plays “Global Foreigners” (with NYU professor Carol Martin) and “roMANIA after 2000” (with CUNY professor Daniel Gerould). Her plays have received readings and workshops at The Lark, Long Wharf Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, New York Stage&Film, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Playwrights' Foundation, Traveling Jewish Theatre, Immigrants Theatre Project, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, Origin Theatre Company, PS122, HERE, etc. Saviana is a new member of EST (Ensemble Studio Theatre) and a Usual Suspect with NYTW. She was a 2005-2007 TCG fellow with the Lark Play Development Center, where her plays “Waxing West” and “Lenin’s Shoe” had barebones productions. She also was a 2007-2008 NYSCA playwright-in-residence with Women’s Project and writer-in-residence for Richard Schechner’s East Coast Artists. Saviana holds an MA in Performance Studies (Fulbright fellow) and an MFA in Dramatic Writing (John Golden Award for excellence in playwriting) from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts where she has been teaching in the Drama Department for the last 7 years. She also teaches playwriting at Primary Stages – ESPA. Ms Stanescu is the Director of Eastern European Exchange for The Lark Play Development Center and the Curator of playgroundzero – the works-in-progress series of undergroundzero festival of experimental theatre at PS122.

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When You Wish Upon A Star

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Contributed by Guest Blogger of the Week, Greg Walloch.

Bells are ringing in the heads of most New Yorkers this time of year as they shake off their holiday cocktail party hangovers to brave the rush manic shoppers and bitter chill that cuts through the wintery city air. Come inside, warm up and spend some time with some of the brightest stars of New York independent theater as we ask them: What is your holiday wish this season?

Justin Bond: (singer-songwriter and performance artist)

Photo by Lance Horne

What is your holiday wish this season?

My holiday wish this season, aside from my show, Christmas Spells at the Abrons Arts Center, December 9-18 being sold out, because this tranny needs some coins; aside from a sold out Christmas show and money, my fondest wish, the thing I want the most, is about a week surrounded by nature and sunshine with my beloved and a couple of good books. Selfish, I know, BUT if I could trade all of the above for lasting peace in the Middle-East, I would do it. But, in order to do my part and to signal my sincerity, I have placed a moratorium on building developments on the West Banks of Manhattan. Happy Holidays to All.   XOX Justin Vivian Bond

Justin Bond: Christmas Spells, December 9-18, 8 pm at Abrons Art Center. www.JustinBond.com

Michael Arthur: (Balthrop, Alabama’s town-drawer Toxey Goodwater and the official Archival Artist for Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater)

Photo by Bernie DeChant

What is your holiday wish this season?

I wish more folks would blow up their TV and try to find Jesus on their own. It's sort of a Spanish Pipe-dream (and John Prine's idea).

Michael Arthur and the rest of Balthrop, Alabama will be performing Chritmas in Balthrop, Alabama at the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center on December 16 and Joe's Pub on December 17. www.MichaeldArthur.com and www.BalthropAlabama.com

 

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Taylor Mac (playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, and director)

Photo by Drew Geraci

What is your holiday wish this season?

...more verbs and less nouns.

Taylor Mac will be performing in The Walk Across America For Mother Earth in the Under The Radar Festival at La Mama Etc. January 15th - 30th. www.TaylorMac.net

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Tanya O'Debora (actress, writer, and comedian)

Photo by by Molly Peck

What is your holiday wish this season?

It's the same as every year.  I wish for my art to pay me a living wage.  But I would not turn down a tiny pet giraffe that loves hugs.

Tanya O’Debora performs in Beaches 2 Every second Thursday of the month at Under St Marks Theater. Next Show: 1/13 www.beaches2.com

Sxip Shirey (circus performer and composer)

What is your holiday wish this season?

I want the love of my life to say she'll marry me. I am going to London to win her hand. It's all very old school romance. I expect there to be some sort of man to man battle on a draw bridge or high castle wall. Then we will all sit down for ale and meat pies.

Sxip Shirey will perform in Sxip's Hour of Charm at the Atrium at Lincoln Center on Jan 6th with storyteller Greg Walloch, singer Dayna Kurtz, butoh-contortionist Johnathan Nosan, choreographed fight troup Samuri Sword Soul, and clowns Butt Kapinski Private EYE and Snaps! www.SxipShirey.com

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Bridget Everett (singer and performer)

Photo by Allison Michael Orenstein

What is your holiday wish this season?

Growing up, we spent every x-mas around the piano singing and laughing and drinking. Since I can't get home this year, I want to make as much music with my friends as possible. Right down to last call at sing sing karaoke Christmas night.  

Bridget Everett performs in Our Hit Parade starring Bridget Everett, Kenny Mellman and Neal Medlyn at Joe’s Pub on Jan 26. www.ourhitparade.blogspot.com

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Chris Wells (writer and performer)

What is your holiday wish this season?

I wish New York was closer to LA.

I wish people would stop fucking up their faces with plastic surgery, although then I probably wouldn't spend so much time on awfulplasticsurgery.com

I wish I lived somewhere with sunlight pouring in the windows and a garden right outside ... giverny, perhaps?

It's so dull, but I wish I had more money. but I know that I am far better off than most of the rest of the world. so maybe I wish I felt richer.

I wish I could take a year off and travel the world. I wish my dog would live forever. I wish I could eat whatever I wanted and not gain weight. Sometimes I wish I still had a big, thick full head of hair.

And I wish we'd leave this combative/aggressive/mean-spirited time in human history and enter a period of tolerance and goodwill and music and sparkles and love and beauty and fellowship and equality and enlightenment and spiritual evolution.

In the meantime, I can't wait to see the holiday windows at Bergdorf's.

Chris Wells hosts the next gathering of the Obie award winning Secret City (the theme will be darkness) at Dixon Place on December 19th. www.thesecretcity.org

Travis Chamberlain (director and curator)

Photo by Galya Kovalyova

What is your holiday wish this season?

My holiday theater wish is that everyone who reads this will see at least one new Tennessee Williams production in 2011.  Williams, if he were still alive, would be turning 100 next year, and he deserves to be celebrated! There are so many exciting productions of his work happening in the next year, many of texts that are still relatively unknown. I don't care if you go see the blockbuster production of Sweet Bird of Youth with Kidman and Franco on Broadway, or The Wooster Group's radical deconstruction of Vieux Carre at the Baryshnikov Art Center, or Moises Kaufman's stage adaptation of One Arm with Labyrinth Theater Company, or, if I may be so bold, my own site-specific production of the erotic thriller Green Eyes at the Hudson Hotel this January. Just go, revel in the melodrama, the sensuality, the satire...the hot, sweaty, surreal Southern gothic-ness of it all! And remember the man as the revolutionary, boundary-pushing queer artist that he was and continues to be.

Travis Chamberlain’s production of Tennessee Williams' Green Eyes, starring Erin Markey and Adam Couperthwaite, will run as site-specific event in a suite at the Hudson Hotel from January 5th to 23rd. Chamberlain is simultaneously producing a series of public programs entitled The Kindness of Strangeness at the Museum of Art and Design, recognizing and reclaiming Williams as a pivotal member of the queer avant garde.

You can find out more about Green Eyes and purchase tickets here: http://www.theatermania.com/new-york/shows/tennessee-williams-green-eyes_176005/

Tennessee Williams' Green Eyes on KickStarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/739030039/tennessee-williams-green-eyes-the-new-york-premier

For information about The Kindness of Strangeness programs at MAD (100% free to the public), please visit: http://www.madmuseum.org

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Lady Rizo, aka Amelia Zirin-Brown (comedienne and chanteuse)

Photo by Kevin Kauer

What is your holiday wish this season?

I wish to have more moments when I can sit back in a room full of friends, artists, family-- those that inspire me and make me laugh that special way where my head flies back and you can see my molars.  I will turn off my blackberry.  I will sit with a cup of nog in front of a fireplace and soak it in.  Oh, and we will sing together, perhaps carols because this half-jewish blonde loves Christmas carols in 4 part harmony.

Lady Rizo performs at Joe's Pub on December 17, and at Le Poisson Rouge on January 19th. www.LadyRizoAndTheAssettes.com

Desiree Burch (writer and performer)

Photo by Edmond Song

What is your holiday wish this season?

I wish for space.  Somehow.  Magically.  Gut the dead stuff, NYC.  We all need a little more space, a little more air, a little more light for all the good stuff to breathe and get really good.  Whoever took all the space away, stop being so sad and greedy in the corner.  We are going to need some of that back.

I wish for more of us to spread our art and discovery into other spaces--so we don't feel the need to defend our crummy NYC art capital of the world title, which limits all of us anyway.

I wish for greatness to take a break from being humble and hard-working.  It's time to play the brass and collect our coins. 

I wish for more celebration for its own sake.

I wish everyone would just move to the center of the car for a change.  Yes, I know you want to be close to the door for the next stop.  We all want to be close to the door for the next stop.  Just for once, think, "I'm going to help someone else have a good day rather than the same shitty one over and over." 

I wish people would stop putting ALL their pictures on Facebook.  Just the good stuff, please.

I wish for more energy to see shows when I am not doing shows. 

I wish for Mr. Big (mysterious magical entity or band) to show up at my door with the contract and the sweepstakes-sized check already. 

I wish for less drunken wishing and kvetching. 

I wish for all of us to receive something this season that we truly feel is a gift. 

PS: I wish we were all getting laid more.  seriously.  it would help.  so much.

Desiree Burch, New York Neo-Futurist performs in Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind --THE BEST OF 2010! at The Kraine Theater on December 17th & 18th. www.DesireeBurch.com

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Guest Blogger of the Week: Greg Walloch

We would like to thank Robin Rothstein for her thought provoking blog last week.

We are so excited to announce that this week's guest blogger is Greg Walloch.

Like the best transgressive artists Greg uses humor to expose cultural and social fault lines. His acclaimed solo show has played everywhere from the Mardi Gras in Sydney, Australia to Castle of Imagination, a performance festival in Poland. He has appeared on everything from The Howard Stern Show to Kurt Andersen's Studio 360 on Public Radio International. He stars in the concert film "F**K The Disabled," with a cast that includes Stephen Baldwin, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara.

Greg Walloch recently opened for '60's icon Janis Ian at the World Institute On Disability conference in Oakland, CA. He also appeared in The Moth: West Village Stories with Amy Sedaris and Andy Borowitz in New York. Greg is a regular performer in Sxip's Hour of Charm, a long-time staple at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater. Greg has toured in Moscow, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Ireland, Germany, Tel Aviv, and across the United States.


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To OOB or Not to OOB

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 Contributed by Guest Blogger of the Week, Robin Rothstein. 

As a longtime playwright, Off-Off-Broadway theatre reviewer and recent co-producer of a FringeNYC play, OOB, or the indie theatre sector, has always held a meaningful place in my life. I would not have reached certain milestones in my writing career, or have gotten to know so many creative, insightful, passionate writers, actors, directors, designers and producers were it not for the existence of OOB. OOB has been so important to me that, as of last year, I became involved with my local community board to do what I could to help raise awareness of the current crisis facing small theaters throughout New York City as more and more are forced to close their doors. As a member of Community Board 2, Manhattan, I co-authored a resolution that was eventually ratified by all 12 Manhattan community boards. In broad strokes, the resolution proposes a real-estate tax abatement initiative that would ultimately benefit small to mid-size non-profit theatres and performing arts organizations. Along with others (including Shay Gines and Nick Micozzi of this very organization!) I continue to work on next steps to bolster this resolution in ways that it can eventually become legislation.

                                                                                                                  

In concurrence with my participation in the OOB sector, I also work full-time in the commercial part of the theatre industry here in New York. I’ve worked on the business side of theatre in various capacities over the years, but most recently on the commercial touring side. Similarly to how I feel about the assets I’ve garnered from participating in the OOB sector, I am also so grateful for being able to work in the commercial sector of the theatre industry. I have acquired such amazing skills and have become a member of a wonderful community of smart, exuberant, hard-working administrators and commercial producers and tour presenters. While working in commercial theatre, I have also inevitably picked up a lot of hard-core knowledge and awareness with regard to show costs, ticket pricing, marketing challenges, the tastes of the larger mainstream audience, and have regularly had drilled into my head the singular measurement of what ultimately makes a successful show – making a profit. With that, I have also developed a keen sense as to which shows being produced on Broadway or Off-Broadway will likely work (Read: which shows will sell tickets and make money!) and which shows likely won’t, both in New York, and on the road.

It is all this knowledge and awareness, now permanently wired into my cerebral cortex, which has recently begun to present a dilemma for me as it relates to my relationship with OOB.

OOB has so many challenges – from showcase code limitations, to a lack of adequate funding and a lack of broad enough support, to the small size of the theaters and their dispersed, sometimes out of the way locations, to an absence of consistent branding due to the vast spectrum of unique work being produced across the sector’s many OOB companies. It’s nearly impossible for any producer, theatre company, or artist working in OOB to make a profit, let alone earn a living. Also, while so many of the shows are excellent and well-received by audiences, I can now usually tell that OOB is often the end of the road for many of these pieces, at least as far as New York is concerned, despite whatever hopes, aspirations and good intentions there may be to move them on to the next level. To move from the showcase code to a mini-contract is a huge financial leap, and one that may not always be a financially sound one to take for an OOB show, despite the level of critical acclaim and strong audience reception. Also, once produced, it can sometimes be hard to get another producer or theatre company interested in the work since it has now had a world premiere.

So, now that I have this knowledge and awareness scorched into my brain, I find myself somewhat stymied about how to balance (and separate?) the commercial and OOB sectors in a way that allows me to remain enthusiastic about, and emotionally invested in, my own dramatic writing and nascent producing aspirations. Knowing what I know about the challenges, the long odds, the time commitment, and the inevitable financial investment with the likelihood of little, if any, financial return, I sometimes find myself asking, “Why commit to OOB? What’s the point?”

And yet, even knowing all the aforementioned liabilities, I find myself imagining how empty I would feel if I did not participate in the OOB sector, or if, God forbid, the OOB sector disappeared! Not having a community where people are free to take spectacular artistic risks and express themselves in ways that they likely couldn’t in more “mainstream” arenas (Read: the commercial theatre sector), would indeed make New York City, a sad, sad place, not to mention leave a hole in my own life and heart.

And therein, perhaps, lies my answer?

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