Oh boy, did it get spicy up in here!

We expected nothing less and you did not disappoint.

Thank you OOB for your candor, insight, thoughtful responses, passion and willingness to share it all with us.

You gave us a lot to think about. You helped clear up some complicated issues, gave us greater insight into others and provided some invaluable feedback.

We are humbled that you took the time to help us improve and become a stronger organization.

We will carefully review all of your comments, discuss them with our staff and board and take all of it into consideration when making some important decisions.

As we mentioned we will use your feedback to help prioritize changes, developments and improvements to our system. Some ideas raised here may help us make adjustments as early as next season (starting in June 2012). Some ideas may require further elaboration and development and/or infrastructure changes in order to be addressed. And some feedback we will simply not be able to address in a way that makes everyone happy, especially in a community as large and wonderfully diverse as ours.

These posts will continue to stay active. So if you think of something next week or next month, please post it. We’ll see it. Or you can always contact us directly through our site.

When we launched on Summer Solstice 2004, our awesome volunteer staff wore T-shirts that said, “Off-Off-Broadway is Innovative Theatre.” It’s sort of been our unofficial motto ever since.

David Crespy, author of The Off-Off-Broadway Explosion, said, "Off-Off-Broadway is a theater where even on the barest of stages and usually on a shoestring budget, a poverty of means fuels an explosion of imagination." We believe in that spirit and the amazing work that is being created by this community.

Whether you call yourself Indie Theatre or Independent Theatre or Off-Off-Broadway theatre, you’re our kind of people. If you are a brand spankin' new company or one that has been around for 50 years, it does not matter to us. Whether you are a non-profit organization or a commercial entity or something in between, we couldn't care less. Whether you are dedicated to new works or established classics, it’s all good. If you are all about the ensemble and collaboration, fantastic! If you are really into solo works and hearing the single voice, awesome! If you only do clown work, super! If you totally love realistic modern dramas, cool! If you dig Grand Guignol, love it! If stage combat is your thing or sci-fi or musicals or Chekhov or one-acts or personal stories or state-of-the-art performance technology or two guys sitting on stools sharing a lollypop and talking about family... we're in.

The New York Innovative Theatre Awards celebrates Off-Off-Broadway.

Thank you again for participating in the virtual town hall. We sincerely appreciate all of the comments.

We are wishing you all happy holidays and a kick-ass New Year filled with sold-out performances and glowing reviews.

 __________________________________

Also remember that if you're heading online to shop Amazon, start at the nyitawards.com/shop, and the we get a free donation from Amazon. It doesn't cost you a cent, but we'll get "referral fees" that really add up for us. So please, if you're going to buy gifts at Amazon this year, FIRST go to nyitawards.com/shop and use our Amazon search box.

Give Letters from Santa this Christmas!
You can have Santa send a personalized -- even hand-written -- letter to your kids, postmarked from the North Pole and addressed to each child individually. Just fill out a parental form with details at NorthPoleDispatch.com, and Santa will respond with a note recognizing good behavior and achievements, and encouraging improvement, along with a little anecdote from life at the North Pole. $5 typeset / $10 handwritten - order by December 16th for delivery by the 24th.

Grab Bag: Other Ideas and Suggestions

We want to thank everyone who has contributed to the conversation so far this week. 

Today is our Grab Bag Day. The last three days of our virtual town hall were dedicated to specific topics that we've had a great deal of feedback about. Today we open it up to hear about other ideas and suggestions that you might have.

Please keep in mind the ground rules. 

And be gentle... : )

Revisiting Award Categories

Today's topic is about our award categories. We have 19 production awards.

They are:

Outstanding Ensemble
Outstanding Solo Performance
Outstanding Actor in a Featured Role
Outstanding Actress in a Featured Role
Outstanding Actor in a Lead Role
Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role
Outstanding Director
Outstanding Choreography/Movement
Outstanding Lighting Design
Outstanding Costume Design
Outstanding Set Design
Outstanding Sound Design
Outstanding Innovative Design (Design award for designers outside of the traditional theatrical design elements)
Outstanding Original Music
Outstanding Original Short Script
Outstanding Original Full-Length Script
Outstanding Performance Art Production
Outstanding Production of a Musical
Outstanding Production of a Play

There was a lot of deliberation and reflection that went into deciding upon these categories. We considered our community and the type of work that was being done. There are several categories that are relatively unique to our awards including: Short Script, Innovative Design, Ensemble, Solo Performance, Performance Art Production; not to mention that Choreography/Movement is extended to include fight choreography and of course the Stage Manager award. We had to think about the length of the ceremony (which we know is too long already), making sure that the categories were meaningful beyond our sector, that our organization had the resources and the ability to sustain these awards not just for 1 year or 5 years, but for many years to come and hundreds of other considerations.

One of the reasons that our judging system is based on a peer evaluation is to ensure that those values that are important to the community are at the heart of what is being recognized. There is a distinctive energy and spirit about the Indie theatre community that we are here to celebrate. 

And so we are asking you, if you could only have 20 award categories (aside from the Honorary Awards and the Outstanding Stage Manager Award), what would they be? What would you add to or subtract from the list above?

Eligibility Requirement: Budget Cap

Thank you everyone for the enlightening conversation yesterday. That post will remain active so, if you have additional thoughts or questions about ticket prices please continue to add them to the comments for that post.

Today's topic is about the production budget cap eligibility requirement. Our current qualifications state that the "Total production budget must be less than $40,000 (between $0 and $40,000)."

Our study, Statistical Analysis of Off-Off-Broadway Production Budgets, which was conducted in 2008 reported that the average Off-Off-Broadway production budget was approximately $18,000 (this was based on actual money spent on a production and did not include the value of in-kind services or donations). 16% of the responding producers noted that their production budget was above $35,000.

The Basic Equity Showcase Code sets the total production budget at $20,000.

When setting the budget cap requirement, we wanted to be as inclusive as possible. We wanted to be able to include the scrappy, "skin of our teeth" producers as well as some amazing well established Off-Off-Broadway companies with larger budgets, some of which have long histories working in this sector and were among the people who helped found this community. We wanted to allow for inflation and rising costs (especially rent) and again growth within our community. So we set the budget cap on the upper edge of the curve, but well below what it would cost to mount an Off-Broadway production.

We have, over the last seven years, had a number of wonderful companies who are no longer eligible to be included in the awards process because their budgets went over the $40,000 mark. This is especially true for those companies producing musicals.

We have had several requests during this past season to increase the production budget cap to $50,000 or more.

Should we increase the eligible budget cap to include those productions with larger expenses?

Or should we keep the budget cap as is?

And why.

Also please take a moment to review the schedule of this week's topics as well as the ground rules for the conversation.

Eligibility Requirement: Price of Tickets

The first question that we would like to hear from you about is an eligibility requirement.  Currently our qualifications state "Ticket price must be $30 or less (between "Free" and $30)."

The average OOB ticket price is $18 to $22.50. Of course if you are working under the Equity Showcase Code, tickets are restricted to $18 or less and Seasonal Code tickets are set at $20 or less. We always try to be as inclusive of the full Off-Off-Broadway community as possible, which includes Equity and Non-Equity productions; Commercial and Not-for-Profit productions. We also wanted to provide for growth within the sector. And $30 is still well under the average ticket price for an Off-Broadway production.

We have had requests this past season to increase the eligible ticket price to $40 or $45.   

Should we bump the eligible ticket price up to a higher amount to include those productions who can charge more for their tickets?  

Or should we keep the eligible ticket price as is? 

And why?

Virtual Town Hall Starts Tomorrow

We hope you all had abundant Thanksgiving Days with plenty to be thankful for.

We are so excited to be holding this virtual town hall starting tomorrow. As we have mentioned, we have received quite a bit of feedback and a number of requests over the last season. We are now seeking your insight and opinions on these important questions.

• Monday - Eligibility: Price of tickets
• Tuesday - Eligibility: Budget cap
• Wednesday - Reviewing/rethinking award categories
• Thursday - Grab Bag: Any other ideas or suggestions
• Friday - Wrap-Up

Check out the IT Foundation Background and the A Few Ground Rules for the conversation.

We hope that you will share your thoughts and opinions during this open community forum. However, you can always email us directly or though our "Contact Us" page.

A Few Ground Rules

Just to make sure we stay focused and are able to address the issues that are most important to our organization in a constructive manner, we would like to submit the following ground rules for this discussion.

1. We have a comments policy on our blog which will remain in effect throughout this conversation.
   
   We reserve the right to delete comments if they are:
   • spam
   • hate-filled or abusive
   • off topic, especially if their intent is to derail the conversation for the poster's own purposes
     
     
2. We are asking for CONSTRUCTIVE feedback. We will of course read all of the comments, but we will only approve those that provide: constructive criticism, ideas, suggestions or help move the conversation forward.
   
   
3. We ask you to stay on topic.  We’ve dedicated one full day of focused discussion for each of three big topics we’ve heard a lot about.  In addition, we have an additional "Grab Bag" day for all other ideas and suggestions. So if you really want to talk about audience size, for example, please save it for the “Grab Bag” day.
   
   
4. Before making a suggestion, consider these questions:
   • What are the goals of the Innovative Theatre Foundation?
   • What best serves the OOB community as a whole?
   • What are the ramifications of making these changes?
     
     
5. We will use your feedback to help prioritize new developments and improvements to our system. Some ideas raised here may help us make adjustments as early as next season (starting in June 2012). Some ideas may require further elaboration and development and/or infrastructure changes in order to be addressed. And some feedback (we hope very little) will not be able to be addressed in a way that makes everyone happy, especially in a community as large and wonderfully diverse as ours.
   
   We promise we will do our best.
   
   
6. Finally, there are a few things that are NOT on the table for discussion at this time.

• Changing our name
• Changing the judging system (It is a peer evaluation system, and a fundamental aspect of our mission)
• Excluding groups/companies/artists/productions from participation based on the type/genre of theatrical work they do
•  Honorary Awards or the Outstanding Stage Manager Award
  
  
  
  

IT Foundation Background

Contributed by Nick Micozzi

Pop quiz: When did the IT Awards start?

2005? No, that was the year of our first ceremony. 2004? Nope, that was when the first productions were registered (by companies like Emerging Artists, International WOW, and Boomerang), and we started the first adjudications. 2003? No, that was when we started the paperwork for our incorporation and 501(c)3 status. Our work began long before that.

We had all been working Off-Off-Broadway for a while. There was some extraordinary theatre taking place, but it seemed to be gone as quickly as it appeared. There were few reviews and no archives of the amazing work that was happening. There was also a community of great artists and companies that did not know each other, and there wasn't anything holding together this vast, disparate population of important, talented, hard working theatre creators. So Shay began to think about how to raise the profile of Independent theatre; to create something that was buzz worthy and would attract media attention and simultaneously provided opportunities for the artists to see each other’s work and create communal bonds.

She thought about it, and thought about it... and came up with a rather elegant idea to introduce artists to each other's work, to create a stronger sense of community in Indie theatre and a connection to its lineage; to bring attention to the some of the incredible work being done in this community; to help people - and not just our family and friends - recognize the substantial creative contributions of this underground force for creative good. Maybe awards, dedicated to the OOB community and based on a peer evaluation system could accomplish all of that.

She knew this idea was too big for just one person (even Shay) to accomplish. So in 2000 she brought this idea to Jason Bowcutt and me. We had both known and worked with her for years. We each had a unique set of skills and talents that would be vital to making this whole thing a reality.

Just a year or so earlier, I had built the first free producer-empowered theatre listings website for Off-Off-Broadway theatre. Companies had begun to post there to get a free webpage for their show and some publicity/promotion. It was a meaningful alternative to hoping the big publications would pick up a show's press release and run something.

Jason had known Shay since wayyyy back. He has very unique gifts in relating to people, getting them excited about what we’re trying to do, and gaining their active support and involvement in our events and organization. Jason forged countless relationships that brought the Awards immediate credibility, spectacle, and critical support. Ironically, in a very early conversation, Jason said, "I love the awards idea, but I don't know what I could contribute." Shay knew, and we all trusted her.

We all had ties to different areas of the theatre universe in New York, and we felt that working together, we should try to make a go of it. We hashed out some core principles and ideas, and the general structure, but we knew that ultimately, in order to get this off the ground, whatever we built needed to involve the community as much as possible. We knew it had to be Off-Off-Broadway celebrating Off-Off-Broadway.

So we began to build this awards idea together with artists and producers from the Indie Theatre.

We set out on a two year fact finding mission/investigation talking to loads of OOB people, community leaders, community founders, unions and leagues, a mathematician, systems engineers, accountants, interactive web experts, educational experts, publicists, media representatives, journalists, archivists, other arts service organizations, and so so many others. We had meetings and work groups and held roundtables and summits. It was a long and exhausting, but very exciting process.

A good example of the kinds the discussions we had was the debate over our name. We spent a lot of time considering what to call this organization. We'd been working on this project a while, but we didn't have a name. We had the whole "Indie" vs. "Off-Off", marginalization vs. DIY, heritage vs. popular appeal, downtown vs. uptown, et cetera, et cetera, etc. etc. etc. conversations. Thoroughly. After A LOT of thought and A LOT of discussions and A LOT of meetings, we decided on the New York Innovative Theatre Awards. That name truly represents our world, without judging or excluding or siding with any camp. And innovation is a core element of this sector's work. Everyone who works Off-Off-Broadway knows that there is often more innovation that happens off stage than on. We wanted to honor innovative design and producing practices and choices as much as innovative artistic ones.

We hashed out each of the key elements of the awards in this collaborative, community-based process, from the makeup of the judging pool, to the scoring scale and system, to the requirements and qualifications. By 2004, we had a name, a meaningful mission, and a peer evaluation system that was designed specifically for this community and based extensively on the ideas and consensuses of community members. The system created opportunities for OOB artists to see the work of their fellow artists free of charge and hopefully provided a meeting place for these people to build creative relationships. We had also built relationships with other support organizations like NYTE and United Stages, to help us provide further opportunities for artists and make the Awards Ceremony a worthy celebration. And of course we were joined by our incredibly knowledgeable and talented staff, and our wonderfully thoughtful and dedicated board whom we are thankful for every day.

We had initially set out to build an awards system. But the awards were a means to an end. That end: a greater sense of community within the Indie Theatre world, not only between producers and artists, but also the audience; a greater audience awareness of the fantastic work being done OOB; and a greater sense of recognition and celebration of Indie Theatre. We began to see that these goals becoming reality. And responding to the OOB community’s needs had driven us to expand beyond just awards.

Today our Survey program, our roundtables, our work with Community Boards and the arts-space tax relief program, and the Off-Off-Broadway archive project (more details later) are further extensions of this mission. We're proud that with your support and involvement, we've been able to get here. But we know if we have much further to go.

So that brings us back to this feedback series here on our blog. Ever since day one, virtually all major decisions and structural issues have been worked through with many members of our community - So it's therefore very important to hear honest feedback so we can address issues, or incorporate meaningful improvements. This has always been extremely important to us, and remains so today.

OOB theatre needs idea bank

The New York IT Awards is collecting needs and suggestions from the NYC theatre community to the City of New York, and asks for your contributions.

It is our hope to collect the community's needs as a whole, and put together a master list of items when making presentations to community boards, arts task forces, and city officials.

If you are inclined (even one suggestion), copy and paste the following information into the comments below. If you prefer anonymity, email your suggestions to community@nyitawards.com.

COPY AND PASTE THE FOLLOWING TEXT
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name:
Organization:
Email:
Date:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUGGESTIONS:

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

Thank you for your participation, and don't forget to spread the word!

Mayor's plan for non-profits in NYC

On April 6th, Mayor Bloomberg announced his "new initiatives to help New York City nonprofits cope with (the) cash crunch as a result of the economic downturn."

The press release lays out the Mayor's plan to provide services and resources for the more than 40,000 cultural, health and social nonprofit organizations in NYC. It addresses issues such as; reducing fixed costs, improving the city's contracting procedures (so that non-profits have a better chance when competing for city contracts), and providing dedicated support for nonprofits.

While the Mayor has identified areas where the city will be directing its efforts, there were few details about specific initiatives or programs.

Several Community Boards have expressed their intent to respond to the Mayor's efforts and will be drafting letters that suggest improvements, specific programs and additional initiatives.

So, here is your chance OOB -- Do you think the Mayor's 10-point plan provides for our community? What are your suggestions?

We will compile a list of suggestions and comments and present them to the Community Boards.