Big Changes to the Nominee Notification Process

The IT Awards Update went out yesterday and included news about some significant changes in the way that the 2011 nominees will be notified.

Doug Strassler interviewed Executive Director, Nick Micozzi (see the full interview here):

DS: There are going to be some significant changes to nominee announcement this year.

NM: It's pretty exciting - there are two big changes: 1) Nobody will know who the nominees are until they are announced at the party on the 18th, and 2) we're cutting the admission price in half – down to only $10. Since we’re not informing the nominees in advance, we’re not giving out any comps to the nom party this year.* But to off-set that, admission will only be $10.

What do you think?  Do you like nominees knowing in advance of the public announcement or do you favor the surprise.

We want to hear your opinion.

Problem Solvers

Contributed by Guest Blogger of the week, Crystal Skillman.

Hello fellow problem solvers - here's another fantastic idea that goes with what we were just chatting about! From David Dower - read below! A must cup of joe read: http://www.tcgcircle.org/2011/05/what-if-theatres-took-deep-dives-with-playwrights/

To take what I was saying earlier about writing for specific ensembles - certain actors and directors. It really is an amazing pay off not only for the playwright (i chatted below about what I learned) but for actors too. The power the playwright has is to create new characters that can show the versatility of the actors we love and admire. The wonderful Jody Christopherson (rocking Mrs. Perfect! in our Theater in a Van piece - yup it's a 10 minute rock musical in a van people - at the Brick's Comic Book Fest) just wrote about how awesome it was for folks to see her sing too - highlight that work for her as well. It made me so proud! Makes me feel like what I do has a real function and effect. 

Take a look at the TCG article and given your indie profession - what are you doing with your work that paves the way for more new work from your fellow artists or highlights them and how? What's your wish list of things to be done on our indie scene? 

And then here's another one for you problem solvers - two BIG questions that have been on my brain for a while: how do we sustain ourselves financially which we do this (HUGE one) at the indie level - how can we work together to make that happen. Can we? AND how do we make sure we're reaching audiences outside the theater? And are we? 

I think about this a lot. That's what I love about Theater in a Van (more here if you don't know them: http://www.theatreinavan.com/) - it's $5 and is right there. Hop inside and see theater. Site specific work also attracts a lot of normally non theater goers. And like the Vampire Cowboys Saloon Series that is sadly ending! But how can we do more along these lines out and IN the theater. 

Lots of questions! I know you just woke up. Coffee needed! Cup o 'Joe on the way .... but any thoughts would love to hear 'em while I'm hanging this week. 

Good Morning!

Contributed by Guest Blogger of the week, Crystal Skillman.

Hello indie theater peeps! I’m sorry I’m hopping on the blogging bandwagon so late in the week – good lord - but here I am! You deserve a latte for waiting!

But wait – you didn’t mind waiting did you. In fact you totally just took over that teeny corner of Starbucks and starting staging a new play, didn’t you?

Ah, and the space is free, has a built in audience – and they’re giving you free frappacinos now and well your play has come to life! And by doing it by being here, being inventive and using the time, resources and talent you have in the room you’re a stronger writer, and you have a new play. And are excited for the next one.

Well that’s what you get when you leave an indie theater artist alone – because we’re problem solvers.

We LOVE to problem solve.

That’s what makes it so powerful to me.

People are often asking lately, “How are you writing so much?” The secret goes back to this in my experience: the best thing that indie offers for emerging writers, is getting to write for specific companies.

A big problem to be solved in theater – at all levels – is how do writers get out of the “rewrite” incubator? How do they move beyond writers groups, and readings, and workshops? Which are all good, but not to be mistaken from learning from a production. How do we get out of “perfecting on paper” (which I honestly feel like is ridiculous for a profession that literally the whole point of it is to get rid of those pages and make them live ultimately!) and embracing what’s in the room, creating a new play that works beat to beat and builds and kicks the ground from under us – makes us question – has something to say. How do we create work that is timely and timeless? That can show what we can do and challenge what we can do in theater? 

Six years ago I was stuck. Not with writing – I never stop writing J, but it felt like my full length plays would never see the light of day in NY. There was a lot of support and great opportunities but there was also a lot of: “You’re so clever! I can’t wait to see what you’re going to do in the future” thing. And I was like – wait – aren’t I doing it? When is the future now?

Then a huge act of courage in my eyes – my very close friend Daniel Talbott asked me to write a play in a hallway of Jimmy’s No. 43 years ago (part of Telling Trilogy) – it was through that work that I began to actively work in the room with actors – great ones – and craft my work beat to beat with them. All of a sudden I was learning, and - I became more aware of this as I went -  I was achieving a sense of the moment to moment present drama in my work, the history - that had been missing. Everything else had been there (my inventive structure, language, ideas, something to say) but this – what drives the engine of holding us there for whatever stage time is needed to tell a great story theatrically – had been missing.

The key for each theater artist to discover this - and what indie theater offers so well – is the ability to write for amazingly talented people hungry who are working at all levels, as indie theater at its best is a playground, a home.

Working with Daniel’s indie theater company Rising Phoenix Rep with Daniel Talbott, Julie Kline, Denis Butkus, Sam Soule changed me. And as I was changing I realized all those times I was at a party with someone going “you just need to find your process” was totally coming true! This was my process. This was me! And it was making my work more personal, more me.

I came from making photographs, who was doing very well at Parsons, I really do love photography so much, but wrote a first play that made me cry by taking a playwriting class by accident really. Suddenly I understood that this obsession with theatre that I had since I was a kid but knew that I couldn’t act or direct – this, this was what I wanted. And I looked around me and accepted that visual art world wasn’t about words. The work - it goes up on the wall.  Oh man, and I have to work on listening better for sure, but I am indeed a blurter and babbler by nature. It was so clear living in that world was not going to fly.

But Indie theater accepted me being a babbler – that’s how Daniel and I came to work together. I was so blown away by his production of Mark Shultz’s Gift at P.S. 122 that I just followed him and Addie around talking, while picking up the set: a rug, a chair. On the ride home to Brooklyn.

Writing for specific companies was only a part of this most recent journey – the next step was discovering that I had much more personal stories to tell – and letting the inventive storytelling uncover that, be a part of that, serve that.

So it looks like I never sleep. And sometimes it does get that crunchy for sure. J But after communicating and creating work that shows how the process of writing for certain theaters really works for me, it seemed to inspired others to take more risks on me.

Most recently I discovered Cut a ten minute play written for Special Sauce Co in Feb, should be a full length. Meg Sturiano trusted I could write the play in a month :) and brought it to life at The Management with their amazing actors. That is another secret of indie theater to me: we dive. When we see opportunities we know we’re right for we rise up and jump! Mrs. Perfect! (a crazy fun 10 minute rock musical running with theater in van) and Action Philosophers! (a wonderful marriage of bringing to life a great indie comic book on stage) come from that. Those pieces are specifically for the comic book festival at the Brick. In fact all the great pieces in the fest are!

Adapting Action Philosophers! (written in the past two months!) has been intense and amazing in terms of how that script changed. With each change our team, our ensemble was behind us. Fred Van Lente, my wonderful husband and his co-creater and my good friend Ryan Dunlavey, was too. Fred and I are always helping each other on our work as fellow writers which means the world to me. As I see it develop into a great comedy, a funny as hell night out, I hear all their words of support along the way underneath each scene that helped me get there.  Not to mention how most of us all met in the Saloon Series that the amazing Qui Nguyen asked me to write for a couple of years ago when – oh!

You need another latte. And I want you to chime in here and shut me the hell up. Post comments yo. What are the ways that indie theater solved problems for you, made you a stronger artist? Or were there times that it didn’t?  Look man we’re hanging out here all day – fuck work. Let’s chat theater. Oh yes! Getting latte now …

You know, I like this Starbucks play we’ve created in this corner.

I like how you made the future now.

Guest Blogger of the Week: Crystal Skillman

We want to thank Jack Hilton Cunningham for blogging for us last week and wish him all the best in his exciting new endeavors.

We are very overjoyed to announce that next week's guest blogger is Crystal Skillman.


Crystal Skillman is the author of recently critically praised Cut (The Management/ Horse Trade Theater Group, directed by Meg Sturiano); and The Vigil or The Guided Cradle, directed by John Hurley, which received the 2010 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Full-Length Script.  Action Philosophers! (adapted from the comic by Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey, also directed by John Hurley) is running in the Comic Book Theater Festival at The Brick in Brooklyn this summer (7/23, 6/28, 6/29, 7/1 all at 7 PM). Mrs. Perfect! (directed by James David Jackson), a short rock musical commission for Theater in a Van, will be running at the festival on the weeknds. Her play Perfect is currently running with LiveGirls! in Seattle thru June. Other productions include: Birthday (directed by Daniel Talbott for Rising Phoenix Rep, Waterloo East in London); Nobody &; Telling Trilogy, (RPR). Hack! an I.T. Spaghetti Western (Impetuous/Brick, w/director John Hurley); Killer High w/director Hope Cartelli (Piper McKenzie/Vampire Cowboys Saloon); Geek (new play commission, Obie-Award winning company Vampire Cowboys); Sex &; Death in London (Rising Phoenix Rep’s Cino Nights this fall). She is happy to announce that this summer Samuel French will be publishing her plays Nobody &; Birthday (Birthday will also be done in the Camden Fringe Festival in London this August). In Spring 2012 she will be the resident playwright at Overturn Theater Ensemble.

Becoming a Playwright at 73: Getting Produced, Getting Published

Contributed by Guest Blogger of the week, Jack Hilton Cunningham.

To quote Steven Sondheim, I career from career to career.  At first I thought I might be an actor but in grad school I discovered, and all on my own, that I was not.  Then I decided directing was where I should focus.  I took my first course in set design and I put aside my foolish notion of becoming a director and became a designer.  I briefly returned to directing at SoHo Rep many years later.  I designed for about eight years; opera, regional theatre, summer stock, and Off-Broadway.  Then along came our daughter and I needed a job.  One fell into my lap:  John Wiley & Sons, Inc., textbook publishers.  So for 22 plus years I worked in publishing.  From time-to-time during those 22 plus years I designed a show or two.  After my retirement from the textbook industry I careered into desktop publishing until that industry diminished and then faded away almost as fast as it had appeared on the horizon.  OK, so I went back to stage design.  By this time our daughter Heather’s Retro Productions was on its feet. I, along with my wife, Rebecca Cunningham — renowned author of the leading textbook on costume design, The Magic Garment — also retired, began designing in earnest once again.  But wait, then I careered into yet another career:  playwright.

I had always wanted to write.  In my college days I tried my hand at poetry but was a dismal failure.  When I retired I wrote a novel — I did manage to complete it but did not manage to find an agent.  These days one cannot publish, or find a publisher, without an Agent; publishers no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts.  So now I have a 300 or so page novel, unpublished, on the shelf.  I told myself, “Give up, face the fact, there will be no career in writing for you.”

I’m retired so why not just settle back, enjoy life, and watch television, since I don’t play golf.  While watching a wonderful documentary about nurses in the Vietnam War, a light bulb came on over my head. Several of the nurses’ stories touched me. I told my wife that there was a play there somewhere. I began mulling it over and over in my mind and decided to work on the idea.  As I began work, I realized that my idea was far too limited for an evening in the theater.  As I began to do research on the Internet I stumbled over a group of letters written by a WWII soldier to his family.  Another light came on over my head and the full scope of my play, Women and War, began to materialize. I tried contacting the owner of the letters for permission to use them, but did not receive a reply.  I continued to search for more letters and I discovered that there were almost no extant letters written to servicemen during the wars of the 20th Century.  I decided to write the letters myself.  As my research continued, I unearthed stories of women like the Hello Girls of WWI, the Mother’s Movement, and the Doughnut Girls of WWII.  These, and other stories seemed a good way to round out the nurse stories and letters to and from soldiers/officers to their sweethearts, wives, and mothers.

I began work on Women and War in 2006. I wrote and rewrote.  As a matter of fact I over-wrote.  I had enough material for several plays.  I asked Peter Zinn, a director for Retro Productions, to read it.  He liked it.  As the producer of The Bleecker Street Theatre’s Monday Night Play Reading Series, Peter offered to produce it in an open slot.  We gathered a number of Retro’s actors, plus a few others for it’s premiere reading with an audience.  It was a bit heavy, much too long, and employed too many actors.  Peter encouraged me to cut some of the monologues, pare down those remaining and shuffle the entire script like a deck of cards — to reorganize, reorganize, and reorganize again.  He was right — it really began to work theatrically.  In 2010 Retro Productions produced it in repertory on Monday nights. 

I was humbled when audiences told me that Women and War was important material not only for young audiences but for all ages.

I seemed to have a new career; one that I had not planned for — playwright.  I decided that since so many people were complimenting my play I would submit it to publishers.  I sent the manuscript to four of the top play publishers.  Before long I received a reply of interest from Samuel French.  I did not hear from the other three.  The editor who had read the script came to the last performance of the Retro production at the Spoon Theater.  I was offered a contract by Baker’s Plays, an imprint of Samuel French.  Before I knew it, I was a published playwright.  The Bleecker Theater along with Retro Productions subsequently produced Women and War at the Arclight Theater and a one-night presentation at the Players Club.

At 73 I have a new career indeed.  My novel is still sitting on the shelf, but I have excised two plays using its characters and content.  I have gone on a writing binge and have four additional plays in progress.  Stay tuned . . .

Women and War a play by Jack Hilton Cunningham.

Guest Blogger of the Week: Jack Cunningham

We would like to thank Joey Rizzolo for is thought provoking post last week.

We are excited to announce that this week's blogger is Jack Hilton Cunningham.

Jack Hilton Cunningham:  Jack graduated from Brooklyn College in 1968, the first MFA in Theater Design.  Over the years Jack has designed scenery and costumes for opera, summer stock, Off- Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and regional theatre. In recent years Jack, and his wife Rebecca, has designed sets for Retro Productions.  The Innovative Theatre Awards recognized their set design for Mill Fire for Retro Productions with a nomination for outstanding scenic design.  Jack is retired from John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Publisher of college textbooks.  Jack’s play Women and War originally produced by Retro Productions and later in conjunction with The Bleecker Theater is published by Baker’s Plays, an imprint of Samuel French, Inc.  He continues to write and has four plays, one a musical, in process.