Off Stage Conversations

Hello, this is Andie Arthur, executive director of the South Florida Theatre League, with Off Stage Conversations, where I share articles and blog posts of interest from the national and international theatre community.

The Tempest -- Not Just for Adults

Richmond Shakespeare Company is mounting two versions of the Tempest with the same cast and set -- one for adults and one 30 minute shorter version aimed at children.

Some Much Needed Silliness

What Should the Box Office Call Me is a tumblr that has brought me a great deal of giggles this week. There should be a blog like this for every entry level theatre staff position.

The Future of Criticism

The big news going around this week is that BackStage decided to stop publishing theatre reviews as they weren't getting enough click-throughs. This happened in the middle of HowlRound's blog series on criticism, and caused a lot of reflection on the role of the critic in modern journalism and theatre. My favorite piece of HowlRound's series was Wedny Rosenfield's blog calling for more conversation between critics and artists:

And yet criticism, which by now should have evolved from a one-sided conversation (and we critics all know colleagues who are so accustomed to spouting opinions unchallenged that every “conversation” becomes a monologue) to a full-fledged back-and-forth between audience and critic, still drags its knuckles. Over in the online sports section of my particular newspaper, the threads are lively, angry, and impassioned. In the political and local sections, they’re horrific cesspools of blatant racism and sexism that continue for pages. But here on the performing arts page, save for the occasional response from someone associated with a production that received a negative review, they’re empty.

Thoughts on Collaboration

This is about a year old, but it was new to me. Rude Mech's artistic director Kirk Lynn shares his thoughts on collaboration.

Marketing Lessons you can learn from Kittens

Kris Prusynski talks about the Foster Kitten Cam and what marketers could learn from it. I think the biggest take away here is that things don't go viral because you want them to, things go viral because they fill a need in someone's lives. How does the theatre you make serve the needs of your community and how are you letting people know that?