Off Stage Conversations

Hello, everyone. I'm Andie Arthur, executive director of the South Florida Theatre League. It's time for Off Stage Conversations, where I take a look at what's happening in the national and international theatre communities.

Too Much Light

HowlRound has a piece on the Neo-Futurists' Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, which is one of my FAVORITE Chicago experiences. 30 plays are performed within 60 minutes and if that doesn't happen, the Neos buy the entire audience a pizza. This piece focuses on how the Neos' interact with their audiences, the value of their ensemble and has some great pull quotes:

There are a lot of jobs where you have to get hired based on this version of who you think they want you to be. We just don’t have that. We don’t ever get anyone who’s a wild card in a bad way. We take gambles on people sometimes but we’re usually taking gambles on them artistically.

and

Doing anything like what we do in front of an audience who may not get it doesn’t mean they are dumb, it just means they may not get us. The more people treat the audience as smart people who came by choice, the better off we all are.

Classism in Theatre

Holly Derr responds on the ethics of unpaid internships and touches a little on how classism effects our industry.

Meanwhile, the Huntington Theatre made an announcement on their new community membership program, where those who qualify will be able to see all of their shows for $15. It reminds me of the much more open Radical Hospitality Program at Mixed Blood Theatre. It's exciting to see theatres deal with class issues in their audience development head on.

Online Fundraising

Techniques for online fundraising. And why you need to pay attention to this section of the field.

Immersive Theatre

David Green talks about Immersive Theatre experiences for TCG. I feel that immersive theatre often gets slotted into the same role as audience participatory theatre, but they really are different experiences with different aims. I'm really excited about what I hear from Chicago and New York about new immersive theatre experiences (such as Sleep No More), and that's one of the areas of the field that really invigorates me artistically.

CityWrights

This weekend City Theatre held their third annual CityWrights conference for playwrights. And in case you weren't able to attend, a lot of the sessions are available on HowlRoundTV.