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A Change is Gonna Come

Posted on May 11th, 2009 by Travis Bedard

Leonard Jacobs in the ever invaluable Clyde Fitch report on Monday noted that with a return to simply anemic (rather than starvation) funding for the NEA that the Big Boys might be able to forestall the model change that Mr. Daisey and the head of the galumphing horde has been calling for.

Mr. Jacobs is, of course, right. An increase in funding will perpetuate the status quo. So what?

The change that Mr. Daisey was calling for was never going to come from the entrenched seats of power. In every situation self perpetuates self. Colleges feed aspiring regional/Broadway performers to the regionals and Broadway, and in a few years everyone not earning enough to have kids on (who stuck with it) returns to claim their trophy tenure track position.

And you know what? That has its place. Honestly. They make theatre that a lot of people like, and a lot of people make a living that way – Not enough people, and not enough money, in not the right places by my reckoning. But I am quite literally nowhere near a regional theatre. You can even check Scott’s map. It’s true.

Look, the revolution was always going to be grassroots that’s the only way revolution ever is. Kings don’t throw themselves out of windows because patriarchal succession is a load of crap… they have help.

Stop trying to force other people into the model you want to see.
Create the model you want to see.
Create the artist focused model you cry out for.
Support others who are doing it.

99Seats called out for his practical revolution in a widely shared post, and I was sort of puzzled as to the acclaim because…

Isn’t that what the storefront and indie groups are already doing?

The only difference is the money and the money will come. Success breeds attention breeds respect breeds financial support.

But what choice will you make when that moment comes? Will you cash it in for better board members and a yearly executive salary? Or will you dance with who brung ya?

www.cambiareproductions.com
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Tags: Uncategorized // Comments

  • I'd like to add that you touched on an important yet often underemphasized point: "Support others who are doing it." Not only are you supporting theatre, but you can also steal some brilliant ideas from these smaller companies. Okay. That is all.
  • 99
    The five-year plan is absolutely key. And artists are more than capable of doing that sort of thing. An arts consultant I worked with used to say that theatre artists are trained to deliver a product on a tight deadline all the time and have to think strategically, manage time and teams and do all of that work. We're just discouraged from doing it.

    It's not just a business plan, either. Where do you want to be artistically in five years? What kind of work do you want to be doing? How do you plan to get there, artistically? I think adding some sense of formalism to the ad hoc nature of starting a theatre is good, just as long as you avoid institutionalism.

    And none of this, absolutely none, could be happening without the internet and social media. Go forth and tweet the future, y'all!
  • Sarah McLellan
    It would be a lot more fun tweeting the future if 99seats was tweeting it with us...

    I'm just sayin.
  • 99
    I'm thinking about it...I'm thinking about it...
  • walt828
    Of course, I have always been a proponent of walking away from the current system and starting something new. The quotation on my sidebar from Buckminster Fuller reads: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

    That said, I would argue that even the storefront theatres need to examine their underlying assumptions and their business model, because without doing so the money won't simply "come" eventually. The current storefront model relies on subsidy from its artists. Once it gets attention and "financial support," then the pressure is to adopt a more corporate business model, get a bigger space, and yada yada yada. Yes, then you have to make a choice. But really, you should have made the choice far before getting to that crossroad. Do some math: how much money can your storefront provide if it sells out every night? Now subtract 40% of that amount and create a budget that includes reasonable pay for the work contributed. Now figure out a way to increase that to as close to a livable wage as possible. Can you do it without changing the basic assumptions of how you do business?
  • and that's really what's standing between indies and broader success is a long term plan, and a definition of success. Because so much time is spent 'subsistence arting' there isn't really a cycle out of serfdom. And the goal is to work at Steppenwolf rather than be the NEXT Steppenwolf.

    Our production model scales, because it's based on finished minimalism, but 'living wage' is still more than a decade off, and not for a full rep company.
  • 99
    Yes! I think that storefront theatres are indeed doing it, all over the place. But I don't think it's recognized as a business model and something to emulate or promote. It's treated as an ad hoc, necessary stage in the development of a company. For the first five years, every company looks like that. But Scott hits the nail on the head: once the "money" comes pouring in, the priorities shift and companies move away from it. There's so much talk about what's wrong and how to fix it, but little practical talk. Small companies, in my experience, are sort of bashful about it what they're doing and why. They shouldn't be. They should be advocates for a system that's working. Because you're absolutely right: it is working. It's the corporate model that's not working.
  • well, a lot of it IS ad hoc, but what access to information can do is beat the entrepreneur into the heads of ADs before the money (gubbermint cheese or not) comes in.

    We also need to eliminate the hatred of the artist for the very IDEA of business. Having a five year plan and a sustainable business model doesn't make you less of an artist.

    and as to your last point: Twitter has been WONDERFUL for that conversation. Because it's less formal and people don't feel the need to push out a prospectus, or present themselves as an expert, there's a lot ore frank conversation about nuts and bolts... or even this week a friend posted a "look we've been reviewed, and I've social media'd the hell out of this... but folks still aren't showing what do YOU all do in the situation". And the conversation happened on the Monday after a disappointing weekend turnout.

    I really think that sort of thing is thawing a bit, though there's still not enough conversation in town, I haven't convinced the population that this is a cooperative not competitive game...
  • "Isn’t that what the storefront and indie groups are already doing?"

    Yes! Our company alone has been doing it for a little under a decade, and I'm not so insulated as to not recognize ALL THE OTHERS doing the same thing, even here in the rotten apple.

    But I wound up killing my comment on 99 Seats that stated that fact because I realize there's a whole generation of people to whom this was an eye-opener, and I don't want to dishearten them. The work's hard enough as it is, and too often we accidentally step on good intentions.

    You've managed to hit on something that I've been trying to voice for a while, but for which I couldn't find the right words. We make things soooooo complicated in the blogosphere, and in the theatre world, sometimes. We bring up all these new ideas and new systems and new theoretical organizations -- which are wonderful. I don't want to seem like I'm denigrating them, or anything -- but we rarely ever boil it down to the choices we make in those most important of moments.

    How much money would you have to be offered to uphold the status quo? What would have to be given to make you say, "I'll do this for a little while -- to pay the rent, to get my health insurance -- and then I'll go back to doing indie again."

    It's really easy to say yes to that offer if you aren't working toward a BETTER option, not just for you but for your artistic community. And if you ARE working toward that goal, it makes it a lot easier to say, "No thank you." Not to get too cheesy, but these are the moments that define us, and that reveal to us what we truly want (and are willing to live with.) And we face those choices more often than we sometimes realize.
  • You have to be careful working with kids from NH ;)

    Part of it I think is that many storefront/indies are doing shows to do shows, they aren't creating a unique voice. Nosedive, the Vamps, the Neos (NY or Chi), Collisionworls at the Brick - I know what I'm getting when I work with them. I know what I'm getting if I hire someone who comes from them.

    So if I offer the strike price for their services... whatever it is they have decided is enough... then I hire them to infect my company with That Thing. rather than simply hiring talented guy I've heard of.

    In the same way sitcoms hire stand-ups with defined personas rather than simply actors. As companies we need to develop those things that define us.
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