My focus was on how social media and live-streaming has the capacity to reinvent all of the performing arts, from theater to music to dance- enabling even small companies to reach audiences and ignite passionate conversations about their work on a global scale. In the clip below I talk about how proud we are of the conversations that sprang up all over twitter about the issues raised in our live-stream of Better Left Unsaid, I hypothesize about how a successful theater company could expand their business model by live-streaming performances, and I talk about the Laplaca Cohen Culture Track, which gives great information about how people who frequent cultural events utilize social media.
Two weeks ago I had the incredible opportunity to participate in the Creative Capital Professional Development Weekend, sponsored by The Field. The weekend is designed to give artists the tools they need to turn their art into a viable business and to dispel our beliefs that artists cannot live a financially rewarding life. As an artist who has long worshipped at the alter of scarcity and lack of entitlement it was almost counter-intuitive to hear words like Rewards, More, Strategic Planning, and Success. I experienced a huge waterfall of relief every time the weekend leader, the marvelous, kind, inspiring, enlightened Colleen Keegan insisted ”If it is punitive it is not working” – her most oft repeated refrain. As both a woman and an artist I have long had a profound lack of self-entitlement, a deep seated belief that if I was going to live an unconventional life I must then struggle and not expect happiness. No success could ever feel like a success, but instead more proof that no matter how hard I worked I would always be poor, creatively unfulfilled, unrecognized and struggling.
The takeaways from the weekend were innumerable, from info on writing business plans and mission statements, to learning to how to budget a project and figure out my personal hourly rate, to learning how to talk about and promote my work Read Post…
The American theatrical blogosphere has been awash these past few months with responses to Rocco Landesman’s recent speech in which he asserted that the supply of arts in America has outpaced demand. If, as Mr. Landesman believes, attendance at American theater is decreasing while simultaneously the number of theaters is increasing, than clearly we have created an unsustainable business model. There has been both outrage at Mr. Landesman’s comments, and some agreement. Are there too many theaters? Are there too few theatergoers? Is this the wrong time to start a theater company? Whose work is worthy of support in such a competitive atmosphere? Has the American theater community nurtured a business model that is destined to fail?
But perhaps the heart of the issue isn’t that American theater audiences are declining, but rather that American theater isn’t finding its audience. Perhaps the most important question is where are today’s audiences – and how do we reach them?
In a recent article for American Theater Magazine, Susan Miller wrote of the joy she has found as a theater artist discovering that she can write, produce, distribute and have full creative ownership of her projects when she works in online video. Susan writes that working online harnesses all the energy of our younger years when “Lets put on a show!” was a thrilling call to action, be it in a high school auditorium, an out of the way black box, or even a barn – Mickey Rooney style. The key difference? This show has the capacity to be seen by thousands and thousands of people and continues to be seen long past the final curtain.
I love Susan’s notion that online video is the next great frontier for theater artists. And I think there is a specific facet of web video that holds the most promise to those of us who have spent our careers on stage. The natural pairing of theater and online video …live-streaming.
As theater artists who thrive on the spontaneity, danger and electricity of live performance [click to continue…]
A friend of mine, a theater professional with 20 years of professional experience was just offered an audition, via their agent, for a workshop of a new play. The director of this workshop is an Academy Award winning documentary director. The pay for 25 hours of work is $100 dollars. Total. That’s 4 dollars an hour…for a professional…with 20 years experience. Can you imagine a headhunter calling you and saying “Hey! this is a one week job with a great company! They aren’t going to pay you, but you’ll have an in, maybe, with an important company!”
But throughout my foray into the business side of online video I kept praying inwardly, please let this teach me what I need to know about monetizing my online video work, so that I can get back to being what I am, an actor.
Now acting is hard. It’s hard for everyone for different reasons. Acting is hard for me because it addresses my deepest weakness- my belief that I don’t have a right to be me, to be here. To be seen. Try rehearsing a difficult play or performing brilliantly in a broadway audition when you don’t believe you belong. When you are certain that everyone in the room thinks you are a fraud, and hates you for it. (If this sounds insane to you, you are not an actor-being an artist, publicly, is hard.)
To answer my own question (see previous post), uchhch… I cringe to say it… its such a damn cliche… and I know! there are so many awards with so much more import… I dream of winning an Academy Award. But where once any old Academy Award would do…. now my dream is far more specific, [...]
The American theatrical blogosphere has been awash these past few months with responses to 
