The Playgoer

Although Venus in Fur is only at 57% capacity, isn...

2012-05-02T10:27:02.046-04:00

Although Venus in Fur is only at 57% capacity, isn't it possible it's making money? It has to have a small nut, with a cast of two, neither a big star.

The Tonys are strange to me, as usual. You have t...

2012-05-01T13:06:34.487-04:00

The Tonys are strange to me, as usual.

You have to consider all of the nominations from within a pretty narrow range, of course, but I still don't think Once is much of a musical. And Bob Crowley's set, admittedly pretty good-looking, has never made sense to me: most of the show has no connection with bars. The orchestrations and choreography seem to me the result of cleverly decorating the story with extra players so that we have something to look at beyond the two central characters, which is all the show is really about (just like the film).

Enough about that show, though. I may watch the awards, but about the only thing I'm interested in is Venus in Fur, which I haven't seen yet. I'm kind of glad it's not selling that well, because it increases the likelihood I can find a seat via TKTS.

Great opportunity for people to see a show at pric...

2012-04-04T09:28:32.095-04:00

Great opportunity for people to see a show at prices they could not normally receive.

Book of Mormon actually performed a free show for the fans but I guess this is still worth noting as a good opportunity for people who can't afford the sometimes astronomical prices of broadway.

I've often considered going for rush tix, but ...

2012-04-02T13:50:05.781-04:00

I've often considered going for rush tix, but then after I attempt and find out how the process works, I just give up.

I like this simple process, and I really like the admission that this is to help lots of people, not just full pricers, see this show. discount tix should be celebrated, not brushed to the side.

Did they really auction off the piece of the facad...

2012-04-01T14:26:25.686-04:00

Did they really auction off the piece of the facade of the Helen Hayes. My husband and myself were students at the time and I worked for The Shuberts. I remember the morning I woke up to discover workers took a jack hammer and "jacked" a line across the facade. It was originally all supposed to be saved. Nothing bad happened but the City had them take a piece that was not destroyed and it was supposed to be saved and incorporated into a future theatre on Broadway. Was it sold?
We left New York after that because our "heart" was broken. Working for the Shuberts, the destruction of the 5 theatres, the rise in HIV, and the way every interview I went on for a theatre job seemed like a casting couch were the reaons we left.
We returned and went to see Follies at the Marquis and I accidentally peed on the floor but then started laughing.

Thanks so much for your support. See you at Clybo...

2012-03-27T12:07:09.649-04:00

Thanks so much for your support. See you at Clybourne Park!
-Jordan

If the show had been marketed as something other t...

2012-03-24T14:37:36.018-04:00

If the show had been marketed as something other than "the truth," then I would side with Mike. But this was not the case. Everything written about this show has been done with a spirit of "the journalist reports about what he's seen."

The Public, Daisey, and the producers benefited from this, and now want to keep smelling of roses. It doesn't work.

Last year in D.C., I sat and watched Daisey speak to CSpan for an hour on this show, and not ONCE did he say, or hint, that some of it is fiction. We all say how brilliant Daisey is. How did he miss this?

"Glass went to a theatre to see a play and th...

2012-03-21T20:57:03.110-04:00

"Glass went to a theatre to see a play and then decided to do excerpts on his show and present it as journalism, which is unbelievably stupid."

Daisey told Glass (and others) that it was all true. Glass found out that Daisy had lied. So he wasn't completely dopey.

The most dopey (frankly idiotic) thing about this issue was Daisey telling an audience in a subsequent performance that:

"But I wanted to let you know that I stand behind this work. The work you're going to see today HAD HAD CHANGES MADE TO IT, SO THAT WE CAN STAND BEHIND IT COMPLETELY."

So if he couldn't stand behind the work completely before and can now, he has Glass to thank!

Looks kinda like a young Michael Ian Black to me.

2012-03-21T00:44:09.083-04:00

Looks kinda like a young Michael Ian Black to me.

While hysterical, this is an excellent point about...

2012-03-20T00:08:38.424-04:00

While hysterical, this is an excellent point about responsibility.

http://www.artsjournal.com/newbeans/2012/03/this-is-a-work-of-non-fiction.html

I am really glad that someone else agrees with me ...

2012-03-19T16:00:33.796-04:00

I am really glad that someone else agrees with me that Ira Glass' statement about the "normal" view is dopey as hell. Next week, will he do an expose on "Lion King" revealing that lions don't really talk? Glass went to a theatre to see a play and then decided to do excerpts on his show and present it as journalism, which is unbelievably stupid. Daisey should have bowed out at that point, but I can certainly understand the temptation to have a national platform for something you care about. As someone pointed out in an article, there is nothing about Apple in the stage production that is false -- what is being contested is whether the details of Mike's TRIP are correct. Well, compared to the abuses of workers in China, that's pretty small potatoes. ut Apple consumers will heave a sigh of relief because they won't have to feel guilty about their latest purchase and can still whip out their iPhones at the OWS rally and tweet.

I love Mike Daisey, but he has really shot himself...

2012-03-19T15:22:26.696-04:00

I love Mike Daisey, but he has really shot himself in the foot on this one. I cannot agree with his justifications. Blaming the brouhaha on peoples' misunderstanding of what "theatre" is about does no favors for the rest of us.

Consider:

-The program bills the work as "nonfiction."

-What purpose do his overseas "research" trips serve if he's just going to come back and make up key points anyway?

-The old refrain "I am not a journalist" belongs to the Rush Limbaughs and Glenn Becks out there. We never bought it from them, so why look the other way now if it is going to cost us our principles?

Let's not forget that there's a reason Mike Daisey doesn't appear in your friendly neighborhood Chekhov. In "How Theater Failed America," he mentioned the reason he doesn't "act" anymore is because he doesn't want to do anything in which he will lack control over the content. Now he has that, so he can't blame the audience or the outlets that have helped him promote his show.

I think this is going to set Mr. Daisey back, but I hope it does not remove him from the scene. That's up to him. If he can learn from this and commit to producing the same outstanding work by way of different methods, he may be like the broken bone that heals stronger than it originally was.

But I think he has to own up to it first. I think we all know what his next show will be about, eh?

Context really is everything. If the show is prese...

2012-03-19T15:06:56.324-04:00

Context really is everything. If the show is presented as a documentary or docu-theater then it probably should be really documentable. But if it's just "based on a true story" then say what you want. I don't know what MD told Ira, and I haven't seen the show so I don't how it's presented, but on tv talk shows, MD seems to saying that these are the facts as I experienced them. The theater deals in Truth; it doesn't fare so well with Facts. We often interchange the words, but there is a big difference. For me, it's all about what you know going in - context.

I'm not on board to bash Mike - I think his Bi...

2012-03-18T15:21:23.122-04:00

I'm not on board to bash Mike - I think his Big Mistake was to lie (either through half truth or omission) about the veracity of the fictional parts of his piece to Ira Glass & Co. (because I don't see MSNBC, CBS, the NYT or Bill Maher as journalists in the strictest sense of the word).

That said, I believe when someone in the theater plays a character, truth is a flexible element. When playing oneself, I think the line becomes less flexible when it comes to misrepresenting facts and fiction.

I have to respectfully disagree. Daisey put himsel...

2012-03-18T12:46:27.722-04:00

I have to respectfully disagree. Daisey put himself on a pedestal to trumpet this 'cause' all the while knowing that what he presented to the public as fact was not. If TAL had not found out about the inaccuracies, Daisey would have gone on promoting his work as fact. Ambiguity of truth is one thing but deceit is something altogether different.

I believe internet technology is instrumental in t...

2012-03-16T16:36:22.627-04:00

I believe internet technology is instrumental in the survival of theatre. I recommend a fascinating discussion on youtube and the future of theatre

I have several of my friend's companies that u...

2012-03-06T00:38:30.468-05:00

I have several of my friend's companies that use KS and solve that problem by offering to put their names in the program, have a private only blog with video content to watch/read about the rehearsal process, and or attend an opening night party that was already going to happen anyway (that one is esp good because that means that the contributor will likely buy a ticket to opening night AND donate to the original fund).

It's not that it's not possible, you just have to get creative about how to do it. :)

Just my two cents.

Based on my own giving history and the experience ...

2012-03-05T01:51:51.383-05:00

Based on my own giving history and the experience of three friends who have used KS to fund their various dance and theatre productions, low-level backers don't require anything in return apart from knowing their money is helping a project they feel like supporting. Maybe the 99% have less need to have their egos stroked than the big donors?

It's not necessarily national or even East-Coa...

2012-03-04T18:54:47.766-05:00

It's not necessarily national or even East-Coast. Just as local broadcast affiliates sell some ads on national network broadcasts, cable (and satellite) companies keep a certain portion of the inventory on cable shows. So the ad could have been targeted even to certain neighborhoods or boroughs, or be city-wide, but did not necessarily need to be national or anything like it.

So it's hard to guess how much it cost, but when I was working in Seattle, a 15- or 30-second spot on a national cable news show could be had for the hundreds of dollars. More for Morning Joe in NYC, obviously, but still conceivably within a normal marketing budget.

For theatre in particular, Kickstarter doesn't...

2012-03-04T12:48:04.608-05:00

For theatre in particular, Kickstarter doesn't seem to be a terrific solution. This is mostly because of the "rewards" of funding a project.

What benefits can a theatre offer their backers?

If someone gives $20 to help fund an album or novel, offering an ebook or mp3 version of the completed work as a reward has little additional cost. But getting backers into a theatre production would eat up ticket sales, making it not worth it to offer to the lower-level backers. So what do you do to entice low-level backers?

Are you sure this was a 30-second spot? I'm lo...

2012-02-27T23:42:49.053-05:00

Are you sure this was a 30-second spot? I'm looking for it online, and only finding 15-second spots.

Kickstarter has worked pretty well for my company ...

2012-02-27T18:26:19.318-05:00

Kickstarter has worked pretty well for my company and my friends other projects in the past. I need to start fundraising for much higher goals though and we'll see!

It really is awful! My best recommendation is to ...

2012-02-27T18:24:54.288-05:00

It really is awful!

My best recommendation is to do rush tickets or lotteries.

I love this! I'm torn between going into actin...

2012-02-21T18:24:00.973-05:00

I love this! I'm torn between going into acting or PR once I graduate, and I know if I go the public relations route my opportunities to see shows will plummet to nearly zero.

It's like college: if you're very poor you...

2012-02-16T13:36:26.136-05:00

It's like college: if you're very poor you get lots of financial aid (like student tickets), if you're wealthy you pay full freight. But if you're middle class, you maybe get a slight Playbill discount or you sit in the balcony (public instead of private school).