Doing Less With More

I was at a meeting of fundraising people recently, who work for small or medium-sized theater companies, and we were talking about the impending funding cuts. And people started tossing around that hackneyed non-profit mantra of "We have to learn to do more with less." And I thought (but was too timid to say): How much less can we do more with? It's like asking an anorexic to cut down on carbs.

We should be doing less with more. If there are five hundred theater companies in New York, and everyone is having trouble filling the house, then there are perhaps too many of us trying to do too much with too little already. The supply is not meeting the demand. And the only way to bring audiences back to the theater (besides giving away tickets) in any meaningful sense is to make work that is unforgettable. And that takes time.

The great thing about small companies and organizations is that we don't have to act like institutions. The ones that are trying to do less (fewer shows per year, say) with more (spending enough on them to get them done right), are the ones that really are thriving: ERS, SoHo Rep, NTUSA The Foundry.

At The Red Fox

This is a clip of Mark and Lorna, a couple who perform six nights a week at the Red Fox Lounge in Winter Park, FL, near Orlando. I happened to be staying at the Best Western where the Red Fox is located, and got to see them. They have been playing there for 18 years, married 37 years. They are purportedly the basis for the SNL skit "The Culps." They are remarkable. Please visit them in real life.

Ben Cameron's speech at ISPA

I just stumbled onto this speech, and I think it's worth reading. There's a lot here. Take a breath, get a beverage and block out some time:

http://www.ispa.org/ideas/cameron.html

Here are two tidbits:

1. "We may be in the arts looking at the world—watching our audiences shrink, seeing subscribers decline, standing by as organizations teeter and fall—through the lens of scarcity, when the world—especially the young—are playing in a field of abundance."

2. "Theatre practitioners how report growing audience resistance to encountering any idea not instantly recognizable as one’s own, an increasing polarization in our country, for instance, that led members of the audiences at last year’s Tony winning Alliance Theatre to exit en masse, mid-act, climbing over others, when a character said, “If I had time with George Bush, I’d tell him to share his toys and play nice with others.” For so many, the encounter with the other, with difference, with the new lies at the heart of our missions and purpose: what will it mean for us if we lose this appetite as a society and wish only to encounter the familiar, the known, the already embraced?"

"Even The Nostalgia Was Better Back Then"

Here is a video of excerpts from some monologues I put together a couple years ago. There's going to be a production of this piece in San Diego, directed by Judy Bauerlein, later this year.

Lisbon

Douglas Coupland

I thought this op-ed captures something of now.