National Theatre Conversation

NO MORE

5/25/2022

No more giants
Waging war.
Can't we just pursue our lives
With our children and our wives?
Till that happy day arrives,
How do you ignore
All the witches,
All the curses,
All the wolves, all the lies,
The false hopes, the goodbyes,
The reverses,
All the wondering what even worse is
Still in store?

All the children...
All the giants...

No more

Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
from INTO THE WOODS

Uvalde, Texas, Devastation [MSNBC]

Mariupol, Ukraine, Devastation [Evgeniy Maloletka, AP]

Evil seems to be all around us. Putin has personified Shakepeare's Richard the Third, "And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover / To entertain these fair well-spoken days, / I am determined to prove a villain / And hate the idle pleasures of these days." Oh, what must his Kremlin/Dachau view be? Determined to prove a villain! And thousands of innocent Ukranians have needlessly died. And millions have left their homes. And what has changed for Putin? The gain of some territory that he has scorched beyond recognition? A giant came to earth and has brought devastation.

And now at home in the US we continue scorching our own earth. We allow crazed humans to be inhumane, to be their own Richard the Thirds. "Cheated of feature by dissembling Nature," these misfits strike out at the other, whomever the other is misperceived to be. Motivations of these evildoers have been well documented. Yes, we must help our troubled souls. But yes, we also must take the deadly weapons out of their hands.

So, what can we do, we theater makers? Certainly we must continue to provide a few hours' haven from the insanity. We need escapism. But not to run and hide, or forget.

"No More," sung by Rudy Martinez & David Arthur Bachrach, INTO THE WOODS, Theater 2020

Running away- we'll do it.
Why sit around, resigned?
Trouble is, son,
The farther you run,
The more you feel undefined
For what you've left undone
And, more, what you've left behind.

- more lyrics from INTO THE WOODS

We must also bang the drum for change, shining lights on what is and also on what can be. Many of the members of NTC are currently engaged in this advocacy for humanity through their own productions and through their teaching. My theater, Theater 2020, certainly will do the same. In these monstrous times we keep moving forward remembering "All the children, all the Giants" and we shout, "NO MORE!"

MOVING ON

11/27/2021

"In soothe I know not why I am so sad: it wearies me; you say it wearies you; but how I caught it, found it, or came by it, I am to learn." These are Antonio's words at the beginning of THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. As the Merchant, Antonio, I spoke these words in a drama school production in London when I was 24 years old. That's a young age to try to find all the subtextual meanings behind the Bard's words. Now, at the tender age of my later middle years I see the profundity.

Stephen Sondheim

Yesterday we lost a Titan of show business. A man who has a Broadway theater bearing his name, but who, by his own admission never got over his childhood's lack of maternal praise, questioning his own worthiness even while accolades were heaped upon him in his later years. But Love abounded for Stephen Sondheim and I hope that he knew that. From the kids listening to his music in a solitary basement, to the high school shows, to community theater, university productions, regional, Off Broadway and Broadway show companies. From London to Bangkok, from Russia to India, Sondheim has impacted us now and will continue to impact the fabric of musical theater for generations to come.

Theater 2020's "Sondheim on Sondheim"

So, why I am so sad? Judith and I have been privileged to work with Mr. Sondheim as cast members and also to produce and direct his works. We are sad at his passing but grateful for all the opportunities. And what a generous man! Opening his brownstone for Broadway cast parties; writing notes on opening nights for Indie Theatre Productions; just sending a little encouragement that had large meaning. Theater 2020 produced SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM back in 2020, just as we were entering the pandemic. So, we had to cut our run short, just before Mr. Sondheim was supposed to attend. That was a sad "what if," but we did have him every night in the show: if you don't know, Steve himself has a large presence in the production, as he takes us through his life with video commentary. I directed a great cast, Judith did the choreography, and we had a terrific wunderkind of a music director, Solon Snider (remember his name!). Because of the video, Steve was present from the start of rehearsals, and at every performance he was there, participating with our cast, as we celebrated his life. That is a gift we'll not forget.

Hal Prince

So, why am I so sad? The death of Sondheim makes me think of the passing Hal Prince, just a little over two years ago. Hal, too, was a generous person. Always there for encouragement and guidance; knowing the importance of working with younger artists and passing the torch. I'll always remember our coffee talks in his office, which for a while we had annually, when just a little bit of his time would energize me for a whole year. He saw some of my shows and he always wrote something to our casts. He is missed.

Brewster Fuller in a B25

So, why am I so sad? The deaths of Sondheim and Prince bring me to another loss. In 2016, I lost my best male friend, my father. Brewster Fuller was at times irascible, sometimes cantankerous, but always generous and there to listen and, when asked, advise. I marvel at what it must have been like to navigate, as he did, a B25 Mitchell bomber over the South Pacific, with only a compass and a sextant as tools, with the safety of the crew subject to his penciled directions. He rarely talked about WWII, like most other Greatest Generation veterans, but what a personal impact it must have been for a young man. He left that war at 24, the same age I was speaking Shakespeare in London.

The losses of these men bring me to losses of friends and relatives taken before their times. Classmates and kin, collaborators and buddies, leaving by accident, AIDS, tragedy and pandemic.

Were I to play Antonio now, I think the subtext to "I know not why I am so sad" would be clearer. In these last decades these words have resonated more than I would wish they did, but such is what our lives become. We lose our parents, our friends and our mentors and suddenly we ourselves are the Mentors. If we are fortunate to be here, we have the privilege of passing on the torch while we look forward. For Dad, it was the next garden, the next game of croquet. For Hal, it was the next show. And for Steve, it was, well, the Next:

Stop worrying where you're going, move on;
If you can know where you're going, you've gone;
Just keep moving on…

So, I guess I know why I am so Sad. And I am grateful for it:

Stop worrying if your vision is new;
Let others make that decision, they usually do;
You keep moving on…

Because it also brings the Joy of tomorrow and its possibilities:

Anything you do
Let it come from you
Then it will be new
Give us more to see.

So, we live, we love, we grieve, and thankfully, we move on.

[lyrics from Sondheim's SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE]

Vox Clamantis in Deserto?

6/3/2021

Vox clamantis in deserto. A voice crying in the wilderness. The motto of my undergraduate college, Dartmouth. Dartmouth was founded as a school in the middle of Nowhere, New Hampshire, a few centuries ago, hence the motto. That phrase, cribbed from the Bible, has many resonances. Sometimes, preaching to the choir is such vox clamantis, when people are hearing but not truly listening. Sometimes there is the vox "clamantising" in the wilderness of the Other, the non-choir. That’s a lonely voice, too, because no one wants to listen. There’s another resonance, which may have to do with self-perception: saying what you have to say, need to say, but not knowing if anyone is listening.

This last one is what I have been feeling these last months and why I haven’t blogged on a more regular basis. A lyric from the “1776” comes to mind: “Is anybody there? Does anybody care? Does anybody see what I see?” But upon reflection, vox clamantis need never feel in deserto. Enter Hope and its sibling Faith.

We in the Arts and especially in the Theater embark upon this each time we begin a project. We have a reason for production. We hope audiences get it, and we have faith that at least some do.

I used to worry about audiences. Well, I still worry, but not for all of the same reasons my younger self did. Money, yes. Earned income, of course. But understanding? Comprehension? That just has to be engendered with hope and fortified with faith.

Do audiences get my work? I set Into the Woods in a refugee camp where the inhabitants told the fairy tale as a coping mechanism of fun and catharsis. I set a Henry 5 in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, as a personal metaphor by a soldier who loved Shakespeare and dreamed he was in the play. I did a Godspell where the play was born from a contemporary audience's need to explore the Gospel of Matthew during a time of corporate greed and the me first culture. I hope the audiences got some of these ideas.

Certainly some "see what I see," which is gratifying. Any audience has the potential for perception of viewpoints and reaching one individual is as important as reaching thousands. That is important faith.

I have faith that the good in the world will triumph, too. It just might take time. And I look to recent events as a benchmark. Too long the vox clamantis of Black Lives Matter has resounded in unhearing ears of generations in deserto. But now things are happening. Too slow, yes, but happening none-the-less.

So, vox clamantis in deserto? No, what we do, what we say, what we write, is heard. Keep writing, speaking and doing. Keep making Theater! Some will listen and indeed hear. Have Faith.

"Into the Woods" Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by James Lapine, presented by Theater 2020 in 2019, David Fuller, Director & Set; Judith Jarosz, Choreography; Suzanne Jones, Music Director; Giles Hogya, Lights; Matthew Lott, Costumes; Jen Weiner, PSM; with David André*, David Arthur Bachrach*, Torian Brackett, Ali Coopersmith, Alexa Crawford, Julia Goretsky*, John Jeffords*, Elizabeth Kensek*, Rudy Martinez, Bess Morrison*, Josephine Spada*, Tomo Watanabe, Shuyan Yang (*AEA)

President's Day 2021

2/15/2021

On this President's Day, I cannot help but reflect on what our current President faces. The enormity of what lies before us may seem daunting, yet we as a nation have been through much over the centuries, and though it may take us time to figure things out, we are getting there. Yet how do we do this? My thoughts run to the image of our nation's Senators, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before every session and to President Barack Obama, who gave an inspiring speech in his final address to the United Nations on September 20, 2016, in which a hope for our future found its bedrock in that Pledge, and where he set forth a possible blueprint for the future of our world. [If you can spare 45 minutes or so, it's worth the time. Here is the YouTube URL: https://youtu.be/ji6pl5Vwrvk]

Here are some excerpts:

"A quarter century after the end of the Cold War, the world is by many measures less violent and more prosperous than ever before, and yet our societies are filled with uncertainty, and unease, and strife...I believe that at this moment we all face a choice. We can choose to press forward with a better model of cooperation and integration. Or we can retreat into a world sharply divided, and ultimately in conflict, along age-old lines of nation and tribe and race and religion. I want to suggest to you today that we must go forward, and not backward."

"Today, a nation ringed by walls would only imprison itself."

"We must reject any forms of fundamentalism, or racism, or a belief in ethnic superiority... Instead we need to embrace the tolerance that results from respect of all human beings."

"Now, there’s no easy answer for resolving all these social forces, and we must respect the meaning that people draw from their own traditions... But I do not believe progress is possible if our desire to preserve our identities gives way to an impulse to dehumanize or dominate another group... The world is too small, we are too packed together, for us to be able to resort to those old ways of thinking."

"We all have to do better as leaders in tamping down, rather than encouraging, a notion of identity that leads us to diminish others."

"Because in the eyes of innocent men and women and children who, through no fault of their own, have had to flee everything that they know, everything that they love, we have to have the empathy to see ourselves."

"I have seen that spirit in our young people, who are more educated and more tolerant, and more inclusive and more diverse, and more creative than our generation; who are more empathetic and compassionate towards their fellow human beings than previous generations. And, yes, some of that comes with the idealism of youth. But it also comes with young people’s access to information about other peoples and places -- an understanding unique in human history that their future is bound with the fates of other human beings on the other side of the world."

"And in my own life, in this country, and as President, I have learned that our identities do not have to be defined by putting someone else down, but can be enhanced by lifting somebody else up. They don’t have to be defined in opposition to others, but rather by a belief in liberty and equality and justice and fairness."

"And the embrace of these principles as universal doesn't weaken my particular pride, my particular love for America -- it strengthens it. My belief that these ideals apply everywhere doesn’t lessen my commitment to help those who look like me, or pray as I do, or pledge allegiance to my flag. But my faith in those principles does force me to expand my moral imagination and to recognize that I can best serve my own people, I can best look after my own daughters, by making sure that my actions seek what is right for all people and all children, and your daughters and your sons."

"This is what I believe: that all of us can be co-workers with God. And our leadership, and our governments, and this United Nations should reflect this irreducible truth."

Let's move into 2021 with that commitment to everyone, like Obama said, striving to embody our nation's Pledge of Allegiance, "WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!"

- David Fuller, NTC Past President

Hello 2021 and a Brighter Future!

1/14/2021

President Randy Reinholz has asked me to continue this blog, so from time to time I will be posting items and thoughts that may be of interest. I note that it has been over two months since my last post.

In the interim NTC conducted its first, and we hope last, completely virtual annual conference. It was, according to participants, a resounding success. A highlight for me was sharing screen time and engaging with our 2020 NTC Person of the Year Taylor Mac and our Paul Green Awardee Graham K. G. Garlington (pictured at right). For those of us behind the scenes it was a great deal of work. Thankfully we had a great team: our 2020 Board of Trustees, our committees and committee chairs, and our wonderful staff!

In the interim, too, were two months of idiocy in DC, thousands of needless Covid-19 deaths, and, thankfully, some holiday respite.

Now we are on the verge of a great opportunity in America. After four years of negativity in a long dark tunnel, we are emerging into the light of hope for a better, saner, healthier future. But as we look to our new leaders for promises to be fulfilled, we must remember the darkness and strive to understand what got us into that place and how we can never go there again, how we can keep lighting lights to never again curse the darkness.

On this day of remembrance for Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., I am moved to reiterate words from his final speech on this earth: "Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation."

I believe it all comes from education. And in this education must be the teachings of truth and empathy. The dystopian ember of "alternative facts" must never again be allowed to ignite and torch the truth. Truth is truth, facts are facts and lies are always lies, however the latter may be couched in didactic homily. The pejorative notion of empathy as a weak sibling to character must also be erased. Empathy is the gateway to understanding. If we travel down the road of truth and empathy, the land of enlightenment cannot be far off.

As Dr. King further said in his speech:

"Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. One day a man came to Jesus, and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters of life...But Jesus immediately pulled that question from mid-air, and placed it on a dangerous curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked about a certain man, who fell among thieves. You remember that a Levite and a priest passed by on the other side. They didn't stop to help him. And finally a man of another race came by. He got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy. But he got down with him, administered first aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, this was the great man, because he had the capacity to project the 'I' into the 'thou,' and to be concerned about his brother...And so the first question that the priest asked -- the first question that the Levite asked was, 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'"

Selfishness is easy. Selflessness is hard. It's work, sure, but we can do it, with Arts at the vanguard and Theatre to help teach. We are, after all, tellers of stories. Through our stories we can show, not in pedantic terms but through entertainment, a way of light, of truth, of empathy, and yes, of love. As Dr. King said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."

Now the Healing and the Work Begins: Together

11/7/2020

After the post-election sighs of relief and the tears of joy for some, and the cries of anguish and tears of sorrow for others, a profound moment begins a new dawn and call for unity and collective work for the future of all of us. At the vanguard will be the Arts and the Artists. What we create, what we perform, and what we bring forth into this world is now more important than ever. Despite political differences, we have chosen the path of those who will strive to bring us together, in a vote of unprecedented numbers. There is fear on both sides, but fear is the absence of knowledge, nothing more. So, we in the Arts can help eradicate fear by helping to bring light to everyone. We are ready for a New Renaissance, a path into the future where everyone has a voice and a part to play. Let's all help lead the way. Let's build a new American Theatre that includes everyone from the ground up, the pit to the flies, backstage to front of house, box office to admin office. And, yes, Liberal and Conservative. For we have seen that the divisive rhetoric of "The Other" is a path to failure. Working together we have no limits to what we can accomplish.
- David Fuller, President, NTC

Please Vote, #Enough Plays to End Gun Violence, VinTage Award, Save Our Stages Act

11/3/2020

Please Vote

More than any period in our scant time on earth, this one really matters, so please vote!

NTC Member Robert Schenkkan Shares:
#ENOUGH Plays to End Gun Violence

SEVEN WINNING PLAYS ABOUT ENDING GUN VIOLENCE SELECTED BY LAUREN GUNDERSON, TARELL ALVIN MCCRANEY, ROBERT SCHENKKAN, DAVID HENRY HWANG, AND KAREN ZACARIAS FOR #ENOUGH

#ENOUGH Plays to End Gun Violence, in Partnership with Broadway on Demand, Playscripts and The Dramatists Guild of America, Announce Seven Winning Plays, their 2020 Digital Premiere, and a Nationwide Reading

The winning plays will be free to view on Broadway on Demand from Dec 14-20 in a ground-breaking collaboration with Alliance Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Orlando Repertory Theatre, and South Coast Repertory.

From the Press Release: #ENOUGH is proud to announce the selection of seven plays by teen playwrights chosen by nationally recognized dramatists Lauren Gunderson, Academy Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney, Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Schenkkan, Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang, and Karen Zacarías, as the winners of #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence, a national short play competition for middle and high school students. On December 14, 2020 -- the eight-year remembrance of the shootings at Sandy Hook -- the winning titles will receive their digital premiere on the streaming platform Broadway on Demand and be made available for free for organizations to stage readings locally.

MORE INFO AT: www.enoughplays.com

HELP FUND THE PROJECT: FUNDRAISING WEBSITE HERE

NTC Member Shellen Lubin Shares:
Women in the Arts and Media Coalition Hosts VintAge Virtually
NTC Member Martha Richards to Receive Award

Martha Richards

Every two to three years, the Women in the Arts and Media Coalition hosts VintAge, an event celebrating the voice and vision of women in the arts and media as they age. This year, on Saturday, November 14th, the Coalition is convening in a virtual setting, to celebrate the accomplishments of the community as they continue to produce vibrant and exciting creative work, even in this challenging environment. The Elsa Rael VintAge Award, named for Coalition Co-Founder and guiding spirit Elsa Rael, to Martha Richards, Founder and President of WomenArts, an organization dedicated to increasing the visibility of women artists in all art forms, and an affiliate member organization of the Coalition.

MORE INFO AND WAYS TO HELP SUPPORT: www.womenartsmediacoalition.org/vintage

Support the SAVE OUR STAGES ACT:
Tell your Senators and Congress Members!

S.4258 — 116th Congress (2019-2020)

The Save Our Stages Act was first introduced in July by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) and would provide six months of Small Business Administration grants to live music venue operators that have taken a hit during COVID-19.

Taylor Mac News, Paul Green Award & Emerging Professional Award Recipients and New Play Exchange Info

10/11/2020

NTC 2020 Person of the Year Taylor Mac has won the International Ibsen Award. According to American Theatre Magazine: "The award, considered to be the Nobel Prize for Theatre, is gifted every two years and comes with a $300,000 cash prize. It is given to an individual or company that has brought new artistic dimensions to the world of drama or theatre...The award ceremony is usually presented as part of the Norwegian National Theatre’s biennial Ibsen Festival, which has been postponed and reimagined as a digital celebration. The ceremony will now kick off a special live-streamed event entitled Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce…Pandemic! on Dec. 12 at 8pm EST."

According to Rolling Stone, Taylor is the first American to receive this award. The magazine also touts a new album: "On November 13th, Mac plans to release Holiday Sauce, an album that Mac dedicates to the legendary Mother Flawless Sabrina, Mac’s drag mother, who died in December 2017. In the liner notes, Mac writes: 'What better way to celebrate the winter solstice than through motherhood? Especially drag motherhood. In ancient Roman times, gender-play was a key element of Saturnalia...'"

Playbill also reports on Mac's award and quotes the International Ibsen Award Committee: "In a world of increased polarization and divisions, Mac crafts work that shows theatre’s potential to bind and unite audiences, to think about how we relate to culture in its various forms, and what it means to engage with other human beings imaginatively, ethically, and politically, through the act of performance."

Taylor Mac will join us for a virtual NTC Person of the Year Award presentation, conversation and Q&A at our December 4-6 NTC Conference. Reserve your schedule: Saturday, December 5, from 2:30 to 4:00 pm EST!

Taylor Mac has chosen Graham KG Garlington to receive the 2020 Paul Green Award. Selected by the recipient of the Person of the Year Award, The Paul Green Award recognizes and encourages excellence in new professional theatre talent and is presented to a young theatre artist. Graham is a 2018 graduate of Sarah Lawrence College where they received a BA in Music, Theatre and Film.

His latest bio:

Graham KG Garlington is a trans non-binary singer-songwriter, activist, experimental musical theatre composer, and drag artist. He's been assistant directing off-Broadway and performing (Till, NYMF, 2019; Only Human, 2019; Chance in America’s Favorite All-Boy Band, The Tank, 2018; Countee in the Crocus Eaters, Trans Lab, 2018; Kitt in Beasts of Warren, The Syndicate & Scottish Rite Theatre, 2018 & 2020) since graduating Sarah Lawrence College in 2018. They are currently working on their third musical while working and performing with Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir. They look forward to a future where the police are abolished and the capitalist white suprematist state falls in favor of BIPOC queer/trans liberation.

NTC 2020 Outstanding Theatre, Cleveland Public Theatre, has named Reginald L. Douglas as recipient of the NTC 2020 Emerging Professional Award. Selected by the Outstanding Theatre Award recipient, this Award is presented to a person demonstrating exemplary promise in a professional theatre organization. A graduate of Georgetown University, Reginald is a director, producer, and advocate dedicated to creating new work and supporting new voices, and the Associate Artistic Director at Studio Theatre in Washington, DC. His full bio can be read here.

Nan Barnett, NTC Member and Executive Director of the National New Play Network, send us info on their New Play Exchange. It is truly an amazing way to connect with plays and playwrights, whether you are a writer, a reader, a theatre, or an institution of higher learning! Nan tells me that the site offers access to information on more that 9000 writers and 37,000 plays, most fully downloadable for reading). Also, in the two years since the higher education subscriptions began there are now more than a million students and faculty members with access! The prices are low, averaging around $15/year! Here's a pitch from them:

The New Play Exchange—the world’s largest digital library of scripts by living writers—has revolutionized the theater industry. Launched in 2015 as an answer to the broken and outdated processes by which scripts and theater-makers were finding one another, the NPX now boasts more than 37,000 scripts by more than 9,000 writers. The platform’s latest innovation surpasses its previous success exponentially. With the introduction of Higher Education subscriptions, students and faculty can now search the NPX from anywhere they can access their institution’s network. In our new landscape, the NPX is proving to be an invaluable tool for educators and students no matter where they are currently learning. Robust search filters make it easy to find scripts for discussion or analysis that are perfectly aligned with your curricula. Whether you’re examining the Black Lives Matter movement, the impact of climate change, women’s suffrage, modern love, or a host of other timely or timeless topics, the NPX’s keyword search capabilities will point you toward new, relevant scripts. Contact and Rights Inquiry features allow you to reach out to writers with questions – or to request performance rights – with a single click. The NPX is ready to expand the possibilities for harnessing the empathy, curiosity, and appetite for inquiry that art infuses into any subject, with an eye toward creating a more equitable, inclusive cultural landscape in the process.

To learn more, contact them here: http://bit.ly/NPX4EDU

ONE FINAL THING: PLEASE VOTE!

Artists Lead

9/20/2020

Melting ice on the coast of Adélie Land in East Antarctica. REUTERS/PAULINE ASKIN

Fires raging. Glaciers melting. Hurricanes blowing. Icons dying. And COVID-19 still on the rampage. Meantime national leaders ignore, deflect and lie. Lies and liars. Mendacity.

One summer I had the amazing experience of working with Tennessee Williams, who years prior had written Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Most of you know this, but it bears repeating. In it Big Daddy says: "What's that smell in this room? Didn't you notice it, Brick? Didn't you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room? There ain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity. You can smell it. It smells like death." And Brick declares: "Mendacity is a system that we live in. Liquor is one way out an' death's the other." Depressing. But there's more to it. Tennessee also has Brick say: "Maggie, we're through with lies and liars in this house."

I was in a play once, The Boy Who Changed the World, by Patricia Malango, a play about a prehistoric teenager at a time when homo sapiens were at the precipice of extinction. The boy fails at hunting, fighting and killing, but excels at painting, poetry and music. He's the one who saves the world by inventing the wheel. Yes, a cheesy parable. I played the narrator. At the top of the show I said: "What an age to be alive in - everything violently new and a challenge! The world full of knowledge just waiting to be discovered!"

Tennessee Williams and Patricia Malango, two very different artists whose words resonate today. These are depressing, uncertain times, surely, but they offer us a chance at creating something new and better. With our artists leading the way.

It's easy to be sad, depressed all holed up in our COVID Cubbyholes. Let's take the lead, as artists always do. Let's be through with lies and liars. Let's embrace the possibilities this unique moment in history affords us.
- David Fuller, President, NTC

Many NTC members are at the forefront of the COVID battle for theater in the USA.

Helmed by NTC member and Artistic Director Risa Brainin, LAUNCH PAD at UC Santa Barbara commissioned 24 playwrights to write monologues and short plays for the Zoom platform. Alone, Together was performed in June, and the collection was recently published by Dramatic Publishing. All 39 pieces are available to be licensed now and include plays by NTC members Arlene Hutton and James Still as well as Stavis winner Mia Chung. Member Liz Engelman served as festival dramaturg. Brainin says, “The plays are wonderful, and we hope they are useful to NTC members seeking material for both the classroom and virtual performances.” Excerpts can be read on the DPC website.

At Playmakers Repertory, in Chapel Hill, NC, NTC member and Artistic Director Vivienne Benesch has announced their all virtual 2020-2021 season, ALL TOO HUMAN - EXPLORING THE RESILIENCE OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT. Their website states the season "explores the resilience of the human spirit in the face of personal and national upheaval," and "was born out of the need to adapt, learn, and change." It features six streamed performances "ranging from audio drama to film, ensemble to solo work, all enjoyed in the safety of home until we can gather again as a community."

Out of Juneau, Alaska, NTC member and Perseverance Theatre Artistic Director Leslie Ishii began their 20-21 Season with a co-production with ACT, In Love and Warcraft by Madhuri Shekar, an on-line performance they dub Live Video Theatre. The audience watches live from their homes; the actors are socially distanced, often performing in different states; and through design, lighting, and camera angles, the actors appear to be interacting in the same space. Outside the stage, Perseverance has also been working with The City and Borough of Juneau to produce several health and safety PSAs in response to the global health crisis.

In Florida, the 32nd Season at Orlando Shakespeare Theatre has been announced by Artistic Director, and NTC member, Jim Helsinger. Orlando Shakes will present virtual productions this fall and begin live performances under stringent CDC guidelines beginning in the winter. Up first, a video on demand performance: Poe: Deep Into That Darkness Peering.

Photo: Jack Buckley, The Oregonian

2013 NTC Outstanding Theatre Oregon Shakespeare Festival is taking a lead in helping those in its region devastated by the forest fires. Through its "We Will Rebuild Together" web-page, it is promoting how to help its region and its theatrical family get back from these difficult times. Though not in production due to the pandemic, it is having its virtual "Dare to Dream" gala this fall. [Photo at right: OSF stage hand & IATSE Local 154 member Jack Buckley was one of many civilians who helped dig trenches & support those evacuating at the start of the Ashland Fires. #OSFTogether]

In Pittsburgh, NTC member and Quantum Theatre Artistic Director Karla Boos has announced its 20-21 Season of three plays in three different site-specific productions where artists and audience will be safely socially distanced. The plays, An Odyssey, Chimerica and The Current War will be staged in an outdoors skating rink, a park and the entire floor of the United Steelworkers Union building. Boos states: "Each show has a very large site ...custom-built, distanced seating, for a small number of people, with safe and distanced ways in and out. We hope Quantum, free from four walls, can lead us back to live theater, even if it looks a little different..." The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports on the season here.

In New York City, Woodie King Jr., NTC member and Artistic Director of New Federal Theatre, has announced the start of New Federal Theatre's 50th Season. On September 21 and 28 they will present in two parts, Black Words Matter, a 2020 Virtual Poetry Jam, and a reading series in October: 5 Plays Illuminating the Social Injustices of America. The plays: Do Lord Remember Me, Mr. DuBois & Miss Ovington, From the Mississippi Delta, Medal of Honor Rag, and Stories of the Old Days

Labor Day and Theatre

9/4/2020

This Labor Day Weekend brings me to pause and think about the unions under whose contracts I have labored, especially with respect to my first love, Theatre. Theatre is a calling and I have been "blessed" to have heard this clarion call for decades. Yet how is it defined? What constitutes "theatre?" It used to be that a live performance before a group of people in one space was an adequate definition. Now we are doing live shows from different spaces for virtual audiences across the globe. Our labor union, Actors' Equity Association, appears to not think of this new actor/audience relationship as theater. It's communicated on a screen so it must be under SAG/AFTRA jurisdiction. I can understand if the work is on video or film. But live? Has our union abdicated oversight of a form of theatre that is not going away and is going to grow? Post COVID-19, throughout the next decade, this new technology is not going to go away. It is going to grow. AEA needs to grow with it.

Broadway is Closed until 2021 - (NY Post photo)

On another note, how are the labors of our theaters doing? So, far, quite simply, most of us are not working. Some of us lucky ones are working virtually. But overall, it's bleak. If you are in theater you know this, of course.

The Brookings Institution recently published a report "LOST ART: Measuring COVID-19’s devastating impact on America’s creative economy" in which it estimates losses of $150 billion in creative industry revenue while calling for more federal support for cultural workers. Of this $150 billion, it states:

Apollo Theater (Elias Williams photo)

"The fine and performing arts industries will be hit hardest, suffering estimated losses of almost 1.4 million jobs and $42.5 billion in sales. These estimated losses represent 50% of all jobs in those industries and more than a quarter of all lost sales nationwide... The creative economy is one of the sectors most at risk from the COVID-19 crisis. Arts, culture, and creativity are one of three key sectors (along with science and technology as well as business and management) that drive regional economies. Any lasting damage to the creative sector will drastically undercut our culture, well-being, and quality of life.

So, I posted this last month, but it bears repeating:

CONGRESS MUST ACT!

LINKS FOR ARTS/THEATRE ADVOCACY
WE NEED NOW:

ACTORS' EQUITY - Extend Pandemic Unemployment Compensation

ExtendPUA.org: Pandemic Assistance Should Continue Until the Pandemic is Over

Be An Arts Hero: An Open Letter to our US Senators