Comments for S.O.E.

Comment on On Shakespeare, and As You Like It by On Shakespeare, and As You Like It « Threat Quality Press

On Shakespeare, and As You Like It « Threat Quality Press — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 14:07:14 +0000

[...] Read More… On the PopPressed Radar Print Magazine's New Visual Artists Saint Petersburg Unveils Primorskiy Zoological Park with Geodesic Domes What One Does In Paris if One is a Carter or Knowles [...]

Comment on Trans/Cis-realism: A New Approach to Aesthetics by Some Thoughts On Style « Threat Quality Press

Some Thoughts On Style « Threat Quality Press — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 01:27:01 +0000

[...] are presented in a style that is manifestly different from observable reality (see some further notes about the distinction between “real” and “realistic” over here) — it [...]

Comment on Verisimilitude Again by Some Thoughts On Style « Threat Quality Press

Some Thoughts On Style « Threat Quality Press — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 01:26:54 +0000

[...] that is, they are presented in a style that is manifestly different from observable reality (see some further notes about the distinction between “real” and “realistic” over [...]

Comment on The Philadelphia Independent Theater Awards by ironagetheatre

ironagetheatre — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:18:46 +0000

ALthough there is a lot to do to make this viable, I applaud Chris’ effort to deal with the issue of budget and awards.
If I use Jim’s numbers, I put on my main stage productions for something like 2% of PTC’s budget for a show. That is admin, staff, publicity, set etc. If there ever was a reason to have a second tier of awards that would do it.
We need an answer here. What some of us do with nothing must, in some way, be recongnized, even if the only reason is to get people to come to the theatre, any theatre, at all.

Comment on The Philadelphia Independent Theater Awards by Jim

Jim — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 12:34:51 +0000

Your numbers are a bit low. Philadelphia Theatre Company, for instance, throws upwards of $500,000 at each production (or so they say in their fundraising materials).

Without sponsorships or free rental donations of space and equipment, the Theatre Alliance would need to spend at least $50,000 to put on the B-more Awards. Think of it like a wedding for several hundred; then realize why the tickets cost so much.

Also, you wouldn’t need to worry about people gaming the system. The way you’ve outlined it, it games itself. There’s no quality control via a set of standards or criteria for nomination, nor have you specified the criteria by which a person could count as a valid nominator. Without either, the award would possess little credibility beyond a popularity contest and your random, unfiltered nominators could easily lie, file as many votes for each show as they like (or have their friends do it), and do so without seeing the show.

More thought and effort, please, the idea is worth it.

Comment on Tribe of Fools: Dracula by Dracula « Threat Quality Press

Dracula « Threat Quality Press — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 18:06:46 +0000

[...] http://iatsoe.org/2010/09/12/tribe-of-fools-dracula/ [...]

Comment on Staged Readings: What Is the Point of Them? by Tom Juarez

Tom Juarez — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 06:17:22 +0000

Wow. Readings of new work must really suck in Philly. Reading the script or having actors read it in rehearsal can’t replace having an audience in the room. Haven’t been involved in many readings here, as audience or actor, but I have in SF and a theatre conference in Alaska. I have limited experience using them as a writer, but when I did I found the unstaged and staged readings incredibly valuable. I rewrote based on how I sensed the flow of the play going during the reading as well as comments from the audience. You have to read between the lines of the comments sometimes, and pay attention to what’s not said. But when they make a comment that indicates their attention is being drawn in a direction you didn’t anticipate or want then you need to rewrite. You know what you intended so you won’t find that kind of problem without an audience. Audiences are not stupid. They catch everything, whether or not they can express it. If it’s electric in a reading it’s going to rock in production and you’ll find the weak points in the reading. The worst part of readings is how the feedback is done. Feedback sessions suck 90% of the time. Often the people leading the feedback start by talking too much or by creating a teacher/student (or expert/peon) relationship with the audience, or they lead poorly and let the feedback turn into a bitch session. For an example of good use of feedback, director Kent Nicholson is the best I’ve ever seen. He’s based in NY now, but works on both coasts and I think he’s currently in the Bay Area directing readings for an annual new work reading series at TheatreWorks, which presents scripts in very advanced stages. They do a reading, get feedback, have the audience answer fill out answers to questions the writer & director have about the script, take a few days to do rewrites and re-rehearse the actors, then do another reading and get feedback & written forms again. I saw both sessions of a reading a couple years ago. It works – it’s like script finishing school. I think developmental and staged readings of new work can be very valuable if you have good actors and properly led feedback.

Comment on Henry V and Metatheatricality by braak

braak — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:08:36 +0000

Well, they had different hats; it's just that none of them was an archbishop hat, see? The context was internally consistent, but it wasn't built on any outside referent; if I didn't know that that guy was the Archbishop of Canterbury, I'd have no way of knowing that his hat was an archbishop's hat, as opposed to a deacon's hat. And if I did know that he was the Archbishop of Canterbury, then he wouldn't need a hat. I don't think the facility you describe would have solved the profundity problem; the fact is that no matter how intensely emotional the characters are, the context in which they were seated (and through which we can't help but interpret what we see) was ironclad. Unless the schoolroom could literally disappear, there was no way for those cats to unstick themselves from it.

Comment on Henry V and Metatheatricality by wench

wench — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:54:21 +0000

They could have put the soldiers into school sport uniforms – lacrosse for one side, footy for the other. And given the bishop a paper hat. There are schoolhouse ways you can distinguish characters.

I suppose te profundity of the important lines you mentioned would depend on the ability of the actors to switch from mild comedy to intense emotion then back to comedy at half a millisecond’s notice. I’ve seen actors able to pull it off but that is a rare, rare skill.

Comment on On the Power of Livestreaming by braak

braak — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 01:49:02 +0000

Well, there are some things to consider. If you imagine, say, that a theater has a regular, one-person production that it does that has widespread, national interest among niche groups. Like, a whole bunch of groups of twenty, but they’re in places like Utah. To fly your guy out there, pay him, and do the show, you’re going to need a thousand dollars, which means fifty dollars a ticket for your Utah group.

But if you do a livecast, you only need to a fraction of the resources (say, five hundred dollars: just enough to pay the guy); you can sell the license for a hundred bucks, each person in the group pays five, and you only need to find ten places around the country in order to do it.

We were originally looking at this in terms of schools; there are a lot of schools that can’t afford to bring their kids out to theaters for educational programs. But if you’ve already got the livecast technology, then you can get it to them for a fraction of the cost, even if it is diluted.

Of course, it’s hard to say how any of this will work, since it’s not like I’ve got a conclusive failure I can point to, or even a series of less-than-middling successes.

Consequently, you can’t really disagree with me. I mean, you can, but it’s not material; this isn’t my opinion I’m talking about, it’s my hypothesis, and hypothesis can only be resolved by experiment.

So, we’ll see how it works. If it isn’t going to work, someone’s going to have to fail at it.