You could spend a lot of time describing the quality of light on my walk to the train this morning. Someone more verbose than me at 7:00 am might employ descriptive words like: steely, sullen, ashen, bleak, etc. If you were naming a paint color (a great job if ever there was one), you might be temporarily overcome with the urge to christen it "January 15 Chicago Grey". Apropos as the moniker might be, it's certainly not all that marketable. You'd quickly realize your error, slap "Colt 45 Brushed Nickel" on the side of the can, and move on.
For those of us who have been here awhile, it's just "grey". When you use the term in midwinter Chicago, people know you're not talking about hair or cars or dishwater. It's the light. You can't even say "sky" really; it's more of a 360 degree experience. Especially now that the holiday lights have been boxed up for another year, it's grey as far as the eye can see. It's like leaving your house and walking into an episode of "Leave it to Beaver"--one that's outside, in the winter (I was going to add "...and not funny", but the show didn't make me laugh).
If you're not careful, the grey begins to seep into your brain: which, of course, is also grey. This whole "grey on grey" invasion can have a noticeable impact on your personality. If your brain is a lighter grey than the environment, then you'll find yourself turning more gloomy and depressing. On the other hand, if the outdoors is a lighter grey than your brain, then you might sense a little extra spring in your step (this is not all that common).
People not from around here think it's the cold of winter that we struggle against. In truth, it's the grey.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
More warrantless searches
NYT Article
Ok, so I'm a couple of days behind going through my news feeds, but this one really got the neurons firing at 7:00am. We, as a nation, are becoming ever more inventive at finding ways of limiting our freedom. If you don't have time to link thru to the article, it discusses pending appelate review of warrantless searches of personal computers carried into the US. The primary defendant isn't all that appealing a character, but the case should be a cause for concern for anyone looking at this post.
I've got three computers in my home, plus a work computer. What distinguishes them from a border-crossing laptop? Form factor? No, they're all laptops. Purpose? Not really...they all have some combination of business and personal information on them (note to my employers: yes, the work computer contains only limited personal info). Residence of owner? No, the owner of the computer in question is a US citizen. Location? Bingo! The defendants computer was coming into the US with him, while mine sit inside my house.
Unfortunately, the physical location of data means less and less in our current legal environment. You don't have to be a legal scholar to draw a fairly straight line from warrantless border searches of laptops to warrantless electronic intrusions into the hard drive of the computer on which you're reading this post. As the Electronic Frontier Foundation puts it in their FOTC brief, it's "...simply electronic surveillance after the fact."
Ok, so I'm a couple of days behind going through my news feeds, but this one really got the neurons firing at 7:00am. We, as a nation, are becoming ever more inventive at finding ways of limiting our freedom. If you don't have time to link thru to the article, it discusses pending appelate review of warrantless searches of personal computers carried into the US. The primary defendant isn't all that appealing a character, but the case should be a cause for concern for anyone looking at this post.
I've got three computers in my home, plus a work computer. What distinguishes them from a border-crossing laptop? Form factor? No, they're all laptops. Purpose? Not really...they all have some combination of business and personal information on them (note to my employers: yes, the work computer contains only limited personal info). Residence of owner? No, the owner of the computer in question is a US citizen. Location? Bingo! The defendants computer was coming into the US with him, while mine sit inside my house.
Unfortunately, the physical location of data means less and less in our current legal environment. You don't have to be a legal scholar to draw a fairly straight line from warrantless border searches of laptops to warrantless electronic intrusions into the hard drive of the computer on which you're reading this post. As the Electronic Frontier Foundation puts it in their FOTC brief, it's "...simply electronic surveillance after the fact."
Monday, January 07, 2008
New Year, New City
So, for those of you visiting for the first time, welcome. Posts prior to this one represent the history of stageNEXT, the initiative I founded and led in Charlotte, NC, with the hope of bringing regional-level theatre back to Charlotte. While there was a lot of moral support for the effort, our group was not able to turn that backing into dollars. Catch me sometime after a few drinks, and I'll fill in the blanks between the posts. It's an interesting story, and was a great learning experience (although I wish they didn't always have to be so painful!).
But that was then, this is now. It's 2008, and my family and I have relocated to Chicago. I've gotten over my savior complex, and am simply looking for opportunities to leverage my artistic abilities in support of the theatre. Henceforward (I love the word "henceforward"), this blog will serve as my journal of these collaborations as well as collecting random thoughts and life/theatre experiences that I choose to foist (another good word) upon you, my readers.
So, welcome.
But that was then, this is now. It's 2008, and my family and I have relocated to Chicago. I've gotten over my savior complex, and am simply looking for opportunities to leverage my artistic abilities in support of the theatre. Henceforward (I love the word "henceforward"), this blog will serve as my journal of these collaborations as well as collecting random thoughts and life/theatre experiences that I choose to foist (another good word) upon you, my readers.
So, welcome.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
stageNEXT: a bridge too far
One of the most fascinating military offensives of World War II has to be Operation Market Garden. In late 1944, the Allied forces in Europe were struggling to maintain the initiative because of resupply issues—all of the men and material coming into the continent were being channeled through the D-Day invasion beaches and the single port of Cherbourg. To address this issue, UK Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery proposed and planned a daring offensive to clear a supply route to Antwerp, a massive port held by British forces. Although military historians continue to disagree on whether the mission could have ever been successful, there is broad consensus that Market Garden failed because of a lack of effective situational awareness and planning. What is most surprising is that Montgomery was known as being a highly methodical (sometimes too methodical) planner. If all of this is ringing a bell in the back of your head, it’s probably because it was the subject of the movie “A Bridge Too Far,” one of the best movies of WWII (my opinion).
Ok, so I’m not comparing myself to Montgomery. But, I have to say that my efforts on stageNEXT over the last 18 months have felt, to some extent, like Operation Market Garden: early successes followed by a stall in progress, then a last-ditch effort to hold onto established positions until reinforcements could arrive. While I won’t implicate my planning for stageNEXT (there are some who would say that I did too much planning), I readily admit that my awareness of the local environment has grown dramatically over the course of my efforts.
What have I learned? I think I can effectively sum it up as follows: Charlotte isn’t ready for locally produced, regional-level, professional theatre. In order for regional theatre to re-emerge here, we need the following:
1) acknowledgement by the community that there is something missing from our cultural landscape;
2) willingness from the community to do something about it.
There is a lot of blame being heaped at the feet of the ASC, the BPAC, and various theatre companies for our current situation; this is (for the most part) misdirected. Until a critical mass of community members takes a stand and gets involved in the creation of a new company, the status quo will prevail. Even the ASC Theatre Task Force recommendations seem to acknowledge this; there is a clear focus on organic development and reticence to strongly back any single initiative.
Now, let me say that Charlotteans are certainly involved in this community—we’re a civic-minded bunch. However, the community doesn’t have a “deep bench” of civic leaders, which means that the leaders we have are all getting pulled 4-5 different ways and being asked each day to get involved in another dozen community efforts. As a Charlotte is a community that coalesces around its leaders, a nascent theatre company has to find the right core group of Charlotteans that will attract people to the cause.
A close associate (and respected arts consultant) told me last year that if a professional company didn’t emerge in the next year or so, that it would be 5-10 years before the window would reopen. I agreed generally at the time, but feel I now understand it better. The farther Charlotte Rep recedes into the past, the less awareness there is of what we have lost in this community.
Nationwide, there are ever-increasing challenges of establishing and growing a new company (e.g., increasing entertainment options, reduced giving to the arts, growing production costs), making it easy to understand why there have been no significant new theatre companies emerge in the US (excluding New York, Chicago and LA) in the last 10+ years. It would seem that the era of building institutions like the Guthrie, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Rep, CENTERSTAGE, Alliance Theatre, etc., may be over.
In Charlotte, the barriers to entry are further heightened by our corporate mentality towards arts giving (the cultural facilities campaign making the environment even more challenging). The regional theatre ideal is also challenged by the great success of the Performing Arts Center. As the PAC extends its programming reach into more traditional regional theatre formats (e.g., the recent tour of Doubt, last year’s highly successful Shear Madness), one has to ask “what could a regional theatre provide that we’re not already getting?” Please recognize that this is not a criticism of the PAC—they would be negligent if they failed to respond to the absence of quality professional theatre. While knowledgeable theatre-goers understand the distinction and its importance, much of our potential audience for theatre doesn’t distinguish between touring theatre and local professional theatre. To much of our community, touring theatre is professional theatre and local theatre is amateur theatre. This is borne out both anecdotally and through market research conducted in our community.
This brings me to the ultimate realization of my 18-month experience; without a strong base of community support (both visible and financial), it will be exceedingly difficult to produce theatre of sufficient quality to reshape community perceptions and create a new distinction (i.e., locally produced professional theatre). However, it will be exceedingly difficult to establish the “strong base” in the short-term without first producing work representative of the quality that an institution would deliver over time. Without such productions, it will take much longer for our community to acknowledge that there is indeed “something missing.” This is, of course, a Catch-22; I now understand that it is also the basis for my friend’s prognostication.
So, all this to say that I am suspending my efforts on the stageNEXT initiative. I know that many of you will be disappointed—I am too. It was a difficult decision to make, but in the end I realized that I would rather not linger too long onstage—audiences dislike belabored endings. I could not find a way forward that addressed the risks and allowed the opportunity to flourish—therefore, it is my responsibility to clear the deck and allow other people and ideas to bubble to the surface.
Many of you met Chris Rennolds, who made several trips here from Los Angeles to see how she might be involved. From Chris, I extend thanks to all who took the time to provide insight and feedback. It was an incredibly useful process—cementing my awareness that now is not the right time to move forward. While Chris is still looking to “come home” (she’s a Durham native), she has determined that the situation here does not lend itself to working independently of a pre-existing initiative. Therefore, Chris has decided to remain in LA while exploring other opportunities in NC.
I want to thank all of you who have been willing to listen and provide input over the past 18 months. I have learned so much from you, and feel like I have established a number of great relationships that will extend beyond the end of stageNEXT. Your support has kept me going as long as I have, and has enabled me to maintain a positive outlook in the face of numerous challenges. Again, thank you.
Finally, if I can be of any assistance to you in the future, please do not hesitate to contact me. I would love to be able to return some portion of the support you have provided to me.
Ok, so I’m not comparing myself to Montgomery. But, I have to say that my efforts on stageNEXT over the last 18 months have felt, to some extent, like Operation Market Garden: early successes followed by a stall in progress, then a last-ditch effort to hold onto established positions until reinforcements could arrive. While I won’t implicate my planning for stageNEXT (there are some who would say that I did too much planning), I readily admit that my awareness of the local environment has grown dramatically over the course of my efforts.
What have I learned? I think I can effectively sum it up as follows: Charlotte isn’t ready for locally produced, regional-level, professional theatre. In order for regional theatre to re-emerge here, we need the following:
1) acknowledgement by the community that there is something missing from our cultural landscape;
2) willingness from the community to do something about it.
There is a lot of blame being heaped at the feet of the ASC, the BPAC, and various theatre companies for our current situation; this is (for the most part) misdirected. Until a critical mass of community members takes a stand and gets involved in the creation of a new company, the status quo will prevail. Even the ASC Theatre Task Force recommendations seem to acknowledge this; there is a clear focus on organic development and reticence to strongly back any single initiative.
Now, let me say that Charlotteans are certainly involved in this community—we’re a civic-minded bunch. However, the community doesn’t have a “deep bench” of civic leaders, which means that the leaders we have are all getting pulled 4-5 different ways and being asked each day to get involved in another dozen community efforts. As a Charlotte is a community that coalesces around its leaders, a nascent theatre company has to find the right core group of Charlotteans that will attract people to the cause.
A close associate (and respected arts consultant) told me last year that if a professional company didn’t emerge in the next year or so, that it would be 5-10 years before the window would reopen. I agreed generally at the time, but feel I now understand it better. The farther Charlotte Rep recedes into the past, the less awareness there is of what we have lost in this community.
Nationwide, there are ever-increasing challenges of establishing and growing a new company (e.g., increasing entertainment options, reduced giving to the arts, growing production costs), making it easy to understand why there have been no significant new theatre companies emerge in the US (excluding New York, Chicago and LA) in the last 10+ years. It would seem that the era of building institutions like the Guthrie, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Rep, CENTERSTAGE, Alliance Theatre, etc., may be over.
In Charlotte, the barriers to entry are further heightened by our corporate mentality towards arts giving (the cultural facilities campaign making the environment even more challenging). The regional theatre ideal is also challenged by the great success of the Performing Arts Center. As the PAC extends its programming reach into more traditional regional theatre formats (e.g., the recent tour of Doubt, last year’s highly successful Shear Madness), one has to ask “what could a regional theatre provide that we’re not already getting?” Please recognize that this is not a criticism of the PAC—they would be negligent if they failed to respond to the absence of quality professional theatre. While knowledgeable theatre-goers understand the distinction and its importance, much of our potential audience for theatre doesn’t distinguish between touring theatre and local professional theatre. To much of our community, touring theatre is professional theatre and local theatre is amateur theatre. This is borne out both anecdotally and through market research conducted in our community.
This brings me to the ultimate realization of my 18-month experience; without a strong base of community support (both visible and financial), it will be exceedingly difficult to produce theatre of sufficient quality to reshape community perceptions and create a new distinction (i.e., locally produced professional theatre). However, it will be exceedingly difficult to establish the “strong base” in the short-term without first producing work representative of the quality that an institution would deliver over time. Without such productions, it will take much longer for our community to acknowledge that there is indeed “something missing.” This is, of course, a Catch-22; I now understand that it is also the basis for my friend’s prognostication.
So, all this to say that I am suspending my efforts on the stageNEXT initiative. I know that many of you will be disappointed—I am too. It was a difficult decision to make, but in the end I realized that I would rather not linger too long onstage—audiences dislike belabored endings. I could not find a way forward that addressed the risks and allowed the opportunity to flourish—therefore, it is my responsibility to clear the deck and allow other people and ideas to bubble to the surface.
Many of you met Chris Rennolds, who made several trips here from Los Angeles to see how she might be involved. From Chris, I extend thanks to all who took the time to provide insight and feedback. It was an incredibly useful process—cementing my awareness that now is not the right time to move forward. While Chris is still looking to “come home” (she’s a Durham native), she has determined that the situation here does not lend itself to working independently of a pre-existing initiative. Therefore, Chris has decided to remain in LA while exploring other opportunities in NC.
I want to thank all of you who have been willing to listen and provide input over the past 18 months. I have learned so much from you, and feel like I have established a number of great relationships that will extend beyond the end of stageNEXT. Your support has kept me going as long as I have, and has enabled me to maintain a positive outlook in the face of numerous challenges. Again, thank you.
Finally, if I can be of any assistance to you in the future, please do not hesitate to contact me. I would love to be able to return some portion of the support you have provided to me.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Spirit Square and the Mecklenburg County Commission
<The following message was sent by stageNEXT to the County Commission as input to the public forum on the future of Spirit Square to be held on 07 March.>
Legitimacy…it’s a basic building block to the success of any business. Any company, whether multi-million dollar corporation or small proprietorship, must first establish legitimacy with its intended customers. If not, the consequences are dire as those same customers look elsewhere for institutions perceived as more reliable, more trustworthy…more legitimate. Consider two companies offering identical widgets at similar prices; the company that wins the most customers is the one better able to convince customers of its overall consistency and quality.
Although a theatre company exists to create art, it is (at a fundamental level) a business. In this regard, theatre producers face the same basic requirement as any other company: to establish legitimacy. That’s why performance space is such a critical issue; theatre companies can achieve great heights of artistry in their performance, but may never gain sufficient momentum to grow beyond their roots. This results from their inability to establish appropriate legitimacy in the eyes of their potential audience. Why? Because just like every other “bricks and mortar” business, location and quality of space are critical to young performing arts companies in attracting and sustaining a customer base.
While this is true everywhere, the issue is even more critical in Charlotte. Cultural participants in this community are highly place-conscious. While other cities (such as New York, Chicago, Seattle) have, through time and effort, developed experienced cultural audiences that evaluate theatre and other artforms based primarily on the quality of the end product, Charlotte audiences are still highly sensitive to the environment in which the product is presented. So, for instance, in Chicago a large and diverse audience might trek into transitional areas to see great theatre produced in non-traditional spaces; while in Charlotte, our community expects that legitimate theatre will be presented in safe, familiar venues. This is not to criticize our Charlotte performing arts audience; it is simply to say that this audience is at a much younger stage of development. However, the net result speaks volumes to the importance of spaces like the Duke Power Theatre in the ongoing development of theatre and other performing arts (with their inherent, well-documented community benefits—cf. Richard Florida) in Charlotte.
Without the ready availability of spaces like the Duke Power Theatre for use by developing performing arts companies, great performances are relegated to warehouses, cafes, parks, hotel rooms, grocery stores, etc. While these spaces are often invaluable in the creation of specific works, theatre companies struggle to create a public identity and sense of legitimacy without a location that their audiences perceive as “home.” In addition, the very areas where performing arts companies might establish a safe, welcoming, “storefront” performance space and attract a diverse Charlotte audience are experiencing rapid increases in rental costs, effectively pricing most young performing artists interested in establishing new companies out of the community. South End and NODA both come to mind in this regard.
In order to support the continuing growth of theatre and other performing arts in Charlotte, more spaces like the Duke Power are needed, not less. The Duke Power provides an important transitional space from community-based work (e.g., cafes, parks, warehouses) to self-managed production space (e.g., Actors’ Theatre’s Stonewall St. theatre). Without Duke Power, small theatre companies lose the imprimatur conveyed by being able to produce in Uptown Charlotte, in a well-known facility, using a reasonably well-equipped production environment. These factors are critical in establishing the legitimacy of theatre and other performing arts in the minds of Charlotte cultural audiences, thereby creating the opportunity for these audiences to develop a deeper appreciation of performing arts (independent of their physical location). Without Duke Power and similar spaces, the basic challenges of establishing legitimacy and developing audiences will overwhelm most young performing arts companies, reducing the diversity and energy of our arts community and (as a consequence) our community in general.
Legitimacy…it’s a basic building block to the success of any business. Any company, whether multi-million dollar corporation or small proprietorship, must first establish legitimacy with its intended customers. If not, the consequences are dire as those same customers look elsewhere for institutions perceived as more reliable, more trustworthy…more legitimate. Consider two companies offering identical widgets at similar prices; the company that wins the most customers is the one better able to convince customers of its overall consistency and quality.
Although a theatre company exists to create art, it is (at a fundamental level) a business. In this regard, theatre producers face the same basic requirement as any other company: to establish legitimacy. That’s why performance space is such a critical issue; theatre companies can achieve great heights of artistry in their performance, but may never gain sufficient momentum to grow beyond their roots. This results from their inability to establish appropriate legitimacy in the eyes of their potential audience. Why? Because just like every other “bricks and mortar” business, location and quality of space are critical to young performing arts companies in attracting and sustaining a customer base.
While this is true everywhere, the issue is even more critical in Charlotte. Cultural participants in this community are highly place-conscious. While other cities (such as New York, Chicago, Seattle) have, through time and effort, developed experienced cultural audiences that evaluate theatre and other artforms based primarily on the quality of the end product, Charlotte audiences are still highly sensitive to the environment in which the product is presented. So, for instance, in Chicago a large and diverse audience might trek into transitional areas to see great theatre produced in non-traditional spaces; while in Charlotte, our community expects that legitimate theatre will be presented in safe, familiar venues. This is not to criticize our Charlotte performing arts audience; it is simply to say that this audience is at a much younger stage of development. However, the net result speaks volumes to the importance of spaces like the Duke Power Theatre in the ongoing development of theatre and other performing arts (with their inherent, well-documented community benefits—cf. Richard Florida) in Charlotte.
Without the ready availability of spaces like the Duke Power Theatre for use by developing performing arts companies, great performances are relegated to warehouses, cafes, parks, hotel rooms, grocery stores, etc. While these spaces are often invaluable in the creation of specific works, theatre companies struggle to create a public identity and sense of legitimacy without a location that their audiences perceive as “home.” In addition, the very areas where performing arts companies might establish a safe, welcoming, “storefront” performance space and attract a diverse Charlotte audience are experiencing rapid increases in rental costs, effectively pricing most young performing artists interested in establishing new companies out of the community. South End and NODA both come to mind in this regard.
In order to support the continuing growth of theatre and other performing arts in Charlotte, more spaces like the Duke Power are needed, not less. The Duke Power provides an important transitional space from community-based work (e.g., cafes, parks, warehouses) to self-managed production space (e.g., Actors’ Theatre’s Stonewall St. theatre). Without Duke Power, small theatre companies lose the imprimatur conveyed by being able to produce in Uptown Charlotte, in a well-known facility, using a reasonably well-equipped production environment. These factors are critical in establishing the legitimacy of theatre and other performing arts in the minds of Charlotte cultural audiences, thereby creating the opportunity for these audiences to develop a deeper appreciation of performing arts (independent of their physical location). Without Duke Power and similar spaces, the basic challenges of establishing legitimacy and developing audiences will overwhelm most young performing arts companies, reducing the diversity and energy of our arts community and (as a consequence) our community in general.
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