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2012 HowlRound Roundup

January 2013 marks the two-year anniversary of the launch of HowlRound. Since our beginning, we have published nearly 300 theatre artists who have contributed a journal article or blog post, which have been read by 170,000 unique visitors to the site—an average of over 15,000 readers each month. Thank you to our contributors and readers; thank you for participating in the ongoing conversation about American theatre.

In the coming months of 2013, look for a launch of a new and improved HowlRound that will include more of what you have come to expect from the journal—transparent and honest dialogue about how we make theatre and why. And this year for the first time we’ll be talking much more about the work itself in an initiative to rethink theatre criticism. For now, we leave 2012 by offering you an assortment of quotes from the journal this past year.

My favorite moments in theatre have always been when the performer gives over to the center of gravity of the movement —a pure pendulum, swinging from moment to moment. When bound to gravitational forces, whether the pendulum’s arc is wide (a performer trying to race between tasks, focused and sweating), or narrow (a performer at neutral, ready for minute stimuli), it creates the potential for that rare moment to be free of affectation and pretense. A Perverted Guide to Watching Under the Radar by Meiyin Wang

Cathedrals are places for statuary and memorials and homage. But they are less likely to be hotbeds for innovation, risk taking, and cultural transformation. A Virtual Theater Movement by P. Carl

It could be said that the quintessential American character is a character of the West. The setting is somewhere just over the horizon. Something is just about to happen. Something may be lost, but there is always possibility. A port city, San Francisco was founded in some ways so that people, stories, and stuff could come and go. Dreams could be chased. A place of connection, migration, and activism; San Francisco’s theatre mirrors its soul. The City by the Bay by Deborah Cullinan

What I am standing up for is the integrity of storytelling itself, and insisting that the director possess the fundamental capacity to fully realize the foundational bottom layers of a culturally-specific work, and I don’t know how one does this effectively if one has not “lived” inside of it.

I hold firm to a seemingly paradoxical double-standard of expressing full confidence and qualification in my directing the European classics, while holding suspect the motivation and abilities of my white counterparts when at the helm of an Afrocentric work. My objection isn’t across race lines, per se, and I am most definitely not saying that white directors should not direct black works—not at all. What I am standing up for is the integrity of storytelling itself, and insisting that the director possess the fundamental capacity to fully realize the foundational bottom layers of a culturally-specific work, and I don’t know how one does this effectively if one has not “lived” inside of it. The Benefits of Slavery by Timothy Douglas

I like a world filled with risk, mistakes, catastrophe, and an occasional triumph here or there. Burning Down A House by P. Carl

We have been having conversations in recent years about many things; about audiences, artists and the need for new models. But these conversations have usually taken place within certain boundaries and have not challenged the basic assumptions constraining us. We need a new dialogue that is respectful of the past but open to fundamental change, a dialogue that challenges basic assumptions and explores real alternatives, one that is not circumscribed by established institutional thinking and one that is based on generosity and respect, so that everyone feels secure in voicing their concerns and ideas. And we need to recognize that change is hard; old identities and habits of thought get fractured, and people lose their grounding as the new takes over from the old. So we need to conduct this dialogue with as much grace and understanding as possible. A New Revolution? by Jaan Whitehead

Michelle: …contemporary playwrights tend to write about just one class. It’s either an all upper-middle-class family dealing with their problems or career and marriages, or if they write about a lower-class family, in a weird way it’s also written for wealthy people, so that they can broaden their understanding of what it’s like to be poor. There aren’t a lot of stories with lots of people from different classes mixing—it happens in Shakespeare because that was true of Shakespeare’s audience, and it happens with the Greeks because that audience also came from various backgrounds. Kira Obolensky and Michelle Hensley in Conversation

The world-view of a playwright, and of a play, is contained not within the dialogue, it is not about what the characters say. The world view of the playwright and the play is contained within the structure; it is revealed by what the characters do and how they do it—by the nature of their moral choice making. All political theatre, so-called, shares an underlying assumption: the social order may be unjust, the particular war may be wrong, but/and there is within the individual and within the social contract, always, the possibility for transformation, for change. On Being a So-Called Political Playwright by Karen Malpede

In order for the full potential of the American musical to be reached, we will need institutions that will give these artists the chance to grow in an environment free from the pressures of commercial Broadway entertainment and expectations of financial success, allowing us to better differentiate between musicals that are purely populist and musicals that have aesthetic significance. Bound By Broadway: The State of the American Musical by Ryan Bogner

In this time of resource scarcity, it’s tempting to adopt a bunker mentality in which we insist it’s every artist for herself and try with even greater fervency to “protect” our “property.” We must resist this temptation; it flies in the face of our lived experience and runs counter to our art form’s history. Nourishing the Commons: Rethinking Intellectual Property by Isaac Butler

“Where playwrights go wrong is writing a generic play. Most of these plays have a sofa from which the sofa speech is delivered, which sums up the whole play. My play The Left Glove had a sofa. The sofa comes out, with no one in it. It looks around and gets scared and one of the Something Nothing Dancers falls in love with the sofa and begins to stroke it. And the sofa gets very excited. And after a while the sofa goes away and there is no sofa speech. I can look at pictures of plays and know that they’re generic.” Mac Wellman: Pushing Boundaries by Hayley Finn

Flow is something, as a poet, songwriter and playwright, I’ve always believed in. Follow the flow, let it tell you, speak through you, let it breathe as it may, and see what kind of play or poem or song is meant to be. I think, however, the focus on formal and stylistic “simplicity,” for me, has had as much to do with how I perceive the role of theatre in an increasingly jacked-in, wired-up, frenetic culture, and the various, multiple avenues it offers for multi-platform communication. Water’s Flow: An Artist’s Path in a Trans-local Universe by Caridad Svich

Based on the premise that knowledge-sharing is at the heart of any “commons,” the resulting organization will function as a sort of “teaching hospital” for the next step in the evolution of nonprofit theatre in this country—integrating both the presenting and producing of distinctive new work and the pedagogical environment for training and developing the artists of tomorrow. We hope to chart a path to relevance, effectiveness, and purpose for the form by studying what’s on stage, how it’s developed, how it is produced and presented, who it engages, and how it impacts and informs both its local community and the field itself. The Dream of a Center for the Theater Commons at Emerson College by David Dower and P. Carl

 

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HowlRound logo. Photo by HowlRound.

The world seemed suspended, inert, waiting. Waiting. We said just enough about Brook’s production, just enough and not more, trying to make each word measured, precise—in the spirit of Brook himself and his ideas of theatre… Our economy was a kind of tribute to what we had witnessed on the stage an hour earlier: the spoken word which comes into being amidst the silence, comes into being as primal utterance but also as an answer to the void, comes to connect the actor on the stage with the audience. The secret thread that binds us for better and for worse to each other. First Loves: A March Night at the Paramount with Peter Brook’s Grand Inquisitor by Taline Voskeritchian

Art rises from the unknown and the undiscovered. Sometimes different is better if only because it makes us stop and consider languages and cultures and ideas not our own. It forces us to engage the act of translation in the encounter with unfamiliar stories. I don’t think we shell out big money to see plays only to be comforted by stories we already know—I’ve met very few audiences who would articulate this as their reason for attending theatre. If it’s self-serving to crave surprise, if it’s selfish to seek the new and the undiscovered, then I embrace my self-serving nature for the sake of the future relevance of the theatre. A Boy in a Man’s Theater by P. Carl

Life doesn’t feel okay to me. It’s upsetting and ecstatic and tedious. Once I acknowledge that and stop trying to get comfortable, I get more curious. We can thrive in the discomfort of our multiplicity and complexity. City Council Meeting: Theater of Tiny Disjuncture by Aaron Landsman

I believe kids want stories and not “titles.” I believe they want adventure and conflict and hard truths and cool stuff and fear and death and history and magic and some more cool stuff and maybe some kissing or blood or a guy like their weird Uncle Dan or a bike that flies or turns into an elk. Unlike their gatekeepers, I am fully convinced that kids do not want “excellent role models,” compulsory “understanding,” and a seventy-minute run time. Theater of the Young, For the Young by Steven Dietz

Aren’t we all guilty of shunning other women at some point in our lives—if not for competitive gain then simply because we’re distracted by our own bullshit? But is shutting out less powerful women helping any of us get where we collectively want to go? Or are our competitive instincts working against our common good? That Bitch, Corey Madden by Corey Madden

What gives me chills every time I pause and think about it is this: we work in an art of resurrection. Every time we read or perform Antigone we resuscitate the same story that people saw thousands of years ago. Shakespeare’s exact words and ideas are reborn in the mouths of actors hundreds of years after he thought them. When I toss around an idea from Beckett or Ibsen or Williams or Hansberry, I am squeezing their heart into a new kind of beating. It’s alive in us. Our job is to bring it to life. Isn’t that just holy? All Plays Are Classics: On Lineage, Trust, and The Necessary New by Lauren Gunderson

Stop lying. Stop bowing to artistic directors and kingmakers who you think might produce your play by agreeing with their notes when in fact you don’t. Risk being kicked out of the theatre for telling the truth about your work and your aspirations and your expectations. Make the work you want to make. Finding the Gift and Making Theater for Everyone by P. Carl

I think, as artists and organizers involved in a collaborative form that demands, arguably, one skill above all others, we are at a moment where we can put that skill to new use. That skill is listening, and we can radically alter our role in our communities if we employ it with greater intentionality and generosity. The New Work of Building Civic Practice by Michael Rohd

I believe every MFA program should charge a flat yearly tuition (approximately $4500 upfront). Following graduation, students should over the next twelve years pay nine percent of their theatre, theatre teaching, and film-related income to their university. If a school produces successful, working graduates in the field, it will have nothing to worry about; however, if it is contributing to the oversaturation of the market and selling useless degrees, then it will be forced to close it doors. Theater and the War Against Youth by Marshall Botnivick

The theatre’s human scale defines why it will always be central, indeed essential, to our lives, to our societies, irrespective of our changing covenants. The subversive truth of the form today is that, in a world increasingly populated with likenesses of relationship, the theatre at root is still about relationship. Fundamentally, the relationship between an embodied actor and an embodied audience. Part Two: Dialogue in the Age of Industrial Storytelling (Or, A Defense of the Theater) by Ayad Akhtar

So what is our dimensionality as art makers, and what are the ecologies of the theatres that host us? How are we widening our work and the contexts that contain it? (This is what I imagine we’d be talking about now at those theatres—in lieu of café tables and cigarettes. HowlRound is one of few public spaces for us to build conversation together, even if only virtually.) Considering Our Dimensions by Melanie Joseph

It seems to me that, whether we are putting art, entertainment, or some mix of both on stage, we can always set the intention—as artists and as producers—to invite the public to think outside of the known. And that when we do that, when we take the responsibility of producing the performance, the audience, and the understanding or enlargement in our community, we are working in harmony with the spirit of the nonprofit theatre. The Theater of Our Understanding and Enlargement by David Dower

Collaborators build something together. We hear the phrase “the theatre community” used often. And that’s what this collaboration built for me. A community. A home—for myself, for my play, for ideas and emotions and a mission. These are all things I greatly value—it’s what I hold dear. The Value of Collaboration by Michael Elyanow

Our theatre company lasted for nine years. Some companies last for one production. Others, like The Public Theater in New York City, are still going strong after fify-five years. All these models are valid; the life span of a company should be determined by what the company sets out to do. The Finite Animal: 13P’s End Days by Maria Goyanes

A community. A home—for myself, for my play, for ideas and emotions and a mission. These are all things I greatly value—it’s what I hold dear.

I love touring, and it has completely changed how I make a show. I’m now thinking about how the work will speak to communities around the country, how it will hold up with time, what forms it can take, and where the lines are between the play, auxiliary events, and the communities they are for—and how blurry we can make those lines. Lessons from the Road: 7 Theaters, 17 Military Bases, 8 Hospitals, and 4 Conferences Later, How a Girl Fell in Love with Touring by KJ Sanchez

For me, the value of art is in its ability to bring people together. I don’t feel that I am practicing anything radical or revolutionary or, god forbid, “experimental,” which is a label that gets used on my work with alarming regularity, but rather than hoping that the thousands of strangers who come will manifest community by themselves, I make it my focus to design immersive experiences that encourage active engagement. …I think that if theatre once again became a place where society goes to mingle, it would once again become necessary to society. Werqing It with Ed Sylvanus Iskandar by Gabriel Jason Dean

I was only thirty, and I saw myself as a failure. What did I have to lose? I started to ask myself what I wanted. Did I want Broadway? Did I want collaborations? Did I want to be produced at Canstage? What did I want for my work? What is my specific path? They may seem obvious and simple but I had never done any serious thinking about who I was as a writer. I just plowed headfirst and hoped for the best. All I really wanted was to make a living as a playwright. To write plays I was proud of. That’s it. Make a living, write plays, be proud. I didn’t have to live in Toronto to do that. I didn’t have to write adult plays to do that. I could accomplish everything I wanted by writing for the school market. I could forge a new path, my path. The Path by Lindsay Price

If we want to develop and produce theatre that is challenging, innovative, and pioneering, we need new business models that are equally as challenging, innovative, and pioneering. Investing in the Arts: The L3C (Low-Profit Limited Liability Company) by Michael DiFonzo

One of the benefits of intense collaboration is it forces me to open up and communicate my process. Nothing gives me a feeling of mastery over skills like having to explain them. Script Designer by Tom Horan

Understandably, the only risks artistic directors and producers are willing to take (if any) are risks on the actual play itself. So, you can program this wacky play (possibly written by a famous writer) as long as that hot director can direct it because he never churns out a dud. This leads to the same group of six to ten directors directing 90 percent of the new plays that premiere in the New York season …. The rest of the thousands of directors in New York spend their time directing copious readings and hoping to break into that elite circle. But we don’t. …we end up getting cut as soon as the play we’ve worked on sees any sort of culminating moment or future life. Playwright/Director Relationships: “It’s Not You, It’s Us” by Morgan Gould

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