tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.comments2020-04-24T06:55:50.195-07:00Theater of IdeasTheater of Ideashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124743041051665112noreply@blogger.comBlogger93125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-27327724884252318872015-04-03T14:18:28.821-07:002015-04-03T14:18:28.821-07:00Hi, What translations did you use?
Hi, What translations did you use?<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-55652568084015696912014-06-03T15:58:15.784-07:002014-06-03T15:58:15.784-07:00Mr. Einhorn, I saw the 2013 production of Iphigeni...Mr. Einhorn, I saw the 2013 production of Iphigenia in Aulis! I found out about it through Eric Shanower's website. I was already a) a huge Greek mythology nerd and b) a fan of Mr. Shanower's comic Age of Bronze, so I was very excited to see it. I would have had no clue about the play otherwise!Louisa Schnaithmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09447068813230281069noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-66914846934704474372014-05-19T08:11:03.383-07:002014-05-19T08:11:03.383-07:00When I look at the judges, I know some of them at ...When I look at the judges, I know some of them at least know a little about indie theater. Others, honestly, don't. And I was wrong...one of them attended one of my shows this year, though apparently previous to being a voter. Having said all that, I don't expect the mix to be significantly changed. But. Just enough to have a small hope for change, sometime in the future.Theater of Ideashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10124743041051665112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-23947617187068194582014-05-19T07:59:46.236-07:002014-05-19T07:59:46.236-07:00The committee wasn't formed until January? I ...The committee wasn't formed until January? I didn't even realize that. Sigh...Theater of Ideashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10124743041051665112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-14906992843425983152014-05-19T07:35:17.875-07:002014-05-19T07:35:17.875-07:00I agree with everything that has been said about t...I agree with everything that has been said about the OBIES. I will also add that the awards do differ slightly from year to year depending upon who the judges are. This year the committee was only formed in January - the already slim chances of small shows being acknowledged will probably be even smaller if they opened in the first half of the season. We shall see in few hours...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-26591294899302906922014-05-16T11:23:48.442-07:002014-05-16T11:23:48.442-07:00unsurprisingly, i agree with much of what's be...unsurprisingly, i agree with much of what's been said. we've often discussed in the Indie community that we have become much of what off-Broadway represented in the era of its inception. off-Broadway is now consistently out of the financial range of the kinds of artists who were the founders of the feast, so to speak.<br /><br />i think that there are still many OB companies that produce excellent work and deserve to be recognized, as you astutely pointed out, Edward. i think we feel the sting of the OBIE situation more because we haven't really been given something to replace it for the Indie community. i largely find the IT Awards a disappointment. and i hearken to my own sour grapes, i suppose, but i would be much more supportive of the idea if a) i was familiar with most of the companies who are nominated and win and i felt that they reflected the excellent peers in that community that i've worked with and b) if the IT Awards had a degree of standing that would help open doors for Indie companies in the way that OBIEs do.<br /><br />i unfortunately don't completely share your enthusiasm for the OBIEs being able to reinvent themselves in a way to include lower budget companies, but i do have optimism that the Indie community may be able to find a productive substitute and encourage a three-tiered view of NY theatre. rather than reinvent the wheel that's long rolled by us, it may be time to find a new mode of transportation.<br /><br />~tomTom Bergernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-9051520961164664192014-05-16T07:57:27.973-07:002014-05-16T07:57:27.973-07:00Thanks for your comment. Yes, with limited budget...Thanks for your comment. Yes, with limited budgets, it's almost impossible to have effective advertising campaigns. We depend on reviews, articles, word of mouth, mailing lists, etc. One thing that's sad to me about what's happened with the OBIES is that this would be an opportunity to let people know about the world of independent theater. Sadly, it seems to be mostly squandered. Out of curiosity, which show did you first see, by the way?Theater of Ideashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10124743041051665112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-39569511184144516192014-05-16T07:23:50.820-07:002014-05-16T07:23:50.820-07:00Titus: Singer claims that health charities are by ...Titus: Singer claims that health charities are by their nature more efficient. I am giving two examples that contradict that. I do not make any universality of those two examples, though my experience with small arts organizations is that they tend to be highly efficient. CJP: I would not discourage anyone from donating to health charities. I have donated to them myself. I am simply rejecting Singer's formula, which argues for abandoning the arts in favor of health charities.Theater of Ideashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10124743041051665112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-84218506908467096202014-05-16T07:23:40.178-07:002014-05-16T07:23:40.178-07:00I have also been concerned for some time about the...I have also been concerned for some time about the increasingly commercial nature of Off-Broadway. I understand that Broadway is, by this point, commercial, and I've pretty much accepted that (and I can still enjoy a good Broadway musical, don't get me wrong!). But when I first fell in love with theater, I was convinced most companies operated on a small budget to create beautiful art. Sure, maybe I was a little young to understand the true economics of New York theater, but I still think there's something magical about creating affordable theater that's accessible to people and still has a powerful, moving message. <br /><br />It also concerns me how people literally <i>don't know</i> about Off-Off Broadway/fringe events. The only reason I've seen Untitled Theater Company #61's work, for example, is because I got lucky and happened to check a website that advertised a play that was going to be performed by your company. I didn't see any ads elsewhere online, or in newspapers, or anywhere else. People really are missing out on some amazing works of theatrical art. <br /><br />Unforunately, I also know people who <i>do</i> know about Off-Off Broadway, but refuse to see plays performed there, claiming that they're just too "weird". I guess there's no hope there.Louisa Schnaithmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09447068813230281069noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-59537014572680294642013-11-21T19:47:34.720-08:002013-11-21T19:47:34.720-08:00I wish I could read the rest I wish I could read the rest Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384443619912424178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-29759225717330793672013-10-12T16:48:32.256-07:002013-10-12T16:48:32.256-07:00Some thoughts:
1)Your pointing out of the existen...Some thoughts:<br /><br />1)Your pointing out of the existence of "bad" or ineffective charities within the health realm does not at all diminish Singer's argument. He is not arguing for donations to ANY health organizations, but ones which have high leverage, transparency, and the ability to scale up operations with additional funding. I.e., the nod to givewell.org. <br /><br />2) While surprising, the ability for health interventions in the third world (to prevent/cure blindness in this example) for relatively small sums of money is actually much closer to reality than being a "never-before seen model of efficiency". I believe Singer was alluding to the work of the Fred Hollows Foundation (which is mentioned in his book, The Life You Can Save) and boasts a figure of $25/blindness averted. A bit ironically though, FHF is not a recommended charity by GiveWell. <br /><br />3) Even if, as you claim, that the value of such art charities is incalculable, donations to effective health charities can still be justified. By allowing fewer people to die from preventable causes, the saved now have the ability to produce art (an incalculable value!) that was absent in a world without a health intervention. CJPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-27494359748860593242013-09-11T11:46:34.037-07:002013-09-11T11:46:34.037-07:00In countering Singer's claim you fall into the...In countering Singer's claim you fall into the same trap you call Singer out for using. By pointing out health charities that waste money and showing a case of a cheap efficient art workshop. Singer isn't encouraging donations to inefficient charities the very name of his movement effective altruism is evidence of this.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03150754138490709892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-7519800470248623312013-08-12T12:08:19.935-07:002013-08-12T12:08:19.935-07:00Perhaps they have placed an evil demon at the entr...Perhaps they have placed an evil demon at the entrance and a good demon at the exit, as a sort of performance art. Random museum goers are selected to be blinded upon entering and then have their sight restored upon exiting, leaving the art inside a mystery to them forevermore.Theater of Ideashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10124743041051665112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-29286048921727981352013-08-12T11:44:07.060-07:002013-08-12T11:44:07.060-07:00I think he didn't go far enough explaining the...I think he didn't go far enough explaining the motivations and capabilities of the evil demon. I mean, what if for every hundred people who visit the museum, you get to choose who he blinds? Or maybe, because he was posited as an arbitrarily "evil" demon, he blinds the very same people who are visiting the museum, making the whole thing a wash. I think that donating to an exorcism charity might be an overlooked option here.Douglass Barrehttp://www.chimericaltales.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-37447261189045876492013-07-10T06:46:53.807-07:002013-07-10T06:46:53.807-07:00So this is always an interesting topic for the art...So this is always an interesting topic for the arts while I could go all Maslow I instead start with the Walking Dead. The cab driver in question makes the same mistake that's always made. Sure giving a starving person food is the most important thing BUT the cabbie (and more people than perhaps we care to think about) don't live in that world either. Why? Because business, governments, and academia made investments - some times without the prospect of financial return - to create a food system that actually makes something like the Red Cross efforts possible. I won't debate the larger food industry as like everything else it is good and bad but rather suggest the comparison the cabbie makes is flawed. If we truly lived that world - call it the Evil Dead world of on the edge of survival - the rules are different. We do not. What we live in is a world constantly at war between the needs of the one versus the needs of the many.<br /><br />There is little doubt that there is economic power in live theater. Wicked has been reported to be the single most valuable entertainment property in the world (or it was Phantom of the Opera I can't remember). The big movie studios are exploring the idea of opening up theater development departments, and the list goes on. So while there is money to be made, the industry itself is one that often forgets that it is an industry.<br /><br />Every show is - to some extent - a separate company trying to make it financially however it can (including grants, donations, and ticket sales). That I think worked to some extent in the past. But as an industry gets older, certain pieces become more valuable and thus create opportunities for big profits. Once folks get a taste of big profits they forget and decide every project must be a swing for the fences idea. What do you get... Opera, Current Cinema, and most other industries where there is alot of revivals or tentpoles because the push to return massive amounts of money supercedes the need to put more talent in the pipeline. Unfortunately without more talent... the cycle eats itself and you have where we sit today. But some pieces of entertainment work much better than others.<br /><br />TV is the best in my opinion. Why? Look at how much content they generate. Some of is schlock, some of it is good, and a bit is down right great! But the economics are all different. In TV, the infrastructure is designed to deliver content. It needs content and thus has a model to pay people to bring content to the table. I always tell young writers go to LA and try to get into the TV business. It's the one place that you have the best shot at making a living wage (note I did not say millions, I said a living wage). I do think theater can learn from TV to some extent.<br /><br />The economics of theater need to change. I don't mean renegotiating contracts or lowering costs (those are good but there is a limit to what they can achieve and frankly historically they have been tried). Theater needs to see itself as an industry that is tied together. When you buy a ticket to a show, I think it would be great if there were a gate fee that goes into a pot of money whose sole purpose is to invest in the future of theater. (Hey, almost every Fringe Festival does this) Imagine a "Theater Pass" that for like $100 dollars a month (roughly the same as some people spend on cable) you get unlimited access to downtown theater in New York. Essentially it becomes revenue sharing (stand down Yankee fans). The most successful entertainment entities understand it is not whether or not I can get you to one event but rather I can get you to come back again and again and again. Remember the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants are only that valuable because there are fans who turn in Green Bay, Kansas City, and Cleveland. Because the overall industry works to engage fans they create a fan based that will live through the good the bad and the ugly. <br /><br />I get that it is unlikely that we will see such things, but honestly that's what makes sense to me. David Hansonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-70617030739653531742013-05-09T13:54:31.309-07:002013-05-09T13:54:31.309-07:00Don't forget about the amazing coverage that C...Don't forget about the amazing coverage that Cynthia Carr published in the Voice in 80's and 90's. Her articles on performance art and queer theater are some of the only published reviews/features of fantastic, long-forgotten yet entirely revolutionary theatrical events from the likes of WOW Cafe, Bloolips, Ethyl Eichelberger, Dar A Luz, and more. Such a different time...brianhttp://www.perfectdisgrace.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-39341985750811365262013-05-09T13:32:39.371-07:002013-05-09T13:32:39.371-07:00This was a great piece. And very sad. I too had ...This was a great piece. And very sad. I too had an early House of Candles experience, and saw a great production of John Guare's A DAY FOR SURPRISES at The Piano Store around the corner. And the Village Voice was a cornerstone of the theater scene in those days. The internet has changed everything, fractured it really. The old models were broken to pieces, tiny little pieces but there is a huge vacuum in the center that has yet to be filled.<br /><br />I think The Voice we remember is never coming back. I think it is up to a new generation to fill the void.Ludlow Ladhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09616386037521886637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-76632674428753534642013-02-26T12:51:40.365-08:002013-02-26T12:51:40.365-08:00I know the questions regarding the ending, though ...I know the questions regarding the ending, though actually many think that, if it is indeed a more modern addition, it replaces an even more explicit deus ex machina. The beauty of this ending, for me, is its ambivalence. We hear the servant's account, but we do not see it, and even Klytemnestra questions whether she should "believe these foolish thing I'm told to stop my bitter tears." In my opinion, especially in a play where we hear of the Gods but never see them and their existence is explicitly questioned (also by Klytemnestra), the implication is she is being told a lie. Of course, one can't be sure, but I appreciate ambivalent endings. The final moment is not about the glory of war, but about the fate that will meet Agamemnon upon his return. Klytemnestra clearly does not forgive him, whatever she is told, and he will pay.Theater of Ideashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10124743041051665112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-89578028614207589052013-02-26T12:21:57.489-08:002013-02-26T12:21:57.489-08:00i think you have to respect euripides more. you di...i think you have to respect euripides more. you did a great job with the coda at the beginning, and cutsy chorus of 70s singers.however you used an added on ending, most scholars think it's not from euripides, probably christian, look, look she's gone up to heaven, bullshit, where maybe you should have used a coda saying iphignia died a meaningless death, she didn't bring peace in her family home, as the ancient greeks obviously knew from aeschylus, the trip to troy was a useless war, and i think you would have been better served if you followed e.'s vision. your ending left a bad taste in an otherwise good performance, e. was critical of grandiose bullshit. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-67100616982086511192012-09-13T09:39:55.718-07:002012-09-13T09:39:55.718-07:00Ffthixp gnsto.Ffthixp gnsto.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03739889463930747358noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-53215950742850836132012-09-12T11:04:26.749-07:002012-09-12T11:04:26.749-07:00Ah, I used the writerly contrivance of not using q...Ah, I used the writerly contrivance of not using quote marks around goddamn, while (probably mis-) quoting you directly later. The goodamn indicated tone of frustration among the actors around the table issue, not something anyone actually said, as far as I can remember. And it was a damn heavy table (but so pretty...)Theater of Ideashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10124743041051665112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-26495356411188958112012-09-11T21:09:17.153-07:002012-09-11T21:09:17.153-07:00Did I actually say a "goddamn" table? I...Did I actually say a "goddamn" table? I wouldn't put it past me, but my memory has softened the language somehow. At any rate, it serves as a good example of the free, say-anything environment Edward so effortlessly created for the actors in all his shows.Mr. Brownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-61608295998877270722011-12-20T10:12:11.830-08:002011-12-20T10:12:11.830-08:00I too was lucky to have a small part in one of the...I too was lucky to have a small part in one of the shows in the festival, as an actor. Havel didn't come to see it, but I did sit across from him at another play, in which the audience were all seated on the stage around the playing area, in a circle. I watched him during the show and kept thinking, what would he have thought if 25 years ago, sitting in prison, he could have imagined this scene at the Brick Theater? Drinking a beer, watching some young Americans revive his entire body of work. He really looked like he was enjoying himself immensely.<br /><br />After the show I went up to him and he greeted me warmly. I said a few words to him in the little Czech I had picked up on a theater tour in 1999, which got his hopes up, but he was clearly disappointed when I turned out not to speak the language at all. <br /><br />He graciously signed my script, though. I still have it somewhere, along with my fond memories of Havel.Richard Harringtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16606284566156335218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-61612167105064591802011-12-18T15:46:33.837-08:002011-12-18T15:46:33.837-08:00Thanks to Edward Einhorn and Untitled Theater Comp...Thanks to Edward Einhorn and Untitled Theater Company #61, many actors, directors and theater artists who worked on the Havel Festival shared in the good fortune of meeting Vaclav Havel. It was especially lucky for me that Edward asked me to be the festival's composer and music director. I had long admired Havel's work, having seen many productions over the years, Richard Foreman's brilliant "Largo Desolato" and Kevin O'Connor's definitive enactment of the role of the brewmaster in "Audience" being among the standouts. To participate in a festival of productions of all of Havel's work was an undreamed of dream come true. <br /><br />From the start we knew Havel would be in New York during the festival, for the Columbia residency, but it was not clear that he would have time to see any of the plays. Everything changed when he attended a performance of "The Memo" and saw what a serious effort and high artistic aims were being brought to his work. Then nothing could keep Havel away, and he came to one production after another, watching with obvious delight a majority of the 18 plays in the festival and staying around afterward to meet the artists, sign actors' scripts and festival programs with his heart signature, and appear in photos with casts and crews.<br /><br />There are moments that I will never forget, like seeing his obvious pleasure at hearing the rock album of "Songs for Vaclav Havel" I wrote for the festival, performed by the Mendoza Line, and getting to meet Madeleine Albright and give her a CD of the music after a performance of "Temptation," directed by Ian Hill at the Brick, after which Havel was heard saying to his wife, the actress Dagmar Veskrnova, words to the effect that this was a better production than the original in Prague. <br /><br />Other great moments were my introducing Havel to the underground playwright Jim Neu and the lighting designer Carol Mullins after a performance of True Comedy Theater Company's staging of "The Increased Difficulty of Concentration," directed by Yolanda Hawkins, and drinking beer and chatting with him at Joe's Pub, answering his question about the impeachment of President Bill Clinton by explaining how the Republicans had embarrassed the country with that hypocritical and sanctimonious travesty.<br /><br />A year later, when we took our production of "Increased Difficulty" to Baltimore's Theatre Project and it was named the best stage play of the year by Baltimore's City Paper, it was very gratifying to read in the Czech press Havel's characteristically modest reaction to that development. <br /><br />What a heady time the Havel Festival was for all of us, and how fortunate we all were to have had that time with Havel. It has been and continues to provide a tremendous inspiration and to instill a great sense of responsibility to try to live up to, in any small way, the standards that Havel set as a person, as a citizen, and as an artist.William S. Niederkornhttp://www.truecomedy.org/Songs.htmnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542596610865219081.post-36188679513926501612011-03-24T11:30:39.476-07:002011-03-24T11:30:39.476-07:00Nice article, thanks for the information.Nice article, thanks for the information.sewa mobilhttp://griyamobilkita.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.com