I am not a writer. I am often asked if I am a writer. I run a new play development company, I often talk in both public and private places about the state of Theatre in DC and the Country, and I have written a couple blogs for 2amt (that one awesomely got picked up by the NEA's blog). Even with all that, I state that I am not a writer. In school I never learned grammar or spelling or phonics. I write like I speak and that is all I really know how to do...but I have been thinking a lot lately and those thoughts are clogging my head so I thought it would be good to start this blog and write them down. Perhaps no one will ever see them or perhaps everyone will, I don't know. Its scary writing something when you don't consider yourself a writer, but you know a ton of fantastic and intelligent writers all over the country...but here I go.
Over the years I have done a number of things. I have been a camp counselor, I have worked at an ice skating rink without knowing how to ice skate (it was very amusing), I have worked in box office, I have been a driver for theatre patrons, I have been executive director of an outdoor summer drama, I have ran the front of house for a major Equity theatre and developed new programs for them, I have been a Production Assistant/Associate Producer/Editor/Casting Director and 2nd AD for a film company. I have been a actor, a director, a producer, a stage manager, a dramaturg and an advisor. I have tried to come at life with the same idea that Kurosawa talks about in his Oscar speech or Jim Henson spoke about in many interviews, or my directing professor and one of mentors at Towson University, John Manlove, instilled in my every day of my college career. The idea that we are constantly searching, that we are always the student, and that we never have a grasp on anything...that when we have felt we have grasped something or mastered something it's either time to teach (which allows you to learn so much more) or its time to move on to the next thing. That one of our jobs in life is to be constantly learning. With that I have tried to do many things and learn from them all, but most of them focus on the act of creating theatre.
Creating theatre is not only my passion, but its really what I know how to do. It's what I have been trained in, its what I have studied, its what I have spent countless hours thinking about. It is the thing I know and hopefully its not boasting to much, but I think I know it really well. I am beyond proud of the work I have done and beyond excited of the work I will do in the future.
Here is the difficulty. What is next?
I am at the eternal struggle we all hit at some point. How to balance the work I want to be doing, with the work I can be doing, and make a living at the same time? Is it possible for me? I know many people are able to do this and have been doing this for a long time...I don't question that there is a way to do this, but I question can I do this? I hope so.
This question has lead me to an interesting realization. There is almost no middle class theatre in America. I shouldn't say in America, I haven't done the research, but there is almost no middle class theatre in the community I work within. In DC, the community in which I work, there is the Kennedy Center and a number of Regional Theatres that work under SPT contracts. Those theaters tend to have budgets of about $1MIL or above. After those theaters the next tier down is what I am calling the Independent Theatres. These theaters do not work under any equity contract or perhaps get special contracts based upon need, but tend to do shows with very few if any equity actors in them. These theaters tend to have budgets of about $200,000 or under (most of them under). There are many questions that people have and the big ones are where does this money go and all of that sounds like a lot of money what are people doing with it? All the questions are good ones and I totally get it.
Here is the question that I have. Where are the theaters that are in-between these budgets? In the DC area there is only one Adventure Theatre's annual budget is around $500,000 according to Guidestar. But why is there no others, what happened that there is a jump from $200,000-$1MIL? I don't know the real answer, I assume it has to do with donor relations and the ability to get your board excited about the growth of your theatre and the way that donors think about donating in large sums or quantities. I think it has a lot to do with the ambition of the theatre and the way they could convince donors in donating more or getting more people on board with their mission during the 90's and early 2000's was to talk about massive capital campaigns. Seeing it as successes from others seemed to work for lots of people. So, we saw a huge growth in the Regional theatre system and giant institutions were built run by individual companies. Is this a good or bad thing? I don't know...I have thoughts I will probably discuss later but I feel like have tangented enough.
What does all this mean? Not much really other then it feels to me that we are missing an important stepping stone in the non-profit theatre sector. I know I am still young at this game, but in my limited time I have seen either small theaters take this big leap to the next level only to find massive debt or to not be able to maintain it for more than a couple years finding that they constantly needed the same amount of money they were getting during their capital campaign, but were now not getting that much. Or I have seen theaters that were doing great at this couple hundred thousand dollar a year level but couldn't find a way past it and got too tired to continue on and faded away. What this does is leave little growth for arts managers or artists to continue to build. They must either take huge financial risks to themselves and their families to create the thing they believe in or they must take the leap to run the risk of not being qualified to run the multi million dollar theatre they have created. Instead of having the time and learning of growing the company and step by step learning to lead a larger organization.
I don't know if this is possible but its where my thoughts are at right now. Can we build companies that consistently grow? To not have to triple and quadruple budgets ever year but to steadily increase growth over a 10 year period? To create a community with room for artists at many different levels to work at many different levels? I hope so.
Well back to me. I am still struggling to find my place. I love doing what I am doing, but I want more professionally. So as we grow Inkwell I continue to think about these questions. As I work with other companies and see them growing I continue to think about these questions. As I find my place as a leader of my community I continue to think about these questions. And as I try and blog now, I hope to bring some people into the conversation with me.
Over the years I have done a number of things. I have been a camp counselor, I have worked at an ice skating rink without knowing how to ice skate (it was very amusing), I have worked in box office, I have been a driver for theatre patrons, I have been executive director of an outdoor summer drama, I have ran the front of house for a major Equity theatre and developed new programs for them, I have been a Production Assistant/Associate Producer/Editor/Casting Director and 2nd AD for a film company. I have been a actor, a director, a producer, a stage manager, a dramaturg and an advisor. I have tried to come at life with the same idea that Kurosawa talks about in his Oscar speech or Jim Henson spoke about in many interviews, or my directing professor and one of mentors at Towson University, John Manlove, instilled in my every day of my college career. The idea that we are constantly searching, that we are always the student, and that we never have a grasp on anything...that when we have felt we have grasped something or mastered something it's either time to teach (which allows you to learn so much more) or its time to move on to the next thing. That one of our jobs in life is to be constantly learning. With that I have tried to do many things and learn from them all, but most of them focus on the act of creating theatre.
Creating theatre is not only my passion, but its really what I know how to do. It's what I have been trained in, its what I have studied, its what I have spent countless hours thinking about. It is the thing I know and hopefully its not boasting to much, but I think I know it really well. I am beyond proud of the work I have done and beyond excited of the work I will do in the future.
Here is the difficulty. What is next?
I am at the eternal struggle we all hit at some point. How to balance the work I want to be doing, with the work I can be doing, and make a living at the same time? Is it possible for me? I know many people are able to do this and have been doing this for a long time...I don't question that there is a way to do this, but I question can I do this? I hope so.
This question has lead me to an interesting realization. There is almost no middle class theatre in America. I shouldn't say in America, I haven't done the research, but there is almost no middle class theatre in the community I work within. In DC, the community in which I work, there is the Kennedy Center and a number of Regional Theatres that work under SPT contracts. Those theaters tend to have budgets of about $1MIL or above. After those theaters the next tier down is what I am calling the Independent Theatres. These theaters do not work under any equity contract or perhaps get special contracts based upon need, but tend to do shows with very few if any equity actors in them. These theaters tend to have budgets of about $200,000 or under (most of them under). There are many questions that people have and the big ones are where does this money go and all of that sounds like a lot of money what are people doing with it? All the questions are good ones and I totally get it.
Here is the question that I have. Where are the theaters that are in-between these budgets? In the DC area there is only one Adventure Theatre's annual budget is around $500,000 according to Guidestar. But why is there no others, what happened that there is a jump from $200,000-$1MIL? I don't know the real answer, I assume it has to do with donor relations and the ability to get your board excited about the growth of your theatre and the way that donors think about donating in large sums or quantities. I think it has a lot to do with the ambition of the theatre and the way they could convince donors in donating more or getting more people on board with their mission during the 90's and early 2000's was to talk about massive capital campaigns. Seeing it as successes from others seemed to work for lots of people. So, we saw a huge growth in the Regional theatre system and giant institutions were built run by individual companies. Is this a good or bad thing? I don't know...I have thoughts I will probably discuss later but I feel like have tangented enough.
What does all this mean? Not much really other then it feels to me that we are missing an important stepping stone in the non-profit theatre sector. I know I am still young at this game, but in my limited time I have seen either small theaters take this big leap to the next level only to find massive debt or to not be able to maintain it for more than a couple years finding that they constantly needed the same amount of money they were getting during their capital campaign, but were now not getting that much. Or I have seen theaters that were doing great at this couple hundred thousand dollar a year level but couldn't find a way past it and got too tired to continue on and faded away. What this does is leave little growth for arts managers or artists to continue to build. They must either take huge financial risks to themselves and their families to create the thing they believe in or they must take the leap to run the risk of not being qualified to run the multi million dollar theatre they have created. Instead of having the time and learning of growing the company and step by step learning to lead a larger organization.
I don't know if this is possible but its where my thoughts are at right now. Can we build companies that consistently grow? To not have to triple and quadruple budgets ever year but to steadily increase growth over a 10 year period? To create a community with room for artists at many different levels to work at many different levels? I hope so.
Well back to me. I am still struggling to find my place. I love doing what I am doing, but I want more professionally. So as we grow Inkwell I continue to think about these questions. As I work with other companies and see them growing I continue to think about these questions. As I find my place as a leader of my community I continue to think about these questions. And as I try and blog now, I hope to bring some people into the conversation with me.