Over March Break I went to see the wonderful Windmill Performing Arts production of AFTERNOON OF THE ELVES at Seattle Children's Theatre. My youngest daughter had just finished studying this book in school, so she was very excited to see it on stage.

The Seattle Children's Theatre has a stellar reputation, and is considered to be one of the top children's theatres in America. It is a beautiful, bright, colorful, open and very large building with two spaces (we were in the larger Main Space).

The building is located in the Seattle Centre, the grounds of the 1962 World's Fair, that also houses the Pacific Science Center, Science Fiction Museum, the Experience Music Project (more on that in another post!) and the Space Needle.

The two season sponsors of Seattle Children's Theatre (SCT) are Microsoft and Boeing, so that's got to come in handy! There is a "Quiet Room" at the back of the theatre where you can take your child if he/she starts crying or acting up. It's a soundproof, comfortable room where you can still see the stage, and the sound from the show is piped in. What a great idea!

AFTERNOON OF THE ELVES was based on the book by Janet Taylor Lisle, Adapted by Y York and directed by Linda Hartzell. All the cast members, (except for Jennifer Lee Taylor, who plays Sara Kate Connolly) are Australian and were headed home the very next day!

The set was designed in Australia and at the end of the show, the cast did a Q&A and pointed out the telltale features of the Australian backyard set. The sets were beautiful (and quite lavish for children's theatre, in my experience!) and revolved to transition smoothly from backyard to backyard to kitchen. The elf "village" was utterly charming, and the little huts really gave the impression they really were "found" structures.

From the Artistic Director's note:

Playwright Y York has managed to capture the essence of wonder and delight so often found in childhood. Even when this enchanting tale shows us the pain and fear some children live with day to day, we are reminded of the hope and resilience inherent in so many kids. It is a tragedy that many of the world's children are forced to learn to survive, taking each day as it comes, instead of being nurtured and allowed to take their time learning and growing into adulthood. Childhood should be full of friends playing and laughing together, discovering an elf village in the backyard.

It was beautifully acted and produced. My daughters loved it and so did I. Bravo SCT!

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I got an e-mail from Ron Mason of Bay Bridge Productions about a new show, BILL W. AND DR. BOB, playing off-Broadway at New World Stages. I hope I can get to see it because it sounds really interesting.

Bill W. and Dr. Bob was written by Stephen Bergman & Janet Surrey, and is directed by Rick Lombardo. The play "...tells the incredible and often funny story of the men who founded Alcoholics Anonymous."

Here is the synopsis from the e-mail:

In 1935, famous New York stockbroker Bill Wilson crashes with the stock market and becomes a hopeless drunk. Dr. Bob Smith, a surgeon from Ohio, has also been an alcoholic for thirty years, often going into the operating room with a hangover. Through an astonishing series of events, Bill and Bob meet and form a relationship, each helping to keep the other sober. This is the amazing and often humorous story of the two men who pioneered Alcoholics Anonymous, as well as the story of their wives, who founded Al Anon.

As soon as I read that synopsis I was interested. It seems that AA has been around forever and I never really thought about how it got started. But obviously, it had to start somewhere and by someone (in this case, more than one).

The Web site has a cool video of the authors (who also happened to be married!) talking about why they wanted to tell this story, and why they thought live theatre was the perfect medium to tell it in. They both had experiences with alcoholics in their lives, and wanted to tell the founder's story to demonstrate the healing powers of good human connections. And live theatre gave the audience a chance for us to experience an AA meeting. They also felt it was important to portray the key roles the wives contribution to the beginning of AA.

There are also personal stories of people who are members of AA who talk about the impact of the play, as well as a chance for you to send them your story.

Sounds like a compelling night of theatre!

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Why entrepreneurship training is beginning to strike a chord with faculty—and students—at top music conservatories

by Kerry Miller, Business Week Magazine
March 28, 2007

In most areas of higher education, entrepreneurship has long lost its stigma as a career path for those without one (see BusinessWeek.com, Fall, 2006, "Hitting the Books"). But at the nation's top music conservatories that stigma is still very much alive, despite the fact that the "traditional" career path for classically trained musician -- one that ends with steady employment in a symphony orchestra—is difficult.

At Manhattan's Juilliard School, one of the country's preeminent performing arts conservatories, Career Development Director Derek Mithaug admits that the business-y connotation of the term "entrepreneur" still rubs a lot of artists the wrong way. "We try to avoid that word," he says. But getting support for entrepreneurship training is about more than semantics: Some in music education still firmly believe that the role of the conservatory is to train musicians, not businesspeople.

That's why at many conservatories, entrepreneurship training -- where it exists -- has tip-toed into curricula under less-threatening guises. Most schools offer at least one elective or workshop in "career development" or "the music industry." At the Eastman School of Music, entrepreneurship programs are run out of the Rochester (N.Y.) school's Institute for Music Leadership.

Converting the Old Guard

The Institute's director, Ramon Ricker, says it took some effort to convince some old-guard faculty -- firm believers in "art for art's sake" -- that the school wasn't selling out by offering courses that emphasized practical skills. At one meeting, Ricker went around the room pointing at each faculty member: "You've got a summer chamber music program, you've got a string quartet, you publish books— you're entrepreneurial!" And teaching those skills, he says, is about more than building individual careers -- as the nation's symphony orchestras continue their struggle for survival, they're also vital to the future of classical music.

Bringing music schools in line with the future of classical music is exactly what Manhattan School of Music president Robert Sirota is most interested in. "The whole infrastructure of music is experiencing seismic shifts, and music schools have to move with those changes," Sirota says—and just adding a business course or two in isn't enough to keep up with the times. Although getting even one required course on entrepreneurship into a packed conservatory curriculum is more than most schools are willing to commit to, what's really necessary, Sirota says, is a radical rethinking of the whole centuries-old conservatory model.

One of Sirota's sea-change ideas: Instead of requiring all graduating students to perform a senior recital, conservatories could give students the option of producing their own recording. "It sounds like a small thing, but it would be revolutionary," Sirota says. "Can we do it? Well, that remains to be seen."

As an end goal, Sirota envisions "a new generation of performing musicians who function more like individual small businesses, who work the hypersegmented musical marketplace in an entirely different way." Figuring out how to get there, Sirota admits, is the $64,000 question. In April, he's holding the first of several think-tank discussions with various music industry leaders to discuss just that subject. And in a year or two—as soon as he nails down the funding—he hopes to open a new Center for Music Entrepreneurship at the Manhattan School.

Funding from Wealthy Foundations

So far, most of the funding for arts entrepreneurship programs has come from a few wealthy foundations. Among the first was the College of Music at the University of Colorado at Boulder, which opened the Entrepreneurship Center for Music with a grant from the Price Foundation in 1998. Since then, the Coleman, Morgan, and Kauffman foundations have funded numerous other initiatives to further entrepreneurship in music, including grant competitions and mentorship programs.

But critics say music schools still aren't doing enough to prepare students for the real world. "How in good conscience can we continue to graduate thousands of students a year who have no hope of getting a job in the field they were trained for?" asks Michael Drapkin, a business consultant and former symphony clarinetist who got funding from the Kauffman Foundation to support an annual conference in North Carolina on music entrepreneurship called BCOME [http://bcome.org].

A New Way of Thinking

He's not the only one asking that question. "If you talk to people outside the academy, this is a no-brainer," says Gary Beckman, a PhD student in musicology at the University of Texas at Austin and a leading academic researcher in the growing field of arts entrepreneurship. But in order for music entrepreneurship to gain more mainstream acceptance, he says the topic has to be academically legitimized. On Mar. 31, he'll present research at Pepperdine University, at the first-ever panel discussion devoted to arts entrepreneurship as an academic discipline (see BusinessWeek.com, 10/2/06, "Business Plans with Legs").

Still, says Juilliard's Mithaug, "It takes time to change culture." From a very young age, musicians are taught how to take direction, to be the best by being the same. "[Entrepreneurship] is a new way of thinking for people who have spent most of their lives in a practice room," he says.

And Juilliard is already a much different place than it was when Mithaug was a student there; the Career Development Office he now directs didn't open its doors until 2000. Before that, he says, "there was no office, no nothing." Now about 25% of Juilliard students participate in the school's professional mentoring program, which matches students up with a faculty member or with an outside professional to work on a project of the student's own design. Mithaug says interest in the four-year-old program has grown each year, and over the past decade he's seen a profound shift in student attitudes.

Stigma Starting to Fade

Gillian Gallagher, a 22-year-old viola player, says she has no qualms about identifying herself as an entrepreneur. After earning her master's degree from Juilliard she hopes to play professionally with the string quartet she formed as a Juilliard undergraduate with three other students. Besides playing, Gallagher says the group members do all of their own self-promotion -- everything from writing bios to contacting programmers.

While Gallagher says most students still seem focused on a traditional career path that begins with auditioning for symphony orchestras, "I can see the stigma starting to fade all around me," she says.

"There are a lot of musicians who come here thinking that the most important thing is their art, and that other concerns -- like making money -- don't matter." Around the beginning of fourth year, though, "People start to get a little scared. They start thinking, 'what am I gonna do next?'"

An Alternative to Ramen Noodles

Angela Myles Beeching, career services director at New England Conservatory in Boston, says she sees her students go through a similar rude awakening during the professional artists seminar required of third-year students. But she says the point isn't to scare students away from pursuing their dreams. "Whether you call it entrepreneurship or not, what it comes down to is helping young musicians see themselves as the masters of their future -- that they can create opportunities, not just wait to be handed something."

For some students, entrepreneurship is an alternative to what many artists have turned to in the past: the day job (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/10/01, "Portrait of the Artist in Red Ink"). At UT-Austin, Gary Beckman says that while the students he teaches certainly don't buy into the 19th century myth of the starving artist, they're not interested in entrepreneurship for the same reasons as students in the business school, either. "They're not looking for a six-figure salary," he says. "The reason they want an entrepreneurial lifestyle is so they can continue to practice their art -- and maybe not eat ramen noodles every night while they do so."

And Gallagher says that's not the only reason. "Every conversation I've had about the future of classical music comes down to the fact that as musicians, we need to be more proactive." For example, she says, "a major problem today is orchestras failing -- maybe if musicians were more entrepreneurial, that wouldn't be happening." But no matter what, Gallagher says she's convinced that entrepreneurship skills are useful for any musician in the long run -- even those who aren't planning to strike out on their own. After all, she says, "If you're in some symphony that starts to go under, you're out of a job."

Miller is a reporter with BusinessWeek.com in New York.

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More Canadians read a book than saw a movie in 2005, a survey reports. And art gallery and historic site attendance is up too

By James Adams, Toronto Globe and Mail
Thursday, March 29, 2007

Canadians are more likely to read a book than attend a movie, and they're visiting art galleries and historic sites more. At least that's what appears to have been the case two years ago, according to an analysis released yesterday of a "social survey" of 10,000 Canadians completed by Statistics Canada in 2005.

The analysis by Hill Strategies Research Inc. of Hamilton found that, in 2005, 17.4 million Canadians 15 years of age and older -- or 66.6 per cent of that total population group -- read at least one book in the course of 12 months. In fact, about four in 10 Canadians read at least one book a month in 2005. By contrast, in that same period, 15.9 million Canadians (61 per cent) went out to see at least one movie in a theatre or at the drive-in.

The level of book reading has remained stable relative to previous surveys of Canadian cultural activities done in 1992 and 1998, but there has been a decline in newspaper readership. In 1992, 93.2 per cent of Canadians said they read at least one newspaper that year; six years later, that figure was 88.7 per cent, and in 2005, 86.7 per cent. However, while the rate of newspaper reading declined, the number of readers has increased, thanks to a 22.6-per-cent hike in the overall number of Canadians aged 15 and up.

As a result, newspaper readers increased to 22.6 million in 2005 from 19.9 million in 1992.

A similar phenomenon occurred with magazine readership. In 1992, 80.2 per cent of Canadians read at least one magazine that year; in 1998, the number was 77.2 per cent, then it rose to 78.2 per cent two years ago. But despite the lower rate of readership, the actual number of individuals who found themselves reading one or more magazines in 2005 was 20.4 million, up 3.2 million from 1992.

With respect to art-gallery visits, seven million Canadians, or 26.7 per cent of the population 15 years old and up, attended at least one art exhibition in 2005. In 2002, the percentage was 24 per cent, and in 1992, 19.6. The difference between the 1992 and 2005 numbers represented an increase of 2.8 million gallery-goers, an impressive 67-per-cent jump over 13 years.

An increase also has been seen in Canadians travelling to historic sites. Almost nine million -- more than 33 per cent of the population -- visited the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in southern Alberta, Ontario's Sainte-Marie-among-the-Hurons and similar locales in 2005, an increase of almost three million from 1992 when 27.1 per cent of the population paid at least one visit to such sites.

Attendance at performing-arts events has remained relatively stable since the early 1990s. In 2005, 10.8 million Canadians, or 41.2 per cent of the population, attended at least one professional concert or live arts event, down slightly from 1992's 42.4 per cent, but up from 1998's 37.6 per cent.

Intriguingly, attendance at classical-music concerts seems to be trending upward. In 2005, 9.5 per cent of Canadians, or 2.5 million people, attended at least one live presentation of classical music, whereas in 1992 classical music-goers numbered 1.8 million, or 8.4 per cent of the population.

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I got an email from Julie Giles of Digital Entertainment Marketing about the musical EDWARD SCISSORHANDS. This is not a traditional musical (ie. there isn't any dialogue or lyrics!), but it is based on the movie and sounds really cool.

From her e-mail:

Based on the original motion picture directed by Tim Burton, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS features a cast of 30 dancers with music composed, arranged and adapted by Terry Davies, based on the original motion picture score by Danny Elfman.

Edward Scissorhands is devised, directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne (Swan Lake, Mary Poppins), the only British director to have won the Tony Award for both "Best Choreographer" and "Best Director of a Musical.

And here's the info I got from Julie on the special ticket offer for Toronto:

Get $15 off tickets for Edward Scissorhands at the Hummingbird Centre. Three shows only! Wednesday, April 4 through Friday, April 6 at 8 PM.

Login to Ticketmaster.ca with the promotional code EDBLOG to receive your discount.

This offer is applicable to online sales ONLY and can be applied to ANY seat location at ANY price. No restrictions!

Order your tickets today at Ticketmaster.ca or visit the Official Tour Web site for more info.

Here are some reviews:

"...a perfect blend of witty movement and wordless scenario." -- The New York Times

"...a visually stunning live show.." -- The Philadelphia Inquirer

"...a cut above the musical norm." -- San Francisco Chronicle

"...a cracking piece of theatre." -- The Guardian

Okay, okay! I'm intrigued and I'm going! (I'm due for a haircut anyways...)

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By Vivien Schweitzer, PlaybillArts.com
March 26, 2007

On June 21, the first day of summer, Make Music New York will hold its debut celebration: a festival of approximately 1,200 free concerts, featuring music of all genres and styles, in parks and streets throughout the five boroughs of New York City.

The festival is modeled after France's "Fête de la Musique," first held in 1982 in Paris and an annual event throughout the country ever since. Other cities which have followed suit with their own "Fêtes" include Rome, Berlin, Barcelona, Toronto, Buenos Aires, Beijing, Tokyo and Sydney.

John Corigliano, who joined the New York festival's advisory board after experiencing it in Europe, says, "Make Music New York is a grand celebration honoring all kinds of music. I witnessed such an event last year in Amsterdam, and it brought the entire city together in a wonderful way. Just think how fantastic it will be when it takes place in the greatest city in the world, New York!"

To date, 87 community groups, twelve Business Improvement Districts, and hundreds of individual artists, both amateurs and professionals, have signed on to produce free concerts on sidewalks, parks, closed streets and community gardens.

Large-scale events are planned throughout the city. Six blocks of Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg will be devoted to the festival, with a symphonic indie-rock show at McCarren Pool in the evening. Other events include an R&B stage in front of the State Office Building in Harlem, a lunchtime concert at Lincoln Center and a cluster of musical block parties in Queens called "Make Music: Jamaica Funk Style."

Other concerts will feature genres from Turkish religious music to underground hip-hop.

Festival organizers are seeking musicians of all levels and experience to perform at locations around the city. Interested performers should sign up at www.makemusicny.org/takepart.php or call 1-917-779-9709 before May 1.

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Shout out to Craig Laurie!

I was really jazzed to hear that Craig Laurie, who appeared in the 2005 NYMF production of PLANE CRAZY, will be playing Bob Crewe in the 2nd National Tour of JERSEY BOYS!

Apparently he'll start out in San Fran for six months and then on to Chicago. It's a great role, really fun and of course, critical to the story. Craig is super talented, so I can't wait to see him in JERSEY BOYS. Congrats Craig!

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"The rain may never fall till after sundown. By eight, the morning fog must disappear."

Unfortunately, these lines were sung about CAMELOT, and most definitely not about Seattle, where I spent March break. I spent the week slightly soggy, but thankfully, not Starbucks-deprived. I think there are more Starbucks in Seattle than even New York -- not surprising given this is the city that started it all! One of the highlights of the week was going with the family to the opening night of CAMELOT, currently playing at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre. Starring Michael York as King Arthur, Rachel York as Guenevere, and James Barbour as a very French Lancelot, this touring production is directed by Glenn Casale and will be at the 5th Avenue from March 20 to April 8. With book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe, CAMELOT is based on The Once and Future King by T.H. White.

From the 5th Avenue Web site:

British stage and film legend, Michael York (The Three Musketeers, Cabaret, Austin Powers) stars in this magnificent new production of Lerner and Loewe’s timeless masterpiece. King Arthur’s enchanted kingdom, Camelot, is a place where honor and chivalry reign. But can this idyllic land survive when Queen Guenevere falls in love with Sir Lancelot? The splendid, memorable score includes the romantic and haunting “If Ever I Would Leave You,” the captivating “How To Handle a Woman” and the majestic “Camelot.” Re-discover the grandeur of one of history’s greatest love stories.

There is a really interesting story in the program about the long, arduous journey that CAMELOT took to the Broadway stage. The project was plagued by creative team illnesses, the O'Keefe Centre in Toronto, and an initial running time of around four hours. Thanks to strong advance sales (on the strength of MY FAIR LADY I would guess), and a guest spot on The Ed Sullivan Show, the story has a happy ending and CAMELOT was able to survive long enough to become the wonderful classic it is today! Of course the original Broadway cast which included Julie Andrews, Richard Burton, Robert Goulet and Roddy McDowell might have helped too!

I had never seen CAMELOT on stage before (other than the Ed Sullivan show footage) and I'd never been to 5th Avenue before (which is appropriately located on 5th Avenue!). The 5th Avenue is a gorgeous theatre, originally built as a vaudeville house, beautifully preserved. The whole theatre is decorated with a Chinese theme and has great acoustics.

I really enjoyed this show. The music and lyrics are divine, of course, but I was happily surprised at how much I was swept up by the book.

Michael York is great as King Arthur, and brings a nice vulnerability to the role, making it very believable. Rachel York is a force of nature. Wow what a voice! She is unbelievable. I saw her in a few years ago in VICTOR/VICTORIA and she was amazing. So she was playing the role Julie Andrews originated in CAMELOT, and appeared with Julie Andrews in VICTOR/VICTORIA! Believe it or not! And James Barbour has a gorgeous voice, especially when he sang "If Ever I Would Leave You". A week later and I'm still humming "Camelot".

Before the show I went to the Producers Club lounge to hang out with the important people! It was really cool because they have posters on the walls of all the shows they've done. I saw that the HAIRSPRAY poster was signed by Hollie Howard! She played Holly Banks in the 2005 NYMF production of PLANE CRAZY. And there was a 1776 poster as well, with Christopher Guilmet, who played Larry in the 2005 NYMF production of PLANE CRAZY! Small world! After the show we went to the opening night party and mingled with all the stars! What a great night!

"In short, there's simply not a more congenial spot for happily-ever-aftering than here in Camelot."

Yes, indeed!

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Photos: Craig Schwartz

Empty chairs at empty tables...not for long! Turns out, another Canadian will be sitting pretty as Man in Chair in THE DROWSY CHAPERONE on Broadway. Bob Martin stars in the West End production of THE DROWSY CHAPERONE in May, so Crombie will help fill the gap until John Glover (loved him in Scrooged!) takes over April 17.

Apparently, Jonathan's been part of THE DROWSY CHAPERONE from the get-go and I saw him in the Theatre Passe Muraille production as Gangster #2. And I am proud to say I am among the few who saw him in OUCH MY TOE at the Toronto Fringe Festival Kids Venue! And did you know he is the son of David "Tiny Perfect Mayor" Crombie? And I danced in David Crombie's tent during the 1983 Conservative Leadership Convention in Ottawa. (I was there working for George Perlin, my Poli-Sci prof.) I'm dizzy from all the connections...

From this article in Playbill.com:

Canadian actor Jonathan Crombie, who has history with the development of The Drowsy Chaperone, will take over the cushion of Man in Chair in the Broadway production March 20.

Crombie fills the choice seat as the Tony Award-winning musical's narrator/guide through April 15, in anticipation of John Glover taking over the role April 17.

Between March 13-18, understudies Jay Douglas and Patrick Wetzel will alternate as the salty charmer at the Marquis.

Original Man in Chair Bob Martin, who was Tony-nommed for his performance and who won the Best Book of a Musical Tony (with Don McKellar), left the show March 11 and will originate the role in the London production in May.

This will mark the Broadway debut of Crombie. His Canadian credits include Oxford Roof Climber's Rebellion, Dishwashers (Tarragon); This Could Be Love (Artword); Ouch My Toe (Fringe); Toronto's The Drowsy Chaperone (as Gangster #2 at the Toronto Fringe, Theatre Passe Muraille, Winter Garden, prior to the American producers coming aboard); Romeo & Juliet, Oedipus Rex, Hamlet, Comedy of Errors (Stratford Festival); Arcadia, Last Romantics, What the Butler Saw (CanStage); Godspell (New Vic); Wimsey Madders (Flatzbo), and TV's "Slings & Arrows" and the popular "Anne of Green Gables."

I've included the listing from the Fringe Review in 1999 in which the book is listed as being by "The Company". Perhaps this casting is a bit of a nod of thanks to contributions made by Crombie? Ah the intrigue...

THE DROWSY CHAPERONE
Featuring Janet Van De Graaff, Jonathan Crombie, Bob Martin, John Mitchell, Jack Mosshammer. Music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison. Book by the Company. Directed by Steven Morel. Costumes by Christopher Richards. July 9, 1:30pm; July 10, noon; July 11, 7:30pm. *****

A mess of the city's best theatrical performers sing, dance and yuk it up in this ridiculously funny homage to, and parody of, the musicals of the '20s. Constructed as visuals accompanying the playing of an old musical soundtrack, The Drowsy Chaperone makes reference to a wealth of material -- from the Ziegfeld Follies to the unfortuate fate of silent-screen star Marie Prevost. This near-flawless, ambitious production ups the ante for Fringe shows. -- JH

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[Suzy: This would be so cool in a dance number...except if you were expecting someone to catch you...]

Virtual and Live Actors Join on Stage
By Jennifer Viegas, The Discovery Channel
March 14, 2007

In a theatrical first, actors working in real time from remote locations recently were beamed onto a stage where they performed with live, in the flesh actors for an audience that experienced one seamless, three-dimensional show, according to the University of Central Florida.

The technology could mean future theatergoers might attend plays where one or more actors are working outside the venue, even in a different country or from their own homes.

"We are not talking about holograms yet or the kind of imagery that requires funky glasses," UCF professor John Shafer, a member of the cast, told Discovery News. "(But) what we have done for this production has indeed pushed the envelope significantly. The production is a small historical step forward on several levels."

This past weekend, Shafer was hooked to a receiving and transmitting broadband-connected computer that can pull as much as 130 megabytes of data in an instant. Although he performed in Florida, his body was "beamed" onto a stage at Bradley University in Illinois, where he performed "with" live actors there, as well as with actors beamed in from the University of Waterloo in Canada.

Both 3-D and 2-D sets consisting of multiple screens and special effects lighting helped to give the impression that all of the actors, remote or not, existed in a single space. To further link the performances, the actual live actors were also sometimes featured on screens. At one point, a virtual actor even appeared to hand a live actor a cigarette.

Shafer said, "People have been incorporated into the digital world before. ‘Lord of the Rings’ used a live time actor digitization on the set...Ours, however, does it with real time, live actors at a distance, right where you can come and see it. You get the human contact that film and computers alone cannot provide."

This first use of the technology was for the play "The Adding Machine," written in 1923 by Elmer Rice. Appropriately, it explores the connection between humans and technology.

Shafer appeared either in full or as a "Wizard of Oz," God-like speaking head during the performance.

Five-time Emmy Award winning composer and producer James Oliverio of the University of Florida College of Fine Arts flew to Illinois over the weekend to view the play. Just a few weeks ago, Oliverio achieved a similar technical feat by uniting performances by ethnic and indigenous peoples from throughout North, Central and South America over a high-speed network.

"Such virtual reality technology gives directors an enhanced palette of possibilities," Oliverio told Discovery News. "‘The Adding Machine’ represents the first successful adaptation of an emerging art form and culture of multimedia that enables seamless presentations. We are just now starting to see the capabilities and where it might lead us in future."

He added, "We are now dealing with a four-dimensional experience, where time is the fourth dimension. The innovation is that the virtual world is woven so tightly into the live, onstage physical performance that it forms a holistic whole for the audience."

Oliverio thinks the technology can "breathe new life" into modernistic 20th century plays like "The Adding Machine," which may have been ahead of their time.

Shafer and his team next plan to present "Alice Experiments in Wonderland," a play that will beam actors simultaneously onto three live stages in different locations.

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So I rushed out and bought the DVD of my new fav chick flick "The Holiday" with Kate Winslet, Jack Black, Cameron Diaz, and Jude Law. Although Diaz and Law are dazzlingly good looking (sometimes when they are both on the screen I have to shade my eyes from all that blonde gorgeousness...), I found the Winslet -- Black relationship more interesting.

Actually, to be totally honest, I found the relationship between Kate Winslet's character Iris and Eli Wallach's character, Arthur, the most interesting of all! Arthur is a retired Oscar-winning writer from the golden age of Hollywood (he got his first job at age 17 as Louis B. Mayer's office boy) whom Iris befriends. Arthur has basically become a befuddled hermit who refuses to accept a Writers Guild invitation for an evening honoring him.

Iris is introduced to all the great black and white movies of Arthur's Hollywood, and gets to hear all his great stories. She helps him workout in her pool so he can go on stage without a walker. And he tells her that she is leading lady material but is stuck playing the best friend in her own life. Their friendship helps both of them heal. They first meet when she finds him wandering around the neighborhood with his walker, and he can't find his way home. She gives him drive home. He calls this their "meet-cute"!

Here is some more info on the "meet-cute" from the always-reliable Wikipedia:

Contrived romantic encounters: The "meet cute"

One of the conventions of romantic comedy films is the contrived encounter of two potential romantic partners in unusual or comic circumstances, which film critics such as Roger Ebert or the Associated Press' Christy Lemire have called a "meet-cute" situation. During a "meet-cute", scriptwriters often create a humorous sense of awkwardness between the two potential partners by depicting an initial clash of personalities or beliefs, an embarrassing situation, or by introducing a comical misunderstanding or mistaken identity situation. Sometimes the term is used without a hyphen (a "meet cute"), or as a verb, as in "to meet cute."

In many romantic comedies, the potential couple comprises polar opposites, two people of different temperaments, situations, social statuses, or all three (It Happened One Night), who would not meet or talk under normal circumstances, and the meet cute's contrived situation provides the opportunity for these two people to meet.

In movies, the attraction between the lead characters must be established quickly. The subject matter of romantic comedies are the obstacles that the potential pair must face before they can acknowledge, fulfill, or consummate their love, and the audience must care about the relationship enough to finish the movie. The meet-cute, by virtue of its unusual situation, helps to fix the potential relationship in the viewers' minds, and the spark of the meeting is the impetus by which initial vicissitudes of the developing relationship are overcome.

Use of "meet cute" situations

Certain movies are entirely driven by the meet-cute situation, and contrived circumstances throw the couple together for much of the screenplay. However, movies in which the contrived situation is the main feature, such as Some Like It Hot, rather than the romance being the main feature, are not considered "meet-cutes."

The use of the meet-cute is less marked in television series and novels, because these formats have more time to establish and develop romantic relationships. In situation comedies, relationships are static and meet-cute is not necessary, though flashbacks may recall one (The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mad About You) and lighter fare may require contrived romantic meetings.

The heyday of "meet cute" in films was during the Great Depression in the 1930s; screwball comedy films made a heavy use of contrived romantic "meet cutes," perhaps because the more rigid class consciousness and class divisions of this period made cross-social class romances into tantalizing fantasies.

While film critic Roger Ebert has popularized the term "meet cute" in his reviews of romantic comedies, the term is mostly used in the film and screenwriting industries, where it provides a convenient shorthand for screenwriters who are doing a very compressed pitch to a film production company.

Examples
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Examples of couples "meeting cute" in romantic comedy films include:

It Happened One Night throws runaway heiress Ellie (Claudette Colbert) and world-weary ex-reporter Peter (Clark Gable) together in a dispute over the last seat on a bus.

In Bringing Up Baby, nervous paleontologist David (Cary Grant) finds that his golf ball and his car get inadvertently driven by strong-willed heiress Susan (Katharine Hepburn).

In Singing in the Rain, the character played by Gene Kelly is running through the street to try to escape from his fans. He is jumping from the roofs of cars and taxis, and he accidentally lands into a woman's convertible (Debbie Reynolds). Even though they do not get along at first, a romance ensues.

In Notting Hill, the character played by Hugh Grant accidentally spills orange juice on the character played by Julia Roberts, which leads them into a conversation.

In Serendipity, the characters played by John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale coincidentally grab the same pair of gloves at a Bloomingdale's store.

In The Wedding Planner, the character played by Matthew McConaughey saves a woman's life (Jennifer Lopez) when a runaway dumpster is heading towards her.

In The Holiday, Kate Winslet's character and Jack Black's character "...meet cute after she swaps her London home for the Los Angeles digs" of the character played by Cameron Diaz)

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Don't make make me choose!

OK, on one hand I'm saddened that Kristin Chenoweth won't be in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN when it opens this fall at the St. James Theatre (of course I'm thrilled that Megan Mullally is now doing that role!). But on the other I'm excited that Kristin will be on the tube again. I might have been one of the seven people that watched "Kristin", her first ill-fated TV show. I mean, I love live theatre, and gosh darn it, I love television! I'm a '70s child so it is possible that "what I did for l love" was watch both Charlie's Angels and THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG.

So naturally when I read this article on Playbill about Broadway actors and their tv pilots I had mixed feelings. However, on the bright side, it'll be a lot cheaper to see Hugh Jackman this time around! One of the shows I'm particularly keen to see (other than Kristin's "Pushing Daisies", Norbert Leo Butz's "Playing Chicken" and Hugh's "Viva Laughlin") is "Elie Stone" starring Jonny Lee Miller, one of my fav film actors who I loved in Mansfield Park (he was a tad too creepy in Trainspotting...), and Laura Benanti from THE WEDDING SINGER.

Here's more on Hugh's show from Starpulse News Blog:

Hugh Jackman's Viva Laughlin! Gets TV Go-Ahead

Aussie movie star Hugh Jackman's remake of a popular British TV series has been given the go-ahead in America.

The X-Men star will executive produce and appear in Viva Laughlin! when it hits TV screens later this year.

The program will be inspired by BBC hit series Viva Blackpool! Jackman's version will concentrate on the trials and tribulations a small-time Nevada casino owner, who dreams of opening up "a snazzy resort" on the Las Vegas Strip.

Jackman will guest star in the pilot, which will be directed by The Pursuit Of Happyness moviemaker Gabriele Muccino.

And here's the list of new tv pilots with Broadway actors from this article on Playbill.com:

"Action News" (Fox)
Kelsey Grammar (My Fair Lady) and Patricia Heaton (The Scene).

"All Fall Down" (ABC)
Mary Steenburgen (Candida) and Anna Camp (The Scene).

"The Apostles" (Fox)
Jessalyn Gilsig (Fifth of July), Keith Robinson ("Dreamgirls") and Shawn Hatosy (Roulette).

"The Big Bang Theory" (CBS)
Johnny Galecki (The Little Dog Laughed) and Iris Bahr (Dai (enough)).

"Californication" (Showtime)
Natascha McElhone (Honour - London), Evan Handler (Six Degrees of Separation) and Madeleine Martin (The Pillowman, ...Joe Egg).

"Canterbury's Law" (Fox)
Ben Shenkman (Proof), Julianna Margulies (Festen) and Linus Roache (Richard II - London).

"The Captain" (CBS)
Jeffrey Tambor (Glengarry Glen Ross).

"Cashmere Mafia" (ABC)
Frances O'Connor (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - London), Lucy Liu ("Chicago") and Julian Ovenden(Butley).

"Demons" (CBS)
Harold Perrineau (Blue/Orange) and Ron Eldard (Doubt).

"Dirty Sexy Money" (ABC)
Pater Krause (After the Fall), Donald Sutherland (Ten Unknowns), Glenn Fitzgerald (Lobby Hero) and Jill Clayburgh (Barefoot in the Park). Craig Wright (Recent Tragic Events) pens.

"Eli Stone" (ABC)
Jonny Lee Miller (Festen - London), Laura Benanti (Nine), Loretta Devine (Dreamgirls), James Saito (Durango) and Victor Garber (Sweeney Todd).

"Fort Pit" (NBC)
Viola Davis (Intimate Apparel), Elias Koteas (Hot 'n' Throbbing), Cornell Womack (Talk Radio), James Badge Dale (Burleigh Grime$) and Michael Rispoli (Magic Hands Freddy).

"Fugly CBS)
Marissa Jaret Winokur (Hairspray).

"Imperfect Union" (TBS)
Ashley Williams (The Shape of Things), George Wendt (Twelve Angry Men), Paula Cale (Rose's Dilemma), Bob Gunton (Sweeney Todd) and Beverly D'Angelo (Simpatico). Eric McCormack (The Music Man) executive produces.

"Insatiable" (Showtime)
Andrea Martin (Oklahoma!) and Lara Flynn Boyle (The Vagina Monologues).

"Judy's Got a Gun" (ABC)
Colm Feore (Julius Caesar).

"Life" (NBC)
Adam Arkin (Brooklyn Boy) and Robin Weigert (Noises Off).

"Lipstick Jungle" (NBC)
Brooke Shields (Wonderful Town), David Alan Basche (Snakebit), Matthew Morrison (Hairspray), Scott Cohen (Losing Louie) and David Norona (Jersey Boys).

"Los Duques" (CBS)
Hector Elizondo (Sly Fox), Jimmy Smits (Anna in the Tropics) and Rita Moreno (The Ritz). Smits also executive produces.

"M.O.N.Y." (NBC)
Bobby Cannavale (Hurlyburly).

"The Mastersons of Manhattan" (NBC)
Jonathan Cake (Medea) and Natasha Richardson (A Streetcar Named Desire).

"Miss/Guided" (ABC)
Judy Greer (Show People).

"Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office" (ABC)
Matthew Morrison (The Light in the Piazza) and Kathryn Hahn (Dead End - L.A.).

"Playing Chicken" (Fox)
Norbert Leo Butz (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels).

"Pushing Daisies" (ABC)
Kristin Chenoweth (Wicked), Anna Friel (Closer), Lee Pace (Small Tragedy) and Swoosie Kurtz (Frozen).

"The Return of Jezebel James" (Fox)
Lauren Ambrose (Awake and Sing! ), Scott Cohen (Losing Louie) and Parker Posey (Hurlyburly).

"The Rich Inner Life of Penelope Cloud" (CBS)
Marisa Tomei (Salome).

"The Rules of Starting Over" (Fox)
Craig Bierko (The Music Man).

"Sam I Am" (ABC)
Christina Applegate (Sweet Charity).

"Supreme Courtships" (Fox)
Kate Burton (The Constant Wife), Bridget Regan (The Scottish Play) and Zachary Knighton (Birdy).

"Suspect" ( ABC)
Charles S. Dutton (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom).

"Swingtown" (CBS)
Josh Hopkins (Blackout - L.A.) and Miriam Shor (Dedication, or the Stuff of Dreams).

"The Thick of It" (ABC)
Oliver Platt (Shining City ).

"To Love and Die in L.A." (USA)
Frances Fisher (The Cherry Orchard - L.A.) and Tim Matheson (True West).

"True Blood" (HBO)
Anna Paquin (The Distance From Here) and Sam Trammell (Ah, Wilderness!).

Untitled "Grey's Anatomy" Spin-Off Project (ABC)
Taye Diggs (Rent) and Tim Daly (The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial).

"Untitled Project" (FX)
Glenn Close (Sunset Boulevard), Rose Byrne (La Dispute - Sydney), Tate Donovan (Lobby Hero) and Zeljko Ivanek (The Pillowman).

"Untitled Project" (ABC Family)
Faith Prince (Guys and Dolls).

"Virgin of Akron, Ohio" (Lifetime)
Brian Kerwin (After the Night and the Music) and Laurie Metcalf (All My Sons - L.A.).

"Viva Laughlin!" (CBS)
Hugh Jackman (The Boy From Oz) executive produces and guest stars.

"Wildlife" (NBC)
Philip Baker Hall (American Buffalo) and Christopher Sieber (Spamalot).

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Swimsuit competitions? Hey, I wish they had 'em on GREASE -- YOU'RE THE ONE THAT I WANT!

I got an e-mail from Ryan J. Davis who is directing this benefit for the Ali Forney Center in New York on April 30th at New World Stages. And shout out to Canuck Lisa Lambert who will be providing original songs! Sounds like a blast!

Here is the press release:

A NEW TRADITION IS BORN!
“M R . B R O A D W A Y 2 0 0 7“
1st (ANNUAL) BROADWAY BEAUTY PAGEANT
TO BENEFIT ALI FORNEY CENTER

ONE-NIGHT-ONLY
MONDAY, APRIL 30th
AT NEW WORLD STAGES

New York, NY -- Mr. Broadway 2007, the inaugural Broadway beauty pageant, will be held Monday evening, April 30th at New World Stages (340 West 50th St.). The event will benefit the Ali Forney Center.

The event will feature male cast members representing their respective Broadway shows, competing for the title crown through talent, interview and swim suit competitions. The contestants will go head to head in front of a panel of celebrity judges, but ultimately, the final vote is in the audience's hands.

Mr. Broadway 2007 is written and conceived by Jeffery Self and directed by Ryan J. Davis, with musical direction by Eric Svejcar. The pageant includes original songs by Lisa Lambert (Tony Award-winner for The Drowsy Chaperone), Glen Kelly (The Producers, Drowsy Chaperone), Eric Svejcar (Caligula), Ben Cohn and Sean McDaniel. The evening is produced by Ryan J. Davis, Nick Malone and Jeffrey Self, in association with Tim Hur.

The Ali Forney Center (AFC) was started in June 2002 in response to the lack of safe shelter for LGBT youth in New York City. They are committed to providing LGBT youth with safe, dignified, nurturing environments where their needs can be met and where they can begin to put their lives back together. AFC is also dedicated to promoting awareness of the plight of homeless LGBT youth in the United States with the goal of generating responses on local and national levels from government funders, foundations and the LGBT community.

Tickets for Mr. Broadway 2007 are available at www.mrbroadway.org and are $100, with a limited number of VIP tickets available ranging from $250 to $500. Business and private sponsorships are available by contacting MrBroadway2007@gmail.com.

Participants and featured artists will be announced shortly.

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BY KATE TAYLOR, The New York Sun
March 12, 2007

Pam MacKinnon's directing career is going very well. Her world premiere production of Itamar Moses's "The Four of Us" just closed at the Old Globe in San Diego. A solo show by John Fugelsang, "All the Wrong Reasons," starts performances at New York Theatre Workshop next week. In the fall, she will direct an as yet unannounced Off-Broadway production that is likely to draw significant attention. In a field where there are more men working than women, Ms. MacKinnon, after directing two productions with large all-male casts, has developed a reputation as a woman who can be in the rehearsal room and "rein the guys in," as she said recently.

Ms. MacKinnon, who is 39, is on the verge of being a big-deal director: someone who can choose her own projects; someone who might be invited to direct a musical or a Shakespeare play, although these are costly, and so far she hasn't directed either professionally; someone who doesn't have to pick up a short-term tutoring client to make ends meet.

"I think there is a tipping point that people like Michael Greif ["Grey Gardens," "Rent"] and Michael Mayer ["Spring Awakening," "Thoroughly Modern Millie"] have tipped into that I have not yet," Ms. MacKinnon said when asked about where she is in her career. "I'm not quote ‘playing with the big boys' yet, but yet, I'm working — I'm working sort of nonstop, at very established theaters, which at times are exactly where the big boys are playing as well."

Plenty of people don't know what theater directors do, let alone how they forge their careers. They don't submit scripts, as playwrights do. They don't go to auditions, like actors. So how did Mr. Greif and Mr. Mayer — or, to cite probably the most recognized director in the country right now, Jack O'Brien — get where they are?

Ms. MacKinnon, like the majority of young directors in New York, has built a career so far directing new plays, so she is continually looking to find and connect with promising new playwrights. Early on, she learned that one way to discover playwrights was to befriend literary managers, who "get very passionate about plays that maybe their larger theater can't produce," she said. "So I'll call up a literary manager friend and say, ‘What are the plays you've been lugging around for the last five years?' I'll get this Manhattan-phonebook-size stack of plays that I can then pitch to a downtown company."

Her two most important playwright relationships — with Mr. Moses and Edward Albee — have opened many doors for her. She met Mr. Moses because they share the same agent, Mark Subias. "I read a play of his and really liked it, and then we met for coffee," she said. She directed a workshop of Mr. Moses's play "Outrage." When she read his play "Bach at Leipzig," she "really responded to it" and directed a couple of workshops. Then, in 2005, she directed both the world premiere at Milwaukee Repertory Theater and the New York premiere at New York Theatre Workshop.

New York Theatre Workshop had been considering several more established directors for its production, Ms. MacKinnon said, "but Mark demanded that [the artistic director] Jim Nicola get on a plane and go out to Milwaukee and see my production of it before they made any decisions. And Jim did," she continued, "and he said, ‘Pam, we want to do this show, and we're going to open our season with you directing it.'"

Mr. Subias also introduced her to Mr. Albee. In 2002, she directed the regional premiere of "The Play About the Baby" at the Philadelphia Theatre Company. As it turned out, "The Play About the Baby" was rehearsing in New York at the same time that Mr. Albee was in rehearsals for three other plays. "So we got to know each other in a very ordinary directorplaywright way," Ms. MacKinnon said. The following season, she directed the regional premiere of "The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?" at the Alley Theater in Houston, and "that cemented our working relationship." Later, she directed the European premiere of "The Goat" in Vienna and the world premiere of "Peter and Jerry" — which consists of Mr. Albee's first play, "The Zoo Story," plus a new prequel, called "Homelife" — at Hartford Stage.

But Ms. MacKinnon is busy with projects even when she's not in the rehearsal room. Besides staging plays, a director is often a playwright's first reader, and someone he or she can bounce ideas off of. A playwright and director will often develop a play together for a year or more: doing readings and workshops, or just talking regularly and looking at new drafts.

"Directing is this weird art form that's all about conversation," Mr. MacKinnon said. "Right now I'm working with a playwright, Anna Ziegler, on a play called ‘Novel,' about a man whose wife has died, and he's not dealing with it, and he winds up at this conference, and he's writing a novel. She has one draft where he's a scientist who writes a novel and one draft where he's a nonfiction writer who writes a novel. And she's really torn. So we have a phone call scheduled to talk about the pros and cons. Writing is a very lonely profession until you're in the rehearsal hall, so having an early sounding board can be very useful."

For those finding their way as young directors, there are some notable grants and professional development programs. Theatre Communications Group offers two: the New Generations Program, which provides a theater with the money to pay a young director to assist for two years, and the NEA/TCG Career Development Program, which includes a $22,500 stipend for six months, during which the recipient may assist, direct his own work, do research, or travel. The Drama League has programs that provide young directors with stipends and housing, or rehearsal space, while they either assist or direct their own projects. The Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab pairs playwrights and directors together to develop scripts over six months; it doesn't involve a stipend but is a good way to meet and work with new writers.

In terms of the classics, Theatre for a New Audience hosts a program called the American Directors Project that gives six to eight young directors the chance to work for several weeks with the voice director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and a company of actors, whom they direct in Shakespeare scenes. Several now prominent people got their start at Theatre for a New Audience, including Julie Taymor and Bartlett Sher, who has since directed "The Light in the Piazza" and "Awake and Sing" for Lincoln Center Theater and "The Barber of Seville" at the Metropolitan Opera.

For directors just starting out in New York, the Lincoln Center Directors Lab — a three-week program, in June, including workshops, readings, roundtable discussions, and studio productions — is a good place to meet other young directors and possible mentors.

In spite of these opportunities, making a career as a freelance director is tough. Artistic directors usually won't hire you if they haven't seen your work, so young directors do well who can moonlight as producers, finding ways to mount the plays they like. "Directing is always a little bit about producing yourself," the dean of the Yale School of Drama, James Bundy, said. "Directors who have an entrepreneurial or producer sensibility and know how to get the work on have a huge leg up."

And, of course, a little chutzpah never hurts. When Ms. MacKinnon was in San Diego, having just dropped out of graduate school, she was directing a play in a parking lot, and, as she recalled, the then artistic director of La Jolla Playhouse, Des McAnuff, "had to go through my rehearsal to get to his car. So I put fliers on his car, and he called me and made a breakfast meeting." Later, she assisted him on "The Who's Tommy" in Toronto, which led to her directing it in Germany.

As in any area of the arts, making a living is another challenge. Ironically, Ms. MacKinnon has found that, as her career advances, she tends to make less money, because she increasingly directs world premieres, which are often on a theater's second stage and therefore pay less. "I'm in this ironic situation where my income goes down as I direct the world premiere as opposed to last year's Off-Broadway hit," she said.

Both for that reason, and because she'd like the chance "to think artistically and professionally in a bigger way," Ms. MacKinnon is increasingly considering the artistic-directorship track. Having an artistic position means being able to rely on a salary and to work in one place, rather than constantly traveling for different six-week jobs. More important, it means the opportunity to hone one's craft by directing a wide range of work. Most of the directors working regularly on Broadway, like Mr. McAnuff, were artistic or associate artistic directors at regional companies for some period of time.

Mr. O'Brien — who, if you haven't heard, directed Tom Stoppard's "The Coast of Utopia" trilogy at Lincoln Center — said he would encourage a young director to leave New York and find a home at a regional theater. Mr. O'Brien became the artistic director of the Old Globe in 1981, and "for the next 20 years, I had the opportunity to literally direct everything," he said. "Quietly, outside of New York, I got all this exposure and experience that very few directors get."

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by Christopher Caltagirone, AMS' "Insights" newsletter
March 2007 issue

Group sales are an important part of most performing arts organizations' earned revenue stream. Many large organizations have group sales managers who work diligently to sell group packages to corporations, seniors, schools and civic organizations. Beyond filling the house, group sales can enhance the experience by offering a chance for attendees to socialize in a comfortable group setting. While group sales can benefit attendees (reduced ticket prices) and the organization (filling seats, generating positive word-of-mouth), many organizations overlook a significant segment of the population for whom small group interactions of four to eight people are a much more common occurrence.

Most performing arts organizations offer group discounts ranging from 10% to 50% off regular ticket prices. A quick glance at several regional theater and performing arts center websites shows that the minimum group size required for a ticket discount falls between 10 and 20 people. Recent research conducted by AMS suggests that arts organizations may be missing out on an opportunity to accommodate smaller groups that fall below the high thresholds of most group sales minimums. In a series of individual depth interviews conducted for a regional theatre company, respondents were asked if they attend performing arts events in groups. Many of the respondents indicated that they do attend performances in groups, and when asked the size of the group, most indicated that it consisted of four to eight people. In addition, a recently completed audience survey in a major metropolitan area showed that nearly a quarter of all respondents attended arts and cultural events in groups of four to nine people, while only 6% attended in groups of 10 or more. This number is significantly lower than the 15 to 20 required by many performing arts organizations to obtain a group sales discount.

In many cases, community organizations and schools are the primary recipients of group discounts. These types of groups are often coordinated well in advance of a performance date, and in many cases are targeted to specific shows or special performances (student matinees). Consider the inevitable scheduling conflicts that arise for most live performing arts attendees, whose schedules are already overbooked. Our surveys continue to affirm that individuals for whom the arts play a major role are more socially active, from the high number of live performances attended during a 12-month period to dining out, attending or participating in sports activities, or going out to the movies. The data indicates that individuals who have high rates of performing arts attendance lead more active lives, making scheduling of multiple activities an ongoing challenge.

In addition to a more active lifestyle, there is evidence to suggest that high frequency arts and cultural attendees are more likely to be subscribers. Our research indicates that more than two-thirds of subscribers to performing arts organizations are married. A significant number of married couples are attending performances by themselves or in a small group with another couple. The probability that they will forgo their subscription and attend through a group discount program is small, as they already receive a sizable discount in ticket price. It is not unreasonable to assume that these couples often coordinate their subscription series with other subscribers as part of their annual purchase. Interviews with subscribers support the fact that they often use their subscription as a planning tool, coordinating other activities around their chosen night of attendance.

Working from the assumption that we are already catering to a portion of small group attendees through subscription series, there remains a potential target for small group incentives or ticket discounts. Single ticket buyers have a tendency to be bargain hunters, seeking out last minute discounts such as half-price or rush tickets, and like subscribers, attend in small groups as part of a social activity. As explained in our last issue of Insights, single ticket buyers, who on average attend less frequently than subscribers, identified shorter buying timeframes and the ability to pick and choose individual events as key components in their purchase decision. Organizations may choose to offer small group incentives or discounts for advance purchases as a way to increase the attendance frequency of single ticket buyers.

In our next issue we'll talk about ways of identifying and cultivating potential group organizers. Until then, we invite you to share your thoughts by e-mailing us at info@ams-online.com.

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March 5, 2007

NEW YORK (Associated Press) -- Maybe it was the umpteenth coke-dealing anthem or soft-porn music video. Perhaps it was the preening antics that some call reminiscent of Stepin Fetchit.

The turning point is hard to pinpoint. But after 30 years of growing popularity, rap music is now struggling with an alarming sales decline and growing criticism from within about the culture's negative effect on society.

Rap insider Chuck Creekmur, who runs the leading Web site Allhiphop.com, says he got a message from a friend recently "asking me to hook her up with some Red Hot Chili Peppers because she said she's through with rap. A lot of people are sick of rap ... the negativity is just over the top now." (Watch how hip-hop can revel in stereotypes -- or highlight injusticeVideo)

The rapper Nas, considered one of the greats, challenged the condition of the art form when he titled his latest album "Hip-Hop is Dead." It's at least ailing, according to recent statistics: Though music sales are down overall, rap sales slid a whopping 21 percent from 2005 to 2006, and for the first time in 12 years no rap album was among the top 10 sellers of the year.

A recent study by the Black Youth Project showed a majority of youth think rap has too many violent images. In a poll of black Americans by The Associated Press and AOL-Black Voices last year, 50 percent of respondents said hip-hop was a negative force in American society.

Nicole Duncan-Smith grew up on rap, worked in the rap industry for years and is married to a hip-hop producer. She still listens to rap, but says it no longer speaks to or for her. She wrote the children's book "I Am Hip-Hop" partly to create something positive about rap for young children, including her 4-year-old daughter.

"I'm not removed from it, but I can't really tell the difference between Young Jeezy and Yung Joc. It's the same dumb stuff to me," says Duncan-Smith, 33. "I can't listen to that nonsense ... I can't listen to another black man talk about you don't come to the 'hood anymore and ghetto revivals ... I'm from the 'hood. How can you tell me you want to revive it? How about you want to change it? Rejuvenate it?"

Hip-hop also seems to be increasingly blamed for a variety of social ills. Studies have attempted to link it to everything from teen drug use to increased sexual activity among young girls.

Even the mayhem that broke out in Las Vegas during last week's NBA All-Star Game was blamed on hip-hoppers. "(NBA Commissioner) David Stern seriously needs to consider moving the event out of the country for the next couple of years in hopes that young, hip-hop hoodlums would find another event to terrorize," columnist Jason Whitlock, who is black, wrote on AOL.

While rap has been in essence pop music for years, and most rap consumers are white, some worry that the black community is suffering from hip-hop -- from the way America perceives blacks to the attitudes and images being adopted by black youth.

But the rapper David Banner derides the growing criticism as blacks joining America's attack on young black men who are only reflecting the crushing problems within their communities. Besides, he says, that's the kind of music America wants to hear.

"Look at the music that gets us popular -- 'Like a Pimp,' " says Banner, naming his hit.

"What makes it so difficult is to know that we need to be doing other things. But the truth is at least us talking about what we're talking about, we can bring certain things to the light," he says. "They want (black artists) to shuck and jive, but they don't want us to tell the real story because they're connected to it."

Criticism of hip-hop is certainly nothing new -- it's as much a part of the culture as the beats and rhymes. Among the early accusations were that rap wasn't true music, its lyrics were too raw, its street message too polarizing. But they rarely came from the youthful audience itself, which was enraptured with genre that defined them as none other could.

"As people within the hip-hop generation get older, I think the criticism is increasing," says author Bakari Kitwana, who is currently part of a lecture tour titled "Does Hip-Hop Hate Women?"

"There was a more of a tendency when we were younger to be more defensive of it," he adds.

During her '90s crusade against rap's habit of degrading women, the late black activist C. Dolores Tucker certainly had few allies within the hip-hop community, or even among young black women. Backed by folks like conservative Republican William Bennett, Tucker was vilified within rap circles.

In retrospect, "many of us weren't listening," says Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting, a professor at Vanderbilt University and author of the new book "Pimps Up, Ho's Down: Hip-Hop's Hold On Young Black Women."

"She was onto something, but most of us said, 'They're not calling me a bitch, they're not talking about me, they're talking about THOSE women.' But then it became clear that, you know what? Those women can be any women."

One rap fan, Bryan Hunt, made the searing documentary "Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes," which debuted on PBS this month. Hunt addresses the biggest criticisms of rap, from its treatment of women to the glorification of the gangsta lifestyle that has become the default posture for many of today's most popular rappers.

"I love hip-hop," Hunt, 36, says in the documentary. "I sometimes feel bad for criticizing hip-hop, but I want to get us men to take a look at ourselves."

Even dances that may seem innocuous are not above the fray. Last summer, as the "Chicken Noodle Soup" song and accompanying dance became a sensation, Baltimore Sun pop critic Rashod D. Ollison mused that the dance -- demonstrated in the video by young people stomping wildly from side to side -- was part of the growing minstrelization of rap music.

"The music, dances and images in the video are clearly reminiscent of the era when pop culture reduced blacks to caricatures: lazy 'coons,' grinning 'pickaninnies,' sexually super-charged 'bucks,' " he wrote.

And then there's the criminal aspect that has long been a part of rap. In the '70s, groups may have rapped about drug dealing and street violence, but rap stars weren't the embodiment of criminals themselves. Today, the most popular and successful rappers boast about who has murdered more foes and rhyme about dealing drugs as breezily as other artists sing about love.

Creekmur says music labels have overfed the public on gangsta rap, obscuring artists who represent more positive and varied aspects of black life, like Talib Kweli, Common and Lupe Fiasco.

"It boils down to a complete lack of balance, and whenever there's a complete lack of balance people are going to reject it, whether it's positive or negative," Creekmur says.

Yet Banner says there's a reason why acts like KRS-One and Public Enemy don't sell anymore. He recalled that even his own fans rebuffed positive songs he made -- like "Cadillac on 22s," about staying away from street life -- in favor of songs like "Like a Pimp."

"The American public had an opportunity to pick what they wanted from David Banner," he says. "I wish America would just be honest. America is sick. ... America loves violence and sex."

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BY MICHAEL SOMMERS, NEWARK STAR-LEDGER STAFF
Thursday, March 08, 2007

NEW YORK -- Not so long ago, after a show ended, performers simply returned onstage to take their bows.

It's not that easy to say goodbye anymore, especially at Broadway musicals. Many curtain calls have evolved into little shows of their own.

Once "Mamma Mia!" concludes, there comes eight minutes more of a "Dancing Queen" reprise featuring the leads sporting new disco duds. Then the entire company segues into a full-out "Waterloo."

The crew at "Monty Python's Spamalot" generates a sing-along to "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life."

The "Tarzan" bunch swings in for bows on synthetic vines. A fast-moving "Jersey Boys" brings on the cast, introduces the band, and whips through an "Oh, What a Night" encore in a speedy three minutes. "The Producers" gang bids ta-ta with a ditty aptly titled "Goodbye!" (See lyrics at right.)

Director Susan Stroman, whose 2000 staging of "The Music Man" bowed out the cast in band uniforms while playing instruments, believes such addenda can be "a natural extension" and that final impressions are crucial.

"The last image an audience takes away is something they really remember," observes Stroman. "So if you can find an idea that somehow sums it all up, that's good. Otherwise, actors should just bow and get off the stage."

Until 1993, when a revival of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" spun off a lengthy "mega-mix" encore of songs, most attractions ended with basic bows. Performers returned in the reverse order of the size of their role or billing, in a sequence briskly staged by the director and/or choreographer.

Curiously, one of the most thrilling curtain calls seen today is the mass movement created for "The Coast of Utopia," a non-musical trilogy. Each of Tom Stoppard's brainy dramas about 19th-century Russian radicals employs the same vast cast, in roles of varying importance.

Associate director Benjamin Klein says the challenge is, "How do you get a 44-member company through their bows in an equitable manner with some elegance and grace?"

Expert at staging Shakespeare and splashy musicals like "Hairspray," director Jack O'Brien devised an epic curtain call for an epic production.

As the lights come up, actors are seen grouped six rows deep at the farthest end of the Beaumont Theater's thrust stage. They walk swiftly across an impressive 54-foot distance toward viewers. Then the first two lines step forward, bow, turn on their heels and return to the back of the group, interweaving through the next two lines, which are already advancing for their bows.

After the key actors reach the front, everybody extends a leg and deeply bows -- in the classic "break-a-leg" attitude -- three more times in unison, toward the center, left, and finally to the right of the auditorium.

"It's the most ornately choreographed curtain call I've ever taken," says Martha Plimpton, who calls the "Utopia" bows an "incredibly cool" experience.

"It's the actors' only opportunity to give our thanks to the audience," she says. "I love to survey the house and look everybody in the eye."

Even more striking is when the cycle is performed on a marathon day. No bows are taken after the first two plays. When the trilogy concludes, the original curtain call template is augmented by another downstage march in three rows. Then the company bends on one knee with heads lowered and a hand over their hearts.

Plimpton notes several colleagues feared the gesture might seem "corny," but the results provoked "a massive emotional experience."

"We could finally break the membrane between actors and audience and express our appreciation for going through this with us for nine hours," says Plimpton. "The roof came off the place. We wept."

"A Chorus Line," also on Broadway, has the most integral curtain call. When the cast finally appears in its gold tuxes, performing "One," audiences applaud. But creator Michael Bennett intended the sequence to comment ironically on how its quirky characters have been uniformly ironed into a chorus line that kicks away forever.

Take a bow

Bows are an ephemeral tradition in western theater some historians date back as far as Roman times. Closing passages in Shakespeare's plays obviously are meant to elicit applause. By the late 18th century, when playhouses assumed their classic form, complete with curtains, actors began formal bows. Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theatre claims British star Edmund Kean introduced the curtain call to America on its stage in the 1820s.

The practice soon became standard. As late as the 1920s, Broadway and West End actors customarily bowed at the conclusion of each act, as well as at the end of the play. Even into the 1960s, an old-school star like Tallulah Bankhead insisted on a call that used a rising curtain to "accidentally" reveal her in a casual pose. (The film "All About Eve" recreates such a moment for Margo Channing.)

When choreographer Rob Ashford put finishing touches on bows for the new musical whodunit "Curtains," he drew from the show-within-the-show's Wild West theme. The dancing sequence features stylized black-and-white rodeo outfits for all. A reprise of the song "Show People," fitted with new lyrics, warns customers not to divulge the mystery's ending.

Ashford forged his concept with the dance arranger and presented it to director Scott Ellis and other creators. With their approval, he rehearsed the bows just prior to technical rehearsals.

"No matter how well-planned you are, teaching it should be the last-minute thing you do," says Ashford.

"It's best to be swimming in the essence of a show when you make them," agrees Stroman. For that reason, Stroman has yet to imagine what the bows for this fall's "Young Frankenstein" might be.

"I'm not that far along yet," she declares.

One more song

Here are the lyrics to the song "Goodbye!," written by Mel Brooks for the curtain call at "The Producers."

Thanks for coming to see our show.
Sad to tell you we got to go.
Grab your hat and head for the door.
In case you didn't notice,
There ain't no more!
If you like our show tell
Ev'ryone but ...
If you think it stinks
Keep your big mouth shut!
We're glad you came but we
have to shout.
Adios, au revoir, wiedersehen,
Ta-ta-ta,
Goodbye ... get lost ... get out!!!

Technorati tags: Broadway Musicals Musical Theatre Movie Musicals Theatre American Theatre

Kids like musicals! They really like them!

I went to see City Youth Players' production of Disney's HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL three times last week at the City Playhouse. It was awesome and my wildly talented daughter played Kelsi Neilson, the nerdy "sawed off Sondheim" (although this term was in the movie, it wasn't used in the stage production for some reason...) who writes Juliet and Romeo, the "winter musicale". She was absolutely fabulous! She delivered the show's best line, "Pianist on stage!", with wonderful nerdy enthusiasm.

It was great to be able to see the show a few times to get a good feel for how they transformed the movie onto the stage. They've added a couple of new songs and kept all the songs from the movie (smart choice). The Saturday night I saw the show there were three 9 or 10 year old boys in sports jerseys sitting behind me, and gosh darn it if they weren't singing along word for word to the songs. I heard an excited voice say "oooh, this is my favorite song" right before "Status Quo", and he then proceeded to sing through the entire song. I swear it brought tears to my eyes! Who says young people don't like musicals? Seriously. It wasn't just young girls stampeding for autographs after the show. The boys were elbowing their way in too. At each show they raffled off a Troy Bolton Basketball jersey and let me tell you that was one hot prize! And the mesmerized look on their faces when Troy does basketball-ography for "Get Your Head In The Game" was priceless.

On stage the show uses some familiar set ups. The opening number uses the Wildcats cheer to get everyone on stage, and talking about winter break. Then we meet Troy and Gabriella telling their "different" versions of how they met over winter break (karaoke versus snowboarding). Hmmm...sounds familiar? "Summer Nights" from GREASE anyone? Nicely done, I must say. Then they flash back to the actual karaoke night, and then back to school.

And there is a number called "Cellular Fusion" where everyone is talking on a cell phone about the scandal of Troy and Gabriella getting callbacks. Hmmmm..."The Telephone Hour" from BYE BYE BIRDIE anyone?

And the tryouts for the "winter musicale" used a slowed down version of "Bop To The Top" sung by the chorus a la "I Hope I Get It" from A CHORUS LINE.

It's like that saying, "there's no such thing as an old joke, just old people. To someone young, every joke is new." Brilliant.

One scene showed a particularly elegant transformation from screen to stage. Near the end of the show Troy is at the basketball playoffs, the auditions are taking place, and Gabriella is at the science decathalon, all at the same time. They bounce back and forth beautifully to show what's going on at the same time. And the use of Jack Scott "The velvet fog of East High" to do announcements between scenes was also genius. It helps everyone know what's going on, and gives time for scene changes. Sweet.

One thing I noticed about the show, that seems to appeal to kids, is that it is a very clearly message-oriented piece. It's like the show has no qualms whatsoever about be a tad "preachy" and teaching a lesson, and the kids love it. It's not a "subtle" message at all (we're all in this together, we're special in our own way). I think perhaps kids enjoy a straightforward message with clear parameters. Whodathunkit!

Way to go guys -- Slam Dunk Disney! And Nothin' But Net City Youth Players!

Technorati tags: Broadway Musicals Musical Theatre Movie Musicals Theatre American Theatre

Who knew?

I can't tell you how disappointed I was when I saw the movie musical XANADU in the movie theatre in 1980.

I was a huge Gene Kelly fan and a huge Olivia Newton-John fan! I had all the sheet music for her hits -- "Have You Never Been Mellow", "Please Mr. Please" -- and I even did a gym floor routine to Gene Kelly's "Broadway Melody" number from SINGIN' IN THE RAIN.

I remember practicing in the basement with the THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT record playing on my portable record player (thank goodness there wasn't YouTube back then!).

Maybe I was expecting too much but alas, the movie just didn't do it for me. I liked the songs well enough, but somehow it just didn't...well it just didn't...

However I am willing to put that all aside and greet the new stage version of said film with great enthusiasm and hope. After all, Kerry Butler is starring in it!

And hey, maybe if I went back and saw the film again I would react differently (hint, hint).

According to this article from Broadwayworld.com:

Producers Robert Ahrens, Tara Smith and Brian Swibel have announced that Kerry Butler will star as Kira in the new production of the musical XANADU. The production will be the first musical of the new Broadway season opening on Tuesday, June 26th with previews starting on May 23rd.

XANADU will be presented at the Helen Hayes Theatre, 240 West 44th Street.

Douglas Carter