ghost light

Things Have Changed

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 00:57:00 +0000

I've been contemplating shutting down ghost light. Nothing new in that. I've considered shutting it down almost every year (and sometimes every month) since I started it. I've thought about creating a new blog, fresh start and all that. Somehow that doesn't feel right either. I've always felt that what I posted here I should have to live with, a log of past failures and attempts to articulate or wave furiously at something. I've been working on a website for myself and maybe once it's finished I'll have a better sense of what's going on here. Or maybe it's better to have no sense of what's going on here. Maybe that's always been the point. Having a space to say, I don't know what's going on, but look at this.

Apparently others are experiencing similar impulses. Laura Axelrod is rethinking the focus of Gasp in a dog-rolling-in-new-smells post about moving forward (How's that? I didn't even mention the p-word.) and George Hunka calls flatline on the theater blogosphere. He's probably right. Blogging is about the conversation and now it's harder to follow the conversation because it crosses platforms, even more difficult to be part of it. There is always an in and an out; the theater blogosphere was no exception (even irl it's unavoidable). Twitter and Facebook make exclusion structural, the function of a privacy setting. Ouch. Don't get me wrong, Twitter and Facebook are great tools. Lots of noise obviously, but I have a good many conversations on both. Friends post things that collapse the physical distance between us in surprising ways. Thanks to one particularly active, politically vocal friend, my newsfeed operates as my research assistant gathering material for the trilogy of plays I'm writing. For all that, I'm closer to deleting my Facebook account. The sponsored ads infuriate me. I feel my love crack a little more each day.

Even the Web feels broken.

These things are related. In the early days, blogging was a phenomenon that few people understood. Marketers and advertisers were stumped by Web 2.0 and the rise of the blogosphere. How do you monetize it? How do you distribute content? How do you capture eyeballs? No one has figured it out yet. Sponsored ads are just one way to go. You can't delete them from your stupid Facebook feed. Anyone can buy a sponsored ad, democratization in its most convoluted sense (also check out Broken On Purpose: Why Getting It Wrong Pays More Than Getting It Right.) If you want the eyeballs...you got to have the $$$. Facebook, like television, is a delivery system. The product is you. We know that. And we don't. It still surprises me to see how many people click on ads or "like" products or evil big box stores, do so willingly and watch their feed (and mine) fill up with ads.

I digress.

The theater blogosphere isn't dying. It's reconfiguring. Early theater bloggers were the edge because it was all so new. It was a frontier with many of the frontier's gunslinging attributes. Now the late adopters and institutions have taken over that space. Fewer flame wars, more institutional ~~poaching and~~ ~~controlling the flow of our thinking and conversation~~...er...facilitating our conversation. I also realize there are good folks with good intentions and they've done/are doing good things, many already mentioned by Laura and George: HowlRound, 2amt and Culturebot (my favorite). Curation has claimed the linking and contextualizing aspect of blogging. Time to move on and claim a new space. As irl, the context for performance and theater is changing, so too for writing and thinking about these things in the blogosphere.

The space to think, to publicly claim a space to think and interact, to generate community free of product placement and marketing, free of commodification is still necessary, maybe even more so than six years ago. Blogging is still a good vehicle for these kinds of interactions and the ability to think and engage critically about anything is even more essential.

So ghost light.

One of the things I've loved doing on ghost light is publishing my source material. I've had to stop because my blog doesn't fly under the radar any more and unfortunately, it's too easy and tempting for others to lift content and use it without my permission. I've thought that what I published was fairly obscure and it's purpose oblique enough that I could share material, but it's just not wise to continue to put it out there. This has been a hard decision, but since summer I've been posting all source material on private blogs. It's now available by invitation only. I may occasionally share some little nugget on ghost light, but never again to the extent I have in the past.

My aspiration for this blog has always been to write criticism and I've defaulted to posting source material because it's just easier (the list of excuses is long and unsurprising). Lately, I've been reading the inimitable Ming-Zhu Hii's posts and they've been inspiring me in many ways - as calls to arms, sustenance and contemplations. It's time to put the light back on. What will I use this space for? More exploration of performance and process, more deeply considered writing. There will still be space for musical obsessions. No doubt.

Wish List: An Artisitc Home, A Company

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 22:09:00 +0000

I keep coming back to this idea of an artistic home and a theater company. I wrestle with it. I disengage. I let it go. I try to accept my role as an individual artist. But the idea of a home and/or a company is a virus I can't shake. I think about letting it all go. Giving up theater. Giving up writing plays. Maybe giving up writing. I imagine a scenario where that works for me. It doesn't quite fit with who I am. Or maybe how I've come to think of myself.

So I'm navigating the territory. Finding an artistic home may involve moving elsewhere. Maybe as someone suggested: I'm in the wrong place. Maybe that's what I need to accept. I've got a list of potential places to move. I'm rethinking my ideas of theater company, artistic home and how to make work. Opening up the field of possibilities.

Current Music Obsession

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 21:47:00 +0000

Oh, John Prine. This is one of my favorites. I go through stages where I play it endlessly. I'm in one of those stages right now.

Why Write for the Theater? Part 2.

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 21:35:00 +0000

It turns out the question is not why write for theater.

The question is why theater? Why am I making theater? Am I making theater?

Why is it theater?

Does it need to be theater?

You can't assume these things.

You can't just assume that because you're a playwright that you're actually writing a play or that whatever it is you're writing is theater. Or if you're a director that what you make is theater. Or if you're a theater company that what you produce is theater. Maybe it isn't.

It has to be tested.

You test it in the studio. You test it by letting go of your assumptions and expectations. You test it by being open to the question. By interrogating it rigorously. By questioning your motives. By allowing others to question your motives and assumptions. You test it with the audience. Perhaps not the fairest test.

Where is the theater?

To find it you have to be receptive. To find it, you sometimes have to look the other way and let it come to you.

Sometimes you have to say "fuck it" and leap.

5 Things: Maker Edition

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:33:00 +0000

On Writing and Not Writing: An Interview with Joanna Laurens by Hannah Silva.

It Is Broke, We Should Probably Fix It: The Non-Profit Model and the Arts by Alexis Clements. Pretty self-explanatory. Clements offers an insightful explication of The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex and discusses how the findings apply to arts organizations.

What You See by Bill Birkson.

How Lester Bangs Taught Me To Read by Maria Bustillos. (Lester inspired my thesis, among other things.)

Women in Downtown Theatre: Producing Your Own Work. Young Jean Lee.

Social Practice and Performance by Andy Horwitz.

Bonus:

Not Fade Away: On Living, Dying and the Digital Afterlife by Maria Bustillos.

Course On Midwest Culture: The Paradox of Heartland Rock by Kenyon Gradert.

mapping the nightmare by M. John Harrison.

Mellencamp's cover of Born in the USA is heavily edited (for whatever reason).

What's missing:
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said son if it was up to me
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said son, don't you understand

I had a brother at Khe Sahn
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone

He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go

Lyrics here.

Big List: It's Really Big Edition

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 20:11:00 +0000

Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenberger. Porchlight Theatre Company. Closes September 8.

Precious Little by Madeline George. Shotgun Players. Through September 16.

San Francisco Fringe Festival 2012. Exit Theatre. Through September 16.

Port Out, Starboard Home by Sheila Callaghan. Fool's Fury. September 10 through 23.

The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity by Kristoffer Diaz. Aurora Theatre Company. Through September 30.

Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odetts. The Imaginists. Through September 22.

Dogsbody by Erik Ehn. Intersection for the Arts September 20 - 22.

Fresh From the Oven by Amara Tabor Smith. Counterpulse (off site performance). September 22.
Invasion by Jonas Hassen Khemiri. Crowded Fire. Through September 29.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Cal Shakes. September 19 through October 14.

Collapse by Allison Moore. Renegade Theatre Experiment. Through September 29.

Turbulence (a dance about the economy) by Keith Hennessy/Circo Zero. YBCA. September 27 through 29.

Homo File by Seth Eisen & FML by Xandra Ibarra. Counterpulse. September 27 through 29.

Assassins by Stephen Sondheim & John Weidman. Shotgun Players. September 26 through October 28.

Einstein on the Beach by Robert Wilson & Philip Glass. Cal Performances. October 26 through 28.

Fran Leibowitz. Cal Performances. November 15.

whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir by Eve Sussman. SFMOMA. September 27 through 30.

Cindy Sherman. SFMOMA through October 8.

Field Conditions. SFMOMA. Through January 6.

TBA Festival 2012. Portland Institute of Contemporary Art. Through September 16.

Biography of Physical Sensation adapted by Jon Becraft & Kelli Fitzgibbon (original concept by Rubber Rep). Baby Horse Theatre. September 21 - 22, 28 - 29.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Wooster Group. October 24 through November 11.
Trojan Women (after Euripides). SITI Company. November 28 through December 2.

Why Write for the Theater?

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 21:42:00 +0000

That's the question.

Why continue writing plays.

The grim conclusion that is that there is no reason to continue.

At best or worst, I can't decide which, I'm writing the 21st century equivalent of closet theater.

Except I know there's an audience out there.

Maybe it's a closet theater audience.

Or maybe it isn't.

Or maybe it's time for a change of form.

Or maybe it's time to let it all go and take up yarn bombing.

Or maybe that's the wrong question.

Why write plays.

Maybe the question is where is the theater?

Where is the theater I'm writing for?

It doesn't exist here.

Can't exist here.

Where?

RE/Write: Care of Trees, Etcetera

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 20:16:00 +0000

It's been a strange month.

My hard drive failed. I lost three scenes that I'd spent many hours writing and refining. I hadn't backed up my work. Now there's a backup plan. Literally. This week I'll see how much of those scenes I can recover from my own memory. I'm looking forward to getting a first draft of this new play (no title yet).

I started rewriting Care of Trees. I'm workshopping it with a playwright/mentor. My sense was it only needed a few tweaks. Turns out it's not exactly that simple. I've cut the first 25 pages down to 6. There's probably 6 more pages to salvage from the remaining script. It's pretty sobering. I have no idea what it is or where it's going. But the remaining pages are much better, more essential, a distillation of my original intention. It needs to bake some more.

Devised work is on hold. I don't want to be in the studio. There would be a lot of lying on the floor staring at the ceiling. There's something to be said for that, but not at $15 to $30 an hour. Sorting out how to move forward with this work. How to work, with whom to work, and where. It's all open.

It occurred to me yesterday that the loss of the hard drive is somehow symbolic. It feels like everything is being rewritten. There's been a lot of loss this month. A stripping down. I've finally found zero. And pretty much everything else on this list.

To Change Art, Destroy Ego. Ben Vautier, 1965.

Charles Hazlewood: Trusting the Ensemble

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 19:40:00 +0000

Night Work

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 09:40:00 +0000

I do not trust people who don't love themselves and yet tell me, 'I love you.' There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt. ― Maya Angelou

Trust builds over time. There's a tipping point that's reached or maybe for some it's a gut reaction. We come to know when we can trust someone and instinctively, we also know when we can no longer trust them. In the studio, trust changes the frequency in the room. When it's gone, things stop moving. Shut down. The rift is felt.

Mistrust is a slow acting poison.

There's an impulse to turn inward. To turn against your self. Deny your instincts and your experience. To make excuses. To explain away.

But the body doesn't lie.

We know when we're not being dealt with honestly. When confirmation comes, it's almost a relief. Oh. Right. My instincts were on target. All the signs were there. There's a cold clarity. After.

When trust is violated the effect is total. The damage may be irreparable.

Take very good care.

We'll Look for You and We'll Miss You

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 22:29:00 +0000

The Requirement by Wendell Berry

RIP: Jason Noble & J.M. Wood, III.

We Have Always Dreamed Of A Theater Company

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 11:10:00 +0000

I've been working on a couple of pieces. Going into the rehearsal studio and talking, sharing ideas and devising. It's been productive and good to be moving words and ideas around. Thinking with the body. Not being alone in a room or together alone in a cafe. It's been a long time.

Sometimes I feel rusty and removed. An outsider. I tell myself it's okay. It's a new way of not knowing. It's an opportunity to try out new ways of working that I've been thinking about for awhile. I can test new theories. I can work with new people, something I feel more and more compelled to do.

I'm trying not to indulge in nostalgia. I hate nostalgia. I'm allowing it in the room and studying it as a material. Mostly, I'm looking at the theater, its mechanics. How it's made. How its individual components operate, what they create together and why. This is stupid and profound work. My gut tells me it's going in the right direction.

In looking at the theater I'm confronted with my own personal baggage about the theater. I'm looking at my failures and successes, at my losses and aspirations. What I hate about it and what I love. It ain't pretty. No fun. I trust I will move through it. I've left the theater before. The last time was to go to graduate school. So it was kind of lateral move, on the order of parking a car. I parked myself in grad school and I'm realizing in rehearsal that I parked a lot of other things as well. They're slamming me relentlessly. These rehearsals bring up feelings of mourning and loss. There's a need to justify. It's difficult to be in the room with this. The challenge is to let it move through me and not hang on to it. To not dramatize it or act out. I'm not always successful. I feel like I'm in it alone and I am.

This work is hard without a theater company. To be honest, this kind of work would be hard with a theater company. All the emotion and vulnerability. The messiness of it all. The difference is that we'd be invested in learning how to work and be together as a company and as an ensemble. It would have its own challenges and frustrations. It wouldn't mean getting along always and agreeing about everything. But it would mean that we'd consciously made a decision to be together, to be in the room with each other. The decision to work exclusively as an ensemble becomes an engine that feeds the work and the performance, the artists and the audience as well. When a company has that special something, that freaky mojo, you feel it, it spills out on the stage, it draws you in.

I remind myself of something Anne Bogart says which I posted here in 2007.

Look around you right now and see who is there. These particular people around you at present are the key. They are your collaborators for now. They will serve as mirror, engine, necessary resistance, and your inspiration. They are your material and your means. With them, you begin to generate work. Without them, you are nothing. In the process of working with these people in your present circumstance, you will meet other people, and the circle around you will expand, alter, and redefine itself again and again. The temptation to wait until the perfect situation and the right people are in place before you make your best effort is simply avoidance. Do not wait. Your dedication to the given circumstances, right now, will eventually bring you closer to others who share your own belief and commitment. If you do not commit fully to the people with you now, like-minded others will never show up. Learn to love, admire, respect, and appreciate the people with whom you work. These colleagues, partners, and coworkers provide the necessary keys to your own development and growth. An attitude of respect will prevent the specter of neediness from raising its ugly head. Neediness is never attractive and rarely productive. - Anne Bogart, And Then, You Act

Yeah. That. What she said.

It's time to let go. The lesson repeats itself. Manifests in new ways. I set out nine years ago with the advice to stop trying to give people something they didn't want. It's time to think about what I want. Time to move on. Time to move forward, to let go of the past, to trust the process and know that my investment here is making the next step possible whatever and wherever it may be. It's enough.

Yesterday Was HST's Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 06:35:00 +0000

I had big plans yesterday for a long post in tribute to Hunter S. Thomspon. But time got away from me for reasons beyond my control...

I started reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on Tuesday night. Reading JR for #OccupyGaddis isn't challenge enough. I've got to read both at the same time. I couldn't tell you how many times I've read F&L, I've lost count. Maybe I should pull the typewriter out of the closet and type the whole thing out. As an exercise. But I'm not much of a typewriter person. Our frequencies are not compatible.

Big List: What I'm Doing On My Summer Vacation Edition

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 19:43:00 +0000

Truffaldino Says No! by Ken Slattery. Shotgun Players. Through July 22 @ the Ashby Stage.
Transfiguration: Uncovering the Hidden by Pak Han @ Ictus Gallery through August 17.
Sam Shepard Festival. Stanford Summer Theater. They're doing Curse of the Starving Class which, alongside True West and Tooth of Crime, is one of my favorite Shepard plays.
Enron by Lucy Prebble. OpenTab Productions. July 13 through August 17 @ The Exit. They're promising life-size puppets and velociraptors. How can you go wrong?
Marat Sade by Peter Weiss. Thrill Peddlers. July 13 through July 29 @ Brava Theater Center.
Bay Area Playwright's Festival. Playwright's Foundation.Weekends, July 20 - July 29 @ Thick House.
The Critic As Artist by Oscar Wilde. August 14 @ SFAI. 26th Annual Arts Criticism Conference.
Occupy Bay Area @ YBCA through October 14.

As is always the case, I feel like I'm leaving things off the list. But it's a pretty good list, no? And don't worry: I've got you in my sites TBA Festival 2012. Oh take a look at this list! Ant Hampton. Tim Etchells. Big Art Group. Gob Squad. Christeene, Miguel Gutierrez, Keith Hennessy. Toshiki Okada & cheltfisch. Laurie Anderson. Insane. It makes me want to pack up and move to Portland right now.

Actors Acting #2

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 19:09:00 +0000

Reggie Watts. PopTech 2011. Watch him work.

Thank you, JW.

Beginning #4: Note to Self

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 18:17:00 +0000

So many ways to begin. It's not about finding THE right way. It's not about mechanics or routines. Most likely these are known. As for finding the start of a new piece, that's easy. You are flush with beginnings; endings too. The challenge is more subtle. More like parsing Rummy's unknown unknowns.

Find zero. Or rather, create the conditions approximating zero. Imagine you could start from zero. Where is the place of "as if" you could start from zero? It's tricky when you think about it. Zero is different every time. You are different every time. The material, the conditions, the context - all changed. Forget last year's successes. Forget past failures (there will be new ones). Forget frustrations. Careful of distractions (there are so many). Don't allow others to set your agenda. Ignore the buzz. Modulate the signal to noise ratio. Zero is the balance.

Do these things now:
Find your constants.

Be simple.

Be stupid.

Allow more blank space. (This is not even an approximation.)

Humble yourself before the work.

Listen.

Listen some more.

Shut up.

Show up. Be present. Regardless.

Pay attention to frequencies.

Where is the interest?

Who really wants to play?

Let your collaborators reveal themselves.

Accept invitations.

Practice forgiveness. Set the timer. Try 5 minutes. Press start and forgive everyone for five minutes. Let it go. Set the timer again. Try 5 minutes. Press start and forgive yourself for five minutes. Continue in this manner increasing the duration until the timer is no longer necessary.

Surrender.

Report back.

Women in Theatre Study (Australia Council for the Arts) Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:46:00 +0000

The Australia Council for the Arts released a study called Women in Theatre (WIT) earlier this week. Given the response to the Guthrie's 2012-2013 season, it seems apropos to at least highlight some of the takeaways from the report. I'll try to keep my editorial comments to a minimum (saving it for another post). I need to get these things in front of me, so that I can start to articulate my thoughts. For those who would like to read the study without my filter and truncations, you can read or download the study or click on the link below.
Women in Theatre

Executive Summary
The "WIT" Report was commissioned in July 2011 by Australia Council for the Arts to "bring the research of women in creative leadership in Australia up to present day, and provide a basis for the sector to discuss" the findings and "reach some agreement on some strategies to address the situation( " 4). It also presents "quantitative and qualitative information on the continuing gender disparities" and identifies "structural barriers and potential levers for addressing entrenched inequities (4).

Some Findings: Analysis of Major Theatre Performing Arts companies (MPA's) revealed a "significant variability of women as playwrights/writers and directors from year to year." The study notes a pattern of good years v. bad years for women. MPA companies show "30% - 40% of productions have a woman in a creative leadership role" with the proportion lower than 30% in 2008 and 2010. Analysis of Theatre Board Key Organisations (TBKO's) shows that there is a significantly higher representation of women in key creative roles of writer/playwright and director," TBKO's are not "gender-neutral." While 52% of productions have "at least one woman in a key creative role," it was observed that female writers are "somewhat more likely" to be paired with female directors (4).

The report states that in both kinds of companies, there appears that no progress towards equality has been made "over the decade since 2001" and that there is "evidence that the situation for women in creative leadership" deteriorated during that time (5).

Anti-discrimination and affirmative action policies in place for years have not led to significant progress, thus the report rightly assumes that there are "no simple solutions to the disparities" or that policies put in place in the past will "create significant inroads" w/r/t the problem.

Three issues need to be addressed:

the perception gap on the current state of parity
the need to balance family and career commitments
the lack of sustained organizational commitment and action

Calls for three interrelated strategies for addressing the issues:

Information - suggests a systematic approach to quantifying progress - a score card approach to track and monitor advances made in each sector (MPA's & TBKO's I'm presuming).
Accountability - companies adherence to "best practice gender parity objectives" as set by company boards and senior management and included as part of each year's annual report.
Vigilance- Individuals take responsibility for the integrity of their decision-making process and of those around them.

The report then goes on to review the progress to date. I'm not going to go into much detail here. The basic idea is this: In the 30 years (since 1983) that "concerted efforts to level the gender playing field" have been made, women have moved into leadership roles in politics and many industries, but leadership in creative industries has remained elusive. Women's minority presence in positions of power and influence may be a sign that there is a shift in gender imbalances or they may indicate a more incremental change and a "continuing differentiation and segregation between 'women's work' and 'men's work'" (8).

Those interviewed acknowledge the presence of gender inequality, but also emphasized that "disparities in opportunities and appointments" are even more slight for members of other "culturally diverse categories."

The review discusses equal opportunity strategies developed within larger subsidized arts organizations beginning in 1984 including making gender equity part of the criteria for assessing grant applications and requiring major orgs to include a report in their annual grant application on their progress towards equal opportunity. Strategies continued to be pursued through the 1990s, but findings indicate that the issue of gender equality lost ground as a policy priority in the arts until December 2009. The announcement of Company B Belvoir's 2010 season and the accompanying and picture of the playwrights - 1 woman and 11 men - caused a "storm in the media and blogosphere" (15). Note: You can read more about the Company B Belvoir story here, here, here, and here.

Women directors and playwrights mobilized in response to the Company B Belvoir controversy forming the Australian Women Directors Alliance and Australian Women Playwrights Online. Women theater makers also launched a series of events to discuss and debate the issues including a lecture panel, forums and roundtables for Directors and playwrights, and the commissioning of the current report.

Me here. Editorializing.
There's no reason these sorts of things couldn't happen here in the U.S. given the profile of the Guthrie season and Joe Dowling's response. It's great that #2amt was hopping today with discussion, but it would be nice to see action taken locally and nationally. The study acknowledges social networking as a tool for bringing attention to important issues, it's also right in pointing out that high profile issues can vanish when another hot button topic comes along. The Internet gives "the illusion that something is being done about an issue" because people are debating, but the discussion could be "masking the continuation of the status quo" (42).

And back to the study...

Perspectives from the Field
The study interviewed 44 people including playwrights, artistic directors, directors, dramaturgs, producers, an academic, a blogger, a designer, and a member of the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA). Their responses comprise the bulk of the study.

The boy's club definitely exists.
Men have more access to informal mentoring than women.
Media romanticize and mythologize certain names and a certain level of media regard is needed for companies to feel confident that audiences will support the productions. (This becomes a self-perpetuating model of promotion.)
There is popular perception in the arts and in the popular imagination that only men, not women can be 'geniuses.'
Women's work isn't seen to generate the same kind of buzz that young men's work does.
Women directors aren't taken seriously until they're over 35.
Middle-aged women find it hard to get work because the makers, media and audiences are enthralled by the new. New = young.
Difficult to get away from gender-based generalizations w/r/t the kind of work men and women make, how makers present themselves, leadership styles, etc.
These generalizations are sometimes used to rationalize the perpetuation of gender differences.
Barrier to women's career success often due to difficulty finding enough work to build a track record early in their career and to create a sustainable level of momentum towards career success.
Freelance work is a young person's game.
Women over-represented in supportive, nurturing, behind-the-scenes roles - ie. stage managers.
Difficult to have a work/life balance.
You have to keep working. Intensive creative model is favored over other creative modes, such as longer term gestation.
Have to stay visible and keep the momentum going. Women's career unavoidably interrupted when they have children. Perception that if you stop and have children, you'll have to start all over again.
It's difficult for both men and women with over 10 years in their field to balance work and family life. "Theatre is inherently unfriendly to families."
Because employment for both men and women is scarce, people with children aren't likely to speak up if they need more support than artists without children.
Women reluctant to even discuss their families because it might be a disadvantage to their careers.

Me again:
I'm including a link to Writ Large, a study conducted by the Arts Council of England that looks at new writing between 2003 and 2009 and cited in the WIT study. Writ Large notes that the "increased prominence of women's writing since the 1980's has not been sustained" and that part of the issue may be the "critical hostility to women's writing often evidenced in the press" (qtd in WIT 31).

What needs to Change?

More development opportunities and mentoring
Find balance between nurturing early career artists and supporting mid-career artists. Early development is wasted without follow through in later years.
Playwrights need opportunities to travel and see work overseas.
Perception that in the past there were more residencies, commissions, and informal salons.
More Associate Director positions to develop next generation of Artistic Directors.
Family friendly work practices.
Status quo is positively enforced daily, so we need to fight our socialization. Men have no vested interest in doing that, although the study found examples of men whose values and behavior did reflect a responsibility w/r/t equity.
Diversity is the real issue. Opportunities are scarce for women, but are even more so for members of other equity target groups. The findings are pretty grim here. The idea being that if women can't get parity, there is little hope in addressing other forms of social and cultural discrimination.

Action Plans
This section cites a survey of over 1200 members of the Australian business community concerning attitudes about gender parity. Three issues continue to play a role in establishing gender parity.

Perception gaps w/r/t the current state of gender parity make it difficult to address the disparity. Men were also twice as likely as women to feel that women had an equal chance for promotion to senior leadership roles. 48% of the men interviewed agreed that achieving gender parity should be a priority. Since men are more likely to be in key decision making roles, it's harder for organizations to effectively address gender disparities.
Balancing family and career. Women are more likely to support their partner's career by working from home, relocating, or turning down job opportunities. Women are twice as likely to follow a flexible career path or take a leave of absence. They are three times more likely to work part time.
Organizations need to show sustained commitment and action on gender parity.

What works?
I'm only including a partial list.

Visible monitoring of progress in gender diversity programs by CEO & executive team.
Skill-building programs aimed directly at women
Addressing indicators of a company's performance in hiring, retaining and promoting women.
Support programs and facilities to help balance work and family life.

What doesn't?
Again, this is only a partial list.

Gender quotas in hiring, retaining, promoting or developing women.
Requirements for at least one female candidate to be in each promotion pool.
Programs to encourage female networking and role models.

The study then recommends three inter-related strategies for dealing with gender disparity.

Information. Establishing a systematic approach to compiling gender parity indicators so progress can be monitored and tracked. Developing information and research alliances - networks of people interested in promoting the issue of women and creative leadership. A way to share information and research, including a way of standardizing how data is collected so a reliable information base can be maintained.
Accountability. In Australia, there is pressure on large corporations to address gender diversity and there is belief this will provide impetus for theater orgs to do the same. There are also policies in place via governance boards and the Australian Securities Exchange that require corps to adopt and disclose their diversity policy. The policy must demonstrate measurable objectives w/r/t gender and corps are required to disclose this information in their annual reports. The study asks if this level of accountability is required in the corporate world, why shouldn't it be required in the theater sector?
Vigilance. The study advocates for examining why "the ideologies that situate the white, abled, middle class male as the normative consciousness and casts everyone else as Other." Many of the women interviewed felt that there needed to be "an active process exploration and dialogue." Since we all have unconscious biases and assumptions, it's the responsibility of individuals to become aware of and to examine their own set of biases and how they operate in the world.

There you have it. I highly recommend reading the whole study. It's a good start to a complex set of issues and should make for good discussion.

Actors Acting #1

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 16:43:00 +0000

The State of Our World

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:19:00 +0000

h/t Shelley Carter

It is astonishing how few people, even among those working in the theater, realize that the problems of Broadway have been accumulating for decades, that they are built, in fact, into the system. The problems are not going to be solved by passing new laws or repealing old ones, by increasing or lowering ticket prices, by passing out more free tickets to young people, by regulating ticket distribution more closely or by removing restrictions, by curbing labor unions or silencing the critics, or by the myriad schemes proposed to lure more people into the theater.

Some of these actions may help, but the basic problem will remain. The difference between the costs and income is so great that only a few plays with very long runs can succeed. The profits from these may more than compensate for the great numbers of plays that lose money. But it is hard - and it is going to get harder - for new American plays, especially serious works, to get a hearing.

No amount of money can start a revolutionary theater. Every group that has set out to make major innovations in the art of the theater has started with minimal financial resources. The main assets have been determination and a willingness to starve if necessary.

I have been speaking so far only of justice, which has nothing to do with art. A more important objection to poverty and instability is that they are not particularly helpful to the development of an artist. There is no home for artists in the theater in America. I am not speaking of the fact that few actors can settle down in a house, raise a family, and grow a lawn. Actors have always been vagabonds, vagrants, and masterless men. When I speak of a home, I mean a place where playwrights, actors, directors, and designers can work together for a lifetime, each contributing to the growth of others and of the theater. A few theaters in Europe have achieved this kind of stability. None has yet in America. - Jack Poggi, Theatre in America: The Impact of Economic Forces, 1870 - 1967

Group Theatre Members at Brookfield Theater Center, summer, 1934

5 Things: We've Got Some Catching Up To Do Edition

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 07:21:00 +0000

More than five things. Because it's been so long and so much is on my mind and to counter-act the inertia.

Inertia. Oh it's so hard to get something moving once it has stopped. I'm working on some new things. It's a slow process just now.

I'm looking for countries I might move to with my family. You know, it's election year and it always freaks me out and the freak has started earlier this year. Last week someone suggested Dubai. Yeah. Maybe they were joking. Hard to tell these days, isn't it?

Post-Dramatic Stress Disorder.

Idealistic playwrights who take issue with our occasional anti-playwright attitude should perhaps take note of the fact our issue is less with the fact you wrote something as it is the fact you wrote something un-questioningly for mainstream theater production, the same beast so many playwrights find fault with while never stepping back to think critically about whether the very faults they find with the production model (NPD hell, anyone?) are not informed by a set of ideological assumptions that likewise inform the very aesthetic practices they present onstage.

I just want to record that and play it over and over again until it strips every last nerve. Actually, I want to write this on the wall in my studio because it's nice to have an affirmation. Stay tuned...

Playwrights Are Not Writers.

From Francis Bacon to Hobbes to Turning: George Dyson on the History of Bits. And then there's this list.

NYT Critic Watch. It's fun to read the reviews and rate the critics. It kind of affirms the status of the NYT as cultural arbiter, but I won't beat that dead horse. It's in the name of research, so give it a try.

Print Culture 101: A Cheat Sheet and Syllabus. Where are we going with this? Trust me. I don't know.

Top 10 Scenes in Literature to Bring You Terrorsleep: Part 1 & Part 2 because it serendipitously mentions the name Gerald, I like the word terrorsleep, and I've read a few of the books listed. I highly recommend Blood Meridian and As I Lay Dying.

Bird Deconstruction

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:19:00 +0000

This is a bird.

I wish I had gotten a better picture, but it was lying in the parking lot of a strip mall, it was night time, a car was coming at me while I snapped the picture and I had to watch out for my kids.

So extenuating circumstances.

I've tried to punch it up as best as I could. But I can't fix the blur.

How incredibly flat it is. How tenuously held together. All hierarchy abolished. The shape, form, essence of bird.

Flightless.

Big List: New Year's Edition

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:08:00 +0000

Sunset Cloud Near 280.

Happy New Year. The first week of 2012 was a bit up and down for me to be honest, but the year is young, no?

I know.

It's been awhile.

If there's anything the internet abhors it's silence or absence.

Emptiness and absence are challenging to document. I'm not talking about writer's block. It's not that I have nothing to say or write about.

I've only been silent here.

Absent here.

Off the Cupertino Footbridge

I've been reconsidering my approach to this blog. How I want to proceed. I've made a few rules for myself and it would be easy to violate them. Easy to be obsessive about posting videos and music links. And those are an important part of the DNA of this blog (because so much of what I do is informed by film, music, and random elements that come from unpredictable sources). It seems natural and inevitable that I should share them in some way. I'm exploring other ways to curate this information. Pinterest. Tumblr. Then there's the constant stream on Facebook and Twitter. Each has it's own value.

Sharing source material represents one particular slice of the pie. It feels necessary to figure out how to articulate other elements of how I work and what inspires or interests me. So this is the year for playing around with that.

In the meantime. Let me ease back into blogging by starting off with a Big List.

Period of Adjustment by Tennessee Williams @ SF Playhouse (SF). Through Jan 14.

Nameless Forest by Dean Moss @ YBCA (SF). January 19 through 21.

Get Lucky: The Culture of Chance @ SomArts (SF). Through January 26.

Future Motive Power by Mugwumpin @ The Old Mint (SF). January 26 through 29.

Kamla by Vijay Tendulkar @ Cubberly Theater (Palo Alto). February 5 through 11.

Francesca Woodman @ SF MOMA through February 20.

Titus Andronicus by Will the Thrilla Shakespeare @ Impact Theater (Berkeley). February 23 - March 31.

Far Flung:
Sontag: Reborn by The Builder's Association @ the Public (NYC/Under the Radar Festival). January 4 through 15.

Bob by Siti Company (a solo performance featuring Will Bond) @ New York Live Arts. January 19 through 29. I'd love a chance to see this again.

Gob Squad's Kitchen: You've Never Had It So Good by Gob Squad @ the Public. January 19 through February 5.

We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South-West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915 by Jackie Sibblies Drury @ Victory Gardens Biograph Theater (Chicago). March 30 through April 29.

Current Music Obsession

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:54:00 +0000

I don't even say late night because it's continual. And yah, I promised no videos but I think rules can be bent especially when it comes to really really intense music obsessions or any sort of intense obsession for that matter. Two reasons I'm obsessing about this music: I love Velvet Underground and it also reminds me of music I heard in a bar in Prague and have been trying to find. It was a combination of surf and Ennio Morricone served up with a psychedelic vibe. I haven't found the exact thing, but there are a few songs in this Dean and Britta set that come close. Apologies for the big files, but I'm loving how it looks on the blog. Somehow makes the music more intense, eh?

Dean and Britta played the song set at TBA11 this year, but I missed them. Would have loved to seen them live with Andy's screen tests.

Werner Herzog: The Ecstasy of Truth

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:47:00 +0000

Think again...

noreply@blogger.com (E. Hunter Spreen) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:02:00 +0000

Against Nostalgia by Mike Daisey.

I Interview Playwrights Part 389: Taylor Mac. (Adam Szymkowicz)

Today, my son plans to construct a larger than scale memorial to Steve on our Minecraft server (there was talk of making it out of blue and black wool). Steve will stand alongside Cookie Monster (there's a portal to the aether in his head) and giant-size replicas of my son and his friends' avatars. Play resumes.