• Are incredibly effective portals for organizations wanting to deepen connections with existing audiences;
• Encourage rapid exchange of visual information – ideal for artists and performers and more flexible than traditional print media.
• Most decisions about arts participation are ‘social’ activities. The social networks of the key decision-makers (the folks that come up with the idea, find the event, invite friends and purchase the tickets) are all right there. On the internet.

Courtesy of: Schools.com

Standing in awe of that epic complexity, it’s easy to overlook what is happening at the smallest level. Check out this amazing video from the makers of Coraline:

I was talking to a job-seeking friend recently and asked if she was comfortable with social media. She replied, “Heidi, there are very few people who are as comfortable with social media as you are.”

Yep.

Clients sometimes tell me they don’t need to use Twitter or Facebook because they have a website and publish a blog.  Blogs are definitely helpful for driving traffic – you can use your posts to create an idea or resource bank that followers and google searchers will return to again and again. But how do you know what to write about?

That’s where social media can be incredibly helpful. Your online interactions with audience members can and should be the biggest source of content. Questions and answers might come from anywhere – not necessarily just the folks on your mailing list or the people who buy tickets. Expand the concept of what it means to be an ‘audience’ member when you’re working online. Then write what they want to know.

And be transparent. Be a person who works for the organization, not an anonymous, washed-out, third person version of The Organization. Just be you, or a professionally acceptable version of you. Be “Jeffrey” working for XYZ Museum.  Bosses: A formal “social media” policy can articulate what is appropriate speak for your org online.

As long as we are on the topic of pushing boundaries between art and traditional concepts of ‘audience’...

This job posting from Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, DC says it all. We’re in a brave, new, world. I love the focus on audience (versus funder) experience:

Connectivity Director

Reports to: Managing Director

Basic Job Function: Ignite the “explosive engagement” between theatre artists and the community that powers Woolly’s mission statement—by working to expand the Woolly family, deepen the audience experience in our theatre, and link our productions to the civic discourse that happens every day in the nation’s capital.

Specific Duties and Responsibilities:

• Identify local stakeholders, institutions, and events that may resonate with each individual play
• Facilitate discussions between artists, staff, Board, and audience members to develop a shared vision for:
  • An “entry point” for each play (“What is the conversation this play wants to have with our audience and community?”)
  • A “designed audience” for each play (“Who needs to be in the audience to bring energy and meaning to that conversation?”)
  • A “total audience experience” for each play (“What can we do to accent, extend, and deepen the experience of each audience member?”)
• Collaborate with the Marketing Department to communicate with these designed audiences and welcome them through our doors via live and on-line strategies
• Collaborate with the Literary Department to immerse the audience in provocative, illuminating, and fun dialogue around each show
• Collaborate with multiple departments to reinforce the entry point for each show through execution of creative lobby displays/exhibits, pre-show communications, program content, post-show conversations in multiple formats, etc.
• Collaborate with the Development Department in soliciting support for connectivity
• Develop and track measures for the impact connectivity is having on audiences, the theatre, and the community
• Communicate our successes and our model to colleagues across disciplines and across the country
• Develop strategic, long-term partnerships with local organizations, museums, community service organizations, universities, etc. in order to increase Woolly’s accessibility and extend Woolly’s presence in the greater DC community
• Open up opportunities to provide audiences and the general public with direct access to Woolly artists
• Engage with “The Claque”: a group of highly engaged volunteer audience and community members who work to support Woolly’s connectivity programming
• Participate as a member of the theatre’s senior staff, engaging in long-range planning and other cross-departmental initiatives
• Supervise one intern

Skills and Key Characteristics

An outgoing personality, excellent communication skills, creativity, and tech savvy are essential. A college or graduate-level degree and theatre experience are a plus. Candidates of color are strongly encouraged to apply.

In addition, the ideal candidate will:

• Be a highly creative and strategic thinker with a track-record building community, inspiring dialogue, and working with artists
• Possess exceptional oral and written communication skills
• Be able to talk about artistic work with audience and community members, building a case for its relevance and effectively positioning it as a platform for dialogue
• Have experience utilizing technology and social media to connect people and spark conversation
• Thrive in a job that demands deep collaboration and consensus building among multiple constituencies for success
• Exhibit a creative, collegial, and collaborative work style and a close attention to detail
• Be passionate about theater and new work in particular

Salary and Benefits

• Salary will be competitive and commensurate with experience
• The position includes 100% health coverage for the employee plus two weeks’ paid vacation annually
• There is a 401K employee retirement plan in place, to which the theatre contributes when it is able

How to apply

Please send your résumé and a cover letter that details why you’d like to work for Woolly Mammoth to:

Jeffrey Herrmann, Managing Director
c/o Ellys Abrams
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
641 D Street, NW
Washington, DC 20004
ellys@woollymammoth.net

No phone calls, please.

Pretty interesting to think about, if you consider how fragile ceramics can be. And special – to be able to “check out” the work and do whatever you like with it. The complete opposite of a museum experience, almost unsettling for those charged with protecting and preserving these fragile pieces. But conceptually perfect for a clay artist making functional work.

Worth considering the points of potential discomfort in the craft of your own work – literally or figuratively. What are the elements of your art that you don’t usually allow people to “handle” or take home? Where are the spaces that you wouldn’t normally be found working or performing? Who do you travel with? Who is riding “shot gun”, reading the map and deciding when to stop for rest?

Bradley R. Staats and David M. Upton in “Lean, Knowledge, Work”; Harvard Business Review, October 2011.

Teo Castellanos – FAT BOY from GlassWorks Live on Vimeo.

The PlayGround Theatre’s Training Series presents
Crossing Thresholds: Creating Original Work

Led by Teo Castellanos

A three-day workshop led by acclaimed actor/writer/director Teo Castellanos offers participants an opportunity to develop original work through movement. Work with universal rhythms, imagination, atmosphere, and archetypes will spark creativity and shape the developmental process. Participants will work barefoot or with dance shoes and will need to wear movement clothing. Artists may choose to create a new work, cultivate a work-in-progress or interpret an existing character.

I thought the film was very well done. There is another famous documentary, Killing Us Softly, but this is the first [that I am aware of] mainstream piece to talk about women in power.

The outcome has been a kind of hyper-awareness of headlines streaming by me on Twitter. Here is a sample from this morning – all within minutes of one another:

It doesn’t matter what she said. The way the headline was worded suggests she didn’t ask an intelligent question.

Condi Rice participated in the Miss Representation documentary. Though Gaddafi’s obsession with her was admittedly weird, the real story was about the release of her memoirs.

There was a longer discussion about US-Libya relations – but that didn’t make the headline. The second tweet asks what one of the President’s senior advisors, Valerie Jarrett, might actually do. Well, she’s a lawyer and a former CEO, and she wrote the 2011 report Women in America; the first comprehensive report on the status of American women in 50 years, the one intended to shape federal policy affecting women and girls for the next few decades.

But what about this one? This well-known NPR correspondent apparently left her job in support of her husband:

Actually, Norris will simply recuse herself from political reporting during the election, but is still working for NPR doing signature pieces. John Podesta? He just gets to leave his job. No explanation given. He’s obviously going on to great things. But if you read the article, he’s actually still working for CAP full-time in strategic planning.

Each one I see I re-tweet and then respond to the author asking them if they have seen the film and suggesting a more gender neutral headline that is respectful to the accomplishments of the person in focus – woman or man.

As theatre people, writers, artists, filmmakers, it is within our control to influence how others see and understand women’s roles in society. What conversations have you had about this issue when making your own work?

Heidi Rettig