Theaters’ creative collaborations are signs of real change

When I had my first job as a theater critic, in the 1980s at a daily newspaper in South Florida, I found myself continually surprised at how competitive and suspicious of each other the local theater companies were. 

In spite of being a small and necessarily interconnected community, they did not want to collaborate. I don’t remember them ever sharing resources, especially not mailing lists. The bigger ones did belong to a group called the Florida Professional Theatres Association, which held mass statewide auditions every year and sponsored workshops on administrative and artistic topics, but the members tended to snipe about each other’s shows behind their backs and operate as if each company was a sort of walled city-state with a completely unique audience.

The best (worst?) example I can think of is the summer about 25 years ago when three companies within my paper’s main circulation area all produced Jean Kerr”s “Lunch Hour” during the same summer.  Clearly, they thought no one coming to their own theater would be going to anyone else’s  – and made sure of it, too. You’d think at the very least they would have realized that a bored and exasperated critic is an unhappy and vocal critic.

So I’ve been elated in more recent years to see theaters and other arts groups everywhere slowly discovering the value of working together. Though it’s taken the hardship of shrinking financial resources and the danger of collapse to get them to join hands, a great many groups are not only finding ways to help each other make ends meet, but have also realized that collaborating artistically can create fresh ideas and more exciting projects than one group can by producing stuff in perpetual isolation.  

The Cleveland, Ohio, area has some pioneers of this sort, most notably Cleveland Public Theatre. An alternative company started more than 20 years ago, CPT has always lived the mission of creating theater for and with people on the fringes of society and of art: the daring, the eccentric, and the at-risk, from urban teens to convicted criminals. The company was built to reach out to others and has, with educational and therapeutic programs and special production series featuring emerging, local, theater and dance artists and companies. 

Even so, CPT’s co-production of “Nickel and Dimed” with Great Lakes Theater Festival a few years ago was a shock and a milestone – a sign that CPT’s influence was growing, yes, but a more stunning indication that a change in the theater Zeitgeist was transforming even large, glittering, professional theaters such as Great Lakes from artistically exclusive enclaves into involved, accessible, artistic partners. 

That’s why, for me at least, it was bell-ringing news this week that the august Guthrie Theater - probably the U.S.’s most artistically revered regional company – is showcasing innovative productions by young, emerging Twin Cities troupes that are its neighbors. Instead of regarding upstart companies as insects to be disdainfully flicked from their brocade skirts, maybe America’s greatest arts institutions have finally realized that collaborations and nurturing next generations of organizations will help and not hurt them.

Incredibly, theaters seem to get it now. I can only hope that major orchestras get a clue soon, too.

What the Guthrie plans is a series called Singled Out: A Festival of Emerging Artists that will be presented in the Dowling Studio Jan. 14-24. The companies featured include the Four Humors Theater, Sandbox Theatre, Lamb Lays with Lion and the New Theatre Group. Benjamin McGovern, the Guthrie’s associate director of studio programming, curated the line-up – and his reasons for creating the showcase and for choosing these particular companies represent what I hope is a changed philosophy for American theater.

“When the new Guthrie Theater building was built [in 2006], the Studio (which I program) was meant, in part, to be a place where other local companies would present their work,” McGovern wrote in an e-mail to me Tuesday. “There is a kind of synergy that comes from having such a diverse group of artists under the same roof – emerging talent, new and innovative aesthetics, new approaches to making theater. Our staff inevitably interacts with and is inspired by the artists that perform in the Studio, and that ultimately permeates the entire organization and enriches the work that goes on our other stages.

“There is also a considerable value to nurturing younger theater groups and offering them a wider exposure. The Guthrie relies heavily on the strength of the local artistic community and the enthusiasm of the theater-going public. The more we bolster and inspire both of these, the more effective and relevant the Guthrie’s work will be.”

And what made him select these specific young companies?

“I chose these four companies based on a number of different factors. Essentially I was looking for companies that had some history of quality work and were exploring a new theatrical vocabulary. I also wanted a mix of aesthetic approaches,” he added. “My goal was to present some representative work of younger artists that are working outside the mainstream, but whose work would relate in some way to the work that we produce here at the Guthrie.”

A few days later, after I asked whether or not the young companies’ types of work had anything in common, McGovern sent this further comment: “I wouldn’t say that the styles and vocabularies of these companies amount to a trend. In fact, I was specifically looking for companies that were focused on developing different aesthetics and approaches. One company is working in an unusual narrative style and a highly visual form of storytelling, while another is working in a fairly traditional theatrical convention, but thematically pushing the envelope. My interest was not in pushing forward any particular trend or style, but in providing a platform for energetic and promising young companies to get their voices heard.”

Twenty years ago, most American theaters the size and reputation of the Guthrie probably wouldn’t have admitted that worthwhile local start-up companies even existed, much less have invited them to share their space and audience.  It looks like, though arts groups in this country may be in growing economic danger, they’re also growing up.

Divided we go bankrupt

The United States is big on individualism. In this country, we’re all raised with the idea that going our own way is our birthright, our mission – part of the iconic American dream in which we each create our own destiny, follow our own conscience and answer to no man. Or woman, especially the little kind. 

Hollywood movies have burned this into our brains as if our memories were DVDs: We aren’t supposed to follow. We’re all supposed to go out there, stake our own claim and start our own business, community, political movement, religion, band, micro-brewery, website.

Of course, you could well argue that all of us obeying this imperative is following, and major following of a particularly clueless, cowlike nature, too. But for the sake of a larger point, let’s say that we really are a nation of  god-damned independents.

So what happens when that irresistible, entrepreneurial spirit runs up against an immovable financial crisis like the one we’re in? The first thing to give out (besides our income …) has to be our vaunted go-it-aloneness.

That’s a hard fact the nonprofit world has been learning in recent years as subscriptions have fallen, along with corporate and private support. There just aren’t enough resources anymore to sustain the old way of operating solo, so nonprofits have started – suspiciously at first, but with increasing urgency – working together and sharing expenses.

The rest of us are going to have to do the same.

It’s not going to be enough just to pull together in spirit – though that would be helpful, too, and Barack Obama is good at engendering sentiments of unity, as he did again last night in his first official address to Congress. We Americans, who fancy ourselves as uncompromising hero-leaders along the lines of John Wayne and Iron Man Tony Stark, have got to start teaming up our efforts on all levels.

Look how much duplication exists in the marketplace and in government and in private life. The nearly obscene range of goods in our supermarkets ( 75 kinds of cereal?) makes immigrants from less indulgent lands cry. Our towns and cities pay enormous costs for separate services, from water and sewer to schools and security. About every third person – including me – wants to build his or her own little business empire or good-doing foundation.

How many individual film-production companies and clothing lines do we have in this country? How many people  separately collecting shoes for needy kids or money to cure particular diseases? How many software developers and yard-care companies and pizza parlors?

Doesn’t it seem like we could streamline some of  this bloat by joining forces with each other? Some efforts at efficiency have already begun – fusion marketing, (half-hearted) regionalism, shared office-supply purchasing - but we’re going have to get a lot more serious about it if we want to improve productivity, trim government waste, reduce our national debt and increase the success rate of small businesses.

I’m not talking about us surrendering our identities and becoming part of some unspeakably huge conglomerate. Just sharing and collaborating where that makes sense and strengthens us individually and collectively.  I don’t think we can afford not to anymore.

I mean, even John Wayne collaborated with other cowpokes once in a while – especially in a tight spot.

Is it alive? Part 2: The nonprofit side of creatively surviving the economy

The Guthrie Theater and Florida Stage differ in size, geographic location and audience demographics. But they’re identical in their determination to get creative about cost efficiency while keeping up the quality of their work.

Though ticket sales remain on target for both so far this season, neither is taking anything for granted. At Florida Stage, a small professional nonprofit theater launched 22 years ago in South Florida’s Palm Beach County, founder and producing director Louis Tyrrell has cut a few positions and decided not to fill others, even though his critically acclaimed company enjoyed robust attendance at its two fall shows and is 60 percent subscribed for the season.                                                               

He knows the margin of survival for a theater is narrow in the best of times – maybe only one failed production – and that in today’s economy, even the healthy need to be prudent. So yesterday’s tactics alone won’t do.

  Tyrrell

“It goes a step beyond that for us and our industry,” Tyrrell said. “You have got to think out of the box.” 

Along with trimming staff positions, Florida Stage has begun telemarketing for the first time.

“We’re being very aggressive in our fund-raising … and using the Internet a heck of a lot more,” said Tyrrell, who has taken on the additional task of development since the company downsized its annual budget from $4.1 million to $3.4 million.   

The company does more TV ads, cuts better deals and “so far, it’s worked fine. But it’s really only an interim step,” he noted.

His company has been in the same space for 18 years and the rent keeps going up. “That’s when you have to start circling the wagons and looking for ways to collaborate. Those are the kinds of innovations the survivors are going to have to make if they expect to be here next year.”

While Tyrrell is getting busy talking with other producing and presenting groups in the Palm Beach area, the famed Minneapolis-based Guthrie - a major, 46-year-old, nonprofit regional theater that is one of North America’s finest -has already teamed with The Acting Company on an upcoming Guthrie run, and national tour, of Shakespeare’s “Henry V.” Their first-ever collaboration blends artistic and educational aims: The New-York-based Acting Company serves as professional training company for students and young professionals actors, while the Guthrie shares a bachelor of fine arts program with the University of Minnesota. Young performers from both companies will fill the “Henry V” cast.

Trish Santini, the Guthrie’s external relations director, said that teaming up for a production and tour was just one of the methods the theater is trying in order to live within a smaller budget. With revenue on track, the Guthrie still made budget cuts in November. It increased efficiency by such means as limiting the number of hours the theater store is open when no shows are running and it added consumer value by creating reduced-price ticket packages for concurrent productions – all what Santini calls “smart, incremental” changes that add up to impact. 

“Normally, we don’t bundle,” said Santini of their new marketing approach. “That’s a whole different creative look for a campaign.”

But even while they’re inventing new means of saving money and bringing in more, both the Guthrie and Florida Stage remain committed to producing top-quality work.

For Tyrrell, full houses are “really just a function of a 22-year relationship with a community” whose members have come to trust Florida Stage’s quality, he said - if a show get good buzz, 4,000-5,000 single-ticket buyers will turn up.  That’s why he went ahead with Florida Stage’s December-January show, “Mezzulah, 1946” a 10-character play by Michele Lowe whose size and cost were risky, but which is paying off artistically and financially.

 ”The play was so wonderful, and by the time we decided to change it, it would have sent the wrong message. It was worth it” to stage “Mezzulah,” Tyrrell said. But he acknowledged that, for next year, his company will be sticking to smaller, less expensive plays.       

There was a ruefulness to his tone that Santini echoed. “I think everything’s vulnerable right now” from size and number of productions to peripheral programs, she said. 

But whatever else the Guthrie may end up having to cut, it won’t compromise the theatrical excellence for which it’s famed.

“I think it comes down to a diligence about your mission,” Santini said. “And at the end of the day, it’s about protecting the  work on our stages.”

Poster design by Kevin Sprague

      Poster design by Kevin Sprague                                                                                          Poster

An increase of pie

When I first got the idea for Geniocity.com, I was pretty strictly focused on figuring out exactly how I should set it up to answer what I saw as urgent social, media-industry and individual-consumer needs. It didn’t occur to me until later, when I was trying to find the best way to describe the project to friends and colleagues in my community, that they might perceive my embryonic company as competition. 

That made me uneasy. The whole point of Geniocity.com has always been to encourage a force for good – creativity – that can and does benefit all of us in every way relating to quality of life. It’s never been about stealing business from other news outlets or arts- and innovation-related enterprises.

But I’ve noticed, over my many years of writing about the arts, that creative-community reaction to any new organization always breaks into two camps: those who fear and resent the upstart because they think it will make the slices of economic pie smaller for everyone; and those who welcome the addition because they think it will stimulate community interest in, and demand for, creative services, thus expanding the size of the pie.

I’m a fervent believer that more services mean more pie, especially because knowing you’re not the only business in town keeps everyone in the local industry alert and striving to improve. And that serves the community.    

But I still find myself taking pains to make sure that the local creative cohort understands that Geniocity.com will fill an available niche, not one that’s already taken. 

The major daily paper reports what happened yesterday; the alternatives report what there is to do this week. Geniocity.com is about the world of tomorrow being developed right now.  The community papers and magazines and TV stations focus on the local and regional. Geniocity.com plans to cover what’s going on in brains, labs and studios around the world.

Though we sell creative work, as do many galleries and stores, the types and sources of our merchandise will be increasingly different from other shops. And perhaps more important, Geniocity’s pro-creative mission means we’ll constantly try to develop collaborations with other organizations that will help all of us.

I guess I say this to reassure myself as much as my community colleagues, because I’m determined that Geniocity will do well by doing good. I think that’s the only way to do well. Call it big-pie-side economics.