Archive for November, 2006
The face of business
Seth Godin (marketting know how extrodinaire) talks about how every business tells a story, whether then want it to or not.
He’s also talked about how an organization will spend so much money on the advertising, the colour scheme, the mission of their company and then pay their front line people, the people who the public meets first - the face of the company, the least.
Craig and I talk all the time about the face of Theatrefolk: what are story is, Who are we, who do we want to present. Our story is that we want to offer a quality product that is specifically designed for our customer. We want to be easily accessible for our customer. We want to be able to answer all questions, and offer immediate suggestions.
It sounds pretty simple and obvious, but I think it’s amazing how often the mission of a company looses touch from the page to the actions of employees. We’re a micro-small company so it’s easy to be on the same page and to remind each other if we’re wavering. For example, I am not a naturally friendly person (I’m an internal thinker, which means I’m usually always frowning as my brain whirls away…) but I know how important it is. It’s important to not be frowning and grouchy at a conference. Again, a simple concept but sometimes awfully hard to execute!
People want to know who the face of the company is. No matter how easy it is to buy things on line without ever having to speak to a soul, in general people want to know there are human beings behind it all.
We had the chance yesterday to see quite a few business faces in action. We’re in the process of buying a car, selling some personal merchandise, changing a phone, changing some banking set ups…. it was a power errand day. In a couple of instances, the car dealership for example, we were prepared to get a bad face. We were prepared to have some schmoozy, slimy, stereotypical car guy try to steal our wallets and not let us leave till we bought. We were tense and we actually practiced our story on the way over, we were that nervous about it.
And in the end, we got a fantastic guy. Low key, proud of his product, when he learned we lived downtown he even suggested buying a car may not be the best for us. He was a human being and we connected to him first, the company second. We don’t live near this particular dealership but we’ve talked about going back specifically because of this guy.
The business world is an interesting place. Of course we’re only participating in a small part of it, but a part of it all the same.
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Joanna Gleason
I wanted to write about a master class that Joanna Gleason taught at NETC. I’ve been following her career ever since she played the Bakers Wife in Into the Woods. I was excited to see her in action, and truth be told, I have never seen a master class before. At the conference, she was observing and giving notes to students who had memorized a song.
It was great. Ms. Gleason’s teaching style was right up my alley. Acting the song is more important than singing the song. She had the students change up the way they sang to give it more depth and character. Some got it, some didn’t. Some still went for the belt from beginning to end. There was one girl who belted out a song and Ms Gleason got her to go for an opposite tone and volume and all of a sudden the song was beautiful.
She was also very open and yet philosophical about her own career. She was on a television show that in terms of creativity, she hated the whole time. But that show bought her a house. She talked about having an A plan, a B plan and a C plan so that if one doesn’t pan out, you move to plan B and if someone wants to know how you’re doing in A you say how well you’re doing in B or C.
In general she has been in the business a long time and she was down to earth, joyful and seemingly at peace. It’s so easy to be a bitter actor and she wasn’t at all. I hope that the young actors in the room realized that she had an attitude they aspire to.
When I got home this week I wanted to try and find some contact information for her somewhere (of course she doesn’t have a website) because I wanted to tell her how much I enjoyed the experience. And on top of that I wanted to introduce my work to her. I think she would not only be a fabulous actor for both APPLIANCE and SHATTERED I would love to see how she would direct them as well.
Alas, no contact info as yet. She’s in New York now though, and she just finished up with a reading series. Maybe she’ll get a show and I won’t lose my nerve to send her something.
I saw a Tony!
There was certainly a time when I dreamed about having a play on Broadway and winning a Tony. I have been watching the Tony’s since I was probably twelve years old. I have a distinct memory of watching when “Into the Woods” won and I hooted and hollared. My dad came down stairs and yelled at me for making too much noise.
And now I am certain that a play on Broadway is not in the cards. And that’s fine. My writing focus has gone down a different path and anyway, the straight play on Broadway seems to be going the way of the dodo.
But when we went to Yale Rep this past weekend I was seriously thrilled when I saw a real live Tony. Not just one, a whole row of them. I didn’t expect to see them, I didn’t know what they had. But when I walked up to the display case my stomach did a flip flop. I was in awe.
What does that mean? I don’t know. Does it mean that dreams never die? That when a door close that maybe it doesn’t really really close? I’m pretty sure that door is closed but who knows? Who knows.
New Haven Part 2
Because we drove to New Haven, we decided not to tear out of town when the conference was over, as we usually do, but wait till Sunday and take the day to drive back. Because of this, we had an evening free. Not something that usually happens when we’re out of town!
The Drama School at Yale, has a cabaret space that is just for Yale students. A little basement black box with maybe a hundred seats where they do three shows over a weekend and the shows are only an hour long. On Saturday we saw “Run, Mourner, Run” adapted by Tarell McCraney.
The website describes the space as “a theatrical laboratory that frees young artists at the Yale School of Drama to explore their deepest dramatic passions.” I like that that is available to drama students. That it’s not just the big shows, that there is a place for the small ones.
We go to a lot of conferences and see a lot of schools. Invariably, the pictures show students in huge shows, with huge sets and immaculate costuming. It’s all very big. Except that is not what theatre is about, really. It’s about sitting in a basement when the actors are right in front of your face and there’s no space for a set and all they are doing is acting. And the acting is so good that you forget for a little bit and in your head you start rooting for the characters. Hoping the play will go a certain way, even though you know deep down it’s destined for an unhappy ending. And then when it does end unhappily you feel heart sore.
That to me is theatre. And that’s what we saw.
New Haven
Last weekend was the last conference of the year - yahoo! Six weeks off, which will be just enough down time I think to get excited about them again. We were in New Haven, CT for the New England Theatre Conference. A very nice group, and a lovely way to end the season.
As an extra bonus, Craig and I had periods of down time where we were actually able to go outside and walk around New Haven, where Yale is. It’s gorgeously old and well preserved - we had a drink in a bar called “The Playwright” which inside was made up ofsections of a 19th century church. Yale certainly gives off a vibe of - “The School you can’t afford.” But it was fun to walk around on a crisp fall day and get some air.
As an extra extra bonus, through the conference we got tickets to the Yale Rep show “The Mistakes Madeline Made.” It was nice to see a play that had “craft” across the board from the acting to the play to the set and so on. That aspect was pure joy.
Unfortunately, the play had too much craft. Characters with language and verbal ticks, Characters with monologues where you could see the set up come right down second ave. Carefully constructed plot points delivered up to the audience. Grand themes left, right and centre. So many grand themes that that would be introduced and then left by the side of the road. For such a short play I wished that there was so much less theme. For this writer is indeed talented and I would have liked to see her develop more with less. The play was constructed as opposed to organic. I could see the playwright telling me things as opposed to them happening naturally between characters.
But I would rather see talent with flaws than smooth souless dreck any second of any day of the week.
Virginia Theatre Association
Spent the weekend at the Virginia Theatre Assocation annual conference. It’s a jammed packed weekend for students filled with plays from 8:15 in the morning to way into the evening. There’s workshops and improv jams and it all makes me wish it was available to me as a high school student.
One of the things I love when going to conferences is the talks I have with teachers about how important theatre is for students and how empowering it can be. I met a teacher and some students from a military school. They have a small, struggling drama department - drama is not high on the school’s priority list - but they were strong in their conviction that they would keep at it. I met a teacher who as a pilot project, went to the students in his school who didn’t speak English (they have a growing spanish influx) and did a play in their own language. It was a great success, and has given these students the confidence to join the regular drama program. I was also thrilled to meet the students and teachers of Drop Dead Juliet and Emotional Baggage. They were very sweet and fun to talk to.
All in all, it makes me glad to do what I do.
Retreat! Retreat!
Spent a lovely couple of days in Kalamazoo, MI with fellow theatrefolk writer Allison Williams
I go here twice a year and I always find it invigorating. Maybe it’s because it’s not my house and there’s nothing here I can distract myself with as I can at home. Although that’s not necessarily true because the place is a fun house of books and masks and costumes and theatre memories and pictures and so on. Maybe it’s because I know I’ve only got a few days of quiet and I want to make the most of them as humanly possible.
I worked on five plays in round table. I would either give myself a time limit on a piece or the instant I got stuck, I would move on to the next piece. I only had one notebook and everytime I moved on, I’d put the title at the top of the page and off I’d go. Every piece was in the idea stage, which for me is the honeymoon stage. Nothing I write is wrong, I don’t have to worry about linking anything together, I just go, go, go. Working on more than one play at a time is one way I combat writers block. I hate staring at a blank page! At some point I will push certain plays to the forefront and take those to the next level depending on my schedule.
Whenever I hang out with Allison, there’s always some adventure or something out of the ordinary. I was in Kalamazoo for Halloween and it was certainly the most involved Halloween I’ve ever done! The front of the house was decked out with a huge inflatable gargoyle, there were lights, and a sound system of scary noises.
Four of us dressed up to give out candy - one as a crazy scientist with a lab coat and full face mask, and the rest of us as additional gargoyles, with masks and wings to boot. Some kids were so scared by the sight of the house that they refused to come up and get candy! That’s pretty powerful. It was a lot of fun, I find it’s always easier to get into character when you’re wearing a mask. It didn’t take long to find my “inner” gargoyle.
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