Here Come The "Rock Solid"s

People tend to have two reactions to crisis. They get conservatized, or they get radicalized.  Theatre in America has been in crisis for awhile; some would argue the regional theatre movement has been in crisis since it began (and since the Government didn't make good on its promise to follow through with money to supplement the seed money from the Ford Foundation).  And sure enough, there's a lot of Conservatized theater out there.  

I have a regular writing gig where I cover what's going on in regional theatre seasons, and looking over season after season and theaters all over America is not exactly inspiring to say the least.  I'm not saying this to draw some comparison between New York, which has plenty of theaters doing uninspiring work, don't get me wrong. But I'm on a regional theater beat right now, and its a little depressing. 

Some of its depressing for reasons I'm sure Scott would understand: you get no sense looking over the seasons that they are serving their particular communities wants/needs, and many of the seasons look remarkably similar.  I remember profiling on production of Teresa Rebeck's "Bad Dates" one month and another production of the same play one city over the next month. 

Some of it is depressing because so much of the work is so safe.  Many theaters... the seasons look like they've been programmed by your high school drama teacher.  I have a feeling that this will only get worse over the next year or two.  Why? The crisis is getting worse, and the chances of Artistic Directors suddenly getting radicalized by it are slim to none. 

Just picking one at random... let's take a look at Trinity Rep's season next year.  I'm not trying to slag them off in particular or anything, I just happened to stumble on their season announcement on American Theater Web (my homepage, actually, and you should consider making it yours so long as you immediately click over here) this morning. So we have a new Steven Dietz play, Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone, and then... Cabaret, The Odd Couple and Twelfth Night.   This isn't all that different from Trinity Rep's recent seasons, but the presence of The Odd Couple on the slate of plays is telling.  There is perhaps no safer play to do than The Odd Couple. It's so safe- having been immortalized in a pretty good movie, and having no angles into the material other than the obvious one- that there's actually no reason to produce it (unless you want to use it as a star vehicle, as the recent Broadway version did, a dubious reason to do a play if you ask me).

(Oh and by the way: Trinity Rep's mission?: "Trinity Rep reinvents the public square with dramatic art that stimulates, educates and engages our community in a continuing dialogue")

This season is Rock Solid. Impermeable. It's also not very exciting, and i have a feeling lots of seasons like it will be cropping up over the next couple of years.

I think all of this is understandable, I'm even sympathetic to theatre's plight right now.  AD and EDs have a responsibility for the survival of their theaters.  They have employees whose livelihood depends on the theater.  They have boards to satisfy. There's a lot of needs pushing and pulling their decisions other than "what is the best work we could be doing right now?" and I imagine most people are trying very hard to do the best work they can given the environment we have right now.  Or at least, they think they are.  No one wakes up in the morning and goes, "wow, I can't wait to devote my year to doing uninspiring work that will at least make sure we don't lose too many subscribers this year!" and I've spoken to an artistic director or two who took a bath over the last couple of years trying to move their theaters in edgier directions. 

That it's understandable doesn't make it less depressing. Or, frankly, less frightening for those of us who care deeply about the future of theater in America. I didn't grow up in New York, and other than the yearly holiday trip to NYC to see theater, the vast majority of the theater I saw was produced in my home town. If it weren't for regional theater, I wouldn't have decided to do theater. And that's part of what scares me about what's going on here... seeeing theaters go out of business, seeing the model continue to rust and break down is heartbreaking.

***

You should also, when you get a chance, read this post from last month by Mead Hunter where he talks about the values that went into PCS choosing their season for next year.  

Comments

[Tommer]

The marketing-driven formula season has been around in Seattle for a while. It looks like this:

A warm fuzzy American classic
A Shakespeare comedy
Private LIves
Something that was hot in NYC last season
A musical

[Monica]

I actually took issue with with the season at the Old Creamery Theater, an equity theater in Iowa. Their season this year...well, let's just say that "The Odd Couple" is the most intelligent show they're doing. They did "Nuncrackers" last season. I personally don't know how they're doing, but it's depressing that an amateur theater companies here in Iowa with really tiny budgets are doing Caryl Churchill and "The Pillowman" and few know about it because it's not the Equity theater.

An amateur theater in Iowa did a season with "Into the Woods" (which offended people), "12 Angry Men" (which no one saw), and a George Bernard Shaw (which very few people got). Their season is moving to "High School Musical," "Leaving Iowa," (which is becoming the staple for regional theaters it's seeming), and a murder mystery with audience participation. "High School Musical" is the most exciting thing they're doing. But their target audience (which would be the 65+ crowd) likes that stuff.

(I do review theater in Iowa, by the way.)

I think it's a trend that will be seen not just with professional regional theaters, but also with large amateur theaters unless they know that they can get away with doing edgy shows (one of the big ones in Iowa has "The Children's Hour," "Fences," and "Hair" on their slate. They did "Angels in America" and it did well. That's edgy for Iowa).

[Esther]

Well, I think you're being a little unfair. I think you've got to put butts in seats. If you're a theater company located in a state with 10 percent unemployment, I don't see anything wrong with a few plays that you know will be crowd-pleasers. I mean, I have no interest in seeing A Christmas Carol but I understand why theaters do it every year.

And as a fairly regular, totally average theatergoer, I'm looking forward to The Odd Couple. Sometimes I just want to sit back and be entertained. If that makes me a bad theatergoer, so be it! Also, I think Trinity Rep's audience may have a different definition of "exciting" than yours. I mean, I've never heard of Steven Dietz, so to me, that is exciting.

[Scott Walters]

It's not about sitting back and being entertained, it is about giving our time over to warmed-over Broadway fare instead of telling the stories of your place. Instead of High School Musical, try creating a play from local history or from interviewing people about the moment when they either committed to or fell away from their religious beliefs. And then watch the line go around the block. Seriously. The latter play was created by a woman in Nashville, and she revives it regularly to many, many buts in seats.

[Esther]

Well, I think it's about striking a balance.

Yes, The Odd Couple and Cabaret have both been on Broadway. But if you look at the rest of Trinity Rep's season, I wouldn't call Sarah Ruhl, Steven Dietz and Pamela Gien "warmed over Broadway fare." They've written plays that will be new to audiences here.

And I would bet that most people who attend performances at regional theaters like Trinity Rep aren't going to Broadway or off Broadway shows. They may not view these plays as "warmed over."

I could list the plays I've seen there over the past few years, since I've been going regularly. And there would be some very familiar names. But in each case, they were plays I'd never seen on stage. I bet most people in the audience had never seen them on stage. I think in most cases, I got something out of them.

Plus, they have done exactly what you suggest. Three years ago, Trinity Rep put on a play called "Boots on the Ground," which was based on interviews with local people who were affected by the war in Iraq.

But I don't think most people would go see an entire season of plays about local history, year in and year out. Maybe I'm wrong.

And is there something wrong with going to the theater to be entertained? Or should I make sure whenever I go I'm wearing my hair shirt? ;-)