December 17, 2008
Splayed Verbiage (or, Big Words Of Unknown Meaning)
30 Actors. 12 Directors. 12 Plays. 2 1/2 hours of pure fun.
A 10-minute play festival by The Side Project, Splayed Verbiage blew my mind. It was everything I’d wanted out of a theatre since my first year as a drama student. Every ten minutes the stage was cleared and new scenes were built, new worlds explored, new lives examined. Each director involved used their precious few minutes to capture the imaginations of the audience and draw us into their world.
The stories ranged from a couple who cycle from birth to death, each day forgetting the last, to awkward conversations at the Belmont El stop, to a woman reminiscing about wanting to be a slave as a child. Scenes of hurt and anger, love and sadness.
I’ll freely admit that I had a wonderful time, probably one of the best times as a theatregoer that I’ve had in a long time. I’m not much of a theatre-watcher. I prefer to operate behind the scenes or on stage rather than by sitting in the audience, but Splayed Verbiage was an exquisite glimpse into what I feel theatre should be all about.
I’d tried to set up some 10-minute play festivals back in college, and I met a wall of hard resistance. Not sure what the big deal was, but nobody else wanted to do it. That’s one reason why I’m very impressed and excited about The Side Project’s festivals.
If you have a few bucks and two hours on Sunday, go check it out. You won’t regret it.
The Side Project (website)
November 13, 2008
Marketing in Chicago
Taking a break from Project Introspection today to focus on a marketing question. I was eating lunch with a colleague yesterday and talking about what I wanted out of getting involved with a theatre company here. I basically explained that I want to learn, to share my ideas and to help out to the best of my ability. I started talking about an idea I had for a marketing plan.
You all remember that movie The Blair Witch Project, right? One of the reasons why the movie was so successful is the producers built a cult following before the movie was even produced. The put out information that made it seem as if the story were true, that students really did disappear and this really was footage that was recovered.
Of course, it was all fake and scripted, but it piqued the interest of the country and became a box office success.
So my question was, why don’t more theatres do that kind of stuff?
I’ve been in Chicago for three months and I honestly haven’t seen any advertisements for any theatre stuff except for the major companies like Broadway in Chicago and The Goodman. I don’t know what’s going on in the smaller storefront theatres. The only advertisements I’ve seen are flyers in windows and maybe in some of the less-read magazines going around the city.
And of the advertisements I have seen, they all seem to say “Pleaaaaaaaase come see our show! We put a lot of hard work into it and we don’t want to have wasted our time, so pleaaaaaase come give us your money and watch our show!” Basically, they put out the who/what/where/when/how much, but they never explain the why.
WHY should I see your show? What makes it interesting enough that I should take the time, effort and money to go see your show?
Do something to make me interested.
I wrote a play two years ago and I’ve been working on it intermittently for awhile. It’s a play based on the old Pied Piper of Hamelin story — you know the one, the rats and the piper that takes away the kids and all that.
Let’s use that as an example.
How can we get the public interested in that? Let’s take a page from Blair Witch and put up a website that pushes an agenda — rats are a problem. And they are in any major city, especially Chicago. Rats! More rats!
Write letters to the editors of various publications complaining about rats and wistfully wishing that someone like the Pied Piper could come and get rid of them, put up flyers around town: ”Got rats? Call the Piper!”. Remind the public of the story of the Pied Piper, remind them how relevant rats are to their daily lives.
Get them thinking about rats and keeping the story of the Pied Piper in the back of their minds. All of these things can be done fairly cheaply.
Then a week or two before the show, blow the rest of your marketing money on advertisements in local papers, on local TV, on the radio. With the economy in a slump right now, with the presidential election over, ad prices are dirt cheap (or so my father, an advertisement salesman, tells me).
The people will see your advertisement, say “Oh, wow, I was just thinking about that story… this could be interesting!” They’ve had exposure after exposure to the theme and story of the Pied Piper over the past several weeks (”Got rats? Call the Piper!” “Dear Editor, rats are a huge problem in Chicago. Gosh, I wish there were someone like the Pied Piper around! What is the city going to do about it?”).
We know that long-term memory is triggered by multiple exposures to the same stimulus. If you put out one ad in the paper, people are going to forget about it very quickly. But week after week of “Oh, hey, don’t forget about rats” and subtle reminders of the Pied Piper of Hamelin story, they’ll have a little bit of the story stored up in their minds, so when you go “BAM! PIED PIPER PLAY!” it sticks.
This wouldn’t work for every play, but it’s a different approach than I usually see. What I usually see is:
“Come see our play! Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 7pm, 10 bucks! It’s funny! Check it out!”
…yeah, right.
The Prof wrote a blog a long time ago about how we should be putting on plays that are relevant to our communities. You don’t have to pick topics that are relevant now. You could MAKE them relevant. Were rats on the forefront of people’s minds before I started this ad campaign? No, probably not. But after papering the city with flyers about rat problems, letters to the editors, calls to radio shows… it’s more relevant than it was before, and that just might be enough to draw a full house.
Thoughts? I’m sure I’m missing a lot, but this was just something I was thinking of yesterday and I’d love to hear some responses.
November 5, 2008
September 29, 2008
Weathering a Brainstorm
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been a bit busy and haven’t had the time or inclination to update The Director Sector regularly, with the exception of a few “here’s what i’m up to these days” posts. Now, though, I’m getting settled into Chicago and I’m ready to start thinking theatre again.
Last night, I discussed with a friend of mine some ideas for plays that I had in my head. After I finished my explanations, she said, basically, “What’s the point?”
So here’s my question of the day for you guys:
If you have to explicity explain the reasoning behind why you did what you did, or explicitly explain the moral or the lesson or whatever it is that you want the audience to take away from the play, should you even do the play at all? If they miss the point and walk away from the show confused, have you lost them?
The two ideas that I have don’t have traditional plots, per se, but are more experiments in messing around with time, space, and possibilities. They’re not about the characters, but more about whichever element I’m messing with at the moment.
Thoughts? Do you need more specific examples?
September 23, 2008
Status update
So I’ve finally settled into my apartment in Chicago. Unfortunately, it’ll be another week tip my Internet gets hooked up, so I won’t be posting much til then. Once I’m online, I’ll have a few posts ready to go. I know you guys miss my musings. I’ll do my best to not let your pangs last too long. Until then, peace.
September 4, 2008
A New Life
Everyone pop on over to RZCrow’s blog and wish her congratulations on her new baby girl
Congrats, RZ!
July 23, 2008
July 15, 2008
July 7, 2008
Ever After on Broadway… dude, seriously!
C’mon folks. Gimme a break. Ever After on Broadway? Are you kidding? Can we please, as a theatre community, stop adapting movies to the stage willy nilly? There are a bazillion stories out there just dying to be told — certainly too many to be rehashing the same pop titles over and over.
Of course, NYC is all about commercial business and entertaining the lowest common denominator, not about, you know… producing original art.
Don’t me wrong. I loved The Lion King on Broadway, but it had nothing on the movie.
I mean, dude… seriously. What’s next? Die Hard: the Musical? Grey’s Anatomy on Broadway?
July 1, 2008
Don S. Davis, of Stargate fame, dies at 65
It is with a heavy heart that I bring you news of the death of a very fine and talented actor. Don S. Davis, whom I know from the role of General George Hammond from Stargate SG-1, passed away on June 29, 2008 from a heart attack. He was 65 years old.
I’ve always loved Stargate SG-1, as you can see from my post on one of the phrases earlier, “If you immediately know candlelight is fire, then the meal was cooked long ago.” From day one, when SG-1 was on HBO, I saw General Hammond make the toughest decisions a person can make. Davis did a fantastic job of showing the courage and toughness needed to deal in those situations, while still showing compassion and understanding and caring for those under Hammond’s command.
Last year, I bought Stargate SG-1 Season One on DVD. When I finished that, I bought season two. When I finished that, I bought seasons three, four and five, spent months looking for seasons six and seven, wound up buying seasons 8 and 9 to sit on my shelf while I waited for the two I was missing. Finally found those, and then bought season 10.
I’d sit in my room for days and watch Stargate, and I was disappointed when Don Davis left the show, for health reasons. I missed his courageous character and great strength. I feel like I lived through six years of the Stargate team’s lives.
I’m saddened for this loss to the team of one of TV’s greatest sci-fi shows. I’m saddened for other reasons, as well. I am going to Dragon*Con this fall, and he was supposed to be there. I was looking forward to meeting one of my role models. Now that won’t happen.
Farewell, Hammond of Texas. May you rest in peace.



