Last Monday, my theater company gathered at Charlotte's Place and put our little noses to the grind stone to get our annual fundraising letter out to our friends and supporters.
I am so proud of our Artistic Ensemble. We had at 33% increase in contacts this year AND we completed the mailing in just under 2 hours! Coincidentally, "just under two hours" is the same amount of time that I prefer our Shakespeare productions to be edited to in performance. It comes up in almost every season planning meeting:
"Can that be edited to just under two hours?"
I have noticed that the trend in NYC over the past year or so is intermissionless shows and earlier curtain times. As an MD that goes to lots of shows (at least one per week),I can't tell you how happy I am to show up for a 7pm curtain and find out that a show is 90 minutes, straight thru, no intermission. Yes! Home before 10pm! Make of that what you will: I'm a natural homebody, but clearly other theater patrons feel the same way in order for this change to be so popular.
I can't promise an intermissionless Shakespeare production, but I do try to get earlier curtain times on weekdays and I push our dramaturg to get our productions down to no more than 2 hours and ten minutes - max.
It could be easy to point to these trends, cluck our tongues and say, "Thanks, Internet. There's no attention span in the world anymore!" -- but truly, I think we are right where we should be in order to keep theater alive. With the exception of a few "event" pieces of theater, such as Jerusalem or War Horse (which revolve around a star performance or a special effect), it's no longer popular to sit thru 3 acts and "meander" thru a story.
And really, who can afford a babysitter for a 6 hours evening anymore? <-- that's the main complaint of my friends who want to support my company but also have children. They can't afford to leave the city right now, but they can't afford to get a sitter and get out and DO things in the city, either! That's the economy we're dealing with, so we adjust and give our audience what they need: an off-off broadway entertainment gets them home at a decent hour. Clarity and compassion are the main goals of our storytelling.
With that in mind, our intrepid little group sat at the conference room table and hand signed every letter. I know it seems a little silly, but I thought happy, mindful thoughts as I sealed each one...
...and off they went to the Post Office with our Finance Director, Ross Hewitt!
Our Spring 2012 show is going to be Pericles.
Some of you have already asked if we are doing a Fall show. 1) Thank you so much for your interest! 2) The answer to that question is "no" - but with good reason.
We have secured a theater in midtown that will allow us to extend our run by another 2 weekends. Also, we will have the theater space for one month prior to opening, making it possible to rehearse on stage. This is an incredible luxury for a company that is only 2 years old. We are so fortunate. It has been our dream to have a space "in residence" ever since we started the company and this is definitely a step in the right direction. We will be doing a series of "play dates" in the Fall with our core group to create a tight ensemble of actors and "edit-down" a clear script for this epic story that is rarely produced in New York City.
SO!
I will be bringing you some production updates throughout the Fall. I think it will be great (not just for me, personally, but also for this writing space) to have a little more "breathing space" in production than we usually do. I think (for the first time?) I will feel more inclined to share the process in writing, since I will have more time to enjoy it!
We start these "pre-rehearsals" on October 4. That's not far away for me AT ALL. I will be visiting Fred overseas for the rest of this month and then...
...!
We begin.
