October 2007 Field Letter
Written on September 21, 2007
Dear Friends,
Happy fall and, for many of you, best wishes on the start of your 2007–08 seasons! We are busy at TCG preparing for the Fall Forum on governance entitled Cultivating Innovation: From the Board Room to the Box Office (with keynoter Peter Gelb of the Metropolitan Opera), the launch of the August Wilson Century Cycle (the books are in and they are beautiful—official publication date is October 1), Free Night of Theater on October 18, application deadlines for Round 8 of the New Generations Program, the launch of both the Salary and Fiscal Surveys and the TCG fall board meeting which will focus on our strategic plan. And yes, work continues on the 2008 TCG National Conference and National Performing Arts Convention in Denver.
At the Fall Forum, in addition to hearing Peter Gelb's keynote presentation on the Metropolitan Opera's program of broadcasting in movie theatres, representatives of National Arts Strategies will be in attendance to lead two sessions derived from their popular and effective seminars on strategic innovation. We will also hear from theatre practitioners and trustees through breakouts and panel discussions. We hear regularly from theatre leaders about the need to explore new models for doing business and creating art. This Fall Forum is an excellent venue for beginning a conversation together. There's still time to register (the deadline has been extended to Friday, October 5)—and since November is an extremely busy time for hotels in New York, if you are planning to attend, please make your travel/accommodation arrangements as soon as you can.
Many thanks to the theatres, theatre associations and state arts councils who are participating in Free Night of Theater. This year, 30 communities have signed on. Last year there were 16. In the Bay Area alone, 117 theatres are participating through 147 performances with close to 8,000 tickets and growing. It's remarkable to listen in on the conference calls linking up arts leaders from Charleston to D.C. to Los Angeles to Seattle, collaborating on this event. TCG hosts a national website for Free Night, which also serves as a central reservations system for most of the participating organizations. TCG staff members Phil Matthews and Mark Gordon are to be congratulated for their great work on this program.
I recently attended a meeting of arts service organization leaders at Americans for the Arts (AFTA) in Washington, D.C. AFTA holds an annual "Policy Roundtable" at Sundance Institute, convening artists, policy makers and business leaders for in-depth discussions on topics of mutual interest. This year's meeting will focus on how the arts can positively impact the development of the American workforce. (Last year's topic was The Future of Private Sector Giving to the Arts in America and resulted in a report of the same name.) Research assembled by AFTA shows that businesses are placing a rising value on creativity and innovation in the workplace, and AFTA is seeking to spark a dialogue on the connection between creativity/innovation and the nationwide availability of arts education. I am very interested to hear their conclusions. We will keep you posted on the publication of the results from this convening.
In a recent Field Letter, I posed a question regarding projects and relationships that had their genesis at TCG convenings, noting that the National Asian American Theatre Festival emerged out of conversations at a TCG gathering of theatres of color. Whether or not participants are inspired by the content of any TCG convening, there's always unanimous positive response to the networking and relationships that spring up. Jean-Leopold Ngoulou of Congo has emailed several times since June talking passionately about his new collaboration with Interact Theatre in Minneapolis. This relationship was ignited at the June conference. It is particularly heartening given the hoops he navigated in order to get his visa approved to travel to the U.S.
Another auspicious beginning credited to TCG is the Network of Ensemble Theatres (NET), which has recently hired an executive director, Mark Valdez. In September, Mark, Terry Greis from the Irondale Ensemble Project and Leese Walker of Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble while visiting TCG's offices talked about how the idea for NET formed initially at a TCG conference. NET has evolved to become a communications hub for ensemble theatres, helping them to share resources such as space and artistic work. NET recently held its own convening at Camp Winnebago's on the shores of Echo Lake in Fayette, Maine.
I'd like to thank artistic director Michael Bloom of the Cleveland Play House, who stopped by TCG in August and spent time with the staff discussing his first years as artistic director. Among other things, he described Fusion Fest, an exciting multi-disciplinary festival of new work that takes place at the Play House and features Cleveland performers. We were also visited by artistic director Geoffrey Sherman and development director Eve Loeb of Alabama Shakespeare Festival, who painted a colorful picture of the festival's past, described their vision for its future and shared the triumphs and hardships they've experienced navigating between the two. These visits are a wonderful way for TCG staff to more thoroughly understand the nature of your work and they also give members a chance to meet our fantastic staff and discover the myriad ways that we can assist you in your daily work. If any of you find yourself in New York or are based in the New York area, and have some free time, let us know and we can set up a visit with our staff.
I also want to thank those of you who sent in proposals for our new American Theatre column on new strategies to address challenges/opportunities within the field. I've received pitches in the areas of play development, pricing, succession planning, ticket packaging, technology, organizational structures and approaches to production. While the official deadline for proposals has passed, please continue to send your ideas for future issues. The column will launch in December's issue of American Theatre.
Last month, I wrote about my favorite online toy, Pandora.com. Here's another online resource that is relatively new that you may find personally useful or want to introduce to your boards and staffs. The American Theatre Wing's series Working in the Theatre and Downstage Center are now available as podcasts through iTunes and can be downloaded for free. One of the recent segments is a conversation with artistic directors Susan Booth, Oskar Eustis, Emily Mann and Michael Wilson. There are also segments on playwriting, design, international theatre and much more.
So go and play and open your plays, but don't be strangers.
All the best,
Teresa Eyring
Executive Director