If you are a student studying arts management you should become familiar with The Association of Arts Administration Educators (AAAE). AAAE is an international organization incorporated as a nonprofit institution whose mission is to represent college and university graduate and undergraduate programs in arts administration, encompassing training in the management of visual, performing, literary, media, cultural and arts service organizations. Founded in 1975, the AAAE was created to provide a forum for communication among its members and advocate formal training and high standards of education for arts administrators. The Association, moreover, encourages its members to pursue, publish, present and disseminate research in arts management and administration to strengthen the understanding of arts management issues in the academic and professional fields.
Leslie and I ventured over to Boston for their 2011 conference hosted by the Arts Administration Graduate Program at Boston University (see picture of me above overlooking Boston). Overall, we felt it was completely invaluable for us to be present. The conference is primarily geared towards the educators of these university programs, but the conversation spanned a broad range of issues in arts management that clearly benefitted from having students and to a greater extent the “employer” in the room. There was much talk about what future employers would want. Being an “employer” we had the opportunity to chime in. I think people were fascinated that 1. We were there at all; and 2. That we are having parallel conversations about key skills and insights we are looking for in future employees.
A few major revelations that peaked our interest: • Leadership Competencies: Most often employers are looking for key leadership skills when they hire, but how do these get taught at the university level? What skills are employers really looking for? How can universities and employers work together to develop these in future leaders? • National Scope: We had originally thought of our Theatre Management Internship program being only open to local university partners, but after meeting with many other universities there is a definite interest for students nationally to be able to participate. Can we design a program that can encompass a national pool of students? Or is this an opportunity for a national organization, such as TCG, to create a national program?
We had some fantastic conversations that have helped to evolve our thinking and want to thank some of the conference attendees for taking time to share with us their insights: Laura Zucker and Diana Luna from Claremont Graduate University, David Edelman from Shenandoah University, Dee Boyle from University of Massachusetts Amherst Extension Services, and Antonio Cuyler from Purchase College.
It was so great to be there so big thanks to Barbara Harkins, the Administrative Director of AAAE, for talking with me and giving us the opportunity to be in the room. -Patricia
Things are very exciting around Dad's Garage these days.
Our horror musical Scarlett's Web is doing so well that we've extended it for two weeks.
We've launched 3 videos in the last month on our new YouTube channel as a part of Dad's Garage TV. If you're not faint of heart, you might wanna check them out here!
Or view here...
And this weekend we're hosting Saturday Night Live alumni Tim Meadows at our theatre where we will work with him to create and perform some fun nights of live comedy.
The whole idea with Dad's Garage TV is that all ships will rise, which is to say we'll see an increase in ticket sales, class registration, corporate booking, etc. And while it's certainly too early to say how effective our efforts will be, it is heartening to see things generally buzzing with a positive momentum.
The celebrity guest angle is connected because one of the goals of the theatre right now is to generate more awareness about our work on a national level, and we're hoping that amazing guest artists like Tim will help us accomplish that.
And most unexpectedly: our channel has only been live for a month and we've already received two cold call requests for corporate video work. And although this wasn't an intended outcome, it's becoming clear that it could be a great new revenue stream for the organization as well as the artists.
But really, things are just whirling around right now, and the real test of the effectiveness of this project will be when the initial excitement dies down and it has to stand on its own two digital feet.
Sitting down for breakfast with Leslie Tamaribuchi, Associate Dean of School of Theatre at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) opened us up to a non-traditional approach of arts management.
CalArts has three management tracks in their program: Producing, Stage Management, and Production Management. The two most closely aligned with some of the other programs we are exploring would be the producing and production management strands. Each program has specific goals, but essentially they focus on the basics of management including budgeting, marketing, public relations, fundraising, and analyzing a script critically.
Students work on many hands-on projects throughout their time at CalArts in order to provide them a sampling of the type of work they would potentially be doing out in their careers. CalArts considers project management experience vital to their management students. CalArts believes in giving students the right general skills and tools, but also wants students to be able to develop their own specific focus. Each student in their fifth semester has a required internship. Often CalArts students are placed in for-profit settings. They have worked with a wide range of organizations such as amusements parks, in film or television. Leslie posed very valid questions for us to consider along our discovery journey: The theatre world is very expansive. Could our program be bigger by incorporating different businesses or by partnering with different types of institutions?
•How do we not set up barriers but rather support a fluid professional exchange between commercial businesses and non-profits? Why is there a commercial and non-profit divide?
•How do we change the perspective/image of our field? How can we broaden the discussion on where theatre management skills can be applied?
I have an intern here in our Education Department this semester named Elena Muslar and she just recently was accepted into the CalArts family and had this to say about what makes CalArts so uniquely exciting: “I am immensely excited to attend CalArts after talking with students and faculty, sitting in on classes, and seeing theatrical performances! I know that I will be immersed into a mixing bowl filled with ingredients of expression, guidance, and creativity. From the start, The School of Theatre’s MFA Management program specifically has enticed me because of the personal attention CalArts provides for each student, respect for the student’s individual ideas to be cultivated, and the quick immersion into the theatre department through the Producing track. I am eager to be going into a program where I will get my feet wet right off the bat, producing shows and working on management issues so that I can attack them as an arts manager of the future!” -Patricia
It has been a great month of developing ideas and writing with the class. After completing The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, we then took some time to act out the story. Taking turns with children exchanging roles, which helped them understand the story in a physical way. This was followed by a brainstorming session about the relevance of The Lorax, in context with their experience or memory of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Out of the brainstorm session came phrases and words related to their memories, and/or experience from one year ago. Once that list was collected they build on those phrases with poems, stories, and song.
It's been a little tough this month with all of the testing that the kids have to prepare for, plus spring break, that has interrupted our process, but we were still able to meet in between those interruptions and get another writing exercise done. Using the words DeepWater / Horizon / Oil Spill, the kids were ask to pick one of the three words/phrases and come up with a list of other words and phrases that rhymed or create an alliteration. We're very excited about the outcome. They developed some entertaining play on words. It will be a great addition to the show we are building.
In May, we bring them to our space at Southern Rep for the duration of the program. We're very excited about that -- with think being in our environment (rather than in their familiar school surroundings) will help them focus as they get their play up on it's feet, and maybe just raise the stakes a bit more. Plus we'll be incorporating more of the marketing, development, directing and design components that are such an important part of our program.
Hard to believe we're down to the final month of our first year of the Pilot Program. Time has been flying by. - Gamal Chasten, Education Director & Marieke Gaboury, Managing Director
I’ve been meaning to write you this letter since I drove to the airport right after that amazingly encouraging Superlab reading of Mala Hierba at Playwrights Horizons in March. It’s been on my mind since then, but because of Nogalar, I hadn’t been able to write you and properly express what an extraordinary opportunity the Superlab was for me.
When I find myself thinking about the experience I had that week, I keep going back to this feeling that it was like nothing I’ve been through before. That sounds a little corny but seriously, I’ve been through many a workshop process, of various natures, at theaters big and small, but I have never had a process as supportive and nurturing as the Superlab; putting it into words doesn’t do it justice.
I think the trick was that we didn’t have the pressure of a production and I didn’t have a producer over my shoulder micro-dramaturging and giving notes bent towards some sort of aesthetic or mission statement. It was just about the play.
When does that ever happen? You guys just let the words breathe and would come inperiodically to offer gentle dramaturgical advice. The combination of that with making available a script assistant who kept up with my rewriting rhythm was gold. Absolute gold.
And I can’t tell you how much I laughed. The team we put together was just truly specially. During Superlab I was able to forge a relationship with Jerry which, I can tell, will go on for years. I can feel it. Thank you so much for that and for introducing me to New York in such an intimate way. This Chicago girl could never repay that.
It's widely acknowledged that American new play development has floundered over the past few decades.There's been a national conversation about the preponderance of timid theatrical institutions that, despite their best intentions, engender tepid plays.But there are a number of smart and scrappy exceptions to this rule, and Clubbed Thumb is one of the smartest and scrappiest.For 15 years Clubbed Thumb has built a dazzling reputation among adventurous theatergoers and theater practitioners as the go-to producer of the most exciting and audacious new American plays.I've been lucky enough to be the beneficiary of their producing energy not once, but twice.
Bold, curious, frank, unfettered by convention or fidelity to what may have worked in the past, interest in plays' for plays' sake—these are the hallmarks of Clubbed Thumb’s approach.The cleverly designed SuperLab series combines this ethos with the resources, reputation and infrastructure of another famously playwright-centered institution, Playwrights’ Horizons.So when Maria Striar invited me to bring my new play SEVEN HOMELESS MAMMOTHS WANDER NEW ENGLAND into the SuperLab series I jumped at the chance.
The development goal of the SuperLab is not to make plays different or "better,” but more of themselves, more fundamentally and fully what they set out to be in the first place. The focus, as with all Clubbed Thumb's work, is on the playwright and her questions about her work. The architecture of time and space are writer directed, from the scheduling of the week as a whole to the pace and purpose of every rehearsal hour.This intense writer focus is something lots of theaters talk about, but Clubbed Thumb actually makes happen in a peerless way.
The result was a huge leap forward for my play.A script that went into the SuperLab week as a promising collection of scenes cohered into a leaner, funnier comedy with the act break in an inspired new place (thanks to Maria Striar's hands-on dramaturgy) and about eight new scenes' worth of material.The intensity and abandon of the writing time made possible by the SuperLab structure was precious to me; the progress I was able to make on the work was crucial to the play's future life.I can only wish the same experience for every other playwright I know.
As we reflect on and assess the first year of the after-school Northlight On Campus program, we look back at the trends we saw in student engagement throughout the residency. Here are some bullet point observations, and some goals for next year.
OBSERVATIONS from Year 1:
Attendance dipped heavily as winter break approached
Attracting and retaining boys was incredibly difficult, girls came in droves
Student focus was unpredictable, and varied day to day
Students self-reflection started out poorly, grew tremendously, but then declined in the end
Student preparation was hard to manage as we got closer to the final presentation – the levels of preparation varied greatly student to student (line and blocking memorization, bringing script and pencil, etc.)
GOALS for Year 2:
Recruit more boys and try to maintain their engagement as well as continue to serve the girls in NOC
Work on daily structure, build a tighter sense of routine and better utilize call-and-response cues to control focus
Establish reflection rituals and employ them daily
Get parents more involved in order to better control levels of preparation among students
Also, as we look at commissioning a script for next year, I think it will be very important to get buy-in from students on a new work. Choosing a playwright and a play will be a process that starts this summer. We solicited feedback from this year’s participating students on what they would like to see in the play next year. Their thoughts are interesting for us to consider. They included:
We want production values – costumes, props and a set
We want a famous story
We want characters who are not like us
We want more boys to participate in the play
We want more students in the show
We will have to balance these desires with what we can achieve and what we think is best for the students. I wonder if considering an adaptation (so that we balance new work with a story they know and can see themselves being a part of) might be worth considering. Also, there’s a balance to strike between creating roles to attract male students, but also making sure that we are taking care of the female students who are passionate about being there. This is something that will take a lot of consideration moving forward.
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