Written by 9:32 pm Theater, Uncategorized

PUTTING THEM IN THE SEATS A THEATRICAL ROADMAP

Written by Eric Eberwein 

I was recently asked to write about how theatre is adapting to modern times. This is an interesting request when we consider the implication that theatre is struggling or somehow failing to adapt. Perhaps it is struggling – struggling for mindshare and struggling for an audience in the face of Netflix, Facebook, first-person shooters, and all the other cheap and quickly accessible diversions ready to occupy our time. How do you make theatre as accessible, as contemporary, and as culturally relevant as all of the above? To put it plainly, “How do you get more people into theatre in 2015?” How do you get them to fall in love with it and call it their own? Maybe you have to call for change. 

A Call for the Contemporary 

Why don’t more people go to the theatre? The usual answer is “money” – it costs too much. Well, a night at South Coast Repertory picor Laguna Playhouse might cost too much for many OC residents, but a night at STAGES Theatre in Fullerton or Modjeska Playhouse in Lake Forest is quite affordable. But money is really only half the answer. The other half is the general public’s perception of theatre.
That’s right, the general public. Your co-worker, your yoga instructor, your apartment complex manager, and so on – all those people who don’t plunk down $20 or $40 to see the new Amy Herzog play or a rendition of Into the Woods (like you would do) — how do they perceive theatre? I was once one of them, so I’ll tell you how many of them perceive it. Boring. They see “theatre” as boring. When most people think “ theatre,” they think of a stodgy, static art form telling old or innocuous stories – stories that have little or nothing to do with life in 2015. 

“Going to the theatre” is rarely a cutting-edge, PG-13, hip-hop, or rock ‘n’ roll experience. “Rarely” because most Non-Theatergoers will readily concede that a few plays and musicals like that exist. But mostly, they see theatre as a dull panorama of old, white stories – a polite museum of past American behaviors.

Revivals enforce this perception. Endless programming of plays and musicals portraying a previous American era does little to interest teens, twenty-somethings, and thirty-somethings because they’re convinced this is their grandparents’ art form. While these particular relatives may be plunking down $20 or $50 to see these revivals, they hardly represent the audience theaters must attract to survive. How do you make theatre more contemporary and immediate? One answer is to produce more plays that speak to our time. Another would be to let others (expand diversity) theatrically speak.

A Call for Inclusivity

Most theatre companies are far less diverse than the neighborhoods they call home. This holds true in Orange County, and it holds true across the rest of the country. What can we do about it? I think the philosophy of the Judson Memorial Church (a radically progressive Greenwich Village house of worship that became a major player in the Off-Off-Broadway scene during the 1960s through its theatre programming) should be an inspiration.
Historian David Crespy shares in his great book Off-Off-Broadway Explosion the Judson’s concept of witness, which meant“ finding faith in the world, bringing the world into the church, and by doing so, bringing the church into the world.” In other words, the Judson went into the Village and asked the beats, the artists, and the actors who lived there what they were passionate about – what they believed in. It then hosted their art, their plays, and their poetry. In doing so, it became more relevant to the community than it had ever been before.

This is a model of inclusivity. Fortunately for us, there are some major OC theaters now applying this essential model. Look at Shakespeare|Summerfest Orange County. Look at South Coast Repertory. They want to put the diversity of Orange County in the front and center of their stages and celebrate it. In doing so, they have connected powerfully to the Orange County of the present –as opposed to the Orange County of the past. Picture this: your local storefront or community theatre hosts a new play, solo show, or musical presenting a story of the Asian Pacific American experience, the transgender experience, the OC Latina experience… They bring artists from these communities in to express their voices and tell their stories instead of some half-assed attempt to “reach out to the _______ community” by staging some embarrassingly dated, 50-year-old play from Samuel French’s
back catalog.

Somewhere, someone is reading this and thinking, “If we put that on stage, no one would show up.” Define “no one.” Maybe a relatively small number of the patrons who attended your production of “Show Boat” would show up, but are they the only possible attendees of your theatre? Wouldn’t new audiences arrive, especially if the producing ensemble was well-connected and aware of the right marketing channels?

Inclusivity also means opening your doors to the next generation of theatre artists. If you want an audience for new and cutting-edge plays at your storefront theatre, invite guest productions from new ensembles comprised of actors and directors coming directly out of the universities. Those ensembles are ready to form if they haven’t formed already. They also have an audience of peers loyally following them to shows.

A CALL TO AFFIRM OUR IMPORTANCE

As a participant in OC’s thriving storefront theatre scene, I sometimes wonder if we really value the theatre as much as we should. (Sometimes, when I look at my Facebook news feed, it looks like we value drinking after the show as much as the show itself). Hopefully, we’re not doing shows just to do shows and party afterward. Hopefully, we realize what this OC storefront theatre scene has already achieved and what it can achieve in the future. The Chance Theater has earned national recognition (NEA and TCG grants) for its new play development and overall excellence. Rude Guerrilla Theater Company basically blew up the limitations on what OC theatre could do and became known as one of the edgiest theatre companies west of the Mississippi while putting up U.S. premieres of work from Mark Ravenhill, Sarah Kane and other great U.K. dramatists. Johnna Adams – now a nationally admired playwright – had some of her earliest productions at Rude Guerrilla and STAGEStheatre.

At one point, the Hunger Artists had three graduates of American Conservatory Theatre’s acting program in their ensemble, and Insurgo Theater Movement had a couple of them too –as well as a whole bunch of Utah Shakes alumni. Rude Guerrilla had some of the cream of UCI thespians in its ensemble. A ridiculous amount of acting talent has emerged from the OC storefront.

I remember seeing STAGEStheatre’s devastatingly funny 2004 production of David Lindsay-Abaire’s Fuddy Meers with an esteemed director from L.A.’s 99-seat theatre scene. Afterward, frankly awed, he asked Johnna Adams if these actors had been through some kind of special comedic training or something. She smiled and replied, “No, they’re just really good actors.” Really good actors do come out of OC and achieve greatness. Just off the top of my head, look at Steven Parker, who went from Rude Guerrilla to Sons of Anarchy, and Valorie Curry, who went from CSUF to the Twilight series and The Following.

So, yes, we are really good. We should not perceive the work we do in Orange County as amateur, inferior, or a poor effort from the hinterland. We should stand up for how good it is more often.

GETTING THE WORD OUT ABOUT OC THEATRE!

If there’s any doubt as to why we should do that—A few years ago, I met a spectacularly gifted playwright born and raised in central Orange County. This playwright went through two very prestigious university theatre programs, one of which was in Los Angeles for an MFA. I mentioned Hunger Artists, Rude Guerrilla, STAGEStheatre, Theatre Out, and other past and present mainstays of the OC storefront theatre scene to her. She had never heard of them. OC native. Late 20s. Devoted to theatre. She had no idea any of this was occurring –no idea there was a thriving theatre scene right in her backyard with a continuing interest in new plays and works. This told me two things.

• The local media undervalues the achievements and quality of
the OC storefront theatre scene.

• This is partly because we have not championed its value often
enough.

How do we let the media know the OC storefront is breeding important theatres, actors, directors, and playwrights? Maybe we should publicize our success stories more often. Engage and market to people who aren’t “theatre people” more often. Maybe we should announce our ambitions more often. But most of all, I fear the local media doesn’t value us enough because we don’t value ourselves enough to articulate our own importance.

If we announce we are important, that what we do is important – and it is – more people will take notice, and more people who don’t go to the theatre may be motivated to get up and go lest they miss out on something earthshaking. Imagine stepping onto the stage and seeing a full house. The audience is spellbound, enthusiastic, and electric in its energy. It is diverse and in awe of what you’re doing to the point of alliance and devotion to this magical thing called theatre.

We all have that dream, and sometimes it comes true. It should come true more often than it does. Supplanting the theatre of past times with the theatre of modern times might be the best way to make it happen.

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