NYTimes.com: The artistic director of Playwrights Horizons, a leading Off Broadway company that produces new American plays, took the unusual step on Saturday of e-mailing 3,000 of the theater’s subscribers to explain his decision to produce Annie Baker’s new play “The Flick,” whose three-hour length and periods of long silence have infuriated some audience members.
The letter, posted below, is the first of its kind for the artistic director, Tim Sanford. In a telephone interview on Monday, he said it was “not an apology,” but rather an effort at “community engagement” over a play that has been embraced by critics – and recently won the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize – but has prompted threats of subscription cancellations by some people walking out at intermission. Mr. Sanford said that about 10 percent of the audience had bolted the play at the interval during the first week of performances in February, but that those numbers have diminished since.
3 comments:
I really commend this artistic director for writing this letter. I think it is a little ridiculous that people would complain and threaten to cancel their subscription just because they didn't like a new show. Participating in the theater world involves experimentation and taking risks and you are going to like some things and not like others. If I don't particularly enjoy a piece of theater, I try to at least appreciate it or the work that went into it. I think this artistic director handled this well in respecting people's right to not like something, but standing by it none the less. Without risks and bold statements, theater would all be the same and rather boring. While I do respect audience's freedom to dislike something, I agree that they should likewise respect the theater's work and freedom to take risks even if it is not suited to a person's particular taste.
The fact that there are theatres that take the risk and produce new american plays is a great thing. They take a great deal of risks putting new works on. Any person that threatens to leave or stoping going to a play is ridiculous. I do not really understand why people leave plays at intermission. If you are not enjoying it then you should still be there listening and observing why you didn't like it. You should think to yourself why the people who were creating this piece of work were doing so. Every minute you spend in a theatre watching a piece of work you did not like is a minute you can spend learning about theatre and what to do versus not and why. I also think that the artist directors letter was the perfect thing to do in a situation. It told people they had made a bold choice and if you did not like it then you are fine and if you did like it that is fine too. It was a good mixture of bring people into a difficult process of choosing the how and why of new works. Go him!
I always find it interesting to look at various media, whether it be books, movies, theatre, etc., where the critics' and the viewing audience's opinions were so opposite. I sometimes wonder why, particularly when the critics are supposed to be a good barometer to figure out if one wants to go see that particular media. I do feel that if the issue is the length of the play, then that information should be available somewhere so people expect it.
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