Sunday, January 30, 2011
Take a chance on a new play or company
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "February is a good time to venture into the unknown by exploring new venues or taking a chance on an unfamiliar work, playwright or production company. If the Benedum, the Byham, Heinz Hall and the O'Reilly are your usual haunts, you may be surprised to know that there are at least three other theaters within the cultural district that contribute to the rich diversity of area theater where you can do this.
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8 comments:
This seems so exciting! Watching new and developing theatre is so interesting. I love being exposed to new forms of theatre, especially for shows that take risks. The Bricolage Urban Scrawl is a particularly intriguing idea, and although I am unsure I will be able to afford a ticket, I would love to witness that sort of process. Of course, classics such as "Camelot" and "Hair" are great too, but there is nothing like a completely new form of theatre.
I agree with Sophia completely. It's great to know that places like the Benedum and the Pittsburgh Public will have shows going pretty consistently, some that experiment, some that don't as much. The idea that there is always something new to find is part of what excites me so much about theatre. Back home, I see a ton of broadway and very sort of mainstream stuff, but once in a while I try to venture to new parts of town in search of some exciting work or reading no one knows about, and most of the time I wind up pretty satisfied with what I discover. If I can spare the time, I'll definitely try to do some theatre-hunting in Pittsburgh this coming month.
In the last 10 years (though not so much anymore with the post-Rendell economic climate) a lot of funding for the arts in PA. Coming from Philly, there are a few big regional theaters and a lot of store-front/avant garde troupes. Not only does something like this give audiences a more diverse viewing selection, it creates more jobs. More productions means more technicians required (though range of budgets also create a range of paychecks.) Glad to see an article like this and instead of filling dead spots of the commercial theater season, I hope new and diverse artistic work is the Pittsburgh theater season.
I also am glad to see that this article was even written, but I have to wonder how much good it would actually do. I wish the article didn't start by talking about Camelot and Hair; I'm still thinking about those shows after reading the article because those are the shows that I've heard of. Also, by mentioning the "risk" associated with these shows, it makes the shows seem like they will be avant-garde shows with a specific type of audience (regardless of whether or not this is true). I think this would actually be a turn off for traditional theatregoers, who want to see shows that have an expected outcome.
It's interesting that Marcus at City Theatre wasn't written into this article about non-downtown February shows...
Having produced a 24 Hour Theatre Project akin to Bricolage's Urban Scrawl before, it's an exciting but crazy process. The VIP guests are going to see a frantic negotiation of ideas between the directors and writers, especially when it comes to the casting "parade". The great thing is that these insane projects really produce some fantastic plays (and some duds) - I'd encourage anyone interested to check out "TheATrainPlays", which is a collection of plays written while riding (and all taking place on) NYC's "A" train to the end of the line and back. If you can afford the money to see the B.U.S, especially on a VIP ticket, I'd encourage it greatly.
I so wish I had he time and money to go see more theater. One of the best plays I saw was in a little theater on Penn Ave. There were 9 people in the audience. That was 10 years ago and I still remember dialog from it.
I find that theater that is produced in smaller venues is often more interesting. Generally just for the fact of having to be creative. I mean think about playground, and for that matter our own shows. Everyone one loves playground because people use only the resources that they have to create theater and people are excited to see it because of how imaginative people can be. There is also the example of Pig Pen, they prefer to have their shows small even though they could fill a much larger space. This because the intimacy of a space is exciting. In the whole school of drama think about which shows have more controversy and intrigue associated with them, and think about which ones are talked about. I would argue that Rauh shows are the one’s that people talk about because the people producing them are allowed to experiment, and are forced to get creative because it is a smaller space. You do not have tons of money or space, so that limits two of the four elemental resources. Also because it is not a main stage, it doesn’t have to succeed. It doesn’t have to be safe.
It is interesting to see how upcoming events in sports and movies can effect theater so much. This is a logistical concern which i would not have thought of. When taking into consideration the fact that theater is reliant on people in seats for its income, it makes a lot of sense that productions would need to be scheduled around important events on a local, national, and even international level.
That being said the upcoming theater in Pittsburgh sounds interesting, and inspiring. Hearing about an outside theater in Pittsburgh seems almost ridiculous when considering it in February, but the plans to open a show in April inspire hope for warm weather.
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