Sunday, January 22, 2012
San Francisco
HowlRound: There’s an old (and annoying) line about how if you’re smart and ambitious you move to New York, if you’re ambitious but not smart you move to LA, and if you’re smart but not ambitious you move to San Francisco. Sixteen years ago I arrived here by accident in someone else’s car, and since then I’ve found myself often engaged in the examination of the kind of ambition that we have in this city.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
This is a refreshing look at our profession for me. I have been seeing the community aspect of theatre in many of the areas that I have worked vanishing. She talks about the roots that are laid down and the connections that are made in San Francisco, and in the commercialized climate that we now inhabit I am glad to see some idealism still inhabiting an area. The community of artists in the entertainment industry seems to be becoming less of a community as the number of artists in competition for the same funding has increased.
I grew up in the Bay Area and I am so proud to call it my home. I love the artistic community. There are so many opportunities and people are willing to give new people a chance. My senior year in high school I had the opportunity to work with a costume and scenic designer and I was able to sit in on some of the production meeting for a show at Crowed Fire. I know that I for one would rather go to San Francisco that LA or New York.
Having worked briefly as an intern in the Bay Area Theater scene I can tell you that this mentality she speaks of is true. I think what creates this mentality is both a shift in formality and a shift in size. Nothing is really commercialized in the Bay Area, ACT SF's most well known theater still experiments all the time it is not necessarily trying to appease people. It is trying to make art. In addition to give you an example of the size difference I was a lowly props intern at a small theater and I worked with a couple of people that worked with the woman that wrote this article (at intersection). People who move to SF are ambitious but it is in a very laid back way. They are trying things and experimenting. Everyone working in theater knows that no one comes to SF to see theater but if you are a regular Joe who already lives there you are probably more inclined to see experimental work. And because SF is such a rich city people have the funds to spend money on the arts.
Post a Comment