Sunday, September 13, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Focusing on the Portland, Oregon theatre scene in precisely 50-word increments. followspot@hotmail.com
29 comments:
I'd like to apologize to anyone whose feelings I may have hurt with one of my posts.
I regret it sincerely.
Clues? Hints?
Does anybody know about that production of "Company" that is returning this fall?
Ah Google, you old vixen you:
http://pcpa.com/events/event.php?run=1692
Here's a link to the PCPA website about the upcoming production. JANE also has a website but it's mum on the details.
plays sept 25 thru nov 8.
th-fri-sat at 8
sun at 2.
sept 24 is benefit for oregon food bank.
admission is 2 cans of food.
tix at ticketmaster or pdxtix.net
or at pcpa BO
oh, and tix are $30 --- i think....
This brings up an "off topic" I would like to discuss.
I think Portland theater tickets are way too expensive. Are we driving our audiences away? PCS tickets are rivaling some Broadway shows. A lot of even smaller theaters are charging $30-40. I know about student rush but I'm not a student. Just an average middle class guy who really can't afford to attend much live theater anymore. So our audience base becomes the wealthy few and other actors (who usher or can score comps)
Wouldn't all theaters make more money if more people went to the theater, even if they paid a little less money.
Does anyone else think ticket prices have just gotten out of hand and that we might be shooting ourselves in the foot?
Great topic. I do think this is an on-going, difficult topic. And it's tricky for theater companies to find the right price to maximize affordability and audience and profit. Can a company afford to lower prices - taking the chance that they'll just lose money, in the hopes that more people will attend? I don't know.
Also, I think there are a lot of reasons that people don't go to theater besides money, so we can't put too many eggs in that basket. (A lot of people that think theater is too expensive have no problem spending $30 at a bar that night instead. Just preferences.)
You may very well be right. In the meantime, while each company tries to figure this quagmire out for themselves...
- defunkt does sliding scale starting at $10 and Pa-What-You-Will nights.
- Theatre Vertigo has Pay-What-You-Will every Thursday.
- PCS rush tickets for everyone are $15
- ART does a free preview the Sunday before opening.
So, even if you're not a student or a comped friend, there are ways to keep attending!
Thanks for the topic!
As this is an off-topic forum, I would like to take up a little space and recommend to anyone reading to travel down to Salem and see a production at the Salem Repertory Theatre. Of course, "followspot" is aimed at Portland area theatres and surrounding suburban areas, and rightfully so. There's alot of wonderful work being done in Portland. But as a visitor to both Portland and Salem, I have to say that the Salem Rep is doing some outstanding work with not only their performers, but also with their production values. I really think its a hidden gem that no one knows about because, yes, it is 40 miles away from Portland. I am not advocating it be included in "followspot's" theatre listings, I just want to make mention of it in case anybody is interested enough to go down to see it. Their upcoming production is "Mauritius" and it opens on October 1st. Thank you
So what do you all think about the new "Qualifying round" for PATA auditions?
Seems like babysitting to me.
I'm pretty certain that if PATA didn't feel this "babysitting" was necessary the organization wouldn't burden itself with all this additional work.
What? No more accordion accompanied auditions? The horror! The horror!
I have gone to those auditions seeking to cast a show and found it to be a very long couple of days seeing too much chaff amongst the wheat. A paring down of available choices would make me more like to attend again when casting another show.
It may be that the process may end up requiring even more pruning, since they're apparently going to let people who have done PATAs before come again without the qualifying round, and surely there are going to be some duds in that group. . . .
In the "Company" thread, several people raised the issue of the director taking notes during the run. I have no strong feelings about this, but I'd like to hear more opinions on the subject. I have been in shows in which the director -- as professional and long-established in Portland as just about anyone you can name -- also did this, and I have certainly seen shows and individual performances stray off track during the run. So just for the sake of discussion, is it really so wrong? I suspect the "standard practice" got set in stone more because a lot of directors took off to other jobs after opening than because of any principle of the thing.
As an actor, I like getting notes even after the show opens. Sometime my performance slips, sometimes hearing a audiences' reactions can make a director want to clarify things. My opinion is yes please.
It is the Stage Manager's job to give maintenance notes. If an actor "strays" from their original, "as directed" performance, the SM is responsible for bringing them back.
The director's job is over once the show opens. The show has been directed. Get out of the way.
Tell *that* to Alan Shearman, LOL.
If you had trust in the director during the rehearsal process, why would you lose that trust after the show opens?
I most trust a director who is able to fully communicate his vision, and (as ably as their chops allow) get his actors to fulfill it, during the rehearsal process; one who then trusts his actors enough to grow in their public performances of their roles and service to the play, and who trusts his stage manager to enlighten actors if they veer away from his vision. I think a director who feels the need to keep giving notes is likely simply unable to have done his job sufficiently well during the rehearsal process, for any number of reasons, and I think only on the rarest of occasions would continual notes make up for that shortfall.
A director worth that trust wouldn't be giving notes after opening.
Alan Shearman, who returns to San Francisco after opening night?
Or do you mean Jim Crino?
Alan Shearman, who returns to L.A. usually a week after opening night and continues to call with notes on a virtually daily basis. Yes, that Alan Shearman.
How can you give notes from out of town?
Is someone taping the show for him?
He always chooses a patsy, usually a young woman, who he has phone him on a nightly basis with her report of how things went.
Uh, would that be the Stage Manager?
And is the report a "show report?"
'Cause that's what's supposed to happen.
Uh, no, that would be a "cast member," usually part of the "ensemble," and it's called Alan's inability to stop giving notes LOL.
For me performance notes aren't inherently bad. It's the same as actors saying to each other after the show, "this run went really great, let's do that again." If directors don't know what they want, can't communicate it, and don't go away, that's a bad director, not an inherent flaw in post-opening notes. "The stage manager's job is to keep the actors in line with the director's directing after the director leaves"--that's a hierarchy, not a definition. It might work but it's not always the best way to produce theatre.
In general it's best to assume that everyone involved with a production is trying to make the best show possible. Even after proof to the contrary, assume it's only a misunderstanding. Otherwise, why are you working there?
Post a Comment