Pleased To Meet Me

So…why this blog? Because I’ve been reading this guy and this guy and feel like there’s a conversation that needs to happen and we need voices having it. Theatre is coming to a crossroads, in terms of producing/development models and we need full-throated discussion about it. The more voices, the better.

That's from the first post I wrote here, just about two years ago, almost exactly. At the time, I was coming off of seven years of work as an administrator in various Off-Off-Broadway theatre companies and organizations and had been working in a non-theatre-related day job for about a year or so. I'd just discovered (coming late the game, I know) the theatre blogosphere and was thrilled by the conversation. I was, and continue to be, a theatre organization nerd. The last theatre job I had, in a development organization, was in part focused on organization issues. It's kind of my thing.

This blog came out of that thing. And it's been a pretty interesting ride. I've had my issues, taken my leaves of absence, made some friends, pissed some people off, stirred up my share of hornet's nests. I've certainly said my share of provocative things. But, in general, I've enjoyed the conversation.

After reading Outrageous Fortune and this post from Scott Walters, I feel like the conversation has, at least for me, hit a tipping point, certainly in its current incarnation. Outrageous Fortune convinced me that the overlapping issues facing our institutional theatres might be insurmountable. Scott reminded me that there are other paths (I also liked David Dower's comment). I think I have to forge one of those other paths in order to stay true to my work and ideals. But I also think the conversation should continue and grow. More voices are always better than fewer.

In order for the conversation to be most effective, though, it requires transparency, openness and honesty. As Bob Dylan said, to live outside the law, you must be honest*. And, to be honest, for a while now, the whole anonymity thing has chafed a bit. I've had to hold back some details and specifics, in order to protect my identity. If I'm going to be honest about the work I'm doing and trying to do, I can't keep protecting myself.

I was invited to attend an upcoming convening on black playwriting at the Arena Stage and blog about it here. Certainly the people there would learn my actual identity and then, well, as they say, it's a small world. So. It's time to let some things go and move the ball forward.

Here goes nothing. This is me. You can find my bio here (though it's a bit outdated...I gotta update it), and they've published a number of my plays. Over the last decade, I worked here, here and here. There's more info out there, but I trust you can find it.

So what does this mean? Functionally, not much, really. I plan to keep this blog going, pretty much the same as it has been. Okay, maybe a little gentler, not so much with the flamethrowing, but with as much honesty as I can stand. I'll also add some things that aren't strictly theatre, some more review-type things, maybe even some strictly personal things. Really, I don't know. But I hope you stick with me.

As for my new thoughts, I'm going to be looking very seriously at self-producing, about starting a production company, probably under the name of 99 Seats. More about that as it comes.

At any rate, it's a new year, a new decade. Time to turn the page.




*For the record, and to maintain my nerd cred, I first encountered that Dylan quote in the ads for this comic book. Just so you don't think I'm cool like dat.