Theater Needs Better Rivalries

The aspect I most love about sports, be they professional or college or Olympic, is the ever present element of good old fashioned competition between rivals. A hotly contested rivalry gives each camp something to shoot for, a bar to meet and surpass, and pushes both sides to compete harder, better and smarter against all other competitors, not just the hated rival.

And for the most part, the competitive spirit between teams is usually pretty good natured as it's in the interest of both parties to keep the rivalry going. For example, the 49ers don't spend hours working diligently into the evening on the total destruction of the Cowboys organization (at least not publicly), because SF knows that when arch rival Dallas comes to town, tickets will move and beers will be sold at a quicker pace than when the Seahawks come visit.

Yes, of course, there are downsides whenever you're dealing with competition. Chloe Veltman has some thoughts on the alternative papers of the Bay Area, the Weekly and Bay Guardian, who apparently do work late into the evening desperately trying to destroy each other. Veltman argues that it's all a bit silly, considering they're both pretty excellent papers, but that the behavior is especially egregious given the gloomy economic prospects of newspapers these days. "If this continues," Veltman writes, "It won't be long before The Bay Area has no alternative papers at all."

And if you think that sounds a bit hyperbolic, just think about some of those crazy gnarly rivalries in politics, hip-hop or international soccer. Shit can get outta hand, for sure.

However, generally speaking, I think a little competition is a good thing. It's the basis for capitalism right? (Note: capitalism may or may not be a good thing, but for now it seems pretty well accepted around the world, so let's call it a solid.)

Look at the 2007 show down between Kanye West and 50 Cent - both agreed to release their latest albums at the same time and subsequently retire from hip-hop if the other sold more copies in the first week. Though generally regarded as a marketing ploy to boost sales, the face off was hyped as some super personal rivalry between two mega-star rappers. According to Forbes, it worked, "Rivalries sell records."

What's ingenious about sports rivalries, is that a) there is theoretically no end to the rivalry, and b) the start of each new season essentially wipes the slate clean as both sides retool, change line-ups, hire some heavy hitters etc, and the rivalry resets itself. Example: every year every Cal Bears fan says the following about their football team, and it basically never comes true: "This year, we're totally going to beat USC and go to the Rose Bowl."

Theater could use some this competition, or any competition for that matter. Throw down challenges, level ultimatums, ratchet up the rhetoric and have some fun while you're doing it. Developing a marketing plan around competition energizes sales in other industries, so why not theater?

So how could good ole fashioned friendly competition play out in the theater community? Well, I can think of one example off the top of my head, but here's a few more:

1) Two theaters should agree to premiere the same play at the same time. They'd each do their own, individual, and unique as a snowflake productions of the show, but they'd build an entire marketing strategy around competing to sell more tickets. The theater that sells more tickets to its version of the show wins, and the competing artistic director has to shave his beard, or the other company has to agree to be pelted with rotten veggies.

2) Impact ran this pretty dope event called Beer Theater, an experiment which asked the very scientific question, "Could medieval actors hold their liquor better than Impact actors?" Great question, and one that desperately needs to be answered right away and frequently. Now toss a little competition into the mix and you've got some uber dank entertainment. Pit two companies against each other who both perform the same scene and decree that whichever group manages to polish off more pitchers of beer over the course of their scene wins. The loser has to immediately sing a drunken karaoke version of Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn".

3) Build a social networking marketing campaign around winning Best Theater Co. in all these Best of the Bay lists that the Chronicle, Weekly and Bay Guardian put out in the Spring. Fans would get more active on Facebook pages or comments sections and eventually start doing their own marketing for their chosen company. The losing company has to put out a YouTube video acknowledging the winner as the Best in the Bay ... or agree to get pelted with rotten veggies.

Point is, all of these strategies would energize fan bases, increase sales, and be generally fun for participants and audience alike. If rivalries can sell records, they should also be able to put butts in seats.

PianoFight part of Bay One Acts Festival

For the Ninth year in a row Three Wise Monkeys is putting together its Bay One Acts (BOA) Festival running at Boxcar in February, and they just announced the line-up of playwrights, directors, and producing partners.

PianoFight's part of it, producing Sam Leichter's deliciously evil play "The Philadelphian," with Rob Ready directing. Essentially, BOA picks scripts and signs up companies to handle the production of each piece.

Interestingly enough, of the eleven playwrights selected for BOA, PianoFight has already produced four of them, and two of those at length. Megan Cohen, Lauren Yee, Bill Bivins and Daniel Heath, the former who each had pieces in the first ShortLived, and the latter who have each won ShortLived and subsequently had world premiere full lengths at PianoFight. Bloggotubing playwright buddy Tim Bauer's got a script in also, and our homies Sleepwalkers have a piece in the mix too.

Jessica Holt has taken over as AD of Three Wise Monkeys, and at pre-festival meetings (which have inexplicably been scheduled for the unholy hours of before noon on weekends), she has stressed the importance of community throughout the festival. While I'm not exactly certain how that plays out in terms of the fest (probably just means she wants us all to get loaded together), it helps that a bunch of us have already worked together (we've hosted two of the other producing companies, Playwrights Center and No Nude Men, for rehearsals at Off-Market).

Point is, BOA has gotten some pretty dope writers, directors, actors and companies on board for this and the 2010 line-up should be nothing short of killer with this level of talent collaborating. We're looking forward to it, especially that whole community part (read: drinking).

Explaining the "Model"

A few weeks ago we put out a press release detailing how Combined Artform and PianoFight are expanding their theater management duties in both LA and SF, which prompted local playwright and all around theater blogger Tim Bauer to ask this:

"I'd like to know more about the "for-profit, non-government aided" model. I suspect that's the wave of the future, and would free you up from writing grants and producing the kind of work that you may not want to do but that will sound good to a funder. How's it work and can you share the model with other artists who might want to follow your path? Thanks!"

I can't really speak for Combined Artform here, and to be honest, we're still figuring out what PianoFight's business model is going to be. And I don't really think that our "model" is too different from what most artists do on their own, we've just applied it to a company, but here goes:

1) Produce your own work out of pocket

2) Keep producing until your work is making enough money to pay for itself (ie, you're no longer funding it out of pocket)

3) Keep on producing your own work until it's paying you a living wage

Right now, we're somewhere between steps two and three.

Our basic thinking was that if we get behind something, in this case PianoFight, and work collectively to promote the company as opposed to an individual promoting him or herself, the whole thing would gain traction much quicker with multiple people avidly working towards its success.

PianoFight, thanks to Matthew Quinn, picked up management duties of Studio 250 at Off-Market in 2007, and over the course of the first year a community started to form around the company and venue. We then registered PianoFight as an LLC (which is cheap and easy to do), and had to pay an $800 tax for our first registered year in business in 2008 (which was neither cheap nor easy to do). 2009 marked the first time that anyone in PianoFight received a paycheck (the SF run of FORKING!).

The checks were small considering the amount of work that went into FORKING!, but everyone was paid equally (from the producer to the light/sound tech to the actors), with the idea that over time, as our audience grows and sales increase and the company's other revenue streams begin to grow (theater rentals, merch etc), that those paychecks will get bigger each time we issue them, and eventually it will be a living wage supporting everyone involved.

As I said above, we're somewhere between steps two and three, and we're still figuring this model out. What's liberating about the for-profit model is the freedom it provides to do whatever the hell you want, and change a plan of attack on the fly.

Example: in March of 2008, we expected to have a renter in Studio 250 from April through June, however, a week into March, the renter decided to go to another space. PianoFight was left with a three month hole to fill, and after a few bull session sitting around the theater, we came up with ShortLived, our annual audience judged playwriting competition, which went on to be PianoFight's highest grossing and attention getting production. ShortLived 3 (in 2010), will run concurrently in LA and SF. Because the company has not been beholden to funders or a board, we've had the opportunity to move quickly and without reproach, and learn along the way what works and what doesn't.

I hope that answers your question, Tim, and as I said before, I imagine our "model" is not far from what artists do on their own produce their work til it pays while making career moves which continually provide opportunities to have your work paid for.

If anyone wants to read more about Tim, he's got a great blog, Direct Address, in which he discusses all thing Theater-y and manges to not come across as a cantankerous old-fart like I do.

Tim's also got a show coming up in October, "Zombie Town," which is being produced by Sleepwalkers in October.

Sleepwalkers v. PianoFight in Round 6 of "ShortLived"

SF Weekly's Best Theater Companies in the City, both the Editors' Pick and the Readers' Poll choice, Sleepwalkers and PianoFight respectively, will be battling it out in Round 6 of PianoFight's audience judged playwriting competition "ShortLived" - June 12, 13, 19 and 20.

Check out the promo below:




TICKETS - TICKETS - TICKETS - TICKETS - TICKETS

Congrats to Sleepwalkers (and SF Weekly)

Many heartfelt congratulations are in order for Sleepwalkers Theater for being named the Best Theater Company in San Francisco in SF Weekly's annual Best Of issue.

Sleepwalkers is one of the VERY few companies in the Bay dedicated solely to producing new work, and is the only one that comes to mind which has a "Submit a Script" link on its website.

These guys are the real deal, edgy and talented, smart and funny and always entertaining, and it's phenomenal to see them getting the recognition they so rightly deserve.

And speaking of recognition, I'd also like to send out a personal congrats to SF Weekly for naming Sleepwalkers the best. In terms of critical coverage of theater, a pervading theme is coverage and subsequent rewarding of previously produced work (for an explanation of what the hell I'm talking about, see my post on the Critics Circle here). Way to get out in front of the pack, SF Weekly, and honor a company that truly deserves it.

You can catch Sleepwalkers performing as the guest group in Round 6 of PianoFight's "ShortLived 2.0" June 12, 13, 19 and 20 at the Off-Market Theater.