"It's the community, stupid."

(NOTE: This is in response to a post on the Theatre Bay Area Facebook page titled "Theatre, Community and Mission." Also, very glad TBA posted this and is actively working to engage its members on this subject.)

Ever hear that phrase, "It's about the work"? I certainly have. In classes mostly but also frequently in a professional context. "It's about the work." It bugs me just to type it. Because it's wrong. Theater is not about the work, inherently. It's about the community.

In fact, creating community is the number one function a theater should fulfill. That's how it started after all, right? All those crazy Greeks getting together for a festival of wine and fake weiners and plays and parties and it was all to foster community, more or less. Audiences got to blow off steam, artists got to perform their work and local businesses benefited from a high volume of drunks making impulse buys trafficking by their merchant stands.

Really, it hasn't changed much at all. I'll use PianoFight and the theater we manage with Combined Artform, Off-Market, as an example. We've engaged audiences with innovative and relatively unique show formats like ShortLived (an audience-judged playwriting competition), the FORKING! series by Daniel Heath (fully scripted plays in which the audience votes on how the plot will proceed) and Throw Rotten Veggies at the Actors Nights (pretty self explanatory). By handing over a certain level of control of the content we produce, audiences unwittingly invest in work to come - everyone who voted for the winning play in ShortLived won't come to see the full-length by that writer, but everyone who voted for that piece is definitely more likely to see it than if it were a random full-length by someone they'd never heard of. We also told everyone it was fine to bring their own beer into a show and people generally like that casualness, and of course, the beer.

PianoFight and Off-Market have managed to engage artists by keeping a low access point to having work produced. For example, renting out Studio 250 at Off-Market is only $250 for a Friday or Saturday night (contact Dan Williams, our Executive Director, at dan@pianofight.com for rental inquires), and Off-Market frequently runs co-productions with artists or companies to lower the cost on their end ("Eat, Pray, Laugh!" - "I Heart Hamas" - "City Solo"). With shows like ShortLived, PianoFight has allowed anyone and everyone to submit scripts which are all read by a 6 person directing team. We've focused entirely on new work by locals and by the good fortune of managing a venue, have had the opportunity to produce TONS of those local artists: all the ShortLived playwrights (112 and counting just for that show); the rotating City Solo performers; comics and musicians in Monday Night ForePlays; groups in from LA and New York and Ireland and Denver; bands from late night rock shows etc. By providing local artists an accessible platform on which they can display their work, they also unwittingly invest in the company/space because if the company disappears, so does that opportunity to perform. Also, we put a few cases of Bud in the backstage fridge which we think actors enjoy.

And that last segment of the community, the physical neighborhood, which i really didn't understand until operating a venue. When you've got a large group of young artists who all spend an inordinate amount of time in a given location for rehearsals and performances etc, they tend to need to do things like eat burritos, drink coffee and blow off steam. What this leads to are things like helping turn a local and, as of three years ago a relatively sleepy dive bar, the Tempest, into a little hot spot; getting "fiscally sponsored" by Sonoma Liquors on 6th street (they cut us a deal on beer cause we buy so much and occasionally give us fitted Giants caps for no apparent reason); buying sodas and waters from Boing's market down the street and getting change for our concessions till from him even when we don't actually buy anything; eating Chicos/Tulan/Cancun/Miss Saigon/Mo's/Latte-Express-7-Flavors-Coffee-Vietnamese-Sandwiches all the freaking time; masturbating at that adult video store - ... er, NOT masturbating at that adult video store ... But also recommending all those businesses to the audience we have built over the years and seeing that audience take us up on our recommendation.

What I've learned is that the trick in all of it is engaging each segment of the community on a meaningful level. That's why the phrase, "It's about the work," is misguided. You can't just develop the art in a vacuum. It must relate to the audience who will see it and the neighborhood from which it comes. Those crazy Greeks weren't writing about the heroic stands of the Persian army under Darius because it would never fly. They wrote plays which mattered to Greeks, with Greek heroes, in a Greek context. So regarding the question, "What is theater's role in community?" The answer is simple. Theater's role in the community is to help create it.

Off-Market Gets Nods from Critics Circle and ... Dave Chappelle?

As you well know, Off-Market's a pretty small venue in the grand scheme of things. But we pride ourselves on providing intimate, provocative and fun entertainment at a relatively low cost. So when we suddenly get a bunch of compliments from creative and critical contemporaries alike, we're compelled to brag like idiots about the kudos.

For example, did you know that:

5 plays which ran at Off-Market in 2009 recently received 9 Critics Circle nominations? Plays that ran at Off-Market in '09 were "A Delicate Balance," "Putting it Together," "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change," "Pulp Scripture" and "The Santaland Diaries." Shows were nominated in categories ranging from Best Entire Production, Best Male Performance, Best Original Script, Best Solo Performance, Best Ensemble, Best Female Performance in a Musical, Best Musical Director to Best Ensemble in a Musical. Congrats to Off-Market alum Custom Made and current Off-Market groups Ray of Light, Combined Artform and PianoFight for making live theatre thrive in 2009.



World class kick ass comic Dave Chappelle stopped by Off-Market last weekend to catch City Solo? Here's what he thought of the show: "City Solo at Off Market is like an adventure, it's funny then heartfelt then funny again. I've never seen solo shows done like that before." And if you think we're BS-ing, check out a photo of Dave hanging with buddy and City Solo producer Nicole Maxali in the lobby of 965 Mission below. City Solo runs Sundays at 7:00pm, Ticket/Info: www.OffMarketTheaters.com



The only improv show in the country which hooks up two casts in two cities using live, streaming video over the Internet, Tilted Frame Network, returns to Theatre Asylum in Los Angeles and Off-Market in San Francisco? Once again, two casts separated by nearly 350 miles will use audience suggestions and in some cases the audiences themselves to create Tilted Frame Network's new "season" through short-form improv games based on TV, Film and the Internet. Tickets/Info: www.TiltedFrame.com



Eat, Pray, Laugh! - Alicia Dattner's comic solo show, has been extended for a second time at Off-Market? Dattner's show, the tagline to which is "Jewish princess seeks Indian guru for one life stand," will continue through April on Wednesday nights at 8:00pm for a 15 week run at Off-Market. Tickets/Info: www.AliciaDattner.com



The last time Ray of Light Theatre performed at Off-Market, the show was nominated for a Critics Circle Award? ROLT is back at OM, this time with the musical "Baby." If history is any indication, it's going to be a great show. Tickets/Info: www.ROLTheatre.com

ForePlays is on its third all new show in 4 months? Monday Night ForePlays continues to draw killer crowds to its female-driven variety show with award winning comics, jaw dropping musical guests, crazy awesome dance numbers and damn funny sketch comedy. Plus, there'll be an ALL NEW show in April! Tickets/Info: www.PianoFight.com/Monday-Night-ForePlays



Spontaneous Combustion is exploding comedy on March 27th? Back for its eleventh show at Off-Market, short and long-form improv comedy troupe Spontaneous Combustion is lighting up audiences with laughs and features musical guest Yael Schy. Tickets/Info: www.SponComSF.com

ShortLived is rumbling into town with Sleepwalkers, Threshold, Crisis Hopkins, Bill Bivins, Daniel Heath and tons more playwrights and theater companies all competing against each other - and you decide the winner? Oh yeah, the largest audience judged playwriting competition in the nation returns to SF with some of the finest talent in the Bay - not to mention, ShortLived is running in LA this year also. Tickets/Info: www.PianoFight.com/ShortLived-3

Hyper Raje Records is throwing another rock show March 27? Hyper Raje, which bands in and out of their recording studio in the basement of 965 Mission St typically puts together one or two straight-up rocking shows every month. Hi Like 5 plus two more bands - Tickets/Info: www.HyperRajeRecords.com

And, as always, you can get more info about everything going on at Off-Market at our bitchin new website www.OffMarketTheaters.com and more on resident company PianoFight at www.PianoFight.com

Thanks for reading, and see you at the show!

"50 Years Hungry" by D. Heath

I caught Daniel Heath's Fifty Years Hungry as a staged reading part of The Best of Playground festival earlier this year.

The Aurora Theater in Berkeley also staged a reading of the play just last week I think and by all accounts it went off great.

Fifty Years Hungry is Heath's first full length drama, commissioned by Playground in 2009, and he wrote it just after completing his first full length comedic show, FORKING! which PianoFight premiered in SF for a month and moved to Theater Asylum in Hollywood with the help of Combined Artform.

The two plays could not be more different. It's staggering. FORKING! is a hooping and hollering audience driven riot while Fifty Years Hungry is a razor sharp deconstruction of family and funerals full of dark wit. What's truly amazing is how good both of these shows are, and Heath's apparent ability to write high caliber work for whatever audience will be seeing it.

I hope the Aurora picks it up, cause Hungry is perfect for that community (feel free to email the Aurora at general@auroratheatre.org and lustily voice your need to see Fifty Years Hungry fully produced on their stage). And if they foolishly pass on the script, there are always a few stages at Off-Market.

Speaking of, if you'd like to catch another of Daniel's fully scripted plays in which the audience decides the ending, A Merry FORKING Christmas, premieres at Off-Market on December 15th, and runs like crazy through the holidays (more info coming soon).

And The Most Produced Local Playwright Is ...

UPDATE - 11/12:
Bivins just landed another world premiere for this season. See below for the complete list, but this February, PianoFight will premiere "The Position," the show we commissioned Bill to write after winning our playwriting competition "ShortLived 2.0."

Also in February, SF Playhouse will premiere Bivins' "The Apotheosis of Pig Husbandry" as the inaugural show in their "Sand Box Series" of new plays.

That brings my count to four world premiere full-lengths and another world premiere one-act.

Two excellent aspects of this: 1) Couldn't happen to a nicer, more talented or professional guy than Bill, and 2) It's evidence of new work making a bit of comeback in the SF Scene.

- CB

# # #

And the Most Produced Local Playwright Is ...

Bill Bivins.

I'm not actually sure if this is factually accurate, but allow me to present my case:

"The Afterlife of the Mind" - premieres at the Ashby Stage in Berkeley tonight and moves to Stage Werx in November.

"The Apotheosis of Pig Husbandry" - Part of the SF Playhouse reading series this year.

"Pulp Scripture" - Premiered at Fringe and is moving to Off-Market in November (it also won more awards than any other show at the Fringe)

"The Position" - No links up on this yet but this full-length (slated to premiere at Off-Market in February) was commissioned by PianoFight after Bill won our playwriting contest ShortLived 2.0

Also, insider info has it that he's probably getting into the Bay Area One Acts Festival in February.

So I guess this is the question I'm posing to the SF Theater Community: Is there another local playwright who has this number of productions in the current season?

If not, Bill Bivins is hands down the most produced local playwright of the 2009-2010 season.

Congrats Bill!