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Welcome to the Arden Theatre Company blog, where we share behind-the-scenes stories and current happenings with you. You will hear from the Arden staff as well as actors and other visiting artists, and we hope to hear from you, too. If you have an idea for a topic, please post a comment about it. We can't wait to hear what you think!
On Wednesday, January 6 the ladies in the Arden’s production department led a tour of the Peter Pan set for our female board members and the wives of our male board members. They got to look into trap doors, handle the Lost Boy puppets, and climb on platforms. The tour was followed by a lively dinner at Fork Restaurant.
Here are some photos of the tour!
When you come to the theatre to see Blue Door, you will notice a display of photos by the production’s director, Walter Dallas. These pictures were taken in Ghana, where he has made many lasting connections.
Here is just a sampl
ing of photos you will see in the lobby, accompanied by Walter’s descriptions of the work.
Blue Door: During my visit to Ghana in the summer of 2007, the family of one of my brilliant proteges, Nathaniel Morrison, from the Fante tribe, (he assured me that tribe was not an offensive term to use) hosted a welcoming party for me. Morrison lives in Teshie-Accra and the entire neighborhood turned out. The DJ was wonderful, playing everything from traditional high-life to hot-life, to world-rap fusion, reggae and American R&B. As everyone, babies to grandmothers danced, he danced in front of a blue door that led into the main compound, the home of Morrison and his family. The Blue Door seemed to energize him and frame him in a way that I had to capture “on film.” Anyone who joined him in front of that door seemed themselves captivated, energized and more animated. When I asked to take his photo he said, “this is a special door; that’s why everyone is happy.” It was a year later that I was discovered an exciting new play: Blue Door by Tanya Barfield.
Maxwell: In the summer of 2009, I visited Accra, Ghana in West Africa for what must have been my 10th time. During this visit I visited and “adopted” a primary school in Nima-Accra. Maxwell, the boy in the center of the photograph, was fascinated with and intrigued by my camera. He did what the other children wouldn’t; he looked an adult stranger in the eye, a gesture that could possibly be perceived as rude, even confrontational. Maxwell’s intellectually curious gaze was far from challenging, it was welcoming and embracing. Our bond grew throughout the day, and I took quite a few shots in which Maxwell was highlighted.
View more of Walter’s photos in this online slideshow. You can also view them in person in the upper lobby of the Arden until March 21.
By Ed Sobel, Associate Artistic Director
To put it simply, bad math and a questionable conclusion.
In a recent column Terry Teachout, the generally respected arts journalist at the Wall Street Journal wrote: Facts, it’s said, are stubborn things. Anyone curious about the state of American theater will find plenty of stubborn facts to chew on – some of which are tastier than others – in American Theatre’s annual list of the 10 plays and musicals, not counting Shakespeare revivals and seasonal shows, that are produced most frequently in the U.S… I recently spent a couple of hours poring over American Theatre’s lists and came up with this meta-list of the 11 plays produced most often between 2000-01 and 2009-10…
Mr. Teachout counts a lack of “classic plays” on his meta-list, and concludes:
American theaters have a pronounced bias in favor of new and newish plays by American authors, especially ones that have high public profiles… But it also appears that far too many of those same companies may be steering clear of the classical revivals that are no less central to the continuing health of a theatrical culture – and that is very bad news indeed.
I’m not a statistician, but you don’t have to be one to see the serious flaw in reasoning. He’s mixing individual plays and genre. Say 20 TCG theaters across the country are doing the same new play in a given year. That title will show up on the most frequently produced list for that year. But if those same theaters, in an average four-play season, are all also producing three different “classic” plays, then those titles would not show up on the most frequently produced list. But the proper score at a given theater would be one new play for every three classic plays. And across the field nationally it would be one new play for sixty classic plays. This would represent not a lopsided predisposition toward new work, but rather the opposite.
A quick hypothetical illustration:
Steppenwolf does Endgame, All My Sons, Mother Courage and Intimate Apparel.
Arena does Waiting for Godot, Tartuffe,, Guys and Dolls and Intimate Apparel.
McCarter does Oedipus, The Children’s Hour, The Most Happy Fella and Intimate Apparel.
Tally: 9 “classic” plays, none of which make the list of most frequent, but the one new play, Intimate Apparel does.
A related problem: The TCG lists are cross-sectional and not longitudinal. In other words, if Death of a Salesman receives three productions every year for 10 years it would not make the most frequently produced list in any year, despite receiving 30 productions in the decade, while Intimate Apparel, receiving 9 in one year and 16 in a second for a total of (a lesser) 25, would.
To do this accurately, Mr. Teachout should look at every play from every season of the decade at each theater (not the “most frequently produced list”), categorize them as “classic” or “new”, and then look at the numbers. I don’t know what he’d find, but his conclusions would be drawn from actual stubborn facts, not poor statistical work.
The danger here (and why I’ve bothered to post a public response) is that an article like this, already going viral, becomes received wisdom very quickly, especially when appearing in a publication as influential as the WSJ. It begins to have impact on corporate and government funding attitudes and policies and within artistic institutions.
Frankly, I suspect real research would show at least one different conclusion. Namely, most theaters are doing more “classic” plays than new work. They are just doing the same new plays, and different “classic” ones.
But where was the editorial oversight to catch the statistical blunders at this predominantly business-oriented publication?
Update: This blog post was picked up by The Wicked Stage, which is edited by Rob Weinert-Kendt, an Associate Editor at American Theatre Magazine. Terry Teachout and Ed, among others, have continued this conversation there. Click here for the full post and comments.
By Amy Murphy, Managing Director
This is Sabrina, at her first visit to the 
I am still very close with three of my high school girlfriends, Alicia, Katie and Laura. All three of them remember me doing the high school plays and musicals and have been coming to the
Three years ago Alicia and her husband Angelo began adoption proceedings. They traveled to
Watching The BFG with my son three years ago, and seeing him discover theatre and its magic was one of the most amazing moments of my life. (I have to admit, I watched him not the show!) And now, Alicia shares Arden Children’s Theatre with her daughter.
Nothing could make me happier.
By
Following each performance of Peter Pan, our Children’s Theatre audience has a special opportunity to learn more about the play they’ve just seen. The cast members come back on stage and take questions from the audience. These questions (or comments) range from observant to witty to insightful to observant – and the average age of our audience is about seven.
When the Arden began producing children’s theatre twelve years ago, we knew hosting these question and answer sessions would further the experience of the young audiences. Borrowing this question and answer format from a similar program at Seattle Children’s Theatre, the children’s theatre actors answer each question truthfully, and give away ALL the secrets. If they ask a question about they way that a set piece moves, our crew will come out and show them how to move it. If they ask a question about a magic trick performed during the show, an actor will explain how it’s done.
What’s incredible to witness during these question and answer sessions is how children as audience members, more so than adults, see and hear EVERYTHING. Nothing slips by them – their imaginations are so active that they are willing to accept that, for instance, in Peter Pan, a puppet made of kitchen utensils and a mop, is actually a Lost Boy. And they want to know how this puppet made of kitchen utensils was constructed. And they’ll also be the first to tell you if they didn’t believe something that an actor did onstage OR if they thought a moment lacked in originality. Nothing will keep a play fresh and honest more than performing for an audience of children.
Our Stage Manager,
“How do you get to do a play?”
“What world does the set represent?”
“When you guys are holding puppets, are you invisible?”
“What would be Peter do if nobody believed in fairies?” [Referring to the moment where Tink drinks the poison and the audience has to revive her by stating that they do believe in fairies.]
“Is Captain Hook really a mean guy?”
“Why did Wendy go to Neverland with Peter?”
“What was the hardest part to practice?”
“How long does it take Peter to get into character for each performance?”
“Why doesn’t Peter have a green hat?”
“Is the hook real or fake?”
“How did the shadows look like they were flying?”
“Why were there only 6 actors for all the different characters in the show?”
“Where was John in this play?”
“How do you not laugh at the funny parts?”
“Does Hook have a mother?”
For many of these children, seeing Peter Pan is the first time they have experienced live theatre. I feel like I am watching future theatre audiences being born right in front of my eyes. Watching their reactions to what they’ve seen, and then enhancing that experience by interacting and asking questions of the actors, is building our audiences of the future.
By Ed Sobel, Associate Artistic Director
If you are reading this, chances are you have at least a passing interest in the
Most theaters won’t honestly respond to that question, for many reasons. Sometimes they won’t answer because choosing a season can be an ugly, cumbersome process, like sausage making and getting health care bills through Congress. Theater companies don’t want to seem venal or self-interested or capricious or insensitive to artists under consideration, so they don’t risk full exposure. Or sometimes they can’t answer, because they don’t know the answer themselves. They lose their mission, somewhere along the way, and don’t want to be reminded of it.
And I’m not going to answer the question for
First, I have to tell you it is a long, difficult and often challenging process. One learns to live with joy (as in, “Ah, this is a play so perfect for us and our audiences, and it’s fantastic, and we are going to do it!”) and much more often disappointment (as in, “Ahhhh, we can’t get the rights to produce this play because a Broadway producer has exclusively optioned them from now until summer 2014.”). We consider many, many, many plays before finally selecting the five you will see in the subscription season and the two for our children’s theater program.
I like risk. And I am now going to do a risky thing. (Don’t tell anyone.) I’d like to ask for your participation. And in return, I promise to be honest and transparent about our season planning process.
Send a comment to this post, with the one play you suggest we consider for the 2010-11 season, and in two or three sentences make the compelling case for why we ought to produce it. Remember, our mission is to tell great stories by great storytellers.
In subsequent posts, I will respond to some of your suggestions, and describe the process those plays go through in our season planning process.
To start off, and to up the ante, I will give you the full disclosure that we are close to “finalizing” (why I’ve put that in quotation marks will become clearer as we go through the coming weeks together) three of the plays for the 2010-11 subscription season, meaning there are likely only two slots left.
The only other thing I ask is that you read my 4th paragraph again. Understand the overwhelming odds are none of the plays suggested here will end up in the season. But then, one might. So if you are willing to risk a little disappointment, give us your best shot. At the very least, I promise we are all going to learn some things.
Earlier this season, we started a video series to chronicle the experience of our Arden Professional Apprentices. (View Episode One here). Our second installment has former APA Alexis Simpson finding the Apprentices all over the building, doing a variety of jobs in a variety of outfits!
If there’s something you want to know about our Apprentices and their time at the Arden, leave us a comment and we’ll be sure to ask them on the next episode!
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