League of Independent Theater Announces Formation, Issues Press Release

This is the official press release announcing the formation of the League of Independent Theater. See below.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: John Clancy, (917) 539-3153

LEAGUE OF INDEPENDENT THEATER ANNOUNCES FORMATION
New advocacy group to promote Off-Off Broadway’s economic and artistic interests
First membership meeting Dec. 7, 11AM, Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow Street

A team of prominent independent theater artists and producers proudly announce the creation of The League of Independent Theater, Inc. (LIT), a membership-based advocacy group and business league representing New York’s City Off-Off Broadway community. LIT’s website is www.litny.org.

The mission of LIT is to promote the economic and artistic interests of its members, ensuring that independent theater remains economically viable for its practitioners. The organization will advocate on behalf of the decades-old tradition of Off-Off Broadway theater.

Membership in LIT is open to any artist, company or technician working in theaters of 99 seats or less in New York City who can demonstrate participation in a minimum of three productions. Theater service organizations serving Off-Off Broadway are encouraged to apply.

Says LIT Executive Director John Clancy, an acclaimed director and Off-Off Broadway veteran who co-founded the New York International Fringe Festival: “I haven’t been as enthused and optimistic about an organization since the early days of the Fringe. Our members are entrepreneurs, business-savvy, and wildly creative. Our job is simply to harness that remarkable energy and effect real change in our territory.”

LIT’s priorities include:
1) Achieving substantive, meaningful changes to the Actors’ Equity Showcase Code to respond to the needs of the independent theater community.
2) Advocating for the establishment and preservation of Off-Off Broadway venues and rehearsal spaces, including lobbying for arts-friendly amendments to the building and tax codes and developing industry-enhancing relationships with real estate developers and interests.
3) Increasing funding from grant-giving organizations as well as supporting the campaigns of public officials who actively promote the independent theater community.

LIT is organized to qualify as a 501(c)(6) business league in order to engage in advocacy and lobbying for its members, without the lobbying limits applicable to 501(c)(3) organizations.

LIT’s Executive Director:
John Clancy, Executive Artistic Director, Clancy Productions

LIT’s board of directors includes:
Paul Bargetto, Director, East River Commedia
Martin Denton, Executive Director, The New York Theatre Experience, Inc.
Shay Gines, Executive Director, The New York Innovative Theatre Foundation
Michael Goldfried, Director
Robert Honeywell, Co-Artistic Director of Brick Theater
Leonard Jacobs, Theater Critic, New York Press
Abby Marcus, Managing Director, Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company
John Pinckard, Producer
Moira Stone, Actor
Erez Ziv, Co-Founder/Managing Director, Horse Trade Theater Group

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The League of Indepedent Theater is Official

Kudos to everyone who made this a reality, but especially John Clancy and Paul Bargetto and John Pinckard -- and double kudos to them for including moi in the process.

If you want to see the document that makes the League of Independent Theater official, click on this:

http://appsext8.dos.state.ny.us/corp_public/CORPSEARCH.ENTITY_INFORMATION?p_nameid=3732451&p_corpid=3684809&p_entity_name=%54%68%65%20%4C%65%61%67%75%65%20%6F%66%20%49%6E%64%65%70%65%6E%64%65%6E%74%20%54%68%65%61%74%65%72&p_name_type=%41&p_search_type=%42%45%47%49%4E%53&p_srch_results_page=0

More information forthcoming on what the organization will be doing.

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League of Independent Theater Update

Not from me, but from John Clancy as of a few days ago. Been meaning to link everyone over to John's blog, as I'm suddenly getting a lot of questions like:

1) What's happening with the League?
2) What's not happening with the League?
3) Why can't I be involved? Why can't I be obstructionistic?
4) Why am I out of the loop?
5) Why can't I raise enough money for a showcase? (Ooops, wrong subject.)

Anyway, go visit Clancy's recent posting here. And stop whining.

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Questioning the Showcase Code Reforms

In a recent post, Isaac questions the prospect and/or likelihood of Showcase Code reform. I think it's good to question it, provided one asks the right questions. For example, he writes,

1) I asked earlier what the artistic impact of the showcase code was, and the answer seems to be largely that there isn't one. I doubt this is true. If the Showcase Code is truly bad for the work we're making it must then have some negative impact on that work. I understand that we probably don't want to say Yes, my work is not as good as it could be because of our business model or whatever, but I don't think we can have it both ways. Either it affects our work or it doesn't. If it doesn't affect the artistic quality of the work we produce, then I think that saps the argument for reform of some of its strength because....

This strikes me as strange. What does "impact" mean? If you define "impact" by the fact of work getting done at all -- before we even arrive at the quality question -- the Code has clearly had one for more than 40 years; the entire history of Off-Off-Broadway has been predicated on it. And the kind of work that virtually everyone in the theatrosphere says they want more of would, in large part, not exist without it.

Second, both union and nonunion Off-Off-Broadway work has succeeded and failed, historically, for reasons that include the Code, but not solely because of the Code or in spite of the Code. The purpose of the Code -- and what I think is both the philosophical and the practical purpose of Off-Off-Broadway -- is to be the laboratory for the theatre, the underground, the proving ground, the training ground. Does anyone quesiton that without a place to fail, one cannot succeed? Is that not one of many definitons of "impact." To me, it's not a matter of "either it affects our work or it doesn't" because the question is not "either/or" so much as "and."

2) Ultimately, I question who showcase code reform is going to benefit. And in order for Equity to be interested in it, it has to benefit actors.

Here's why I question it. Let's take the 16 performance limit for a second. A lot of people would like to see that changed. I get that to some extent. But who (in general, I'm leaving out box office split venues here and I know that) can afford to extend their shows for extra weeks in the current market with overinflated theater rentals being the norm?

Let's then take the budgetary cap for productions. Who can afford a show with a $25K budget? A $30K budget?

Of course Showcase Code reform is going to benefit actors. But this also leads into a completely different aspects of the discussion that no one ever addresses in a meaningful way: Why is the Dramatist Guild completely unrepresented, like a neglectful, absentee parent, on the subject of playwrights working in the OOB arena? Certainly the Dramatists Guild derives as much financial benefit (that is to say none) from this work as Equity does. And why, while we're at it, is the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SSDC) completely unrepresented, like a neglected, absentee parent, from this discussion too?

I have never understood why this whole debate is forever predicated on what Equity says and thinks and does (or doesn't do). Why, indeed, is it the Equity code? Why is it all right with playwrights, directors, or any other theatre practitioner for the actors' union to serve as the powerbroker, the gatekeeper? True, actors are the ones who are going to force their union to make changes, but why are playwrights and directors contented or thrilled with the fact that the organization that should be their natural representative in this discussion utterly uninterested in them? And they are -- I mean, for god's sake, everyone knows that as a result of Joe Mantello's lawsuit a few years ago, the DG and the SSDC regard each other as natural enemies, not allies.

The greater point here is Showcase Code reform will, should, and must benefit everyone. And we've got to make sure that non-actor practitioners understand what their stake in this is as well, instead of worrying about the actors. The actors can deal with the fact that their union couldn't give a flying fuck about them. What about all the other practitioners' representatives not giving a flying fuck about them?

Isaac's point about budgetary caps is also very well taken, but frankly I think it's really sort of secondary. Many young but so-called institutional nonprofit OOB companies -- companies that produce whole seasons year after year -- operate under the Code (usually ignoring the caps, as everyone knows) and learn how to find the money because they're constantly fundraising and constantly producing. It's murderously hard, but it's that much harder if you're only doing one show a year or whatnot.

Now there are all sorts of other things in the showcase code that I would love change (limits on rehearsal hours/weeks, the no-remounting-within-a-year policy etc.) but I think making those changes in a way that wouldn't lead to a lot of extra exploitation and abuse is tricky.

Actually, I don't. I think the model already exists for all this, and that's the 99-seat contract that some of the people writing comments on Isaac's blog have referred to. And the 18 or so of us that are sitting on the steering committee of the League of Independent Theater have been getting up to speed on the provisions of this agreement and why it really is probably the best alternative to the Code. It isn't reinventing the wheel. What everyone must demand -- and making the case for the actors to demand -- that New York City be treated like anywhere else in the nation.

NOTE: Here's something from the nytheatre i on the same subject. I say, email Martin and get involved!

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News from the League of Independent Theater

John Clancy, on his blog, put up the latest version of the Statement of Purpose for the League of Independent Theater. Do send any comments to me so I can pass them along.

The League of Independent Theater (LIT) is the association of theater professionals working in New York City theaters of up to 99 seats. LIT's mission is to organize and protect its members to ensure that independent theater is economically viable for all of its practitioners. We will advocate on behalf of the decades-old tradition of off-off Broadway theater to ensure that it remains, and grows, as a thriving artistic and economic sector in New York City.

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