Video Tributes to Harvey Korman

Been watching the coverage of Korman's death on the blogosphere. God was he loved! Check all this out. I've been laughing.

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House-Hunting Photos

Just a few. For fun.

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Harvey Korman, 1927-2008

You will always be loved.

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New Article: Giving Up the Ghost

For New York Press. Here's a tease:

After much teeth-gnashing, I have come to realize that I cannot review—nor see, I guess—the Public Theater’s upcoming revival of Hamlet at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. To be clear, it’s not the casting that swells me with terror—certainly not with the stunningly gorgeous Lauren Ambrose playing Ophelia as a follow-up to her dazzlingly insightful Juliet in the Public’s Romeo and Juliet last year. And the idea of seeing the legendary Sam Waterston—who played the title role in the Public’s last Central Park revival of Hamlet over three decades ago—in the role of Polonius is undoubtedly going to be a thrill. And I can imagine what the stupendously gifted Michael Stuhlbarg, who devastated both the heart and the mind in Martin McDonagh’s play The Pillowman on Broadway a few seasons ago, will do with the title role.

But at the moment, I am acutely suffering from a medical condition caused by too many Hamlets. It’s true that there have always been too many Hamlets. In fact, if you look on the Internet Broadway Database, as I did in my research, you’ll see there have been no fewer than 64 productions of the play on Broadway alone, not to mention thematic variations like Tom Stoppard’s nifty Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead or Paul Rudnick’s I Hate Hamlet, which some say cures my illness better than tea.

But lately, my condition has gotten worse. I can hardly walk, talk, eat or sleep without a bit of Hamlet somehow crowding my thoughts. Last year, I had to see the Wooster Group’s Hamlet over at the Public Theater downtown, a fanciful multimedia homage to Richard Burton’s famous 1964 revival of the play. And then there was a straightforward Hamlet at off-Broadway’s Pearl Theatre Company, where an ensemble member named Sean McNall (who just won an Obie for his acting) took the demands of the Dane in stride. Then there was a piping-hot Hamlet delivered by the Gorilla Repertory Theater Company, which is mostly known for producing free Shakespeare in city parks during the summer; but for this show, they took things inside for a three-hour, no-intermission whack at the play. For that show, director Christopher Carter Sanderson, an old school chum of mine, openly encouraged the audience to simply walk in and out of the play-space between bathroom breaks or whenever boredom began bearing down. And then there was a Hamlet performed by the puppeteers of the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theater on a carousel in Dumbo. Naturally.

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Want Some End-of-Season Broadway Statistics?

You can get'em right here, courtesy of the Broadway League. Personally, I think a chorus of "Don't Cry For Me, Charlotte St. Martin" would be pretty much in order.

The Broadway League Announces 2007-2008 Broadway Theatre Season Results

The Broadway League has released end-of-season statistics for the 2007-2008 Broadway season, which began May 28, 2007 and ended May 25, 2008, showing a slight decline in both paid attendance and grosses.

Thirty-six new productions opened on Broadway during 2007-2008 (eight new musicals, one musical return-engagement, four musical revivals, 11 new plays, and 12 play revivals). This compares to 35 new productions (12 new musicals, five revivals, 11 new plays, and seven play revivals) in the previous season.

Paid attendance and grosses dropped slightly in the period ending May 25, 2008, in large measure due to the 19-day Local One Stagehands work stoppage that shut down Broadway in the fall of 2007.

1. For this 52-week period ending May 25, 2008, paid attendance at Broadway shows was 12.27 million, down 0.2 % from last season (12.3 million).

2. Broadway shows grossed approximately $937.5 million, compared to the previous season’s record of $938.5 million (includes estimate for “Young Frankenstein”).

League officials estimate that had the strike not occurred, all-time records for both box-office grosses and attendance would have been set with an estimated $975 million in grosses, and 12.9 million tickets sold.

"While we are disappointed that we didn't exceed last year's record-breaking season, we are confident that in the coming season, with such big name shows on the horizon as Billy Elliot, Shrek, West Side Story and Equus, to only name a few, that we will have the best season in recorded history," commented Charlotte St. Martin, Executive Director, The Broadway League.

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You know who is cool? Jonathan West

So I'm sitting here at the office with my pupils wildly dilated, not because I'm on some drug but because I just got back from the opthomologists' office for my yearly check-up. Everything is as it was last year, except the pressure in my eyes went up a little bit, after going down a little bit. There's a history of this in my family (thanks so much, Dad, and for the baldness, too), but the doctor checked the optic nerve and everything is normal. I just have to be vigilant, especially now that I'm -- gulp! -- friggin' middle-aged and all.

Anyway, last night was the community board meeting about the Provincetown Playhouse, and I'm going to be posting on that very soon. What I didn't post about -- well, there's a lot that I haven't posted about lately -- was the panel that I was on two Sundays ago at the Barrow Street Theatre, hosted by Mike Daisey and in connection with his monologue, How Theater Failed America. As you, dear reader, surely know, I've mixed it up here and there with Mike, but as I consider him a friend now as well as a colleague, and especially as I think I better understand, courtesy of his monologue, where he's coming from with regard to how we create theatre in this country, I imagine my future posts on all things Daisey will be less hostile and more hortatory. (Side note: Isn't the word "hortatory" fun? It's like Dr. Seuss made it up, but it's really a word.)

Anyway, I just came across what my buddy Jonathan West had to say about Daisey's panel from two weeks ago, which you can -- and really should --read at his blog. He says not much about me and that's cool, other than reassuring his loyal readers that if they want any dish or dirt on me, he's got a barrel full sitting in his backyard. But that's not why I think he's cool. Actually, here's a little history -- and no, he doesn't know I'm writing this. I thought Jon West was cool from the moment I met him, which if memory serves was about 20 years ago when I was working full-time (and rather unhappily) as a receptionist in the NYU undergraduate admissions office on Washington Square North; he was one of a slew of kids that led campus tours. Jon directed the first real play I ever wrote, and he's one of very, very few people I have ever met who I would consider a clear theatrical natural. We did go through a whole bunch of years without being in touch, but ever since we got back in touch two years ago, I have been so very glad of it -- glad for how he has both changed and not changed.

So I'm reading Jon's blog, and he wrote something that, because I knew him way back when, really made me ponder this curious arc we call life:

So it was me and a bunch of New Yorkers and one dude from Boston with a British accent. I felt a little out of my element going into the night, to tell you the truth. All of my anxieties about my career -- or lack of career to be more accurate -- were being tested by having a place at this visionary chit-chat. I have great respect and admiration for all the people I’ve listed. They get into the ring and battle everyday. Me, I left New York after college, never really giving my young rebel a chance to shine on the streets of challenge and change that are New York. I drove back to the Midwest and bought a house and did plays away from a twisted real estate market and kinetically competitive artistic environment like the one found in New York. I felt going in like I should have been sitting at the kids table, but somehow I was just tall enough to take a place at the adult table, so I would need to jump in and swim in the conversational pool.

I was nervous. But all these artists and the ever-gracious Mike Daisey seemed nice enough, so I was committed to putting myself through a possibly humiliating professional experience since I was feeling a little like I had no professional experience when compared to the others in the group. I also have loads of dirt on Leonard Jacobs from our college days together at NYU, so I knew I’d at least be able to put him in a corner if things got out of hand.

But my attitude about my place on this panel and the state of the American theater really started to change almost from the moment I showed up at the Barrow Street Theatre. Magical started to happen that made me realize that, yeah, the theater is broken, and maybe it always has been, but there’s really nothing quite like it. And in terms of the people the theater attracts right here and now in the every unfolding national story of that art form, I can think of no other group of aging enthusiasts, young dreamers, and mid-career battered and leather-tough practitioners to lead the charge towards making sure that future generations of theater fans and makers will understand how to jiggle the handle on the toilet that is American theater and make it work as best as it can.

When Jon writes about leaving New York after college and never giving his young rebel "a chance to shine on the streets of challenge and change that are New York" (gorgeous phrasing!), I have to say that I completely remember when Jon left and how, quite frankly, heartbroken I was. I had visions of Jon and I being a writer-director team for the ages, darers of derring do and don't who would put together theatre experiences that would smash doors and crash walls and bash all the idiocies and platitudes that Leonard, at 20 or 22, felt were so important to bash. I don't want to make this posting needlessly gay (I'll wait...you stop laughing yet?), since it was always clear that Jon is heterosexual and I am not, but I loved him then, truly loved him, for his talent and for his genius and for his strength and for what I think was a really marvelous case of self-actualization -- he was certainly more wholly endows with a sense of who he was and is far, far more I was at that time. And so in my heartbreak -- in my inability to understand why on earth Jon would leave the Big Apple for home in Wisconsin -- I was a little angry, too. Or at least a little mystified and disappointed and unable to understand something that's very, very key in terms of what he posted on his blog about the panel.

Jon returned to Wisconsin and really did do everything in the professional theatre that anyone in New York could do -- acting, writing, directing, and getting his union membership; founding and operating a successful nonprofit theatre; holding one, if not more, prominent positions within an institutional nonprofit theatre; plus forging friendships and relationships and having a family and buying a home and doing all the things that theatre people too often forget to do or wait too long to do as they operate in pursuit of a life on the stage. Because Jon did all this and did it so well, it tells me, as it should tell all of us, that the theatre world is not only about New York, and that I was a fool to think it was. Indeed, what a fool I was to have such a shallow, cloistered worldview at the time (and I did!).

As a result of everything I've mentioned up above, I therefore think there's no question that Jon totally had a place on Daisey's panel. In fact, I'd go even further and suggest that his place was indispensible to Daisey's efforts -- and point. As for Jon's inner rebel, I think by moving back to Wisconsin and choosing the life path he's chosen, he's been most rebellious -- I mean, he totally eschewed the conventional wisdom about a theatre artist's life happening only in New York or Los Angeles or even Chicago; he proved it can be done anywhere and elsewhere.

So, Jon, don't you ever wonder whether you were "tall enough to take a place at the adult table." You are an inspiration to me, my friend. And part of my education, too. I'm so glad that you are, and always were, my friend.

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New Podcast: The Inexplicable Dumb Show

While I was attending the Humana Festival in Louisville, I met a couple of guys, Tee Quillin and John Mauldin, who are major theatre folk (actors, teachers, writers, and entrepreneurs) who are podcasting with high velocity and great relish via their website, The Inexplicable Dumb Show, which has to be one of the single greatest names for anything I've ever seen in my life. Tee and John are also all hooked with up with my friend Mark Cabus' Nashville-based theatrical ventures, although when Mark says he has 36 years in this business, he lies: he's just 29.

Anyway, Tee and John had me on their podcast the other day to talk about the Provincetown Playhouse and NYU and whether being a fiery rabble-rouser screws up your digestion or your blood pressure. Here's the link to the podcast!

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Punch 59 is Back!

Here's the 411:

PUNCH 59 SKETCH COMEDY is back with Saturday night shows in June featuring a one-act from Tony-winner Thomas Meehan

SAT. JUNE 14TH, 10pm
SAT., JUNE 21ST, 10pm
Gene Frankel Underground
24 Bond Street
New York, NY
Cost:$10 (no drink minimum)

The June 14th performance will feature “Movie, Movie,” written by Tony-winner Thomas Meehan (The Producers, Annie, Young Frankenstein, Cry Baby). Originally published in The New Yorker, "Movie, Movie" features the characters Bonnie and Clyde, who meet “in Coney Island; in shadows and fog,” and their ensuing dialogue consists only of movie titles.

With sketches like “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Confused Actors,” “I Woke Up Racist,” and “Interfaith Understandings from Rev. Bill and Betty,” PUNCH 59 is sketch comedy the way it should be: funny. Featuring a rotating cast of 11 of New York’s most talented actors, including Jen Ryan (FringeNYC Outstanding Performance Award), Rik Sansone (Summer ’69) Jill Butterfield, Rachael Marie Shaffer, Ray Chao, Noel Hunter, Adam P. Murphy, Johnny McCarthy, and Melisa Breiner-Sanders.

Thomas Meehan received his first Tony Award in 1977 for writing the book for Annie (1977), his Broadway debut; he subsequently won for The Producers (2001) and Hairspray (2003). He is the writer of the Broadway versions of Cry Baby, Young Frankenstein, I Remember Mama, Ain’t Broadway Grand and Bombay Dreams. Mr. Meehan is a longtime contributor of humor to The New Yorker, an Emmy Award-winning writer of television comedy, and a collaborator on a number of screenplays including Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs and To Be or Not to Be.

Tickets for all performances are available at the box-office day of show. Industry comps are always available. Please email us at punch59comedy@yahoo.com.

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We Went House-Hunting This Weekend...

...up in Columbia County. Third time we've gone a-huntin', but the first time I took some serious digital snaps. I'm probably going to upload a few just for feedback.

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Arts Advocacy Update XLIII

The content below is from Americans for the Arts' Cultural Policy Listserv, email blast of May 21, 2008:

Engagement In Culture Events Key To Mental Wellbeing
Science Daily, 5/19/2008
"Experts held a number of workshops for Liverpool residents aimed at identifying the positive and negative effects of the projects. The research revealed that community events filled local people with pride and a renewed commitment to the city. . . . On the whole, Capital of Culture programmes have had a very positive effect on mental health; negativity towards events and initiatives only arises when communities feel they have not been considered in the development of a scheme."
This whole time I could have sworn that the theatre was driving me nuts. I guess I was wrong, hm?


Kaine Says Tourism Is Vital To Virginia’s Economy
Bristol Herald Courier (VA), 5/21/2008
"Tourism can play an increasingly important role in the region’s economy despite concerns about the state and national economic outlook, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said Tuesday. Kaine kicked off a busy day in Southwest Virginia by speaking at the second conference on building a creative economy. He spoke to a crowd of more than 100 at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon. . . . 'To me, there are three kinds of tourism – historic, culture and natural beauty – and Southwest Virginia has all three,' he said. 'A creative economy is designed to supplement and expand the traditional economy.' Kaine, who spoke at the first such conference two years ago, praised local efforts to expand tourism by combining the region’s music, heritage and other cultural assets."
Smart guy. Too bad Va. can't elect a governor for more than one term. It's such a quirk in their system -- throw everyone out, good or bad, after one shot. Seems a shame.


London: A cultural audit
London Development Agency, 2008
This report is the first quantitative overview of London’s cultural environment, which it compares with that of four world cities – New York, Paris, Tokyo and Shanghai. It reports that the city employs more than 550,000 people in the creative and cultural sectors, adding £20 billion to London’s economy.Thanks to Dr. Andy Pratt for sharing.
My God, 20 billion pounds? Here is a link to the PDF if you want to download the whole document, which is more than 100 pages long.


Performing arts center still a question mark at ground zero
Newsday - AP, 5/17/2008
"When he created ground zero's master plan, architect Daniel Libeskind envisioned a performing arts center that would bring life to a site devastated by terrorism. The rebuilt World Trade Center, he believed, should be more than a place to work and grieve. More than 100 arts institutions applied for a spot on the 16 acres. Four were chosen. That was four years ago. Since then, three out of the four groups that were to have anchored the new performance space have moved on and the center's prospects appear to be fading."
I could have told you this four years ago. The whole thing was a George Pataki-led sham -- except for Libeskind, who I think should win an award for the abuse he's put up with. Bottom line: it remains consecrated ground.


Arts, Inc.: How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights
University of California Press / 2008
From the publisher:"Bill Ivey, the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, assesses the current state of the arts in America and finds cause for alarm. Even as he celebrates our ever-emerging culture and the way it enriches our lives here at home while spreading the dream of democracy around the world, he points to a looming crisis. The expanding footprint of copyright, an unconstrained arts industry marketplace, and a government unwilling to engage culture as a serious arena for public policy have come together to undermine art, artistry, and cultural heritage—the expressive life of America."
OK, OK, but what does "unconstrained" mean?


Louisiana's Investing In Culture
Forbes, 5/16/2008
Louisiana's Lt. Governor, Mitch Landrieu, writes about the Cultural Economy Initiative he launched in 2003. "The Cultural Economy Initiative encourages the organic growth of the cultural economy as a viable industry. The initiative has produced several programs including, arts in education legislation, cultural product districts, historic preservation grants, the Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation and the World Cultural Economic Forum."
Too bad Louisana's new governor is an arts-ignorant Republican twit.

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Announcements: PSAs for Arts Education

Check out the contents of this press release that I received today from Americans for the Arts:

Americans for the Arts, Ad Council
and the NAMM Foundation
Launch New PSAs Championing Arts Education

National Ads debut at The New England Institute of Art and will be promoted locally by more than 275 arts organizations across the country

The Advertising Council joined Americans for the Arts and the NAMM Foundation today to announce the launch of a new series of public service advertisements (PSAs) designed to promote the benefits of arts education. The PSAs, part of the award-winning “The Arts. Ask for More.” campaign, will debut at Advertising that Changed a Nation, an exhibit opening this week at the New England Institute of Art in Brookline, Massachusetts.

The arts provide children with life skills that are a foundation to their and our nation’s future success. According to key findings from a forthcoming report conducted by The Conference Board and Americans for the Arts, in partnership with the American Association of School Administrators, an overwhelming majority of school superintendents and employers (99 and 97 percent respectively) agree that creativity is increasingly important in the workforce and that an art training is crucial to developing creativity. However, according to the research, most schools in our country only provide arts training on an elective basis. Additionally, a 2005 Harris Poll reported that 40 percent of parents say they do not know how to get involved with promoting arts education.

Launched in 2002, the original “Art. Ask for More.” campaign was the first national PSA effort designed to promote the arts as a vital part of a well-rounded education for our nation’s children and promoted parental involvement in championing arts education both in and out of schools. Created pro bono by Leo Burnett, this second series of television, radio, print and Web ads feature a new creative strategy that encourages parents to “feed their children the arts” with a bowl of “Raisin Brahms” or a serving of “VanGoghgurt” for breakfast. The ads speak to the benefits of getting a daily dose of the arts, which include increased test scores, better creative thinking, patience, and determination, all skills that are fundamental to a child’s education and development. The PSAs end with the tagline: “The Arts. Ask for More.”

“We are delighted to continue our partnership with Americans for the Arts for this second series of PSAs designed to help parents recognize the value of the arts in their children’s lives,” said Peggy Conlon, President and CEO of the Ad Council. “This clever strategy of depicting the arts as nourishment will show parents that the arts are integral to their child’s development and an important foundation for their future.”

The PSAs direct parents to visit http://www.americansforthearts.org/ where they will find 10 simple ways on how to include the arts in their children’s lives, including registering their children for school and community programs, reinforcing the benefits of the arts in their conversations, and communicating the importance of the arts with teachers, principals and elected officials. The site also features an Online Resource Center to help parents, teachers, school board leaders, and advocates increase the presence and quality of arts education in the schools. All creative ads for the campaign are available for viewing on the websites of both Americans for the Arts (www.AmericansForTheArts.org/public_awareness) and the Ad Council (http://www.adcouncil.org/).

“Appreciation and involvement in the arts is an essential educational goal for the 21st century, and this campaign gives parents the tips and tools for providing more arts education opportunities for their children in both school and their communities,” said Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts.

“We wanted to develop a campaign that displayed cultural insight in a way that reinforces the importance of the arts in a child’s life,” said Richard Roche, SVP, Account Director at Leo Burnett. “Our goal was to use our creativity to develop a clever strategy and transform human perception through a compelling series of ads that capture this message.”

More than 275 arts organizations across the country will help promote this campaign to their local media. The television and radio spots are localizable for every community. The campaign, its production and outreach have been made possible by a grant from the NAMM Foundation, which helped to leverage additional needed resources.

The television and radio PSAs are being distributed to stations nationwide in June, while the print and Web ads will be released later this year. Per the Ad Council’s model, all of the PSAs will air and run in advertising time and space that is entirely donated by the media.

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New Review: Good Boys and True

This actually came out in the New York Press at the top of the week. Hope you enjoy. This one, for some reason, was particularly tough to write.

Here's the tease:

"Sometimes critics can know too much about a play’s development: Good Boys and True, currently at Second Stage, is a case in point. Last summer I saw a workshop of the play at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut, where I teach critical writing. The O’Neill is one of our great play-development venues because it offers a safe environment for artists—safe from critics, that is. In exchange, critics are allowed to play an entirely informal role in the goings-on, mostly limited to drinking at the bar with artists after the show and offering advice when solicited. Otherwise, you keep quiet and assume the writer will fix the play’s problems before it moves on..."

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Arts Advocacy Update XLII

The content below is from Americans for the Arts' Cultural Policy Listserv, email blast of May 14, 2008:

Effort to boost not just attendance, but engagement
Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/8/2008
"The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance believes it can help double audience participation at area arts events over the next 12 years. And the Pew Charitable Trusts has put up $5 million to help finance an elaborate marketing effort - called Engage 2020 - to push for that goal, officials intend to announce today. . . . A key element will be the creation of what the alliance has dubbed the Cultural Engagement Index, which will seek to gauge regional cultural activity through periodic readings of such key statistics as audience size and diversity. Over time, the alliance hopes the index will measure shifting patterns of cultural behavior. The index will also serve as the measure of cultural participation, which the alliance is seeking to double by 2020. Participation is an expansive concept that goes well beyond traditional attendance - about 18 million attended cultural events in the five-county region last year, officials said - to encompass activities as wide-ranging as singing in church to collecting art for the home. In addition, a two-year study of demographics, audience likes and dislikes, and audience values will pull together a vast amount of data in 'a readable format' for leaders of cultural organizations."
Wow. Brilliant. Can New York do the same thing? You betcha. We just need political support for it.


12 Chicago-area Cultural Institutions Awarded Grants to 'Jumpstart the Conversation'
PR Newswire, 5/6/2008
"Twelve organizations in the Chicago metro area have been awarded 'JumpStart the Conversation' grants for projects designed to provide opportunities for older adults to contribute to the cultural life of their communities. The grants were introduced after a recent workshop at the Chicago Cultural Center, Engaging Older Adults Through Arts and Culture: Developing a Livable Chicago for All Ages. The workshop was the fifth of six regional workshops focused on creating livable communities for all ages. The workshops and grants are part of a national Aging in Place Initiative undertaken by Partners for Livable Communities (Partners) and the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a), with funding provided by MetLife Foundation."
Great idea. Actually makes a lot of sense.


One town uses the arts to revive after hurricane Katrina
Christian Science Monitor, 5/14/2008
In Bay St. Louis, MS, the arts are credited with "helping revive a town in one of the rare success stories of post-Katrina life on the Gulf Coast. . . . [A]rts mavens and tourists are returning, and homes and businesses are being rebuilt, helping to resurrect the economy and sharpen the community's identity as a cultural hub. The town, admittedly, has an advantage over many other communities along the Gulf Coast. Even before Katrina, it was a vibrant center for tourism and the arts – a Santa Fe of the South. Yet now artists from across the country are sending money and aid, which, along with infusions of federal cash, are helping the once-sleepy fishing village further reinvent itself and raising a provocative question: Can the arts rescue a town?"
Great question. Here's another: How will they vote in November? For the same people who left them to drown and die, or for people who would actually reform FEMA enough to take care of them if, God forbid, another Katrina were to come along?


Report shows that arts organizations are being “stifled” by a lack of facility space and diversity
Fort Collins Now (CO), 5/8/2008
"For some time, those in Fort Collins' [CO] arts and culture scene have said the lack of space and diversity in local facilities is keeping the city from realizing its potential. And after studying Fort Collins' cultural landscape for more than a year, a team of consultants has confirmed just that. . . . In the newly announced Cultural Facilities Plan final report, the study team determined that there is a continuing need for updating current facilities like the city-owned Lincoln Center as well as increasing the number and variety of local venues. In fact, they have recommended increasing the city's artistic fleet by five cultural facilities, five performance facilities and two infrastructural projects."
No offense or anything, but it took a year to study the cultural landscape of Fort Collins, Colorado?


Arts Council funding approved
KMEG 14 (Sioux City, IA) - AP, 5/12/2008
In South Dakota, "Governor Rounds has approved $1.1 million in State Arts Council funding. . . . Rounds says strengthening the arts is an excellent way to diversify the state economy."
Yes, that and making sure women aren't allowed to have abortions. That certainly is one way to make people more creative. Bastards.


Creative Economy Gets Access to State Tax Credits
WWJ (Detroit,. MI), 5/9/2008
"Michigan's creative business community will get a boost as a result of Gov. Jennifer Granholm's signature on a series of bills that would make creative businesses eligible for state MEGA tax credits. State officials say the bill, sponsored by State Sen. Jud Gilbert (R-Algonac), will have a significant impact on Southeast Michigan's efforts to develop creative economy jobs by broadening the definition of businesses eligible for MEGA credits to include those in the creative sector. . . . Businesses meeting these criteria will be eligible for high-tech or high-wage MEGA credits which are credits against the Michigan Business Tax. A high-wage business is a business that has an average wage of 300 percent or more of the federal minimum wage."
OMG, I'm in a high-wage business. Or maybe I'm just high. Sigh.


NEA Launches National Opera Awards
Washington Post, 5/14/2008
"Think of American art forms, and opera doesn't typically spring to mind. But now the federal government is setting out to change that. Yesterday the National Endowment for the Arts announced the four winners of the first annual NEA Opera Honors, the first new program of national arts awards since the Jazz Masters awards were established in 1982."
The opera ain't over until the fat lady...wins an award! Seriously, this is cool.


Perdue signs film tax-credit boost
Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, FL), 5/13/2008
Legislation signed by Georgia governor Sonny Perdue will more than double the tax credits for film production in the state. "Companies will now get a 20 percent tax credit on productions that spend more than $500,000 in the state, and another 10 percent credit if the production includes a short promotion touting Georgia."
Let us pray...that it brings them business.


San Antonio voters overwhelmingly approve visitor tax
Houston Chronicle - AP, 5/11/2008
"Voters in San Antonio on Saturday approved four proposals to use visitor taxes to fund $415 million in civic improvement projects for the area. Bexar County voters decided to extend a 1.75 percent tax on hotel rooms and a 5 percent tax on short-term car rentals to fund four separate propositions: improvements to the San Antonio River, new youth and amateur athletic facilities, renovations of arts centers and upgrades to rodeo grounds and arenas. . . . About 65 percent of voters approved renovation of arts centers."
And the other 35% was busy watching Lou Dobbs and figuring out whether artists and illegal aliens are really just the same thing.


Who will perform for the arts?
Los Angeles Times, 5/11/2008
"At a time when the California Arts Council is handing out only one-tenth of the grants funding it did a decade ago, and when the city's Department of Cultural Affairs will take a 6.1% hit to its 2008-09 budget, the race to succeed retiring county Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke is of intense interest to the local arts community," says local arts leader Michael Alexander. "That's because L.A. County government has become the chief public resource for local arts funding. . . . And it is Burke who has been the major driving force for the arts on the Board of Supervisors."
The person ought to be lobbying the California governor, too.

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New Profile: David Gilmour

I read a book a little bit ago called The Film Club, which I thought to be just excellent. I mean, really superlative. It's about a father and a son -- and, really, so much more. I was so pleased to be able to interview novelist and critic David Gilmour for Metromix.com.

Here's my lede:

Jesse Gilmour hated high school. This worried his father, novelist and film critic David Gilmour (who, btw, is NOT the guitarist for Pink Floyd), who began doing his son’s homework, hoping someday Jesse would come around. Instead, Jesse announced he wanted to drop out of school—at the same time that David lost his job as a film critic on TV and couldn’t find work. Frustrated, frightened, exhausted, he shocked Jesse by agreeing to his request—provided he’d watch at least three films every week with him. Dubbed "The Film Club," the three years of movie-watching the father and son spent together is captured in Gilmour’s new same-name memoir.

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New Review: Top Girls

Alas, this review is not so new -- it came out some time ago, and I totally forgot to post about it. I reviewed Top Girls, currently at the Biltmore, for the New York Press, and here's a little tease:

The last time Broadway housed a Caryl Churchill play was 20 years ago, when the most unforgettable image in Serious Money, a satire of the 1980s bull market, was bare-chested Alec Baldwin making hay of the author’s rhyming couplets. Still, the hirsute hottie couldn’t keep the critically lambasted, misunderstood play alive, and so Serious Money closed after 15 not-so-serious performances. The British playwright then became, if no commercial theater darling, at least a writer of serious coinage, with productions at the Public Theater (The Skriker, Drunk Enough to Say I Love You), New York Theater Workshop (Far Away, A Number) and virtually any nonprofit where leftist politics and righteous drama easily converge.

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Is Drama Desk President William Wolf Guilty or Just Having a Hissy Fit?

In response to the disturbing charges leveled in Tom O'Neill's 3,000-word expose about the Drama Desk Awards in the Los Angeles Times, Drama Desk President William Wolf sent out this screed to the membership listserv. Like all leaders who know they're probably guilty and are cornered, Wolf has chosen the cowardly response -- he has lashed out.

Here is the text of his letter to the membership:

Dear Drama Desk member:

Why should Barbara Siegel have all the fun? I’m happy to report that I have now been personally vilified along with Barbara, our dedicated and outstanding chairperson of the Drama Desk Nominating Committee, who has received a tremendous outpouring of support from the theater community and membership in the face of the scurrilous and false accusations leveled against her by a disgruntled, vengeful now former member Tony Phillips, whom Barbara and I dismissed from the Nominating Committee for not fulfilling his responsibilities and impeding the committee’s work. I’m not looking for the sort of accolades Barbara has been receiving, but I know that I must be doing something right as president to generate such fury on behalf of a few malcontents who have their own agenda and apparently would like to take over the Drama Desk.
Matthew Murray has posted on the chat board a sleazy column by Tom O’Neil who writes the Gold Derby blog on the Los Angeles Times website. O’Neil attempts to create a scandal where there is none—there are only the wild, baseless allegations of a few. Gold Derby? We know that all that glistens is not gold. Sometimes there is only manure.

Every worthwhile organization has at least a couple of self-serving embittered members, and one task of a president and an Executive Board is not to let them distract the organization from its basic purpose, which in the case of the Drama Desk is to nominate and award outstanding work in the theater and hold forums on important theater topics. In the guise of wanting to help the Drama Desk, Murray has deliberately gone public to dump on the organization just when we are about to announce and celebrate our awards.

Murray has been grumbling ever since he was not asked back on the Nominating Committee. He even told me he was hesitant about renewing his membership this past season because he was so unhappy with the Drama Desk. I’m sorry I didn’t encourage his hesitation. In contrast, each year so many people who know the value of the Drama Desk are eager to become members.

The essence of the accusation by Murray and his ilk is that Barbara and I are supposedly steering the Drama Desk nominations toward Broadway shows. One has only to look at the broad nominations this year, last year, and in past years to see how absurd this is. The situation is just the opposite; the letters of support from the theater community hail Barbara in particular as a well known champion of smaller shows. Likewise, the attacks on the nominating process are total distortions. I’m accused, along with Barbara, of “bullying nominators” into changing votes. This is a lie. The nominators, unpaid volunteers like the officers and other members of the Executive Board, work very intensively, going to shows nearly every day of the week all season long, meeting frequently throughout the season as they strive to honor the most outstanding productions and performances in 28 categories plus special awards. Everything is by vote. There is a practice of allowing every nominator to bring up for re-consideration shows that h ave not received a nomination thus far, or shows that have. There is discussion. That’s called debate. It is not a nefarious effort to force a change in the result. Nothing is final until the very end of the process.

Some 450 shows were seen among the nominators and evaluated this past season, still necessarily only a fraction of the hundreds more that are mounted each season all over the city. There has to be some standard for eligibility, otherwise coverage would be humanly impossible. Since the Drama Desk credo is to have Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off Broadway compete against one another in the same categories, we can’t divide the nominators into separate groups. Hence, the Executive Board decided as a practical measure that a show must have at least 17 performances for consideration. That applies across the board, including showcases, festivals, organizations like BAM and Broadway. There is no way that all shows can be covered. There has to be some limitation.

It has been my impression that most members have been delighted with the growth of the Drama Desk and the increased profile of our awards and activities and are pleased with the way things have been going. The media scene has changed so much, especially with the great importance that the internet has assumed amid the decline in print theater coverage, that it became vital several years ago to open our voting ranks to on-line writers. Ironically, Murray, on-line himself, wouldn’t be a member had we not taken that forward step.

The Drama Desk has been around and will be around longer than any of us, and I take pride in being able to lead the organization as others have done before me. There have been battles before, and this too shall pass. Constructive criticism or suggestions are always welcomed. But it is important not to let a few malcontents, abetted by the chicanery of columnists or bloggers who are always trying to stir the pot for their own aggrandizement, deter us from our function by smearing the work of the Drama Desk.

William Wolf,

Your bullying, only Broadway oriented, the hell with off-Broadway and of-off Broadway Drama Desk President

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Why We Should Be Suspicious of NYU's Plans for the Provincetown Playhouse

Please note the special appeal to Philip Seymour Hoffman.

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The Drama Desk Scandal Blows Wide Open

When Tom O'Neill of the Los Angeles Times interviewed me for an investigative piece on the dirty doings at the Drama Desk, I didn't anticipate it would be even nearly as comprehensive and as stunning as what Tom published yesterday.

First, here is the link to the article. Check out the first four graphs -- and just consider the fact that the piece runs nearly 3,000 words.

On the eve of its awards being presented this Sunday, the Drama Desk is engulfed in a growing scandal that erupted following the resignation of a member who was booted from the nominating committee.

Initially, president William Wolf pooh-poohed "the total nonsense and patently false" charges made by Tony Phillips of Edge Publications against Barbara Siegel, chair of the nominating committee, as "the biased and disgruntled rant" of someone who'd been fired, but now other prominent members of the Drama Desk have not only substantiated some of Phillips' charges, but evidence has emerged that Wolf may also be guilty of one of the most serious allegations against Siegel — bullying nominators into changing a legitimate award nomination that he didn't like.

Wolf and Siegel hold leadership roles of dubious legality since neither may technically qualify for membership in the Drama Desk organization. In the past few days Wolf — whose media outlet is his own website, WolfEntertainmentGuide.com — revealed that old bylaws are still in effect that don't recognize Internet writers. Siegel's media credentials are TalkinBroadway.com and TheaterMania.com. Also in question is the legality and authenticity of this weekend's awards, which were voted upon by the many Internet-only writers in the Drama Desk.

Several prominent members describe Wolf and Siegel as kingpins of an entrenched leadership that rules forcibly, hides scandals and key issues from the general membership, and makes it difficult for rivals to become officers or members of its board of directors. Among controversies they're accused of hushing up: Last year there was such serious dissent over management of the nominating committee that two of its six members resigned in protest just a few weeks before nominations were to be decided.

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