Ball Thrown Round The World

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I don’t know if anyone caught this Guardian article on Artsjournal.com in the last day or so. The story covers, Play on Earth, an effort by performance groups on three continents to create and interactively perform with one another with the help of technology. I had previously mentioned a related effort by MIT in an entry a couple years ago.

The Guardian article presents what may be a preview of the format the performing arts may take in the future. It seems quite ripe with possibility. It could be exciting to see how directors might exploit the real time chronological differences in clever ways.

The danger element inherent to having separate directors and casts who have never met each other might provide a draw to audiences as an alternative to the well-edited movie or television show. We often talk about one of the appeals of live performance being that anything can happen and this certainly reintroduces that concept. The irony is, it is the instability of network connection that contributes to this sense that catastrophe may be imminent. As technology improves, performances may have to up the ante in other areas to maintain the ambiance.

The Non-Artistic for Artistic Leaders

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I noticed this just before I started to travel back from vacation. I thought the deadline to apply was Friday but it is tomorrow. Still, the application is fairly easy to fill out and if nothing else, interested parties can keep their eyes open to apply the next year it is offered. (The praises quoted are from the 2004 institute. Don’t know if they just forgot to update the page or if it is bi-annual.)

Theatre Communications Group is having a New Artistic Leader Institute in San Diego in August. “The goal of the Institute is to orient new and prospective artistic directors to the non-artistic aspects of leading a theatre company.” The criteria for New Artistic Leader is those who have been in their current position since 2004. As is implied by the Artistic Leader term rather than Artistic Director, the program is open to a number of artistic positions. “Resident directors, associate artistic directors and freelance artists are also eligible to apply”

There is a $300 application fee and scholarship monies available.

Although this is the fourth year TCG has done this, the curriculum for this year has yet to be set and will be formulated by a task force in the coming weeks. This seems to imply the program attempts to address the latest concerns of artistic leaders.

Anyhow, if you are interested get thee to the information page and application!

Away For A Nonce

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I am going on vacation for a bit in order to shower my nephew with adulation.

Those who wish to ponder my occasional brilliance can seek it in the blog archives.

With nearly 350 entries to peruse you can survey the changes in my thinking and writing style from the very beginning!

I will be checking my blog on occasion to thin out the spam of advertising in the comments section.
If you are moved to make observations they will appear on the blog within a few days when I have time to approve them and perhaps say something in return.

What Is Your Dream

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Starting a performance company/gallery of ones own seems to be a common dream of most students in the arts. Since it is graduation time I thought I would offer up this article on keeping the proper perspective from the May issue of Inc.

I enjoy reading Norm Brodsky’s column in the magazine because he is adept at employing interesting ancedotes to illustrate his point. He often offers advice to people seeking to start their own business. In this particular column he cautions against being so overly ambitious that you make your core desire unattainable.

One aspect of Brodsky’s article that interested me was his suggested conditions under which refusing to consider partnering was unwise versus those conditions when having a partner could restrict your success.

This is a subject I ponder upon often because I often see situations where people are letting their egos and desire for acclaim for their way of doing things limit their success by not partnering. So they labor hard while trying to leverage their limited resources and meet with limited results.

Some times this is a good thing because some concepts don’t warrant widespread recognition. Also, competition can keep people on their toes and striving harder. Sometimes it is just dumb.