Obsession: Katie Mitchell

I've been low-grade obsessed with UK director Katie Mitchell since this fall. The Guardian has a great interview with her today. (Read it, you'll love it.)

Notable for the big conversations happening in the theatreblogosandbox:

Do you suffer for your art?

No. It is a source of great joy for me, and I still pinch myself that people pay me to do it.

Career: Joined the Royal Shakespeare Company as a director in 1998. Is now an associate director at the National Theatre, London (020-7452 3000), where her production of ...Some Trace of Her opens on July 30.

High point: "I don't do highs and lows. Theatre is hard graft, and I try to maintain a steady equilibrium."

Notable just because:

What's the best advice you've had?

A Russian woman called Professor Soloviova once saw a hit show of mine and said: "It looks very beautiful, but there's absolutely nothing going on between the actors." It set me up to ensure that was never the case again.

Quick anecdote:
I went on a Kurosawa and sushi date with an old friend this weekend. After the movie we started talking about how we're both devoted to oddballs like David Lynch and Akira Kurosawa, but I've never liked anything by Stanley Kubrick or Alfred Hitchcock. (I know, right?) I appreciate them as genius artists, but I find their films pretty boring. Anyway, I think my Kubrick/Hitchcock ambivalence is mostly about this feeling I get that neither of them care about their actors. Ms. Mitchell's quote made me think of that conversation, and how live performance can fall into a similar trap of looking great but feeling pretty empty.

Oh, and, bonus, Mitchell's Waves is coming to Lincoln Center this fall. See you there!

Technology

Lyn Gardner, on the possible over-use of technology in theatre:

From what I've seen of it so far, Fifty-Nine's contributions to the productions on which they collaborate, whether it is in Black Watch or the adaptation of the cartoon Alex, are integral to the production and always in service of it. But I keep seeing productions in which it appears as if playing with the technologies is the prime interest of the theatre-makers, rather than the show itself.

The Fifty-Nine Gardner refers to is director Katie Mitchell's awesome in-house video production team. This essay is worth reading for the bonanza of experimental-theatre links Gardner has packed into it alone.

Whether technology is over or under-used in theatre is, of course, a concern for American theatremakers as well. The use of technology seems to really aggravate theatremakers' insecurities about our medium's relevance; we think we need to use technology to legitimize our existence, and it ends up being weilded around like a clumsy sledgehammer. A lighting designer friend of mine likes to joke that the measure of a green, usually unskilled director is their insistence on using "slides" in their production. On the other hand, when used well, it is seamless and unbearably cool - an iPod generating random, personal music for a dance piece, or the Wooster group creating a spooky, campy, double-reality Hamlet, or a great little film I saw used in Sweet Bird of Youth at Williamstown a few seasons ago.

Clearly, I live in NY, so my perspective is decidedly Northeastern. I'd love to hear readers' thoughts on the use of technology in regional productions.

Shuffle Culture

My ex-boyfriend is a visual artist (he's very good). Hanging out with him for like 6 years made me realize how totally different the visual art and theater communities are. When it comes to innovation, visual artists outclass theatre artists like it's their job.

Why is this? Well, after years of being lead around to galleries, openings, and gallery-openings, it finally dawned on me that visual art, unlike theater, is free to look at. Anybody can waltz into the Gagosian and check out a Cy Twombly (priced up to like $4.5 million), but free theater is for the most part nonexistant. I think this leads to some other important distinctions, like if I wanted to see something new by 100+ theater artists, it would probably take me six months (a year?), and several thousands of dollars. On the other hand, if I wanted to see something new by 100+ visual artists, all I would have to do is walk around Williamsburg on the second Friday of the month (or Chelsea, or whatever).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a big fan of the art scene (there's a reason he's my ex-boyfriend). But oh, do I envy their access. And I'm not advocating a night where 100+ theatre artists open up their rehearsal processes (well... maybe). But in the spirit of communication, I would like to draw your attention to these productions, all recent or ongoing, that are doing some remarkable things:

Contains Violence, currently getting terrible reviews in the UK, which is disappointing, because it sounds awesome. Theatre audience as Hitchcockian voyeur, happening in real time and space.

Democracy in America, Annie Dorsen's open-source deconsctruction/reconsctruction of deTocqueville with the Foundry Theatre.

Conversation Storm, recently at the Frigid Festival, described by Aaron Riccio as a marriage of Phillip Glass and Chuck Mee

Of All the People in All The World, by Stan's Cafe. A play without a plot.

Small Metal Objects by Back to Back Theatre, which I've written about before. Site-specific, tech-forward, and live as anything can possibly be.

The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other, a play without words; "people-watching raised to the level of art"

Along these lines, I'd also like to point out this post from the Guardian Theatre Blog, which calls for an "iPod-like relationship between careful planning and chance" in theatre (Merce Cunningham is already all over this). I love this idea, and I think the performances listed above are making real strides in this direction. The live performing arts have got to fit into the landscape of open-source, of shuffle culture, and of personal control over information. I mean, we should own this one. We're live.

Lyn Gardner on Producing

I am truly, madly, deeply devoted to Lyn Gardner's theatre coverage in the Guardian, and my ardor deepens with her current blog posting, "Producers are theatre's true champions".

I mean, how's this for a clear-eyed perspective:

These producers are not just supporting projects, booking tours and raising money but also providing the creative spark that brings particular artists together and actually initiates projects. Their work is artist-centred and does not diminish the role of the artist but actually enhances and enables it.

I think it's often hard to see producers/managers as anything other than nasty gatekeepers... which sometimes true, and sometimes way off the mark. But I think we've all known a few really great managers - people you feel totally comfortable talking to, and you feel confident that whatever you say or ask will be heard, and addressed fairly. People who are genuinely excited just to make art possible.

UK creates 5,000 arts apprenticeships

Wow! UK Culture Secretary Andy Burnam announced yesterday that the government will sponsor 5,000 arts apprenticeships. 5,000!

I guess we could split hairs about these not being real jobs, and advancing the indentured servitude of arts interns... but I'm pretty excited about the UK government's investment in creative human capital. I don't know if the US could adopt this kind of measure country-wide, but maybe individual states?

I'm just going to go ahead and quote the article, because it makes me feel so good. Ok?

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The government said it was the first ever comprehensive plan for official support for the creative industries. The strategy is designed to provide the industries with an unrivalled pool of talent to draw upon, and the same formal, structured support associated with other industries.

Burnham said: "Making a career out of your passion and a business from your ideas - that's what we want to help Britain achieve. So now is the time to recognise the growing success story that is Britain's creative economy and build on it.

"The creative industries must move from the margins to the mainstream of economic and policy thinking, as we look to create the jobs of the future."

The BBC, Tate Liverpool, Universal Music Group and Monkeydevil Design are among the first to sign up to offer apprenticeships. Other companies already committed to the scheme include Birmingham Repertory Theatre, the National Trust, the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Museums Liverpool.

"Until recently the creative industries were seen as a bit of a Cinderella part of the economy, but things have now changed, as they should. We're second only to the service sector in our contribution to the economy and its good news that the government now recognises our importance", said Wayne Hemingway of Hemingway Design.

More than 1.9 million people are currently employed in the "creative industries", a higher share of the UK workforce than the US, Canada and France.

"The brilliant thing about publishing a strategy for the creative economy is that it recognises how hugely important creativity is to national success," said David Kester, the chief executive of the Design Council. "We can sometimes take for granted that we live in an open society which allows creativity to flourish in our young people and across many diverse professions, such as design, film and music."

The Ugly American at the Old Vic

Hilarious article from today's Guardian Theatre Blog, decrying the American tendency to clap at a star's entrance, fidget around in their seats, and blow their noses. Did you know that eating ice cream in the theatre is a London tradition?

Choice quote (actually via London Blogger Helen Smith):
"I was a bit wary at first because the theatre was full of American students who actually burst into applause when Kevin Spacey appeared on stage, as if they thought they were part of the live audience for an episode of Friends. But they settled down. Then there was an American woman behind us who did a special loud nasal honk whenever there was a funny line, to show that she was particularly attuned to David Mamet's cerebral style of wit."

And I'm back! I've been run a little ragged by my schedule, but I'm hoping to work some posts in when I can.