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 NOTES
OF TROUPE MEETING #8 -- Noon, Sunday, March 21st, 2010
notes taken by Troupe Member Monica Karwan
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Subversive Troupe Meeting
March 21th, 2010
In attendance:
Kurt Schneiderman
Monica Karwan
Rachel Zeller
Tom Scahill
Jane Cudmore
Theresa Wilbur
Brittany Kucala
Susan Forbes
Eric Mowery
Tom Izard
Kelly Beuth
Here’s what happened:
1.
Overview
Financially, things are looking up!
’84 and a successful December fundraiser helped to get us back on
track, and despite a handful of production snags, Harvest continued the
revitalizing trend. Three cheers!
The admission policy has shifted, from hoping for money
in the hungry pumpkin, to the official charging of $10-15. This has been important in keeping the theatre afloat.
2.
Inducting new members:
Several people not present would like to be inducted as
members: Joy Scime, Martha Rothkopf, Daniel Henderson, Meghan Callahan, and
Dinash Lal. We vote: they’re
in!
Also, Jane
Cudmore, Eric Mowery, and Brittany Kucala would like to join. Again, unanimous acceptance.
Welcome new troupers!
3.
Financial Issues
Tom Izard raises the question:
Is the take significantly different on Sundays?
The data is not on hand, but Rachel says it seems that the ticket price
has encouraged people to pay even on pay-what-you-can night.
4.
New admission policy
This decision had to be made quickly in a time of
distress. How does everyone feel
about it? No problems from anyone
present.
5.
Next Production: Susan
Forbes directs the Eve Ensler show Necessary Targets
The show is based on interviews Eve Ensler did in Bosnia
after the war. It has many female
roles. What Susan finds very
powerful about the piece is that, as Ensler says, “the war really happens
after the war.” The women’s lives are affected by violence, heartbreak,
multiple atrocities…but the production also celebrates the spirit of the
community, the meaning and power of having a culture.
Susan discusses how Yugoslavia was artificially created by the West as
a buffer zone, a protection from Nazi Germany – after it lost this
significance, it was left in a mess. Susan
has done a lot of historical research to help understand the piece.
The characters are fictional, made of composites of interviews.
They do not all die at the end!
6.
Ushering/Postering
A sign-up sheet is passed around for ushering through May
1st. Tom Scahill
coordinates ushers, and there is usually poor response to the e-mails –
hopefully the sign-up sheet will give us a good head start.
7.
Subversive Shorts 2010: June 17th-July 11th
Subversive Shorts is our annual nationwide new play
competition. We typically do
around 10 vignette-size plays, keeping it fast-paced, political-cabaret style.
Final decisions about what plays will be directed by whom will be done
by May 1st. Auditions will be held May 1st and 2nd,
by appointment only. Rachel
Zeller will be coordinating appointments.
New this year, there is 1 $5 entry fee per submission
(for playwrights.) This did bring
down the number of submissions we’ve received; there are about 60.
8.
May Day staged reading
This year’s reading is a musical, The Furies of
Mother Jones by Maxine Kline, directed by Susan Forbes. There will be 2 rehearsals.
Let Susan know if you’re interested in acting or musician-ing.
The show has Appalachian Mountain type music – easy to sing.
She’s looking for musicians: guitar, banjo, dulcimer, keyboard.
She’s not imagining it heavily staged: probably stools and music
stands.
The May Day reading is officially the start of our
new season: we will be renewing member contributions, and announcing our new
season.
9.
Production Slot for May/June
We need a project! One
possibility is a one-man show about Clarence Darrow.
Any other great ideas are welcome.
Tom Scahill mentions doing Inherit the Wind, readapting the book into a
better stage production than the play that has been written.
This sounds like a good idea for down the road.
10.
Infringement Festival Project
Last year our production began with the festival, and ran
a week beyond it. We have not yet
settled on a project for this year. The
gargantuan undertaking of a staged verion of the film Metropolis?
Tom Scahill mentions missing performances outside since
we do have this wonderful space. We
feel like we need to use it since we’re paying for it…
11.
Next Season: Prospective Projects
Susan Forbes has suggested some productions of Twilight
Zone episodes. At Halloween time,
with a group of directors doing different episodes, several in a night.
This will fill our October-November time slot.
We plan to do a 2-weekend presentation of A Totalitarian
Christmas in December: this was done as a fundraiser last year, and is a lot
of fun.
We plan on doing 2 less shows in the upcoming season,
making the runs one-week longer, (5 weeks instead of 4) and having more time
between the shows, to collect ourselves and promote the upcoming production.
Reactions? Tom Izard says
that he’s recently read tips on sustaining a small theatre, and the advice
was the opposite: to do a ton of short-run productions.
Do we have the energy and enough people involved to pull that off?
Susan talks about pre-sale tickets, and how that might help us quite a
bit financially as well. Someone
suggests having a four-week run with the option to extend, and the decision
being made in the third week.
There’s a show about a garbage-worker strike led by
Martin Luther King, Jr. We could
run this opening on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and running into February.
Last May Day we put on Brecht’s Days of the Commune;
next year will be the 120th anniversary of the events.
Shall we do this in the March slot?
Other project ideas: Charles Bush’s Red Scare on
Sunset.
Our worker’s play: there’s an Argentinian play about
the sin patron movement (working with no bosses), put together as a docu-drama
by the workers; it’s performed on the streets of Buenos Aires by activists
(not theatre groups). Kurt has
been unable to find it – can anyone track this thing down?
It’s called Machinando.
Any ideas are more than welcome!
12.
Filmed shows
There are lots of films out there that we could use.
We could show Metropolis. Susan
asks are there copies of the colorized rock version?
Would anyone like to head up a film night, or commit to a
longer showcase? No takers at the
meeting.
What about tying a movie to a performance of Necessary
Targets: come see the 6:00 movie and stay for the 8:00 show?
There’s a relevant film about runners who were on the same team, then
ended up on opposite sides of the war. Susan
would like to leave it up to the actors.
It’s also a possibility to run a film after the show, since it’s
only about 90 minutes.
13.
Staged readings
We’ve tried to pull them off once a month, but just
don’t have the resources. We’d
like to do a few here and there. Susan
suggests having audiences help read a play, just hand it out and round robin
it, having a participatory rather than a staged reading.
What if we took one night a month, and made it one of the
three: a film, a staged reading, a participatory reading. This sounds more pull-offable.
Monica is really excited about this participatory reading
idea, and is willing to commit and bring baked goods. Eric likes it, too.
Kurt mentions that audiences commented on how polished
the production of Harvest was: when he inquired about what this perception was
based on, they mentioned the painting on the walls, and the fact that there
was water for sale. Moral: these
details really help people feel welcome.
How can we use this info?
Anything we missed?
Everyone feels satisfied with the meeting.
Time to help prep for the next show.
There’s painting, filling a pool with dirt, and lighting to be done.
Kurt dreams of having a marketing director.
If anyone thinks they could handle or co-handle such a position, please
let him know.
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