My last 2AMT post – on civil discourse around the subject of pricing – generated a great deal of lively commentary. While some of what was said flirted with the gray area between “passionate” and “heated” – the former I consider intense and devoted, the latter inflammatory and aggressive – there were a great many [...]
Why is it so difficult to discuss how we price tickets? I want to note right away that I’m not asking why we struggle to SET ticket prices; for very good thinking about pricing, I suggest you read through Trisha Mead’s posts on the subject. I’m asking why we struggle to TALK about setting ticket [...]
I want to start by asking a simple question: what plays would get produced if artistic directors were only allowed to select from anonymously-submitted blind scripts? What if, in other words, artistic directors had to choose plays without knowing the names of the people who’d written them – or their genders, their ages, their races, [...]
David J. Loehr’s recent post about warming up an audience with a trailer has put me in mind of another way to extend the theatrical experience that I’ve been thinking about for some time. A few years ago, the Intentional Theatre Group commissioned me to write a short play for the Midtown International Theatre Festival. [...]
The Washington, DC area loves Shakespeare. I’m not sure I can say why, exactly – perhaps he’s the most bi-partisan playwright – but the facts are indisputable. Year after year, the Shakespeare Theatre Company, the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, the Folger Theatre, and the Washington Shakespeare Company, among others, put the Big Bad Bard front and [...]
What do you think of when you think of the word brand? Do you think, first and foremost, of a logo? The swirled “G” of the Guthrie Theatre? The lowercase red-and-white “tkts” next to the discount booths in New York, or the lowercase white “tcg” – inside an orange circle – associated with the Theatre [...]
Disruptive technology and disruptive innovation are terms used in business and technology literature to describe innovations that improve a product or service in ways that the market does not expect, typically by being lower priced or designed for a different set of consumers. – Wikipedia I think the world of new play development is ready [...]
I’ve just finished reading this passionate post by Michael Billington on the Guardian’s Theatre Blog imploring Jeremy Hunt, the culture minister of the new coalition government in the UK, not to cut funding for the arts. It’s a fairly straightforward argument, complete with the requisite data showing quite clearly that the return on investment for [...]
