All this week LA Stage will present coverage of Directors Lab West 2010 with reports from DLW Steering Committee Associate Producer Cindy Marie Jenkins, Production Coordinator Rachel Jenkins and DLW intern Doug Oliphant. Each year the Lab chooses a theme around which all their sessions are based and a play around which many group workshops are organized. For 2010 the theme is “Balance” and the play Measure for Measure. Click here to view all DLW 2010 updates.
Doug Oliphant
Saturday, Sept. 4
Directors Lab West Sessions 2010
Each year the Lab chooses a theme around which all their sessions are based and a play around which many group workshops is organized. For 2010 the theme is ”Balance” and the play Measure for Measure.
CHECK-IN
Today began the 2010 Directors Lab West and what a day it was. Relocated from its original home at the Pasadena Playhouse, DLW is being held at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in downtown this year. The Steering Committee embraced the location change and created eight action-packed days filled with opportunity for Lab Attendees.
Starting with an orientation, Steering Committee members Jessica Bard, Ernest Figueroa and Brendon Fox along with Production Coordinator Rachel Jenkins explained the way the week will work for the participants. This year’s theme is the balancing act that we as theatre artists must negotiate between artistic vision and financial obligation, political influence, family responsibility, etc. On the subject of cliché phrases used at the Directors Labs, Ernie shared with us several times that, “YOU are the future of the American Theater!” This phrase is inspired by Anne Cattaneo, creator and head of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. So, seriously, Los Angeles theatre directors: no pressure but don’t let us down.
ON BALANCE
Speaker: Jose Luis Valenzuela
Moderator: Brendon Fox
“We create magic! . . . on stage! . . . sometimes with nothing!” -Jose Luis Valenzuela
After a short lunch break where pizzas were ravaged and Cokes were sucked down by hungry lab attendees, we resumed the lab with a discussion with speaker Jose Luis Valenzuela, Artistic Director of the Latino Theatre Company. Speaking volumes in such a short amount of time, Jose Luis spoke of his journey as a Latino director, losing LATC and his company finding a home at the Taper, then eventually reopening LATC and creating a whole new system of operation that has since become a major success. He spoke on how quite literally, America’s primary theatre audience base is dying out and how LA is such a great place to discover the next generation of audience. Young people in LA want to go out, just give them a reason to come.
EDUCATOR VS. ARTIST
Panel: Luis Alfaro, Andy Barnicle, Michael Hackett, Velina Hasu Houston
Moderator: Ernest Figueroa
“You can be in a group of students and talk about Ensemble . . . and they still believe it.”
– Velina Hasu Houston
Next up was a panel of professional theatrical Artists/Educators who spoke specifically on their experiences fighting the battle between being a practicing theatre artist and being a working theatre educator-at the same time. Many subsequent conversations sprung up from this including a hot one about artistic freedom in the educational setting vs. the artistic freedom in the professional setting. The consensus seemed to be the greater an institution’s budget gets, the less artistic freedom you have, regardless of whether or not you’re in an educational setting or a professional setting. Regional theatres were also heavily discussed, speaking specifically about their origins/original intent to best serve the community of the region they existed in. Now, as budgets rose and audiences began demanding specific requirements from the productions, many of America’s regional theatres seem to have lost touch with how they can best serve their communities at large and often operate under very creatively restricting conditions.
DTLArtMob
Activity: LAB Members ’10
Moderator: Cindy Marie Jenkins (DLW ’08)
Next, an assignment was given out to the Lab Attendees where in randomly divided groups they would have to work together to create a site-specific theatre piece at one of four given locations in downtown LA. The piece must be under 10-minutes long, must involve the lab’s theme of balance, must involve a topic of discussion from some point in the week and must include at least one line of text from the assigned core text Measure for Measure. This will primarily be created during upcoming lunch and dinner breaks and will be presented on Friday between 1-3 pm.
SOCIAL MEDIA: FRIEND OR FOE?
Roundtable: Steve Julian & Cindy Marie Jenkins (DLW ’08)
Moderator: Rachel Jenkins
“Approach where your audience is.” -Steve Julian
After dinner, the day concluded in what turned out to be a rather heated discussion/debate on social media and its use in the theatre. Led by Twitter fanatics Cindy Marie Jenkins and Rachel Jenkins (no relation), it focused primarily on the use of the social media websites Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and various blog pages and how effective they are in marketing. The group was pretty divided, some being very big advocates on event posting, video creating, update tweeting, etc. while the rest either had no experience/interest in this new marketing medium or simply didn’t believe a direct correlation existed between them and finding more butts filling the seats. In the end, it was collectively agreed
upon the bottom line is the marketing needs to create a buzz: one person talking to another person about the show and why it excites them in order to actually translate into people attending. Technology works for some people, it scares others and that applies to both we who create the theatre as well as those who attend it, thus making marketing in physical and virtual forms important.
“God, is this still today?” - Rod Menzies DLW ’10
That was the day! Tomorrow the weapons come out first thing in the morning for a stage combat workshop led by Edgar Landa, followed by Dell ‘Arte grad Anastasia Coon’s performance and physical theatre workshop later in the day. We’ll just have to wait and see how many true warriors we have in our group who remain standing after a very physically demanding day!
Directors Lab West is a unique forum which brings Theater Directors together with peers and seasoned professionals for an opportunity to collaborate and grow together as artists. Directors Lab West is modeled after the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab in New York City. Like its NY counterpart, the Lab is a series of discussions, working sessions, panels and symposia with some of the nation’s and region’s leading directors, playwrights, designers and other theatre practitioners. DirectorsLabWest.com
Los Angeles Theatre Center photo by Samantha Page at blogdowntown.com.
