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.

Cindy Marie Jenkins

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

AN ARM AND A LEG
Panel: Peggy Hickey, JT Horenstein, Janet Miller, Lee Martino
Moderator: Ernest Figueroa

Esteemed choreographers on a panel in a room full of directors (and a handful of director/choreographer combos): amazing opportunity or worst nightmare? Heated discussion does not begin to describe this panel. Labbies walked away with lists of ways to collaborate with choreographers but remain the vision in the room, per the choreographers’ wishes. Hickey, Horenstein, Miller and Martino talked us through the discipline inherent in dancers, how to harness that power for good and as an example, and why “So You Think You Should Dance” should really be called “So You Think You Can Choreograph.” Moving descriptions of this panel’s most personal, inspirational moments countered any constructive criticism of the profession; in particular, Horenstein’s process from extended jury duty to writing a play about the trial that evolved into a dance-alogue moved all in the room to the kind of experience that only fellow creators understand.

Partnerships Panel: Jess Bard, Brian Kite, Ron Celona, Damaso Rodriguez, Laurie Woolery, Tony Rizzi

IN PURSUIT OF PARTNERSHIPS
Panel: Ron Celona, Brian Kite, Tony Rizzi, Damaso Rodriguez, Laurie Woolery
Moderator: Jess Bard

“The partnering model is the new model.”

-Damaso Rodriguez, after Furious Theatre co-produced with The Theatre @ Boston Court

With such an incredible group in the room, these two hours were packed full of discussions and innovations. Brian Kite of La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts wasted no time in passing out brochures and describing the unique partnership between the La Mirada Theatre, McCoy/Rigby and the city of La Mirada. Coachella Valley Repertory‘s unofficial mission is to “bring quality programming to the desert,” Celona informed us. They partner mostly for venues that serve their immediate community. Damaso Rodriguez told how Furious Theatre Company formed in 2001 but did not produce until 2002, and on their search for a deal on a space. They began at the Armory Center for the Arts, where they met influencers with the Pasadena Playhouse, who offered them their 99-seat space. Laurie Woolery told Cornerstone’s story from a slightly different perspective and included partnerships that theoretically were rocky but in practice as open and revealing as any others. Tony Rizzi brought a student from The Art Institute in North Hollywood and explained how he convinced students of Entertainment Design to volunteer for credit at a local theater: “If you don’t get how theatre works from one point-of-view, how can you expect to work on set with four cameras?” Great conversation ensued on various ways to partner for both in-kind and monetary support while supporting your company’s mission!

Roundtable: Tina Polzin, Buster Rojas, Jen Bloom, Carla Melo, Roger Q. Mason, Ellen Koivisto (rear)

THE LITTLE VOICE
Roundtable: All Attendees
Moderator: Joann Yarrow (DLW ’00), Ernest Figueroa

Do you listen to that “thing,” that little voice inside us all that triggers when we serve our own best interests and passions? In tune with this year’s theme of Balance, Ernest and Joann led a lively roundtable (is it a roundtable when there is no table?) on balancing life and career. Anecdotes, personal revelations and appreciation of family and friends prevailed, while many attending and organizing the Lab discussed how this idea of balance manifests in their own lives. This session ended softly, with multiple side conversations sparked as people left LATC for the day to carpool and travel on the Metro together before attending Ruined at the Geffen Playhouse.

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