Contents include: Happy Birthday, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing; Dramaturgy/Publication: Melissa Hillman (Part 2 of 2); Academia, Practice, Criticism: Joseph Cermatori; Events.https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/lmdanewsletter/1007/thumbnail.jp

Cermatori, Joseph

Hillman, Melissa

McClain, Megan

Stoller, Jeremy

English

Sound Ideas

University of Puget SoundSound IdeasLMDA Newsletter LMDA Archive1-2017LMDA New & Noteworthy, volume 2, no. 4Melissa HillmanMegan McClainJoseph CermatoriJeremy StollerFollow this and additional works at: https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/lmdanewsletterThis Book is brought to you for free and open access by the LMDA Archive at Sound Ideas. It has been accepted for inclusion in LMDA Newsletter byan authorized administrator of Sound Ideas. For more information, please contact soundideas@pugetsound.edu.Recommended CitationHillman, Melissa; McClain, Megan; Cermatori, Joseph; and Stoller, Jeremy, "LMDA New & Noteworthy, volume 2, no. 4" (2017).LMDA Newsletter. 8.https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/lmdanewsletter/8January 2017Issue 2.4HAPPY BIRTHDAY,GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING!Every year, LMDA celebrates the January 22 birthday of the man considered the father ofdramaturgy. That date kicks off a week of fundraisers for our Early-Career Dramaturgy initiaties.For more information, check out our listserv and ECD Facebook page.dramaturgy/publication | MELISSA HILLMAN(PART 2 OF 2) In part two of this interview, Melissa Hillman, creator of the blog Bitter Gertrude, talks aboutissues of equity and diversity in the theatre industry.What social justice issues do you think we're not talking enough about asSubscribe Past Issues Translatetheatermakers right now?We’re just at the beginning baby steps of dealing withdiversity and equity. One aspect of that we rarelydiscuss is class—there are multiple class barriers toparticipation, some that stem from larger culturalissues (like income inequality) and some of our ownmaking, like confining hires to people who haveMFAs, or hiring people based in NYC or LA when thecompany is based elsewhere. There are serious classdivides in our industry both for individuals and forcompanies. We rarely discuss the great dividebetween indie theatre and AEA theatre. Largertheatres and service orgs fret constantly about howfew young people and people of color come to “thetheatre,” and allocate a bunch of money and timeproducing studies about it, but the indie theatre scene, which is jam packed with youngpeople and people of color, is completely ignored. The problem isn’t that “the theatre” can’tattract diverse young audiences; the problem is that diverse young audiences aren’tcoming to LORTs. That’s a very different problem.Also, as an industry, we need to come to terms with the fact that we just don’t fund indietheatres or theatres run by people of color anywhere near the way we fund wealthy whitetheatre, and I just mean proportionally, as percentage of budget. Massive grants go tohuge, established theatres to create diversity initiatives while ignoring the struggling smalltheatres that have been serving that audience for years. Grantors greatly prefer to fund awhite theatre’s “ethnic” play than a Black, Asian, or Latinx theatre, and that’s a problem.What is our responsibility as theatermakers to address these issues on and offstage?We have a responsibility to create conversations with our art. I have a lot of questionsabout “community engagement initiatives,” since so many of them are paternalistic. Toooften, it’s a white theatre given a grant to “create conversations” in an “underserved”community of color, as if that community has no art of its own.During the big “audience engagement” thing, we turned our attention away from the stage,and that was a mistake. Our responsibility is to the art, and that’s an enormousresponsibility. Are we telling the stories we should be telling to truthfully represent ourdiverse community, its hopes, its dreams, its fears, its imagination, its history, its future?Are we adequately taking care of the people in our industry? Are we working to break outof the insular hiring practices that roadblock diversity, equity, and gender parity? Are weseeking to include indie theatre and indie theatremakers? Are we challenging theoppressive norms of our culture in our art—both in the art itself and the way it’s made—orare we reinscribing them? Art creates dialogue, conversation, empathy, and change, much, much more powerfullythan any other human activity. We can write 1000 blog posts about diversity in casting, andnot even come close to matching the power of 10 minutes of Hamilton. I have no illusionsabout that. I write about diversity in theatre because I want theatremakers to think moredeeply about their art, both the art itself and how it’s made.Interview by Megan McClainacademia, practice, criticism | JOSEPHCERMATORIJoseph occupies several roles that are increasingly rare:he recently began a tenure-track position as assistantprofessor of English at Skidmore College, and he writestheater criticism for such publications as Village Voice. Inthis interview, he talks about his current projects, and hiscareer path. Living and working in upstate New York,you're in close proximity to a lot of arts andculture (not to mention some spectacularoutdoor activities). Is the way you read, write,or enjoy art much different since movingthere?It was an adjustment to leave New York City lastsummer, since I’d moved there in 2008, but I’m glad to have made the escape. Even withthe pressures of a new job, there’s been more time for reading, writing, conversation, andexploring the region. Saratoga always has a lot going on culturally, but there’s alsoEMPAC, Glimmerglass, The Berkshires, Beacon, Hudson, and lots else nearby. And beingclose to the city means I can spend one or two weekends a month there to binge onperformance and art. I’m not sure yet how all of this will change my work, but it’s been verygood to have a new, more leisurely, more regional perspective. What courses have been the most engaging or challenging to teach? What pieces ofart/literature have inspired particularly vibrant discussions?This fall I taught an introductory course on dramatic literature that generated somewonderful discussions. One in particular came about in response to Sarah Kane’s 1995play Blasted, which has long been a favorite of mine. It’s a disturbing play, to say the least,but where others might have turned away from it instinctively, these students were eager todive in. We had a vigorous and wide-ranging conversation about war, patriarchy,chauvinism, sexual assault, realism, dramatic language, and violence onstage, topicswhich all seem as timely as ever. That class created some strong bonds: those studentsare now planning a reading of Ionesco’s Rhinoceros in response to this month’sinauguration. The announcement of your Skidmore position mentioned a forthcoming book aboutbaroque avant-gardes in the European and American theatre from 1880-1940. Wheredid that interest begin?My book project grows out of my recent dissertation, and before that, my years as an MFAdramaturgy student. Early on, I began noticing that a number of contemporary theatreartists were making work that exhibited debts of some kind to the baroque past. (Forexample: Robert Wilson, The Wooster Group, and My Barbarian could all be named in thisregard.) There seemed to be a pervasive contemporary interest in baroque style. The bookseeks to locate a pre-history for that interest by looking at the historical avant-gardes,taking up writings by Friedrich Nietzsche, Stéphane Mallarmé, Walter Benjamin, GertrudeStein, and others, using the concept of baroque to constellate them together and reframehow we understand modernism in the theatre. You're publishing intelligent and savvy performance reviews in major publications ata time when the opportunities to do so are limited. What led you to this sort ofwriting? What are your thoughts on how theatre criticism might sustain or evolve inways that continue serve artists and audiences?I began working as a critic during my time at Yale, studying under writers like JonathanKalb and Hilton Als and writing for journals like Theater and PAJ. For theatre criticism toflourish, we as a community need to support the efforts of a free press, along withindependent book and journal publishers, with our voices and patronage. ow can thetheatre itself survive in a vacuum with no professional commentary or context? Certainlywe shouldn’t discourage blogger critics, but it would be a catastrophe if professionaltheatre criticism were to disappear from the news, while film, music, and restaurant criticscontinue to thrive. Many of our members are student and early-career dramaturgs, for whom questionsabout pursuing advanced degrees or teaching positions are particularly relevant.Can you share some background on your decisions to pursue those paths? And anyadvice you offer students considering a similar trajectory?Getting an advanced degree was probably inevitable for me, since I’ve always hadinterests in teaching and research alongside my interests in journalistic writing and creativepractice. And in general, the work of a dramaturg greatly benefits from some advancedstudy. That doesn’t have to mean a traditional conservatory MFA program or PhD programlike the ones I went through, though the benefits of those are many. There are lots ofpathways and programs and fields, and the most important thing when you’re young is tobegin imagining the sort of work you’d like to do and start doing it somehow, carving yourpathway forward. It may ultimately change direction, but take guidance from John Cage’srules for artists: “Nothing is a mistake. There is no win and no fail. There is only make.” Interview by Jeremy StollereventsNOW thru Jan 29 - Lessing Week fundraising drive for ECD conference travelgrantsJan 23 - Conference proposals dueFeb 6 - Dramaturg Driven grant applications openFeb 25 - Board meets in Denver at New Play SummitMar 15 - Conference registration opensMar 17 - Dramaturg Driven grant applications closeJune 22-24 - "Access, Art & Activism" conference in Berkeley, CAThis email was sent to <<Email Address>> why did I get this?    unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences LMDA · PO Box 604074 · Bayside, NY 11360 · USA 

LMDA New & Noteworthy, January 2017

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LMDA New & Noteworthy, January 2017

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