Go, Rocco, Go!

New NEA Chair Rocco Landesman Storms Congress.

"I'm a critic--I'm a blogger--no, a critic--no, a blogger"

Apologies to Faye Dunaway in Chinatown (if that reference wasn't already too strained), but this piece by theatre critic Steven Leigh Morris in the LA Weekly points to the disparity between self-appointed un-edited arts reviewers in the blogosphere vs. the professional journalists. It's really only the tip of the iceberg, but his observations are on the mark.

How best to measure artistic success?

"...would a show be more of a success if it affected a handful of people profoundly, but left the majority nonplussed? Or would it be better if the majority of people seeing it were moderately affected? What if only two people came to see a show, but it changed their lives forever?"

Just a few of the questions posed in this article in UK's The Guardian about what factor determines the success of a play.

The arts have abandoned all risk-taking, says Kennedy Center's Michael Kaiser...

"I have been depressed lately at the lack of spark and creativity I observe from many of our arts organizations. It seems that the leadership--in many cases people like me who have been in the field for twenty years or more--has gotten tired, conservative and frightened. We have become so scared that we won't balance our budgets that we forget that taking risk is a central requisite for arts making. We do not have to succeed every time. But if we never risk, we will never create the important, surprising projects that make people sit up and take notice of our work."

--Michael Kaiser, President, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington DC

But he found some hopeful signs when he visited a New York dance company's youth program. Read about it here.

Monkey Wrench Collective Debuts in Grand Guignol Style

There must be something in the water in Fullerton.

The new Monkey Wrench Collective's (MWC) neighboring storefront theatres have all enjoyed success with horror film-influenced productions during the past year (Hunger Artists-Frankenstein in Love; Maverick-Night of the Living Dead, and STAGEStheatre-Borneo Bob).

Now, former Rude Guerrilla Theatre guru Dave Barton decides to launch MWC with a Grand Guignol style production of The Revengers Tragedy, that 1606 English play by Thomas Middleton in which every character except one is done away with by the, ahem, final curtain. (It runs only through April 11.)

Twenty some-odd actors fill the small temporary space in Fullerton's historic brick Ice House, including seasoned veterans and novices, in a production that interprets Middleton's script to be about how absolute power corrupts absolutely--a message Barton wants to be sure we understand applies to our own times as well.

It's an audacious debut for MWC, and I'm particularly interested in seeing their next production, contemporary English dramatist Mark Ravenhill's pool (no water).

Are 2 reviews better than 1?

Today's New York Times featured a contretemps between its theatre critic and dance critic on their assessments of the new Twyla Tharp show on Broadway, Come Fly With Me.

What's so interesting about this is that it validates my belief that art inevitably provokes a wide variety of responses, and that the role of the critic is not that of Consumer Reports!

It reminds me of a famous Koren cartoon in The New Yorker back in the 1970s in which an audience member during a performance taps the critic in front of him and asks "Excuse me, is it good?"

Follow-up coverage on Daniel Pink's presentation...

...by OC Register's dance & theatre critic Paul Hodgins here.