A Quick Note of Disgust.

Variety reviewed Danny Hoch’s Taking Over in LA recently.  I disagree with a big chunk of the review (as you can imagine if you’ve read about my love for the play already), but was particularly digusted by this:

In the most affecting sequence, ex-con Kiko ambles over to chat up a film crew. Hoch and helmer Tony Taccone evoke the excruciating pain as an (unseen) P.A. pulls away from the man’s attempt to connect, even with an offer of free labor. Kiko explodes — “You understand what I’m sayin’ to you? You look. At me.” — but his abject apology and hunched-over frame clearly indicate he’ll be back in the joint real soon.

The Kiko section is indeed very powerful — lots of folks have told me that it was their favorite part of the show.  It’s complicated and deep and speaks to that basic human emotion that we all feel when we want something so simple and innocent but are forbidden from having it for the stupidest and most intractable of reasons.  all that’s true.  But let me repeat that last line:

Kiko explodes — “You understand what I’m sayin’ to you? You look. At me.” — but his abject apology and hunched-over frame clearly indicate he’ll be back in the joint real soon.

Really?  That’s what you take from that moment?  The guy apologizes, holds in everything that’s bubbling to the surface in the face of someone coming into his neighborhood, taking from his neighborhood, not giving back to his neighborhood — this guy catches himself after an outburst of anger at the fact that someone, some lowly member of a film crew at that, someone that this guy is showing respect, someone who has the chance to make an impact on his life by bending the simplest of rules to allow the guy to save some face in front of his mother after getting out of jail and attempting to show that he’s getting his life on track — he does all this, and the moment breaks your heart — and you think that all shows that he’s destined to go back to jail?

I swear, there’s a massive cultural gap at play here, and it’s something that demands attention.  Keep in mind who is reviewing the plays when you read those reviews, folks.  Some people just don’t get what they’re seeing.

1stfans.

The Brooklyn Museum is awesome:

In October 2005, when Ms. Bernstein took charge of the museum’s technology department, administrators gave her license to experiment with Web-based technologies to better fulfill their mission: to build a bridge between the rich cultural heritage in the museum’s collections and the unique experience of each visitor. And in online communities across the Internet, from Facebook to Flickr, she put a face to the museum’s 560,000-square-foot, Beaux-Arts building nestled in Prospect Heights. The Brooklyn Museum was one of the first museums in the country to actively participate in these Web spaces, using them to communicate directly with members, to chat with artists and to allow visitors themselves to be curators, mostly for free, without infringing on the nonprofit museum’s budget. Over the last three years, Ms. Bernstein has turned the Brooklyn Museum into a model for 21st-century art institutions everywhere.

But this month, Ms. Bernstein is facing one of her most experimental challenges yet. On Jan. 3, with hopes of increasing revenues as well as the institution’s popularity, she and Will Cary, the museum’s membership manager, launched a new Web project: 1stfans, the museum’s first “socially networked museum membership.” For $20 a year, 1stfan members can mingle with artists and staff at a special event each month, view exclusive online content (like behind-the-scenes presentations and videos from artists and curators) and get access to the 1stfans Twitter Art Feed, which includes micro-blogging from artists and other fun stuff. It’s cheaper than the museum’s pricier $55 membership and offers goodies tailored specifically for the members of Ms. Bernstein’s community who have grown to love the museum online, and who hail from as far away as Vietnam and … Texas. So far, the museum has garnered 232 1stfans, in 14 states, nine countries and four continents.

Really interesting article about using technology to share art beyond your immediate circle.

The Ethics of New Play Development.

Awesome, awesome, awesome article from Polly Carl:

I argue that we don’t know in advance what audiences want to see. Yes, A Christmas Carol will sell during the holidays but is this artistic decision-making? We have merged the money-driven, commercial mindset with the artistic risk and opportunity that should be central to the missions of all nonprofit theaters. Foundations and donors have become victims of this messy merger between the commercial and nonprofit because they don’t want to take away support from institutions that have been critical to the creative culture of a community and become the arbiter of what’s commercial theater and what’s not.

This is an absolute must-read.