Sunday, November 27, 2005
Design inside and out, and legacies
Lynn Jeffries sent me a message that made me think about one of the other fundamental questions in Cornerstone. In one version of the Table of Contents I had located a section on design in a chapter on Ensemble Shows. Lynn said that in the community collaborations, the company has often shot for high production values.
Is this a good thing? The discussion seems to be an ongoing one...Lynn writes...
Is this a good thing? The discussion seems to be an ongoing one...Lynn writes...
"The Institute, in particular, has raised discussions about the relative value of creating an exciting spectacle versus doing something more modest, in a material sense, that the community could reasonably aspire to emulate when we’re gone. "
There's also a whole world of questions behind that comment. How pragmatic should Cornerstone's teaching be? How inspirational? What exactly is Cornerstone trying to "leave behind"? What are the responsibilities of the company to past collaborators?
Some of the folks in the Durfee transcripts I read talked about "Cornerstone guilt," which I think had to do with lingering uncertainty about their roles in the lives of people in the communities they have worked in. This operates on a couple of levels: one on one (particularly in cases where company members have worked with folks who have personal problems, maybe substance abuse being an obvious one), group to group (meaning Cornerstone and local groups), and everything in between.
I've dealth with this a lot in social service circles: psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and so on have professional codes of conduct that attempt to define those lines. I don't think they're always successful, but their maps are a little more detailed than the one Cornerstone is dealing with.
It's certainly good to remember that there are potentially two ways of talking about everything (ensemble show vs. community collaboration), and that the issue of legacy is still an ongoing debate.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Why Cornerstone isn't the SF Mime Troupe
I've been reading through some of the articles written about the company (notably "To Work and Be Proud of It" in HARVARD magazine), and there's an interesting twist in the road that comes out in the production of THREE SISTERS FROM WEST VIRGINIA.
There's a sense in which becoming the overtly political, provocative theater company would have been the simple path for Cornerstone. Having completed work on an interracial ROMEO AND JULIET in Port Gibson, Cornerstone went to a town that had been devastated by the cresting and then collapse of the mining industry. The easy choice would have been to go at the politics in plain sight: industry choking a small town, etc. The easy choice would have been AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE.
James Bundy, then managing director, says they would have been able to create their niche: people love to fund that sort of stuff. It's still true...tweak the obvious problem and it's easier to explain your work, it's easier on the journalists, it's easier on the foundation committee, etc. Rather, as Peter Howard says in the HARVARD article, "The political thing that we do is to say that the place where you live and the way that you live is a thing worth considering."
So they decided to do THREE SISTERS, but what's really interesting is they set it not in West Virginia but in Detroit...the place the sisters yearn for is West Virginia, not Moscow. So many people have moved in order to make a living that the deeper story of this community and its identity is diaspora.
I am interested in the way that idea emerged. Movements are interesting that way when they don't have a manifesto: when did that idea of approach and engagement become "the political thing _we_ do?" Much of the rest of the piece is taken up with the sheer salesmanship involved in those residencies: working desperately to fill an audition hall, and then deperately again as people begin to drop out! Perhaps the secret to the methodology is that Cornerstone simply drove itself to edge of the world and had to find a way to get back. They did so one person at a time, and stumbled on an idea about art and political engagement that is both epic and obvious.
Other interesting trivia in the THREE SISTERS story is that the bridge show is in the air (although it's called a "reunion" show), and that in this piece and one Peter Sagal wrote about PIER GYNT the company is already trying to figure out how to settle down.
There's a sense in which becoming the overtly political, provocative theater company would have been the simple path for Cornerstone. Having completed work on an interracial ROMEO AND JULIET in Port Gibson, Cornerstone went to a town that had been devastated by the cresting and then collapse of the mining industry. The easy choice would have been to go at the politics in plain sight: industry choking a small town, etc. The easy choice would have been AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE.
James Bundy, then managing director, says they would have been able to create their niche: people love to fund that sort of stuff. It's still true...tweak the obvious problem and it's easier to explain your work, it's easier on the journalists, it's easier on the foundation committee, etc. Rather, as Peter Howard says in the HARVARD article, "The political thing that we do is to say that the place where you live and the way that you live is a thing worth considering."
So they decided to do THREE SISTERS, but what's really interesting is they set it not in West Virginia but in Detroit...the place the sisters yearn for is West Virginia, not Moscow. So many people have moved in order to make a living that the deeper story of this community and its identity is diaspora.
I am interested in the way that idea emerged. Movements are interesting that way when they don't have a manifesto: when did that idea of approach and engagement become "the political thing _we_ do?" Much of the rest of the piece is taken up with the sheer salesmanship involved in those residencies: working desperately to fill an audition hall, and then deperately again as people begin to drop out! Perhaps the secret to the methodology is that Cornerstone simply drove itself to edge of the world and had to find a way to get back. They did so one person at a time, and stumbled on an idea about art and political engagement that is both epic and obvious.
Other interesting trivia in the THREE SISTERS story is that the bridge show is in the air (although it's called a "reunion" show), and that in this piece and one Peter Sagal wrote about PIER GYNT the company is already trying to figure out how to settle down.
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Publishing Plans -- Plays to Ponder...
I'm talking through the Table of Contents with a number of people, and I hope to have a good solid one before Christmas. I'd like to use that as the hub of a proposal to a publisher, most likely TCG given their interest in and support for Cornerstone. The end of this phase of the project would be a very finished PDF of a proposal/TOC to show publishers.
I think the play selection will be tricky. It was always going to be tricky, because the plays are so specific. Alison was enthusiastic about including THREE SISTERS FROM WEST VIRGINIA in the mix, but pointed out that it was a very tight adaptation. It's not like someone else can just pick it up and do it in Anytown, USA.
At the other end of the spectrum is a production like EVERYMAN AT THE MALL, which is (as Bill pointed out) mostly a creation of the director and the production team. The text is relatively unchanged from the published version.
These are the full-length plays I think I'd include...they span a number of modes/times/places in the Cornerstone experience:
THREE SISTERS FROM WEST VIRGINIA
TWELFTH NIGHT
CENTRAL AVENUE CHALK CIRCLE
STEELBOUND
BROKEN HEARTS
WAKING UP IN LOST HILLSBODY OF FAITH
And I would include scenes from the following:
The Freddy Kreuger/Queen Mab speech from ROMEO AND JULIET
TARTOOF
HAMLET
CALIFORNIA SEAGULL
ANTIGONE
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
GHURUBA
EVERYMAN AT THE MALL
GOOD PERSON OF NEW HAVEN
CANDUDE
A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN I ASK YOU
CROSSINGS
LONG BRIDGE
I'm going to work on a list of must-have articles from other publications next...
I think the play selection will be tricky. It was always going to be tricky, because the plays are so specific. Alison was enthusiastic about including THREE SISTERS FROM WEST VIRGINIA in the mix, but pointed out that it was a very tight adaptation. It's not like someone else can just pick it up and do it in Anytown, USA.
At the other end of the spectrum is a production like EVERYMAN AT THE MALL, which is (as Bill pointed out) mostly a creation of the director and the production team. The text is relatively unchanged from the published version.
These are the full-length plays I think I'd include...they span a number of modes/times/places in the Cornerstone experience:
THREE SISTERS FROM WEST VIRGINIA
TWELFTH NIGHT
CENTRAL AVENUE CHALK CIRCLE
STEELBOUND
BROKEN HEARTS
WAKING UP IN LOST HILLSBODY OF FAITH
And I would include scenes from the following:
The Freddy Kreuger/Queen Mab speech from ROMEO AND JULIET
TARTOOF
HAMLET
CALIFORNIA SEAGULL
ANTIGONE
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
GHURUBA
EVERYMAN AT THE MALL
GOOD PERSON OF NEW HAVEN
CANDUDE
A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN I ASK YOU
CROSSINGS
LONG BRIDGE
I'm going to work on a list of must-have articles from other publications next...
Sunday, November 06, 2005
What to publish, and how?
I had a great lunch with Alison the other day...somehow we ended up talking more about me than the Omnibus, which I think is a great talent of hers (more, I hope, than it is a failing of mine).
One thing we both agreed to talk more about was the possibility of the different publishing efforts assisting each other. She and Bill are intent on writing a history, and of course there is also the publication of the methodology book. Alison told me to ask her for materials, since she has a ton of them as it is. I'm going to get one of the older plays from her (3 SISTERS?) and try to create an e-version of that.
I also started thinking this week about other modes of publishing. This Omnibus has to be a physical book, and it has to be relatively inexpensive...but I have also thought about publishing it or part of it online. Perhaps there is ancilary material available online? The COMPLETE transcripts of interviews, or MP3's of music, or clips of shows?
One thing I have on my laptop here is the Bill and Alison presentation of the slideshow from I2. There's another little side project. It seems to me that it could be like one of those New York Times multimedia presentations. I just looked at one this morning about the new production of Sweeny Todd...about 2 minutes of Patti Lupone and Michael Cerveris talking over photos of the production. The slideshow does need to be married to that text, either using Powerpoint or Flash.
Then I had another interesting idea: what about a podcast archive of Cornerstone interviews/talks? It could be like a reference library of Cornerstone available for audio download. If you're going to collect the audio anyways, might as well put it to use.
This project began for me in part because I wanted to help the company (and especially the writers) exploit their own intellectual property, but the more I think about it the more I just want to see about ways of getting this out there for potential users. There are two prinicples at work for me: information wants to be free, and Cornerstone is a movement. The challenge is to spread the word as rapidly and effectively as possible.
One thing we both agreed to talk more about was the possibility of the different publishing efforts assisting each other. She and Bill are intent on writing a history, and of course there is also the publication of the methodology book. Alison told me to ask her for materials, since she has a ton of them as it is. I'm going to get one of the older plays from her (3 SISTERS?) and try to create an e-version of that.
I also started thinking this week about other modes of publishing. This Omnibus has to be a physical book, and it has to be relatively inexpensive...but I have also thought about publishing it or part of it online. Perhaps there is ancilary material available online? The COMPLETE transcripts of interviews, or MP3's of music, or clips of shows?
One thing I have on my laptop here is the Bill and Alison presentation of the slideshow from I2. There's another little side project. It seems to me that it could be like one of those New York Times multimedia presentations. I just looked at one this morning about the new production of Sweeny Todd...about 2 minutes of Patti Lupone and Michael Cerveris talking over photos of the production. The slideshow does need to be married to that text, either using Powerpoint or Flash.
Then I had another interesting idea: what about a podcast archive of Cornerstone interviews/talks? It could be like a reference library of Cornerstone available for audio download. If you're going to collect the audio anyways, might as well put it to use.
This project began for me in part because I wanted to help the company (and especially the writers) exploit their own intellectual property, but the more I think about it the more I just want to see about ways of getting this out there for potential users. There are two prinicples at work for me: information wants to be free, and Cornerstone is a movement. The challenge is to spread the word as rapidly and effectively as possible.
