Holiday Storytelling

Holiday Storytelling

by | Dec 15, 2020 | Blog

What’s Your Favorite Holiday Show?

 

We are entering the winter holiday season. The Winter Solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza are the ones I know about. I recently got an offer for tickets to a Christmas show some friends created called Estella Scrooge.  It’s a retelling of the Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol. I’m looking forward to watching it, and hope it goes into the list of things that I try and watch this time of year.

When I was reviewing my list of things to be watched, I noticed a trend. On my list was:

  • A Christmas Carol
  • A Christmas story
  • Charlie Brown’s Christmas Story.

Pretty much all of them are stories celebrating one holiday. None celebrating any of the others. 

I began to wonder, where are the holiday stories from other cultures? For example, I  know the story of Hanukkah. It’s an inspiring story of faith and hope. Why is there no musical about it?

I tried to do some research to see that if in my cultural isolation there was something I missed and I’m just late to the party, but I couldn’t find anything. There should be plays and musicals celebrating all these holidays and more.

(If you know of one please let me know about it. If you don’t, I’d encourage you to write one. I hope that next year I’ll be able to talk about it.)

 

Goodbye 2020!

 

Like last year, I’ll be taking my annual winter break from blog writing. This will be my last blog until next year.

I want to thank everyone who has checked it out over the last year, and wish you a happy holiday, whichever one you celebrate!

See you in 2021!

Share Now!

Thanks for Your Support

The End of the Tour

The End of the Tour

by | Dec 7, 2020 | Blog

A New Producing Plan

 

Last week’s blog was on how we should use the workarounds invented because of COVID to make producing theater more efficient. Because I’m a commercial producer by training, the things I look at are ways to increase revenue or decrease expenses. So my comments, while they can be implemented by not-for-profit regional theaters, does not focus on them.

It also ignores issues of union jurisdiction. A film of a live production of a play can be reasonably argued to fall under either SAG/AFTRA or Equity jurisdiction. As a producer of this type of production, I’m content to let the respective unions decide on what rules need to be followed.

The standard plan pre-COVID was an initial production in NYC, followed by a tour, then years later, a revival.

My suggestion now is to replace the tour section of the standard producing plan with a film of the initial production of the play. This film would then be distributed on a pay-per-view platform.

 

No More Touring?

 

Having a film as a replacement to a tour, the producers now have a greatly-reduced cost. Tours require the producer to spend money on duplicate sets and costumes. They also have to feed and house the cast and company and pay for them to travel from city to city. None of these expenses are incurred if the production is filmed and then released on a pay-per-view platform.

A tour is also limited in the amount of revenue that can be generated by the size of the theaters the tour plays in and the length of the tour. A pay-per-view film has none of these limitations.

 

What Do You Think?

 

I would really like some comments on this idea, both positive and negative.

It would be interesting if the limitations placed on live theater today created a more vibrant live theater tomorrow – wouldn’t it?

Leave your comment in the box below. Can’t wait to read your thoughts!

Share Now!

Thanks for Your Support

Theater 2.0?

Theater 2.0?

by | Dec 1, 2020 | Blog

A Typical Path to Success

 

Virtually every commercial theater production in NYC has the same optimistic plan.

This plan has three components. First is an initial production, either on Broadway or off-Broadway. This is followed by a national tour, and possibly a production in London. Finally after a length of time, typically another group of producers will mount a revival.

 

The COVID-19 Experience

 

The pandemic has ended all that. This type of plan is now on hold. No live theater means no initial production, no tour, and no revival.

Live, in person theater has been replaced either by live socially distant productions on teleconferencing platforms like Zoom, or the streaming of previously-filmed productions, like the production of Hamilton on Disney Plus.

Eventually things will return to the way they were before we all went into lockdown.

I would like to suggest that we NOT return to doing things the way we did them before. We should change the plan to incorporate the new skills and insights we have acquired.

 

21st Century Theater Development

 

For example, commercial producers use staged readings of plays to raise money from investors to fund future productions. Pre-COVID this was done in person with only those people who were available at a specific time and place to attend.

Now, the producer can reduce the cost of the reading – no need to rent a physical space – by doing a Zoom reading.  It also opens up the pool of potential investors, since the investor can watch a reading at a time and place of their own choosing.

If implemented, this will be a change tin the path to a commercial theater production in NYC, but not a major one. I’ll talk about what would be a major change in next week’s blog.

So stay tuned for more!

Share Now!

Thanks for Your Support

Branding

Branding

by | Nov 23, 2020 | Blog

Branding

 

When I first began working in theater on a professional level I began as a producer.

I originally produced shows at a space in NYC downtown called New York Performance Works. I shared the space with other theater artists. One of the people I shared the space with asked one day what I did artistically. I explained that I was just a producer. He suggested that I needed to do more.

More? He pointed out that everyone else in the space were artists and I needed to be one too. He suggested I become a playwright; his argument was that if I couldn’t find a play to produce, I could write my own.

He convinced me that my brand – how I presented myself – needed to be enlarged. From then on, I was a “playwright- producer.”

 

Brand, then Expand

 

One of the aims of Rhymes Over Beats is to encourage the hip hop artists we come in contact with to consider doing the same – expanding your brand. For instance, if you are an MC, you can become a playwright-MC. If you write beats, you can become a composer-beat writer.

Whatever you are right now, please think about becoming more. The major difference between the theater industry and the music industry is that in the theater industry you never give up ownership of the work you create. In theater, if you write or co-write a musical, no one can perform it without your permission. And without paying you a royalty.

Something to think about when you decide if you want to expand your brand.

Share Now!

Thanks for Your Support

Hip Hop Theater Songs Defined

Hip Hop Theater Songs Defined

by | Nov 16, 2020 | Blog

What is Hip Hop Theater?

 

Take a look at these lines from a play.

Captain of our fairy band,

Helena is here at hand,

And the youth, mistook by me,

Pleading for a lover’s fee.

Shall we their fond pageant see

Lord, what fools these mortals be!

They are from Shakespeare’s Midsummers Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 2.

If you put a beat under the words would they be hip hop? If not, why not?

I’ve been thinking about what determines that “something” in hip hop in theater. I’m purposefully ignoring the suggestion that anything written before August, 11, 1973 should not count.

I don’t have a definitive answer yet, but I do have some speculations.

 

What a Hip Hop Theater Song Needs

 

First, the lines have to rhyme, which these do. But they don’t have to have a particular pattern of rhythm or rhyme scheme. Any would be acceptable. Under this criteria, it would be hip hop.

This passage also maintains the rhythm and rhyme scheme throughout the work. All the lines would have beats under them. Is this necessary? If the answer is yes, then Hamilton would be disqualified as a work of hip hop theater, and I don’t think anyone would claim that.

But think about the subject matter. Hip hop came into existence as a political art. It was a way of expressing resistance to a politically oppressive culture. Some of Shakespeare’s plays do this. They are about subjects of social or political importance. But this one? No.

 

Is This Hip Hop?

 

If I were forced to answer the question, “Is this play hip hop or not,” then I would respond with a firm maybe.

What do you think? How would you define Hip Hop Theater? Post your thoughts in the comments section below, or email us at info@rhymesoverbeats.com.

 

Share Now!

Thanks for Your Support