Broadway’s Back

Broadway’s Back

by | Nov 10, 2021 | Blog

And Pat’s Back too!

 

It’s been a while since I’ve had the opportunity to write a blog. Big things have been happening with Rhymes Over Beats that distracted me from writing a regular blog post. What they are will be the subject of upcoming blogs.

The blog for this week is about positive changes in the direction of theater in America.

 

Seven New Plays by Black Playwrights on Broadway

 

For the first time in history, seven new plays by black playwrights will be making their debuts on Broadway. The plays are:

  1. Pass Over by Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu
  2. Lackawanna Blues by Ruben Santiago-Hudson
  3. Chicken & Biscuits by Douglas Lyons
  4. Thoughts of a Colored Man by Keenan Scott II
  5. Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress
  6. Clyde’s by Lynn Nottage
  7. Skeleton Crew by Dominique Morisseau

 

Please, if you are in or planning to visit NYC, go see each and everyone of these productions. These productions made it to Broadway not only because they are good plays, but also because they had support from the community.

With individual show budgets in the millions, a producer needs many high net worth individuals to invest in a show to make it happen.

One of the exciting recent developments is the increasing monetary support of shows by black playwrights.

If you are a high net worth individual we would encourage you to become a Broadway investor.

If you are one who made your money by writing, producing, or performing hip hop, we would especially encourage you to join with us and make hip hop the dominate form of the Broadway musical.

 

Things Are Happening

Things Are Happening

by | Sep 4, 2021 | Blog

More Applause for a New Deal

 

Last week’s post was about a new initiative by The John Gore Organization and The Black Theatre Coalition to increase the participation in theater by people of color. Finally, focus was put on a side of theater seldom thought about: the business side. These are excellent first steps and we’re all looking forward to the changes that they will to accomplish.

A few days later I read about another exciting development. More than a first step, the agreement reached by Black Theatre United and various Broadway stakeholders is a potential game changer.

The Broadway stakeholders include; The Broadway League (organization of Broadway producers), Actor’s Equity (the  actor’s union) and the three major theater owners (the Shubert, Jujamcyn, and Nederlander Organizations.)

 

Focus on Black Theater Professionals

 

The agreement stresses that these parties have a commitment to advance issues of equity, diversity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging, with a focus on black theater professionals.

One change already in the works will include the Shubert and the Nederlander Organizations joining the Jujamcyns in naming one of their theaters after an important black theater individual. Since there is already a playwright (the August Wilson Theater), Rhymes Over Beats suggests one theater be named after a director (Phylicia Rashad), and the other after an actor (Ira Aldridge).

This is only a potential game changer because there are still important pieces missing:

  • First, of all the major theatrical unions, only one has announced participation. All of them need to agree.
  • Second, it is an agreement only with Broadway producers. Off-Broadway producers and the LORT theaters (League of Regional Theaters), which encompass the rest of American theater, also need to come on board.

 

Rhymes Over Beats has since its founding endorsed every goal of this agreement and fully supports them.

Join with us to make these goals a reality in our industry.

 

Applause for a New Initiative

Applause for a New Initiative

by | Aug 27, 2021 | Blog

New Fellowships Announced

 

One of the first things I do when I get up in the morning is to check the theater message boards. I especially like one called “All That Chat.”

I was so surprised and pleased to read a recent announcement about new fellowships by the Black Theatre Coalition and the John Gore Organization .

The initiative by Black Theatre Coalition and the John Gore Organization will, according to the press release, “provide ten paid part-time fellowships across the United States with specific training in areas of Marketing, PR, Sales, Programming, Accounting and Finance, Operations, Venue Management and Ticketing.”

Rhymes Over Beats applauds this initiative. Since our founding seven years ago, our goal has been to increase the representation of BIPOC individuals in all levels of our productions, not just on stage but also back stage and front of house. We have, for example, primarily used black PR firms for both of our Off-Broadway productions.

 

More BIPOC Theatermakers Increases Diversity

 

In the past in order to accomplish our goal (of hiring BIPOC theatermakers) we had to conduct a targeted search. We are very excited that there is now an initiative that will provide a pool of people to choose from.

To paraphrase what Victor Laszlo said to Rick Blaine in Casablanca – welcome back to the the fight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seeking Creative New Work

Seeking Creative New Work

by | Aug 19, 2021 | Blog

Theater During Shutdown

 

One of the things we have learned from the pandemic is that NY theater – specifically Broadway – is not the center of the universe.

Broadway was closed for over a year, yet theater kept being made. If we wanted to see theater we could – just not live and in person. We could, and did, see a great deal of filmed theater.

I was thrilled that the critic of the Wall Street Journal, Terry Teachout, searched out these performances, evaluated them, and brought them to the attention of an audience starved for theater of any kind. It showed that Broadway is not the center of the theater universe. Instead, it is more like a parasite that survives by living off the health and vitality of theater around the country.

 

Theater is a Socially-Conscious Art

 

Because our focus at Rhymes Over Beats’ is on new work, largely non-traditional new work, knowing who else out there who might be doing similar work is vitally important.

But we can’t depend on just one person to review smaller productions around the country. All of us have a social media account and can keep us posted of new and exciting productions that you find.

I want to make an appeal to those people who think that theater is important – specifically theater that brings attention to issues of importance, written by BIPOC creators, and influenced by the hip hop aesthetic – to tell us about  the theaters near you that are creating socially-significant plays and musicals. We want to contribute to their success.

We are always looking for like-minded individuals and organizations.

We know you know who they are. Please hook us up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Actor Union Question

The Actor Union Question

by | Aug 10, 2021 | Blog

Theater Goes Online

 

One consequence of COVID was to change how theater was done.

For over a year now theater, an art that involves the audience and actors together live and in person, has come to a screeching halt.

Although some productions have been presenting outdoors over the summers and Broadway is now preparing to open, we are nowhere near where we were before the shutdown in March 2020. So over the last year, when being in person was not possible, theater people did what they do best.

They improvised. They created work arounds.Play readings are being done on Zoom or a similar teleconferencing platform. How else to bring theater to an audience during a pandemic?

Actors had to film themselves or be filmed by members of their household and edited together afterward, which had never done before. Searching for affordable shows, theater companies went into their archives and dusted off older films of previous performances to share online – stage plays that had been done using film video, many years ago.

At what point did theaters stop recording productions? Why did they stop?

 

Actors Union Before

 

Back in the 1950’s there were three different unions for actors, because there were only three kinds of performances an actor could give: television (AFTRA), film(SAG), or stage(Equity).

Actors specialized in one of those specific acting techniques. Back then there was little overlap. Film actors looked down on TV actors, and both were looked down on by stage actors.

But then, overlap began to happen between film and TV. Is an actor who appears in a made-for-TV movie a “film actor” or a “TV actor?” This confusion eventually led to the merging of two of the unions, and the creation of a “new” union: SAG/AFTRA.

Now because of COVID there is an increase in the use of video in theater. This overlap did not exist in 2019, but now it’s common. However, Equity, which has jurisdiction over stage performances, and SAG/AFTRA, which has jurisdiction over video, film and tv, remain two separate unions without practical provisions for this overlap.

This brings up the question: how many actor unions do we need? Can’t just one do it? 

What do you think? Are you an actor? Let us know.