2020 - A Year In Review

Looking back on 2020 has been painful and, frankly, a little strange. Time somehow lost its meaning this year as both March and the last month of the election seemed to last for years in and of themselves. 

Many of our ensemble members experienced deep losses - from jobs to apartments to family members. Moving all of our operations to Zoom also created its own kind of difficulty. Not only is it difficult to create theater this way, but as miraculous as Zoom has been, it has also increased social anxieties and blurred work/home-life boundaries to many who use it. 

However, there have been some “wins” that we’ve experienced, and we have many things to be grateful for. Most of all, we appreciate our audiences who have been flexible, curious, and committed to seeing what was possible amidst the barriers created by the pandemic. Without your support and encouragement, we wouldn’t have been able to achieve even half of what we created this year.

And now, for a breakdown of 2020:

1st Quarter
January-March 2020 

The year started brilliantly. We opened the first production of the season in February - a sold-out run of our world premiere ANIMAL FARM, an adaptation of the novel by George Orwell written by our very own Brandon Walker. Animal Farm, an allegorical play, tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy.

The play featured four actors - Laura Clare Browne, Erin Cronican, Will Ketter, and Brandon Walker - playing 27 roles, many of whom were played on the actors’ hand and feet. The estate of George Orwell eagerly approved our script and sanctioned our production. The Orwell Society came to see the show and related to its members: “Make the effort [to see it.] It will be worth it. And you have heard that straight from the horse’s mouth.” 

Theater Critics also said:

"I enjoyed it more than the short-lived Broadway production of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four a few years ago." - Opplaud

“Masterful enactment...a smashing way for this group to mark their landmark 10th season." - Short and Sweet NYC

"More timely than ever." - Thinking Theater

"Pulling off Animal Farm with four actors is just the kind of dare The Seeing Place would gravitate towards." - Talkin' Broadway

 

The cast of ANIMAL FARM.

2nd Quarter
April-June 2020

We had begun pre-production for our 2nd live show, Eugene Ionesco’s EXIT THE KING, when the shutdown in NYC started. Like many, we did not know how long the shutdown would last, so we faithfully moved our pre-production discovery sessions online, with the cast and creative team approximating the work we do in-person through the lens of the web camera. After several weeks of work, we started to see that the shutdown would be lasting much longer than anticipated. We gathered with our ensemble to discuss the possibility of performing the play online. Collectively, we determined that due to the physical nature of the storytelling, the production would be served best as an in-person performance. So we put this particular play - and the rest of the season - on hiatus.

If we weren’t going to perform our season as planned, we asked ourselves what else could we do online that would help engage our patrons and fulfill on our mission to help audiences “see themselves”? Our answer was to recreate our Education and Outreach program for the online world. In late March and all of April and May, we held three classes/outreach events per week to hundreds of participants across the globe, from professional level acting classes to our community Drama Book Club which explored plays from a literary perspective. 

Participants in our "Introduction to Linklater" course, led by TSP member Jon L Peacock (center)

Participants in our Drama Book Club, led by TSP members Erin Cronican and Brandon Walker


In May we were honored by the Indie Theater Fund with an unrestricted grant to help us with loss of income due to the pandemic. We’re very grateful for their unending support of independent theater in NYC.

In late May, our collective world stopped with the death of George Floyd. We immediately put a pause on our programming and took a long, hard look at our practices to begin to eradicate any racism in our programming and operations. Our board and staff released our Solidarity Statement for Black Lives Matter (read here) and we also created a broader Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Statement (read here.) We continue to grow and learn through the work of our tireless Black brothers and sisters - to start, we're educating ourselves through books, articles, videos, and panel discussions - as well as the two month anti-racist training course being provided by the Indie Theater Fund.

This work will never be done. Until our racist systems are replaced, equity is common, and restitution is made, white supremacy will always seep into the practices of theaters and other organizations. We can only promise that we will keep educating ourselves, listening to Black and Brown people, and making changes based on what we learn.

3rd Quarter
July-September 2020

Because of the civic unrest related to Mr Floyd’s death plus the countless others including Breonna Taylor, Brandon and Erin sat down to discuss the possibility of creating a social justice program as an extension of our season. In it we would address a key social issue, partner with an organization currently fighting to address that key issue, and help our audience take action steps to make a difference in this area. Thus, the Ripple For Change Series was borne. 

The inspiration for the program name came from this quote:  

“You want to be the pebble in the pond that creates the ripple for change.” - Tim Cook


Each RIPPLE FOR CHANGE AWARD comes with the following: 

• a financial prize worth $1000 or more for a chosen non-profit
• a benefit performance in the non-profit's honor using a play that mirrors the efforts of the recipient organization
• promotion and support as an official Ripple For Change Award Winner

The first production in this series was DUTCHMAN by LeRoi Jones (later known as Amiri Baraka.) DUTCHMAN presents a stylized encounter that illustrates hatred between Blacks and whites in America as well as the political and psychological conflicts facing Black American men in the 1960s. We chose to benefit Black Theatre Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to the exploration and preservation of the theatrical visions of the African Diaspora.

The play was performed live via Zoom and streamed via YouTube, and featured Broadway greats Timothy Ware and Eugene Barry Hill, along with Erin Cronican and Brandon Walker. The cast received a glowing review in the New York Times for our timeless and relevant work (including photos on the front page of the Arts section. Read the review here.)

Other critics raved about it as well:

"The Seeing Place's reading of Baraka's scathing work about an encounter in a New York City subway car between a white woman and a Black man premiered on the same day that civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis died and even his colleagues' tributes unintentionally highlighted the pervasiveness of racism in America as well as the continued urgency of the kinds of conversations that productions such as Dutchman can foster...Both Ware and Cronican are excellent." - Thinking Theater NYC 

"Dutchman is so relevant at this moment of protest of Black Lives Matter and is a testament of the power of great writing of Mr. Baraka. Both actors are great, very moving and absorbing in their roles. The heat of the day and the heat of the play got to me. I loved the reading." - Hi Drama

Hundreds of people took part in our production of DUTCHMAN as audience members and as participants in our panel discussion: Race in America: Action Steps. (Click to watch the panel discussion.) With this, we knew that the series was important and there to stay. 

The summer was very hard for many people across the nation. Many people lost their jobs, and there was an epidemic of homelessness - especially in the LGTBQ community whose youths were being kicked out of their homes at an alarming rate. So we decided that the second production of the Ripple for Change series would William Shakespeare’s comedy A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, presented as a LGTBQIA+ story with a woman playing the character of Lysander and the characters of Puck and Oberon being genderfluid. The production benefited The Ali Forney Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting LGBTQ youths from the harms of homelessness and empower them with the tools needed to live independently.

The play was performed live via Zoom and streamed via YouTube, with performances by guest artist Dan Mack and 7 members of The Seeing Place’s permanent ensemble (Laura Clare Browne, Erin Cronican, Elli DiLorenzo, Will Ketter, Jon L Peacock, Brandon Walker and Weronika Helena Wozniak) with original music by the incomparable Randi Driscoll. The play was named “Best Theater to Stream Online” by Timeout New York, and “What To Watch” by Times Square Chronicles. Critics loved the imaginative production which utilized fantastical technical elements only possible online:

"The Seeing Place Theater’s Zoom production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is perhaps the best Zoom work I’ve seen so far..." - Ewing Reviewing

"The Seeing Place Theater, now in its tenth season, offers indeed a talented ensemble of actors in a delightful late-summer mounting made for Zoom." - Broadway World

"The creativity artists are showing as they play with this new format is, honestly, delightful. Overall, this is a very enjoyable production of Midsummer, and it couldn’t be for a better cause." - Bitter Gertrude

We had a wonderful panel discussion: Action Steps: How to Address Homelessness in the LGTBQIA+ Youth Community, introduced by Carlina Rivera, New York City Councilwoman District 2 (Click here to watch the panel discussion.)

The cast of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

In May we were honored by the Ravenal Foundation with a surprise unrestricted grant to help us with loss of income due to the pandemic, which we were immediately able to allocate toward artist salaries for our production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.

4th Quarter
October-December 2020

The end of the 3rd Quarter brought the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which was devastating for many including the members of our ensemble. We began to brainstorm about ways to honor her legacy, and we realized that one of her greatest contributions to society was her voice for women. In the face of the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, we decided to present a play about women’s reproductive rights.





In October and November we presented Pulitzer Prize finalist KEELY AND DU by Jane Martin. KEELY AND DU is a volatile drama about abortion rights: Du is a right-to-life activist, and Keely is the pregnant rape victim Du is confining to keep her from having an abortion. Through the play these two women find a way to transcend their circumstances and the ideological issues that separate them.

The play featured guest artist Audrey Heffernan Meyer and TSP ensemble members Erin Cronican, Robin Friend, Olivia Hanna Hardin, and Brandon Walker. It benefited Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St Louis Region, a non-profit specializing in women’s reproductive health, specifically abortion services. In addition to being the only state-licensed abortion facility in Missouri for many years, RHS is the longest standing non-profit abortion provider in the state of Missouri.

The critics, again, were blown away by what we were able to create via Zoom:

"The excellent company pulled this viewer into the situation so intensely that he found himself yelling at Walter and Du in Keely's defense. Naturally, a staged production would more effectively present pivotal physical moments, but The Seeing Place greatly succeeds in offering an emotionally rich episode of personal and political theatre." - Broadway World 

 "Astonishing, marvelous, engaging, truthful and downright comic at times."- Theater Life 

 "The Seeing Place Theater has done it again with their rendition of Keely and Du...The virtual set is dark and mysterious enough to fit the eerie mood of the performance...The end of the play is quite surprising and relevant to today’s discussions surrounding reproductive rights."- Manhattan With A Twist

We finished the production with a panel discussion: Action Steps for Protecting Women's Choices. (Click here to watch the panel discussion.) 

The cast of KEELY AND DU.

In December we were named a "Recommended Charity" by The Stern Opportunity - a group of MBA scholars in NYC - in their roundup of their favorite places for people who are looking for ways to give back.


It’s now the end of the year, and looking back we’re stunned at what we’ve been able to do while so hampered by this awful pandemic. It’s a testament to the resolve of our artists and the openness of our audiences to keep innovating when road blocks were and continue to be presented. 

Looking ahead to 2021  

What’s in store for 2021? We’ll plan to present four plays via the Ripple For Change program, relaunch our online Education and Outreach Program, and - COVID willing - return to the live stage for two in-person productions in the latter half of the year. 

In the meantime, please: 


Click here to join our mailing list to be notified about upcoming events.

Click here to make a donation so that we can continue to bring our work to you.

We wish you health. We wish you joy. We wish you a plethora of great theater, both online and in-person when the pandemic clears. Happy holidays! 

Erin Cronican, 

and the Ensemble and Board of The Seeing Place Theater

The Seeing Place is More Than Theater

 

In 2009, The Seeing Place Theater was born as an artist-driven theater company - selecting plays that accurately reflected the issues facing their community, with an emphasis placed on education, authenticity, and social justice with programming that would be accessible and affordable for all audiences.

Since then, we have presented over 40 full productions of Pulitzer-Prize, Tony, and Olivier Award winning plays, as well as 5 world premieres and countless staged readings, with a particular focus on stories by and about women, LGTBQIA+, BIPOC, immigrant, and disabled communities.

Like you, we believe that theater has the power to change minds and change hearts. You can help us bring powerful theater to the world.

Are you with us? Make a tax-deductible donation here. Every little bit helps make the world a better place.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts,

The Seeing Place's Board and Ensemble



Web: www.TheSeeingPlace.org
Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @TheSeeingPlace

KEELY AND DU - A Fight for Women's Rights

By Erin Cronican, TSP Executive Artistic Director


This week we unveil our newest production, the Pulitzer-Prize nominated drama KEELY AND DU by Jane Martin. It’s a searing look at the blocking of women’s rights related to abortion, domestic violence, and the ability to control our own bodies. 

The play is being presented LIVE (via Zoom) Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1, 2020 - 7pm Eastern, with a streamed recording November 3-7, 2020. Tickets are available here: www.TheSeeingPlace.com - 100% of the proceeds are being donated to Reproductive Health Services, Planned Parenthood of the St Louis Region.

I have to admit, I was very tentative when Brandon (Walker - Producing Artistic Director) suggested that we do this piece. The play doesn’t pull any punches - it can be incredibly triggering for anyone who has experienced abortion, miscarriage, domestic violence, kidnapping, and not being believed by those who are charged with keeping you safe. I didn’t know if I had it in me to bring something so serious and important to the world when the world is already so fraught.

But this is exactly why this play is the right play, RIGHT NOW.

How did this event come to be?

It started when we sat down with our ensemble to talk about the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. For many of us, it was a devastating blow in an already trying time. What could we do as a theater company to honor her memory and take up the charge on issues that meant a lot to her legacy? With as helpless as many of us have felt to make any kind of difference, we contemplated what we could do to encourage action steps that we as concerned citizens could accomplish?

We started exploring different texts related to women’s rights, but kept coming back to KEELY AND DU. Once we made our selection and secured the licensing/rights, we began to look at what non-profit organizations we could partner with, not only for our Action Steps panel discussion, but also as the beneficiary of our RIPPLE FOR CHANGE AWARD. And I immediately thought of the work of Dr. Colleen McNicholas.

SIDEBAR; If you haven’t already, I highly recommend watching the documentary REVERSING ROE (2018) which is currently viewable on Netflix.

In this documentary we are introduced to Dr. McNicholas, an abortion advocate who is single-handedly changing the lives of women across the Midwest by providing abortion access to those who have none. The film talks about the journey of Roe vs Wade in the courts, and I wept multiple times while watching it. I was so inspired by the women who were profiled - including doctors, politicians, and filmmakers taking up the cause - that I immediately got onto Twitter and began to follow them: including US House Candidate @JillSchupp, Missouri State Senator @SenatorNasheed, US House Candidate @WendyDavis, filmmaker @RBraceySherman and Planned Parenthood Chief Medical Offer @DocMcNick. I wanted to know more and to be able to support their efforts.

Within 24 hours I received a notification that Dr McNicholas had followed me back, and I have to admit I fan-girled a little bit! Here is this incredible person who speaks on behalf of women on Capitol Hill, is interviewed by NPR, travels around 75% of the month to neighboring states to provide critical services to women in need, and puts her life on the line every day fighting for what she believes in. To have her following me on Twitter was and is incredibly humbling.

So when we decided to produce KEELY AND DU and were looking for someone to partner with, I immediately thought of her. I never dreamed that she would say yes - not only to being on our panel, but helping us connect with her employer, Planned Parenthood of the St Louis Region - the states ONLY clinic that provided crucial abortion services, so that they could be the beneficiary for this very special presentation.

This is when we fully realized the power we have as artists to make social justice change. Non-profit theater, hand-in-hand with non-profit medicine and advocacy, can move mountains.


A Personal Journey

I’m very honored to be playing Keely, a victim of spousal rape who becomes pregnant and upon going to get an abortion is kidnapped by a extremest right-to-life group intent on holding her until her baby comes to full term. As someone who has personally experienced sexual assault by an intimate partner and also one who has had my abortion rights challenged, the play hits a very deep chord for me. Furthermore, as a woman mired in health care hell as a metastatic breast cancer patient, I am very well aware of how tenuous my position is as a woman, as I’m constantly pushing to advocate for my own care and the care of other women like me.

The opportunity to use theater to express what life has been like for me, in a way that hopefully resonates with our audiences, means a great deal to me. It also means a great deal to me that we don’t just stop at creating art - The Seeing Place feels it’s crucial to explore “what’s next” once the curtain falls. What can we do, as individuals and as a collective society, to bring change? How do we bridge the gaps between ideologies? How do we make sure people’s rights are protected against extremism? How do we take daily action that makes a difference on a local, regional, and national level?

My first answer to that is, of course, to VOTE. Early voting is available in many states at the moment, building up to our official Election Day on November 3, 2020. Make sure your voice is heard.

My second answer is to keep educating yourself on the issues that matter to you. Read books and articles by experts, watch documentaries, have conversations with civic leaders, and never stop asking questions.

My third answer is to keep calling for empathy, in yourself and others. Just because you may not have experienced something doesn’t mean that it isn’t urgent or important. Imagine those people who rights are being taken away and/or ignored. How would you feel? Your empathy is a vital tool in making a difference.


The fourth answer is to buy your ticket to see KEELY AND DU - being presented LIVE (via Zoom) Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1, 2020 - 7pm Eastern, with a streamed recording November 3-7, 2020. Tickets are available here: www.TheSeeingPlace.com - and then register for the discussion panel with Dr. McNicholas.

The play stars Audrey Heffernan Meyer, Brandon Walker, Erin Cronican, Robin Friend and Olivia Hanna Hardin. Co-Directed by Erin Cronican and Brandon Walker, and produced by the members of The Seeing Place Theater Ensemble.

Podcast Interview: How to Produce Your Own Work

TSP's Executive Artistic Director, Erin Cronican, was a guest on this wonderful podcast, "I Love Theatre: Now What?" (which was recorded just before the pandemic shut down.)

In this episode, hear Erin and podcast host Steph Newman talk about:

· How nonprofits versus for-profits differ with finances
· What producing your own work is like
· How Erin differs from her co-founder, Producing AD Brandon Walker
· How TSP crafts their seasons
· What producing in NYC is like versus everywhere else
· The 3 questions that are a MUST for choosing plays
· The strong connection Erin has with Margaret Edson’s play, WIT
· How you can get cast or involved at The Seeing Place Theater
· Great advice on how to make a real connection professionally
· How actors can treat themselves like a business
· Characteristics that mean you might be a leader

Take a listen here, and leave a comment to let us know you what you think!

https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/0/episodes/how-to-produce-your-own-work-w-56506444

TSP's History: Season One

As we celebrate our 10th Season, we thought we'd publish a series of articles detailing our history - how did these 10 years come to pass? From award-nominated plays to community favorites rarely seen on NYC stages, since August 2009 we've produced 40 main-stage productions and countless readings, employing over 200 actors, designers, and directors who all worked tirelessly as self-producers thanks, in part, to our Self Producing Training Program.

To help The Seeing Place produce its 10th Season, please consider making a tax deductible donation. You can make monthly or one-time donation here: www.TheSeeingPlace.org. 

Here is our story from Season One of The Seeing Place:

Brandon Walker, TSP Founder

by Brandon Walker, Producing Artistic Director and Founder

It’s funny to refer to Season One as a season. We were doing things show by show for a while and compiled them into seasons later. My memory may be off, but I don’t think it was until Season Three until we officially decided what Seasons One and Two were and where to split them up.

I reached out to Erin Cronican (Executive Artistic Director) shortly after moving to New York. We’re both from San Diego, and I had assisted her with Marketing on the San Diego Actor’s Alliance Festival of New Plays in summer 2005 before she moved out to NYC. Initially, we were talking about doing a production of Neil LaBute’s THE SHAPE OF THINGS. We’d get together occasionally and read plays in coffee shops. I had a few other friends I’d do that with, too. We didn’t get the rights (licensing), and we all moved onto other things shortly after. I continued to read plays with friends once a week for a few years. I got an apartment with a big living room and a donation of 20 chairs, and we were able to make it a little more official after that.

Erin Cronican, TSP Co-Founder

I don’t know that many people really set out to create a theatre company on their first show. With ours, we were getting together informally every week. It was a lot of fun. We’d get some wine and chat afterwards. I had no plan to take it anywhere. Then a woman I knew approached me to create a multifaceted art company. I was going to head up the theatre wing. There was also a film wing and an internet and television wing. As far as I know, those wings didn’t go much of anywhere. Neither did the theatre wing, really. We called the organization, "The Social Zoo." It was the only name we could agree on.

At first, we were going to work on a production of THIS IS OUR YOUTH, but we didn’t have any money. As I became closer with the woman in charge, she convinced me to write a play as a fundraiser (not the best idea in the world, by the way). I did. And we did raise some minimal money with a reading of it. Most importantly, we gained a lot of community interest.

I had a friend at that time with the same birthday as me, and she was very sad that she wasn’t going to be performing for the first time in her adult life on our birthday. I suggested we read a play, THE CREDEAUX CANVAS. We did. After the reading, one of the people reading said he wanted to produce it. We decided that would be the first production for The Social Zoo.

Within a week, both that producer and the woman running things got in a huge fight as we went to scout theatre space, and both of them backed out of the project. I had already made commitments to three friends and was excited. I’d already done most of the work. I decided to push forward with rehearsals.

I pulled a friend from class to play the missing role - and it turned out to be luck that we were working together. The company accidentally became a company about the process of our work. Both he and I were working based upon Lee Strasberg’s rehearsal work, and everyone else in the company wanted to learn what we were doing, so we all just worked that way. It was a blast. The play was all about the art world. Our director, Lillian Wright, and our lead actress, Anna Marie Sell, happened to be models at an art studio, and they talked the woman who ran it into giving me 20 free drawing lessons. I went to a museum every day to observe and practice. We rehearsed for a few months. We ended up getting free rehearsal space from a guy that came into my restaurant a lot (I'm a server for my day job), who left the country to study abroad and said we could use his centrally-located, $4,000 a month apartment for two months if we’d just clean it up. We did. He left the biggest mess I’ve ever seen. He was very rich. I also ran into another patron of that restaurant on the street one day, who ran a Shakespeare reading group every Tuesday night at the bar, and she offered me her brother’s bike. He’d recently died. I fixed it up, biked around, starved, and paid for most of the first show with Lillian and Anna Marie out of pocket.

About a week before we were set to open THE CREDEAUX CANVAS, The Social Zoo fell apart. The two other people running it didn’t like the fact that we’d moved ahead without them. But they offered to help us with the transition if we wanted to remain as a company. One of them was a graphic designer and offered to make a logo for us. Lillian, Anna Marie and I decided to call the company The Seeing Place, and Erin agreed to make a website and marketing materials for us all super quickly.

Brandon Walker (left) and Anna Marie Sell (right) in THE CREDEAUX CANVAS (2009)

THE CREDEAUX CANVAS was a success. We made money. We did a second engagement production. We had to recast one role, but it wasn’t a problem. We made money on that, too. People got excited. Everyone I knew wanted to be part of what we were doing. We started working on THIS IS OUR YOUTH again, but didn't end up getting the rights. We ended up producing my first play, WHEN WE HAVE GONE ASTRAY in rep with HOT CRIPPLE, written and performed by a friend from my class as well, Hogan Gorman. Two very kind people in the company offered to produce the shows, and they put up most of the money for them.

Heather Lee Harper with Brandon Walker in WHEN WE HAVE GONE ASTRAY (2010)

First plays are always a funny thing. The play started out well. It was very raw and very engaging. It was also five plays in one. As I edited and cut, I destroyed the play more and more. Luckily, the acting and the production made up for the basic structural issues (for the most part). It was probably unadvisable to have written an onstage miscarriage into the play. New playwrights, as I was then, think of a climax as being a big dramatic exclamation. Really, the whole story is the story of the climax. You start at the latest point that makes sense. I learned that the hard way.

Hogan Gorman in HOT CRIPPLE (2010)

Our sophomore shows were difficult. We went from a group of friends to a theatre company practically overnight. I became the leader at that time practically by default. I was the one heading up all the work, and all of a sudden I was in charge. When we brought in new actors, directors, technicians, designers, they all treated me and us as though we were employers all of a sudden. I guess that technically we were, but NYC Showcases (and really any early productions of a theatre company) are a labor of love. It was disorienting for quite a long while. We almost broke even on that rep. We ended a little in a financial hole. This company really has existed on the backs of many of us not taking stipends and putting in our own money. At that time, there were no administrative positions for actors in the company. All of us happened to be actors, but we were a group of self-producers.

I think the largest driving factor in the company during that first season, and even well into the second, was the recession. By the time we were performing the second set of shows I'd lost my job, was on unemployment, and I was really just trying to make art with people as a diversion to all of the difficulty. It worked out.


Season One Achievements:

• In September of 2009, The Seeing Place's inaugural show, THE CREDEAUX CANVAS, sold out it's first run, prompting a second sold-out run of the show. Playwright Keith Bunin enthusiastically attended the show, a coup for a brand new theater company.

• In February of 2010, The Seeing Place produced Hogan Gorman's one woman show, HOT CRIPPLE, which was attended by Perigree Trade Publishing, resulting in a book deal and major distribution in 2012.  


To help The Seeing Place produce its 10th Season, please consider making a tax deductible donation. You can make monthly or one-time donation here: www.TheSeeingPlace.org. 

Audiences: We Trust You

The Seeing Place ensemble trains together year round as actors and producers. In one of our workshops together we discussed an article called "Sit down, shut up and clap: A guide to theater etiquette" by Amanda Duarte which is basically a list of rules for audiences meant to fix a theatergoers experience. (I will link it down below for reference) Albeit the tone and intensity of the writer may very well have been humorous, after reading the article it just didn't sit right with me. As Audience Development Manager of The Seeing Place, I felt a strong aversion not because I disagree with all the rules Amanda Duarte poses, but because I think framing things in this way could potentially create an air of mistrust and exclusivity.

The theater etiquette listed in the article includes the ten rules “Sit the fuck down”, “Shut the fuck up”, “Sit the fuck still”, “Do not eat or drink”, “Turn. Off. Your. Cellular. Device”, “Take the gum out of your mouth”, “Be over 25 years old, and preferably over 30”, “Wear clothing”, “Be healthy”, and “Fucking clap”. According to the article, these outlines are meant to fix a theatergoers experience, but I'm afraid that thinking in these terms may have the opposite effect. The outlines are trying to “fix” a problem that, in my opinion, doesn't really exist on the large and overwhelming scale that the article seems to suggest. I think that this way of thinking is the real problem. The thought process that implies its a disturbance for people to dress a certain way or be under a certain age at the theater seems more problematic to me than a theatergoer wearing flip-flops or being 17. The real problem at the theater is a generalized consensus or attitude that condemns and is bothered by people doing anything that disturbs complete silence and stillness in the slightest. Of course, I agree that audiences should be conscious of the fact that they’re not the only individual at the theater. They should let people pass if they happen to be seated closer to the aisle than the center. They shouldn't use their cell phones or have a conversation during the performance. And I trust that our theatergoing community will do so.

Not everyone in The Seeing Place ensemble shared my reaction to the piece and many members thought the piece by Amanda Duarte was very funny and appreciated her witty style and straightforwardness. But everyone in the group did share a resounding distaste towards the insinuation that anyone under 25 years old doesn't belong at "the serious theater". I believe the insinuation that people under 25 shouldn't be at the theater is especially counterintuitive to keeping the art form well and alive. In fact, I can’t think of a better way to ensure that theater becomes a dying art form then to prevent the future theater makers from being part of our “club”. This way of thinking doesn't foster an inclusive and productive theatergoing community and experience. It breeds an air of superiority and contempt for those “not cultured enough” to partake in “our culture.” When I read these types of remarks, I feel condescended to. I'm disappointed that people so invested in art can’t see the importance of exposing children and young adults to the theater. Not all children are the same, and not all will be bored out of their mind. I sure wasn't when I watched The Importance of Being Earnest at age 15 or when my mom took me to Othello at age 6 or when I watched The Glass Menagerie in my senior year of high school. If culture is the necessary companion to civilization, I’d like this to include the members of our society that are under 25 as well as those that wear flip-flops and the ones that are diabetic and need a snack, and I’d like if a surgeon could leave the theater if that meant a life could be saved.

As an artist who wants to provide value in the world and feel appreciated, I'd like people to clap and enjoy the performance.  But I, certainly, don't think you HAVE to clap. The transaction goes as follows, you paid for a ticket and we put on a play. Whether you liked it, appreciated it, or not is your business. And you can choose to clap or not to clap. We are not entitled to your applause. If we unquestioningly adopt the idea that, as artists, we are entitled to a certain type of audience that behaves a certain way we are shooting ourselves in the foot. It's destructive to the whole point of the theater. If the theater-making community preaches inclusivity, they should abide by it.

One of the big flaws of the theater-making and theater-going community is an air of entitlement that surrounds it. If that keeps being cultivated and supported then theater might very well die or at least the point of it will. I think an air of mistrust through a litany of rules will only discourage people from coming to the theater. We, at The Seeing Place, want the theater to be a place were inclusivity can flourish. Above all, we believe the theater is FOR ALL.  You came to watch a show, so please watch the show but we won't tell you how to do it. We trust your judgment.  I want the theater to be a place where we are free to explore, reflect, and feel. For these three things to take place there must be an openness that allows for discovery. I want our plays to create a space where these things are possible for us as well as our theater-going community.  Just because there are no rules doesn't mean we don't want to communicate with you. So instead of listing a litany of rules to The Seeing Place’s community, We’d like to focus on a few Yes’s, not to-do’s or have-to’s but invitations, that may enrich and bring value to our community. I'd like to find ways to communicate with you and foster creativity and inclusivity. Where we are free to come together as individuals and embark on an adventure.

My invitation to you is to be unapologetically giving to yourself and those around you when you're at the theater. Dare to listen and see. Dare to understand yourself and those around you. Face the truth and set yourself free.

"When you’re at the theatre, I’d invite you to engage. The audience plays a crucial role. Try to allow yourself to relax and be with the players and the story. If you find something funny, let yourself laugh. If no one else is laughing, don’t worry about it. Don’t push or force your laughter. I’m not saying that you need to be some kind of mechanical laugh-track. But frequently, I look at audiences and people are bored, checked out, sleeping, etc. The play you are watching may not be the best thing since sliced bread, but there is something going on onstage that you can learn from. I promise. There are lots of design elements that went into making this work of art. There is the story itself. There are a bunch of living human beings in front of you. They are making choices for reasons. Whether or not their characters come fully to life or carry any significant meaning to you, you have to be the horse that doesn’t just stand at the water, looking at itself in the reflection, suspicious of what it’s gotten itself into. The fact that you made it to the theater is great for our budgets. But we’re not there to make money. We’re there to share in a communal energy. And for that, you have to be the horse that drinks. And by that, I mean the proverbial water, but wine also helps. :O)" - Brandon Walker (Producing Artistic Director)

"We invite you to enjoy a drink during the show, or afterward in the lobby with the cast!" - Rachael Murray (Ensemble Member)

"In theater, open your heart to learning about yourselves and others. We, actors, are holding a mirror up to all our lives. See beyond the celebrity and appearance, question the situation and possible outcomes, commit that time to focus on the story unveiling in front of you - let it take you out of your daily struggles into a land of consideration. Try seeing the other’s point of view and humanity without judgment. We are there to help you experience it, to explore what it means to be human. Together. Become an active participant, an equal creator. We need you." - Gaia Visnar (Associate Producer)

"Don’t be afraid to talk to the artists if you see them in the lobby or around town! We love to hear about the impact that our work may have had on you - we do it for YOU!" - Erin Cronican (Executive Producer/Managing Director)

 We are committed to creating a community with you all. Two essential parts of our artistic community are freedom and communication. So, my last invitation to you all (for now) is to comment down below with your very own invitation to us and fellow audiences..or anything else you might like to express.



[ARTICLE] Sit down, shut up and clap: A guide to theater etiquette
https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/a-guide-to-theater-etiquette

Master Classes in Speaking Shakespeare, Self-Producing, Monologue Technique (and more!)

We're excited to announce that we're hosting a series of Master Classes February 13-20, 2017! All workshops are $39 are are designed to help and other artists learn valuable skills in the acting craft, the business of acting, and the art of theater-making!

Click here to learn more and to sign up.

You can also get 5 classes by signing up for the VIP Class Pass - it's just $149! Here are the classes you can choose from:

The week then culminates with our famous meet & greet event, the Actor/Industry Scramble, on February 20 for just $59. All proceeds go to benefit the ensemble and programming of The Seeing Place Theater.

See all of the classes being taught, and SIGN UP here: https://squareup.com/store/TheSeeingPlace

We look forward to seeing you there!

How Do We Make Theatre Worth Fighting For?

As we head into the biggest fundraising days of the year, we thought it important to share what we do that sets us apart from many other theatre companies - and why we are worthy of your donation. At the end of this article, we will be making a request for your support, and I hope that you will be inspired to contribute based upon the exciting things (below) we set out to do in the world.



Original Broadway production of Waiting for Lefty.

I want to start by including a picture from our roots in The Group Theatre, which depicts one of the most important and iconic moments of audience engagement that has ever taken place in the theatre. At the end of a performance of Waiting for Lefty, the audience rose up to scream "Strike!" right along with the actors onstage. That is the kind of visceral communication we have with our community.

Many people have asked us why we do what we do over the years. Most tend to assume that we are theatre-makers that self-produce out of some kind of ego-driven need to do everything ourselves. If it were just about doing great plays and playing great roles, there are much easier ways. We are committed to much more than producing plays and building careers. Though these things are side-benefits for all of us, we want to take this opportunity open up to our community and share the many things that The Seeing Place does that are not so apparent upon first glance.

1.) We are passionate about "Organic Theatre." What the heck does that mean? When I was in my early 20's, I saw a theatre company in San Diego that blew me away. To many people I knew in the community, their work was boring and unimpressive. For me, it was the first time I'd ever believed what I was watching onstage, and it was a magical experience. I saw many productions at New Village Arts before I started working with them. I fell so in love with their work that I moved to NYC to study with their teacher, David Gideon. When I got to New York, I thought there would be a lot of ensemble companies that were alive onstage like the work I fell in love with at New Village Arts. Not one. I do see wonderful performances from time to time, but it's rarely a full-ensemble effort - and definitely not the kind of theatre I fell in love with. New York is full of impressive theatre, which tends to be driven by spectacle and stardom - where the actors behave in some kind of superhuman way. That's great for a lot of people. For me, I want to believe and relate to what I'm watching, rather than being amazed by the superhero talent of the performers. I want to see myself in what's happening on the stage and really get to live through the story with the actors. I want to do that kind of work, too. I love directing it. I love acting in it. I love it when the action of the play is malleable, so that we're not trying to hit a certain level of emotion or manufacture moments that just aren't real every night. I'm not suggesting that our work does not have "moments." We do, and some of our moments are very specific, as when an actor is required to hit a certain mark for a lighting effect. We do still deal with pace and timing. Those elements are important. We also believe in trying to keep what we learned in rehearsals and share it. But the night-to-night discoveries are different, and there is freedom in our work that allows for growth. This concept is not new, but when it does happen in most theatre, it's usually only one actor doing it - and that actor tends to be heavily criticized by the community.

2.) We make challenging plays relatable to a modern audience. Really, I think most plays present their own special difficulties, but there are some that have almost been dismissed because of the problems they present. Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco, Closer by Patrick Marber, and Macbeth by William Shakespeare are great examples. Obviously, all three plays are popular and attempted frequently - some more than others. But even with Macbeth, many Shakespearean scholars have professed that the play only seems to work as a piece of writing, rather than a lived performance. That's a major hurdle to overcome. We set out to make our production of Macbeth relatable to our audience - which is something we've rarely seen done. We make the same commitment in all of our work. Though many other people do these plays, they tend to be more concerned about revamping them or doing something really cool with them and adding a wild concept. This is true of the production and film of Macbeth, starring Patrick Stewart. The production is set in Nazi Germany, and Macbeth is likened to Hitler. And that's awesome. I get it. It makes sense. It was well done, and I enjoyed it. But all of a sudden, it's a play about Nazis - which allows a separation for the audience to hold themselves at arms length from the characters. As a result, we lose touch with the basic human responses to ambition and stress that the play illuminates, and it becomes exceedingly difficult to relate to the Macbeth's and see ourselves in their struggles. That's what we as a theatre company set out to do.

3.) We are ensemble storytellers. Anyone that has been involved in our work knows that we spend just as much time with the "smaller roles" as we do with the leads. To me, there's nothing more distracting to a wonderful production than the one person that just isn't in the same reality with everyone else. This is very surprising to our actors, sometimes - especially when they dismiss their importance to a scene because they only have one or two lines (or even none). We really believe that every life on the stage needs to be lived. The playwright may only focus on the leads, but that does not make the other characters inconsequential.

4.) We believe in a group effort. We demand that everyone we're working with is an active part of the creation of the project we're working on - from fundraising and marketing to audience development and theater management. It's important that we are all invested in the outcome and have ownership in making each production come to life. Erin Cronican (our Managing Director) and I may have more responsibility and accountability, and as the founders that is to be expected, but there is no one that is "just an actor" in our company. We have a deep commitment to training and mentoring our artists in all aspects of theatre-making, and that is no small task. We set out to have a group of people where everyone has a voice and the agency to be able to contribute.

5.) We give back to our artists and our community. For our group, we hold weekly acting and producing workshops, which teach our actors how to develop themselves as artists and self-producers. All of those skills help them be more well-rounded in our work and in the marketplace. For our audiences, we are committed to making theatre affordable for all. In addition to our low ticket prices, we give away lots of free and discounted tickets to senior centers, low-income housing developments, student groups, artists, and anyone else that can't afford the cost. We believe that theatre should be available to everyone. Additionally, we give our audiences a voice. We have lots of talkbacks, and we all go out in the lobby after shows to engage in discussions about our world. We truly believe in the community-building aspect of theatre.

These are the reasons why we do what we do. Our work extends far beyond our productions. We're a year-round ensemble of theatre-makers, and we are all asking for your help today.

As I mentioned before, we're in the middle of our Annual Fundraising Campaign. Your contribution goes a long way toward making theatre that is worth fighting for at The Seeing Place: the place we come to see ourselves.

You can be part of the charge and donate here:  www.TheSeeingPlace.org

Thank you!

How To Find Inspiration As An Actor

All too often, I feel like the stick figure in this picture.  In my acting class this week, we had a discussion that inspired  me (ha!) to write this blog for our community.  What struck me most is the need for us as actors to generate our own inspiration by focusing our efforts on what we want to do, rather than how it is received.  Otherwise, it's too easy to fall into a pit of self-doubt and despair in this largely unforgiving and cutthroat world of show business.  After all, what the heck are we doing with our lives?  And who are we to do it?  The questions go on and on.

As a self-producer, it's especially important to feed your own fire.  As The Seeing Place chose our 5th Season, we took our cues mainly from what stories we wanted to tell about the world we're living in.  We got lucky this year and were granted the rights to most of our first choices.  But we have to start from ourselves and what we love - and hope people get on board.  If we pander to what people want to see, we remove our voice from the equation.  And as soon as we do that, it's no longer an artistic pursuit.

How does that relate to you?  Let's go outside of acting for a moment.  Imagine you're a painter.  If people don't like what you do, are you going to stop painting?  No.  When you're painting at home, are you worried about what people are going to say about it?  I hope not.  You do your art for you.  As a painter, you have to approach your canvas with something you have to say and hope that people like it.  As soon as you do art for others, it becomes decoration.  Many actors treat themselves like decorators, rather than artists.

This is a rough business.  As we all know, actors are a dime a dozen.  We are largely taught to satisfy the visions of the director and the playwright - rather than to share our own.  In fact, warning signals tend to go off when this kind of discussion comes up.  But it is possible to satisfy a production without giving yourself up in the process.  You just have to take your direction and try to accomplish it your way to the best of your abilities. 

First and foremost, it is necessary for the actor to nourish his or her own spirit.  Any of us can easily be marionettes and deliver the goods.  But if we focus solely on the product, we leave ourselves out of our own work.  And if we don't derive satisfaction from within, we can only hope to get it from others.  In that case, my work can only satisfy me if other people like it and give me validation.  But in my experience, validation doesn't give me any personal satisfaction.  However, when I share from myself and tell my story with the material, then even if I don't get the big applause, I know that I have made an impact.  I know I did my part.  That is real satisfaction.

We tend to think of self-satisfying actors as being self-serving, self-indulgent, and unprofessional; however, these are exactly the kind of artists we celebrate.  Some prime examples are Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.  I don't think anyone could accuse them of being anything other than generous artists. And what makes them generous is that they share themselves.  There's nothing wrong with having something to say.

These are the very reasons we created The Seeing Place - to give actors a place to do their work.  We take special care to make sure that every actor brings a personal stamp on their work to share with our audiences.  The playwright and director are not the only storytellers in our theater.  We all take on that responsibility together.  To see what exciting stories we'll be sharing this season click here!

We'd love to hear how YOU find your inspiration and what you do to keep your spirit motivated.  Please do leave a comment and join the conversation.  Acting is a lonely business.  Let's be a community for one another!

Where Have All The Critics Gone?

Cartoon Courtesy of The New Yorker

Maybe you haven't heard:

The readership for theatre reviews just wasn't cutting it for major publications like Backstage, who recently cancelled both online and print reviews.  That's not all.  The Village Voice also recently let go of both Michael Feingold and Michael Musto - big time reviewers and supporters of the New York Theatre Scene.  That's just the tip of the iceberg.  There are cutbacks everywhere you look.

We have had major reviewers come see our shows, who are now relegated to blogging.  Don't get me wrong - blogging is great!  And I'm delighted that many reviewers have chosen to support the arts community in any way they can.  But this is a major issue.  It's a major loss for the arts.

Once upon a time, a critic's job was more akin to talent scouting for the world at large.  As such, reviewers would see shows all over the place and try to connect art with its appropriate audience.  Unfortunately, that's not happening much anymore.

In a city like New York, there are plays popping up everywhere you look.  There just isn't time (or money) for reviewers to see them all.  And with rampant budget cuts, there is special pressure for publications to consider the marketability of their reviews.  Don't worry, though.  Broadway and Off-Broadway will always get their fair shake.  After all, that's where all the credible work happens in NYC, right?

But the harsh reality for Off-Off Broadway is that in order to draw the larger publications to see the show, there had better be a major gimmick - four actors playing 40 roles, interactive media performances streaming online, performance art pieces set in an apartment that you have to watch with binoculars and headphones.  The list goes on and on.

Once upon a time, publications like Backstage and Show Business Weekly were paramount in sharing all kinds of work with the world, but obviously those times are gone.  And so there is a great pressure in the indie circuit to produce new work.  The unfortunate reality, though, is that most new plays aren't all that great.  And they are often being work-shopped during rehearsals, so that actors can't really sink their teeth in and tell a story.  There's too much up in the air.  It's just not productive to build a writing ensemble and an acting ensemble at the same time.  So, audiences at the Off-Off Broadway level come to expect a focus on the writing and design of a show - which is also the common focus in more commercial theater in NYC.  So, Off-Off-Broadway shows are constantly hoping to springboard into an Off-Broadway extension.  And so, we have created a mentality that says that the goal is Broadway.  And anything that challenges the hip commercial norms goes largely unnoticed.

When was the last time anyone heard of a major acting ensemble in NYC?

In our community, we tend to minimize actors on the indie-theatre level, so actor-driven companies often go unnoticed by the larger public.  When I say "actor-driven", I mean to say that the focus is the behavior of the actors (not just the words they are saying and the design elements that bring the production together).  As an actor-driven company, The Seeing Place tends towards published works - or "revivals" as we were told by a very prominent theatre critic while pitching our last season.  The New York press seems to believe that there's no reason to see Off-Off Broadway revivals because they have already seen these shows on Broadway or Off-Broadway - with "A-list actors and designers".

There are the rare occasions that one actor-driven show will pop through the cracks, but it's rare.  Usually, when we hear about acting, it's in relation to a celebrity, a great star turn, or a real scene-stealer.  We hear about the strength of a single performance, rather than a company of people.  Most of the time, if there is a strong ensemble in NYC, it's in a show that has transferred from somewhere else. 

I firmly believe that there is great ensemble work that happens all over the place in this city.  I only wish I could hear about it.  With dwindling support for reviews in our community, how exactly can upstart companies hope get the word out anymore? 

Any ideas?

Producing on a Shoestring Budget

As we're all recovering from Hurricane Sandy, many of our Off-Off Broadway comrades are having to scale our theatrical ideas down a bit to compensate for the week of work that most of us are losing - not to mention the greatly reduced support (both in attendance and donations from our community).  A couple of people have reached out to me to ask:

How do theaters produce on a shoestring budget?  Luckily, I'm an expert on the subject (or unluckily, but I'm an optimist). 

We seem to have this lingering idea in our society that we need to wait for something to make art.  From what I can gather, this concept is based largely on our commercial theater marketplace.  In calling it "commercial theater", I am including all of us - because our society has set a bar that everyone is judged against.  Essentially, we have been brought up to understand that art is only worthwhile when it is commercially viable.  This is a trickle-down effect that starts at the top.  In the theater world, the top is Broadway.  They get the big sets, the great lighting, the good directors, the known actors, the critical response, the most money, the most respect, and the greatest financial support from individuals in our community.

"Financial support?  But people can't donate to for-profit ventures", some of you may be thinking.  However, what's on the top ten list of things to do in NYC: See a Broadway show.  So, everyone is willing to pay for the experience of Broadway.  Good or bad, it's something we should all live through, society tells us.  No one is running to Off-Off Broadway - or even Off-Broadway.

When we think of what is "good" or "professional" or "accepted" or "successful", the paradigm always starts with the pinnacle of commercial theater.  Building upon that concept, the best regional theaters are all trying to land shows on Broadway, so everything is set up for future success in the world market.  The best theatrical programs are going to prepare students to work in these markets, so they also have the kinds of systems that are comparable to the best of what our country can boast.  Even our high schools try to give their students that leg-up.  On every level, our country is trying to measure up to these standards in our industry.

No wonder it's become so difficult to find the heart in our business.

You didn't come here to read about what's wrong with our system, though.  You didn't come here to learn the backstory.  You came here to find out what we can do about it.  First of all, we've got to start thinking about theater as though it's an art form.  That may sound like an obvious statement.  And yet...look at other, more obvious artists and ask yourself:  Does a songwriter need the best guitar to write a song?  Does a painter hold out for the expensive paints in order to alter a canvas?  Does a writer wait for the book deal to begin writing?  In all of these examples, the artist begins with having something to say - and then they carry it out in the best way they know how.  The World will let us know if our art is viable.  That's not our job.

Now, what are shoestrings?  They aren't laces.  They are pieces of string, holding shoes together.  Shoes are meant to operate with more support.  So is theater.  The next step is in realizing that in a race that depends on the sturdiness of your shoes, you will always lose.  So, you have to change the game around.  If your shoes are going to compete with everything that our society tells us is good, it has to offer something other than fancy footwork.  The first step towards producing on a shoestring budget is to realize that YOU make the art.  The spectacle doesn't do it alone.  No amount of panache can substitute for what you bring to the table.  Your message has to be at the forefront. 

The biggest thing you can do is to come up with a concept for your play that rests on human storytelling.  We've all heard this, but it seems that very few of us believe it.  At the core of the theater is a person on a stage.  Without a person on a stage, there is no theater.  Theater can exist without a written script, without a director, without a light board, without a stage manager - even without a building.  The requirements for theater are: actors, story, audience.  That's it.  So, place your focus on that person-to-person communication.  How can the people tell the story?

It takes some practice.  I was lucky.  My theater program in my high school had no money.  We had a lot of passion and drive.  We had a black box.  We had a lot of old paint.  But all we had to fall back on was our collective creativity.  And we did a lot with just that.  My first theater company was called Poor Players for a reason.  Keep in mind that acting is primarily the suspension of disbelief, anyway.

Minimalism isn't easy.  But here are some benchmarks to help the fledgling artists in us all as we try to make art in these trying times:


Use your imagination.  Ask yourself how your story can benefit from a bare-bones staging.  It is generally good to pick plays that don't require multiple sets.  The more conceptual you can make the show, the better.  We told the story of our production of WAITING FOR LEFTY, using only Union buttons (which had our Seeing Place Eye on them), apple crates and a sepia color scheme.  Rather than telling the story as vignettes in reverie, we kept the Union Meeting alive the whole time.  The lights stayed on over the audience, and we set up the scenes as though they were skits that the committee had brought to convince the taxi drivers to take action.  When audiences entered the theater, the cast was already improvising their way into the play for the first half an hour until "curtain time", when we started Clifford Odets' written play.  Our focus was the life on stage.

Start from where you are.  See if what you already have can work.  In our production of THREE SISTERS, we knew from the get-go that we were not going to be able to create a 1904 Russian Mansion realistically on stage.  But rather than aiming for the moon and falling short with shoddy costumes and the like, we opted to create a concept for what we wish we had and do our best to suggest that concept.  We set up the production as though it were a designer run of the show that still had elements of rehearsal, so that the seams of our work were showing - literally.  Costumes were half-finished with some elements from the present.  Some props and set-pieces were represented by signs.  We had a wooden block that said "Clock", pieces of paper that said "Book" or "Picture frame".  We had a ladder with "Stairs" written next to it.  There were realistic elements from both the present time and 1904.  We had a real Russian Samovar.  And we also had Whoppers that my Andrey was stress-eating.  We had a violin onstage that I practiced in concert with some of the greats on our soundtrack during scene changes and intermission.  We had our Stage Manager onstage, calling cues.  The concept was to meld our current time with the past, so that our audience would associate with Chekhov's characters in the present time, rather than holding them as a distant relic from our history.  We could have made our show pretty realistic - much more than we originally thought.  We actually opted to remove several elements toward the end to make sure that the concept was clear.  We didn't want to seem like we were offering the pared-down version.  It had to seem intentional.  And so it was.

Cut corners wherever you can.  Save your money for the stage.  The biggest hurdle is rehearsal space.  It usually costs almost as much as the performance space.  But that's not the only place you can save a lot of money.  Use as much wardrobe and props as you can from your actors.  On the showcase code, you can't require any AEA actor to loan their own clothing or props, but you can always make a request.  Most actors prefer to wear their clothes if they make sense within the concept, because they know their clothes will fit.  And then your major cost is in weekly laundry.  Our Props and Costumes Manager, Gabrielle Loneck, is currently on a mission to find as much as possible for our entire Fourth Season from within our company and their resources.  Re-use everything you can.  Ask other theater companies, who have recently produced the shows you're doing, if they still have any odd props, costumes, or set-pieces in storage.  They'd probably much rather get a few bucks for it than take up their space with it, when they might not use it again.  Look into Build It Green for your construction needs.  Look on Craigslist.  Go to second-hand stores.  Don't buy top-dollar anything unless it is your last resort.

Be creative.  You need to think outside of the box.  When we started The Seeing Place, I took a shot in the dark.  A regular at my old restaurant was leaving for Paris and didn't want to clean his $4,000 a month apartment and get rid of all of the things in it.  I offered to do it for him.  As a result, he donated his apartment for 2 months for our rehearsal period for THE CREDEAUX CANVAS three years ago.  We rehearsed a good amount of our production of WAITING FOR LEFTY in St. Nicholas Park.  We've rehearsed in our living room, donated living rooms, my bedroom, you name it.  We took over my old apartment and used my living room, hallway, bathrooms, kitchen, and several bedrooms for various entrances and backstage areas on many of our initial productions.  I've worked with theater companies that used office lobbies, museums, libraries, churches, courtyards, exercise studios on off hours, you name it.  Just keep in mind that The Group Theater had passion and craft.  They rehearsed (and lived) in an apartment for much of their beginnings.  It doesn't take as much as you may think to make art together.


Ask for help.  You'll be surprised at how much you'll get.  Try to get everything possible donated.  In-Kind donations are essential.  What are In-Kind Donations?  Donations of goods or services.  Most people can donate a lot more than they think they can.  This is a tactic I learned from our Managing Director, Erin Cronican.  And I have to admit that I was doubtful.  But we've been donated paint, rollers, ladders, vacuum cleaners, flooring, printer ink, doors, windows, even scripts (that's a big one for people with office jobs) - just because we asked.  Even donations of time are a big deal.  Get your friends to help you promote your show if they can't afford to do anything else.  It all goes a long way.  At Erin's suggestion, we reached out to everyone we knew to help spread the word about our last production of DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA.  As a result, we nearly sold out our entire Off-Broadway Debut.

Get your community involved.  Make postcards and leave them everywhere you can.  Don't just rely on rehearsal spaces and audition rooms.  You want the theater-going world to know about your show.  So, get your postcards in every theater you can.  Don't stop there.  Go to pizza places, laundromats, bars, bike shops, libraries, ANYWHERE AND EVERYWHERE.  Let people know what you're doing.  Post your show online everywhere you can.  Talk about it on the social networks.  Ask every blogger and reviewer you can get ahold of to come see your show.  You don't need a publicist.  You just need a diligent group. 

Yes, you will need more money than you have.  But you don't need to rely on Kickstarter and IndieGoGo - though they are great resources.  You also don't need to be 501(c)3 to receive tax-deductible donations.  You can apply to become a sponsored project with Fractured Atlas (as we have) - which is an umbrella organization that offers fiscal sponsorship to upstart companies and projects.  But you can also make it fun.  Have a party to fund-raise for your show.  That will help you build some excitement around it as well. Lots of bars are willing to host events and give your crew a discount or kick back a dollar for every drink.  Or you can hold your own.  Spaces are hard to find, but we've used a lot of artist flats in the past.  We've also rented theater spaces and done staged readings as fundraisers, where we've taken donations for Hot Spiced Wine and novelty drinks. 

IN FACT, The Seeing Place will be holding our SEASON FOUR LAUNCH PARTY this Friday night from 7pm-2am.  If you're in the NYC area, come join us!  We'll have Dancing and Drama and the cheapest Drinks you're bound to find.  And all of the proceeds go to making great theater happen.

Thanks for reading.  We'd love to hear your stories and ideas.  Please leave a comment and tell us a story about a show that you've seen or done that built something out of nothing.

I'd tell mine, but you've already read my stories.  Now, I wanna hear yours!