2nd/3rd Day, Net Summit

I'm still up here in San Francisco at the NET Summit.  More panels, discussions and exploration of the sector.  And, more exploration in my creative collision where I am working with 5 other artists from New York, San Francisco and Minneapolis to create a new, brief, performance piece.  We present our piece for the first time tomorrow at 2pm so I'm a bit nervous.

As always, working with artists from other companies does wonders to help you define your personal strengths and to define the kind of theater you truly love. I am doing quite a bit of dance tomorrow (not my strength) and it has been a joy to be pushed into uncharted territory.

Other highlights of the past few days include some inspiring speakers, a very candid discussion about how ensembles can raise artistic evaluation standards and exploring ways of assessment. There was a wonderful discussion of Theater de la June Lune, a 30-year-old (tony-winning) ensemble in Minneapolis that basically is starting over due to a conflict with an the board. His message to us.... "don't grow so big that you have to make concessions over the art" and "be honest with your company members about when you like their work and when you don't."

Other things that have happened include...

   1)  Late night party bus (lots of drunk thespians, dancing and drinking on a hippy bus driving all over the city until midnight, when it eventually parked at a Salsa club and the people departed for even more late-night dancing, drinking and frolic).

   2)  Learning some ASL. There is a person here from Quest who is deaf and we are often chatting with her about our project as well as their own work in Washington, DC.

   3) Morning responses to the plays we're seeing.  Tomorrow I'm doing feedback on a panel about a show I saw tonight. Should be an interesting and difficult discussion. The ensemble is in Liverpool England and they are called Fools Proof.

So... that's it for now.  Going to bed and resting my voice.  Performing tomorrow. Eek.

matt