Dear Subscribers — A quick note to explain why you haven’t heard from me for a while: I’m making some changes.
I have sometimes felt as if there were at least two different voices in this newsletter: the “the nonprofit business model in theater is crashing” voice, and the “here are some ideas about plays and why we do them” voice. I’ve decided to separate them.
I’m in the midst of creating a new blog/website for the “theater is crashing voice.” It’s called the “Theater Skunk Works.” As some of you may know, “skunk works” is a business term that means “an often secret experimental laboratory or facility for producing innovative products.” This is where I am going to share questions and new ideas about how we create theater. The website is under construction right now, but the URL will be theatreskunkworks.com (strangely, nobody had already claimed that domain name). I’ll let you know when it is up and running. Long-term, I am imagining that the Theater Skunk Works will become a full-fledge project with a small team of people who research ideas to discover examples from the past or from other disciplines that might support a change, or who run “experiments” of new ideas to see if they “work.”
The other voice, the one focused on plays and ideas about plays, will remain here at (strangely enough) “Theater / Ideas” and will be my voice only. It will be much more personal, and focused on appreciation and understanding.
Both of these “voices” are very important to me, but don’t necessarily mix well. My hope is that this change will prevent the sense of whiplash that y’all might experience.
More to come.
Scott