Two more lengthy additions to my Rooted Stage series, which gets us to 1896 and the arrival of the Theatrical Contract. I am pretty sure there will only be one more post on this topic, after which I intend to put all of them together here as a series of links (probably a pinned post), and then freely available as a word doc, pdf or epub. When that happens, I’m hoping that people will send a copy to any theater history teachers they know, so they can consider using it in their class.
Here are the two new posts:
The Rise of the Combination Company and the Death of the Resident Stock Company
By 1870, all the pieces were in place to overthrow the resident stock companies across the nation:
- a railroad system connecting many of the cities coast to coast;
- a canal that connected travel from New York to the Great Lakes;
- a large metropolis (New York City) at the head of both the train and canal system;
- a burgeoning star system that was much in demand across the country.
As Christopher Bigsby wrote, “The advent of the combination company marked the theatre’s entrance into the modern, industrialized era.”
Gradually, Then Suddenly: The Birth of Show BUSINESS (Part 1)
In Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, a character is asked how he went bankrupt. “Two ways,” he responds. “Gradually, and then suddenly.” He could have been talking about the changes to the American theater in the last quarter of the 19th century. In my February 23 post I described “The Rise of the Combination Company and the Death of the Resident Stock Company.” Today, I want to describe the capture of the American theater by businessmen.
This has nothing to do with theater, but I thought it was a beautiful description of slowing down enough to see.
Nicholas Carr on the Contemplative Gaze
Shannon Hayes describes True Wealth:
“With the broad acceptance of scarcity, the drawdown of resources ensues, and business begins: the race for the best education in a world believed to be short of good teachers; the race for the best-paying jobs in a world believed to be deprived of respectable work and access to resources; the competition to acquire land and housing in a world where we believe there is a housing shortage; the pressure to buy all the right advantages and implements for our children in a world that is believed to have limited space and opportunity for them; the hustle to work hard and bank and invest and save in a world where we believe money is the only means of having our needs met. The output of all this work is not more true wealth. It’s simply more money. And the bank of true wealth—love, resources, time, and deep engagement—gets depleted.”
Redefining Rich by Shannon Hayes
Independence
“The change I am talking about appeals to me precisely because it need not wait upon “other people.” Anyone who wants to do so can begin it in himself and in his household as soon as he is ready-by becoming answerable to at least some of his own needs, by acquiring skills and tools, by learning what his real needs are, by refusing the glamorous and the frivolous. When a person learns to act on his own best hopes he enfranchises and validates them as no government or policy ever will. And by his action the possibility that other people will do the same is made a likelihood.”
Wendell Berry by Jason Peters
Finally, Michael Rushton is doing an excellent job of dismantling all the ways we miss the boat when we’re trying to run an arts organization. This one is about why metrics don’t work:
Thanks for sticking with me!
Scott