and there's plenty going on at the skylight this week too...

more here:

tuesdaysblog.com

Glad I found this page via Google!

It's sad times for Skylight. Trust is such a difficult thing to rebuild once it has been broken. The lesson for all arts organizations is, in this day and age of immediate communication and social media, to be on your toes and well prepared to make major organizational changes. It's like going through a terrible and sudden divorce and not telling the children why - it will drive them crazy and lead them to hyperbolize the reasons. The internet doesn't provide much room for reflection and fact gathering before rightfully upset people will gather and respond, so you must be prepared with the answers and exemplify honest transparency. If you don't feed the beast, the beast will come after you.

That's bad news...

I just finished a season-long apprenticeship at Actors Theatre of Louisville. You know, every theater is experiencing rough sailing, even ATL. One of their primary concerns is the Humana Festival, and, in an effort to keep the festival as full and rich as it's always been, they've drastically cut their regular season.

A large part of the problem, I think, is the subscription model. It's just old, and if you need proof of that then just take a look at the majority of your subscribers. They're old! Subscribing to an entire season of productions is something that this new generation just doesn't do. We don't even subscribe to magazines -- you can get them online for free!

Things won't be this bad forever.

When a board dismisses artistic leadership and replaces it with or elevates the business leader, why is the default position necessarily one of the board and business side not showing mutual respect or good judgment. I don't know of any place where artistic leadership anywhere has cornered the marketing on either respect or judgment.

I posted some further information about BoardHead on Monday...including their boards comments. Really bad trend.

http://bit.ly/rwrQ5