Off Stage Conversations

Hello, this is Andie Arthur, executive director of the South Florida Theatre League with Off Stage Conversations, where I take a look at what's being talked about in the national and international theatre community. I'm sorry to have missed last week, but I've been working on a really exciting new project for the South Florida Theatre League -- Get In Bed With the Arts, which will make it's debut at the Carbonell Awards and the Theatre League's After Party on Monday Night. So once you're done being envious of Betsy Graver's hat, be sure to take a picture in bed at the South Florida Theatre League's Carbonell After Party.

Happy World Theatre Day!

Today is World Theatre Day.

Thoughts on Season Selection

Howard Sherman asks why do so many regional theatres produce the same ten plays each year? He looks at the positive and negative parts of this issue, noting that the decline in tours of major productions of plays lead to this ecosystem.

Flexible Scheduling

The Guardian has a piece on why theatres and other cultural workplaces need to be smarter about flexible scheduling.

Our current culture promotes underpaid and overworked staff, relying on our passion for what we do. The return on this approach is a lack of workplace diversity. Poor financial rewards for risky leadership roles result in talent leaving the sector – or going freelance.

Why Feminism Is Important in Theatre

Velina Brown has a piece on Theatre Bay Area (the San Fransisco Bay equivalent to the South Florida Theatre League) on why feminism is still needed in theatre. I agree with all the points in this article, but the one that I think is most important is that we need feminism "because very talented women are leaving the field since there doesn’t appear to be a place for them."

There are people fighting the good fight, including Elissa Goetschius who is compiling a list of female directors across the country. South Florida is weird in that artistic directors direct their entire seasons (a practice that does not help us grow artistically and I think is financially short-sighted), but there are still some really wonderful local female directors. Join me in letting Elissa know who those folks are.

Digitizing 990s

Cinthia Ottinger takes a look at why digitizing 990s and having an aggregate of data on non-profits would be beneficial to the field.

Things I Wish I Had Been Told in Theatre School

Callam Rodya lists 32 things he wished he had been told in theatre school. All of them are pretty good advice.