... Round House's Blake Robison, Metro Stage's Carolyn Griffin, Synetic's Paata Tsikurishvili, Longacre Lea's Kathleen Akerley, Stage Guild's John MacDonald, Firebelly's Kathi Gollwitzer, Charter's Keith Bridges, and possibly Shakespeare Theatre Company's Michael Kahn...
... if'n you had an hour and a half of their time, and the topic was The State of D.C. Theater?
Tboy has a list of 9 questions so far, which he figures is more than any moderator really needs -- part of the point, after all, is to see where the conversation goes.
Still, it's entirely possible you have ideas he hasn't considered. So lob 'em this way, if you want. He'll pick the best and post some of the responses next week, for those of you who can't make a 10 a.m. curtain ...
A couple...
What part does political theatre play in our nation's capitol?
How much regional theatre do they see?
Posted by: hpmelon | Sunday, 17 September 2006 at 13:57
I thought you did a nice job with this. It was nice to hear the thoughts of such an ecclectic group of artistic directors...
Posted by: HWhitpan | Monday, 18 September 2006 at 11:02
HP: Don't think we didn't talk about political theater. Jokingly, of course.
HW: Thanks.
Everybody: Tboy found this observation in a WashPost profile of "creative class" guru Richard Florida, written by Tboy's former CP colleague Annys Shin. He invites you all to consider how it might apply to the theater scene:
"The only really culturally innovative thing besides go-go was that whole new-wave punk movement that came out of DC in the '80s," Florida said, adding that it "had a lot to do with a lot of smart kids going to college here and cheap rents to create spaces like the 9:30 Club."
Tboy has no doubt there are a bunch of smart kids making theater straight outta college here. (More than one of yesterday's ADs talked about the breadth of local training programs.) The cheap rents that make cheap performance spaces possible, though...
The entire Florida profile is here.
Posted by: theaterboy | Monday, 18 September 2006 at 12:13