Sessions Called: Monday August 15

Thank you FringeNYC for allowing us to hold space at FringeCENTRAL! Our goal for the evening was to have a great conversation, and that we did.

The following sessions were called at our meeting in August. Feel free to comment and continue the conversation even if you do not see a report posted. (When it's not over, it's not over!) As reports come in we'll link it to the list below:

• "My" Show at FringeNYC! Pass your postcards!
• Artists Take Political Action!
• Workshops for Writing? How do you Start?
• Not Having Bad Indie Theatre Tech!
• How to Talk to Designers
• How do you publicize or bring awareness about an indie theatre production?
• How do you generate sustainable funding to keep an Indie Theatre open?
• Indie Theater in Italy? Any leads?
• Dealing with day jobs, how do you balance?

If you have a report to supply for one of these sessions, please forward that to us at devotedanddisgruntlednyc@gmail.com .

How to talk to a Designer

Convener: Jennifer

Participants: Porsche, Kevin, Jennifer, AL

Discussion & Recommendations:

We discussed how most festivals do not have the time to sit down and have a true 'cueing session'. The designer knows this - and is prepared to adjust as needed - well, most of them but that's a different discussion.

We shared stories of the director needing to understand that they are in a festival and they don't need to try and put a special light on everything. The director needs to TRUST that the designer knows what s/he is doing and be flexible to the fact that they are working with a rep plot. They also need to understand that they are in a festival and they need to make this about the acting and story telling. Doing any showcase shouldn't be about the lighting.

We also discussed that there are times that it is important to have an awesome light cue or put all of your sound cues on Qlab. If you are lucky, and have a PC for ETC off-line, then that's the time to be cool and fancy with the lighting. Same goes for the Mac users with the sound cues. Do this before tech. If you need to tweak, then just do it at home. The designers have time to do this, or they can make time to do this.

Recommendations - Trust your designers.

Trust seemed to be the big word of the discussion - it's Key for things to go smoothly during the tech process in a festival atmosphere.

Postcard Swap!

Convener: Amy Lee

Participants: AL, Jennifer, Maire, plus other folks who we did not catch their name

Discussion & Recommendations:

Postcards that were swapped: The Bad Arm, Poe-Dunk, Goldilocks, Parker & Dizzy

We segued into buzz: Bella & the Pool Boy, Hamlet, Town of No One, Back to the Garden, Brave Ducks, Theater of the Arcade...

And this segued into twitter and advertising one's show. Twitter seems to be a great way to keep in touch with the other shows - a quick 'hello' so to speak.

Day Jobs - Balancing

Convener: Emily

Participants: Emily Kukuk, Becca Bandiere, Amy Lee, Porsche McGovern

Discussion & Recommendations:

- 1 1/2 projects at a time!

- Keep your promises to yourself - savings

- Little things like not being able to pay your rent will make it hard to focus on the things you love.

- Find a flexible job, freelance - be your own boss as much as possible

- build a website - jim.do.com

- personal emails and networking as ways to build resume.

- have to schedule time to work on your career

First Stages of Marketing a New Work?

Participants:

Helen Stern , Angelica Jackson, Jen Thatcher

- Festival (FringeNYC, NYMTF)

- Workshop programs w/different theatre companies

- Backers audition (luring investors in could be challenging)

- TRU Producer / writer speed dating

- Social Networks Meet Up

Works by Women NYC

Join us 8/15 as part of FringeNYC at FringeCentral, 5-8pm - free!

 What Are We Doing About Indie Theater?

Mark your calendars!  FringeNYC has invited us to hold space on August 15 from 5:00-8:00pm at FringeCentral as part of FringeU.  We are so excited and grateful for this opportunity and hope you will join us for this very special group of sessions!  Latecomers welcome!

Issue: WHAT STORIES LEND THEMSELVES TO BEING TOLD WITH PLAY-DOH?

Convener(s): Kevin Hale
Participants: Jennifer Wilcox, AL Pearsall, Judith F. Bradshaw

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

After finishing the matchbox Poe show, I was thinking about turning my attention to creating a show that could be told using play-doh. But I haven’t really thought of a story that lends itself to being told in clay. It could be something that takes advantage of existing play-doh playsets, like using the barber shop to tell Sweeney Todd.

It needs to be something that can be built and smashed, sculpted and reshaped during the show.

Suggestions included:

Ovid’s Metamorphoses

The Old Testament