It's About You, Too
Posted on | March 11, 2009 | 2 Comments
By now, you’ve all heard about About Face’s money troubles and their campaign for $300,000 to keep its doors open – either from the media or from emails from the company. I get these direct appeals fairly frequently these days, and I’m used to politely explaining to the Annual Fund staffers at Steppenwolf or the Goodman that I am, in fact, an actor, and that despite my occasional ability to pay for a mezzanine seat in the Albert, I’m probably not a good target for a fundraising pitch.
Lord knows this hasn’t changed – it’s actually gotten worse, given my impending (and yes, entirely self-inflicted) joblessness. But this morning I got another of those email solicitations, and I went ahead and kicked them $30, even though it tightens my already tight budget, and I’ll tell you why.
It’s not simply because they have launched an incredibly smart campaign of pesonal endorsements, though as a proponent of tech-savvy theatre marketing, I want to reward that sort of effort.
Nor is it because they’ve been upfront about their situation without being hysterical – and have taken smart steps like drastically reducing expenses before making public appeals, though that speaks to me as a lover of good management.
It’s not just because About Face does good work, and still takes risks even as they’ve become a venerable institution.
It’s not simply because in a sea of companies founded on little more than hubris, ego, and a vague concept of “challenging audiences,” About Face has an honest-to-gosh mission that permeates everything they do and (though this point is a little sad) they are about the only ones serving their constituency. Though certainly, as a kid who owes every ounce of what’s good in his life to transformations brought about by having a theatre to play in, I can only imagine the lifeline About Face’s Youth Theatre is for LGBTQA kids who face growing up in a social climate that leaves my teenaged melodramas in the dust.
Those are great reasons, sure – but I’ll give you another one. Perhaps it’s not as powerful or or as direct a point, but I think it has special resonance for those of us who love Chicago theatre, love working in Chicago theatre, and want to see this city really take ownership of its theatre scene and shed that damnable “Second City” moniker once and for all.
Moments before I read this morning’s appeal email, I read this in Richard Christiansen’s book A Theater of Our Own. Having just detailed the 16-year rise and fall of the storied Remains Theatre, he says:
“Surveying the deaths and catastrophies that had come upon the off-Loop community, John Walker, managing director of Victory Gardens, said, succinctly, ‘The field is littered with bodies.’ And Remains was not the only theater to go under. Once-productive off-Loop groups such as Stormfield, Huron, Econo-Art, Blind Parrot, Interplay, Immediate, Commons, Blue Rider, Practical, Center and Absolute theaters, igLoo the theatrical group, and Pary Productions all faded away, mostly because of financial problems and/or ensemble breakups.
The disappearance of St. Nicholas, Wisdom Bridge, Body Politic, and Remains, all midsize (up to 250 seats) houses that had played key roles in spurring the remarkable growth of activity in the seventies, created a void in the theater community, unfortunately widening the gap between new, small, low-income troupes and older, larger, more prosperous institutions.”
I doubt there’s another Chicago actor who’s looked at the financial side of Chicago theatres more than me, and I can tell you without a doubt that this gap still exists. Successful mid-sized companies are critical for this city to have a a sustainable scene and for any of us – especially us actors – to actually have a job doing theatre here. Think about it: without the About Face’s – or the TimeLine’s or the Northlight’s – who’s going to pay you anything to get up on stage while you’re waiting to play 3rd spearcarrier on the left at Chicago Shakes? And for those of you who run small companies, it’s those mid-sized theatres that actually help create audiences for your work by showing people that theatre exists outside of 500-or-more-seat venues.
So consider kicking in a little for About Face. Think of it this way – you’ve spent countless hours painting sets or cleaning costumes or seeing friends’ shows for $10 or $15 bucks a pop: not only is a contribution to About Face a worthy effort in and of itself, its another way to show your support for all of Chicago theatre – your friends, your colleagues, and yourself.
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2 Responses to “It's About You, Too”
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March 12th, 2009 @ 11:31 am
Well said, Dan. I complain as much as anyone about the whole “artists expected to be social workers” thing that comes with the search for grants. But what About Face does with their Youth Ensemble really isn’t replicable by anyone else in town. I saw their show about homeless gay kids a couple years ago and it was tremendous.
March 19th, 2009 @ 1:44 pm
Very interesting. I’m also an actor in Chicago. Will check it out for sure!