99 failures
March 27th, 2008 • production process
A problem with learning from successful theatre companies - examining both their artistic methodologies and business models - is that we can run the risk of making very narrow assumptions about how careers and livelihoods can be made from theatre. Or so says Dan Granata and me, running around the track a few blocks from his house last night.
To put it another way (and to embrace the power of negative thinking) for every one company that succeeds beyond the first 18 months of energy, personal financial investment and supportive friends, there are ninety-nine that don’t.
In doggedly pursuing the model that made that singular company successful (or appeared to make a particular generation of companies successful) we make various assumptions: that the eventual success wasn’t due to sheer weight of numbers, or a fluke of that particular social/economic moment, and consequently that the success is reproducible, given a similar amount of raw talent and dedication.
And we make those assumptions by ignoring the proportionally greater number of case studies which might contradict those lessons - and which might, in turn, suggest different models for theatre activity (or even just remind us of models that have always existed but never in notable numbers). We also make those assumptions without really considering the strutural consequences of creating a company in a particular way - the impact on casting, production and directing, to give only a few cursory examples.
That kind of selective interpretation based in selective memory is far from being a specifically theatrical problem, but it’s possibly a recurring feature of cities and communities that have a fringe theatre circuit (Chicago, London, Edinburgh during August) that’s re-filled on a yearly basis with people who see forming companies as the route from fringe practice to regional or national success. It’s going to be incredibly interesting to see where Dan’s research goes next.
