As long as we’re on the subject of “the Steady State” of theater, how about a look at the state of fiction writing? This article by Chad Harbach, published in n+1 back in 2010 and excerpted on Slate, looked at the difference between MFA culture and NYC culture, and posited that we may be seeing the triumph of the MFA system. Which leads to this:

It was announced recently that Zadie Smith — one of the few writers equipped by fame to do otherwise — has accepted a tenured position at NYU, presumably for the health insurance; perhaps this marks the beginning of the end, a sign that in the future there will be no NYC writers at all, just a handful of writers accomplished enough to teach in NYC.

New York will have become — as it has long been becoming — a place where some writers go for a wanderjahr or two between the completion of their MFAs and the commencement of their teaching careers….The lit-lovers who used to become editors and agents will direct MFA programs instead; the book industry will become as rational — that is, as single-mindedly devoted to profit — as every other capitalist industry. The writers, even more so than now, will write for other writers.

Interesting similarities between this article and the one by 99Seats that I linked to.

One of the best theater bloggers out there, 99Seats, is back! And he raises a provocative question:

What if the new movement in theatre is here, it’s now established and this is it? We’ve landed at Steady State:

Broadway is a place for mass entertainments at a price set for tourists; Off-Broadway and the regionals will continue to cater to an aging, upper-middle class audience with the occasional feint in the direction of diversity; the indie scene will remain largely segregated by class, race, gender and sexuality with occasional cross-pollination; and theatre will, in general, continue to hover in this place, this narrow, wobbly space between being a luxury good for cultural elites and something that connects to a wider audience.

What if that’s what we can expect for the duration?

Lily Janiak, a theater critic for SF Weekly, has a wonderfully transparent blog post about the struggle to cover all the many plays in the Bay Area:

I guess what I’m writing about here is really many different issues: how to pick shows when I find out about them all at different times, especially since earliness of press releases generally corresponds to company size, and also what to do when I want to cover shows beyond what I’m paid to cover.

William Deresiewicz, in the Nation, re-reads and re-evaluates Vonnegut’s novels:

“The cruelest thing you can do to Kerouac,” Hanif Kureishi has a character say in The Buddha of Suburbia, “is reread him at thirty-eight.” If that was true, I wondered as I opened the first two volumes of the Library of America’s ongoing series of the complete novels, then what of Vonnegut at a decade older still?

Carey Perloff, the Artistic Director of A.C.T., recently posted on Huffington Post suggesting that training programs emphasize new works at the expense of classical work:

We have all but abandoned an interest in classical theater or in older literary forms in our desire to push young writers in and out of MFA programs where they successfully learn to write acceptable contemporary plays that might appeal to the watchful eyes of television executives and artistic directors hungry for “relevant” and sellable plays.

Melissa Hillman, the Artistic Director of Impact Theatre, responded with a post on Theatre Bay Area’s Chatterbox:

It’s concerning that the head of the Bay Area’s flagship LORT house believes that the rising stars and new voices of American playwriting have had no exposure to the classics, and that their work is poorer for it. What does she think is missing from the writing of the rising stars of the American stage? Does she really believe that Rajiv Joseph, Sarah Ruhl, and Katori Hall lack “range and longevity”?

And it looks like other A.D.’s theater makers have been asked to respond. So click and follow along.

Update: Ben Fisher has chimed in here:

There are young, sophisticated, intelligent people out there that would pack the house for “The Tooth of Crime” or a rock-opera version of “The Aeneid” (I call dibs, by the way). I think they’re not as interested in “Private Lives,” even though that’s a great play too. If we continue to stress plays — classic and modern — where people sit around a living room and talk about relationships, they are going to stay away. It’s not about old and new, it’s about inclusive and non-inclusive. To truly speak with the power of the past, we have to listen more carefully to the present.

When I write about an upcoming event, I try to keep it focused on things that somehow involve me, in order to maintain the proper amount of narcissism for this thing to legally be called a blog. (Otherwise it’s just a website.)

But today I want to highlight a thing that, yes, I will be attending — but that will not feature me in any way. It’s the latest edition of the Portuguese Artists Colony‘s show, and it’s got some great guests:

Local singer-songwriter David Berkeley wrote most of the songs from his latest album Some Kind of Cure while living in a 40-person village in the mountains of Corsica. He also penned a memoir called 140 Goats and a Guitar, which tells the stories that inspired those songs.

Jane Ganahl has been a journalist, author, editor and arts producer in San Francisco for 30 years. She is the co-founder and co-director of Litquake, the West Coast’s largest independent literary festival. She is also the author of the memoir Naked on the Page: the Misadventures of My Unmarried Midlife.

Plus, a new play by Daniel Heath! Follow-ups from live writing winners Linette Escobar and Kevin Hunsanger! Music from Miss Erma Band! Live writing by Julie Greicius, Douglas Henderson, Ira Marlowe and Ethel Rohan! And it’s all hosted by Cary Tennis!

Now you could technically say it involves me, because I am one of the newest colonists. But for the last two shows, I either hosted or read. This one I will maybe, maybe, take your money at the door and steer you to the bar. Speaking of the bar, yes, there’s a bar, because the show is here:

Hotel Rex
562 Sutter Street
In the Salon, just behind the Library Bar
San Francisco
Sunday, May 27
Show at 5:00 pm
Sliding scale $5-10

Paul Mullin:

Nobody in the last fifty years has gone to live theatre to kill time like they would slip into a cineplex. Nobody has sat and blankly watched theatre like they would TV because they don’t have anything better to do. There is always something better to do. People go to the theatre because they hope — more often than not against their better judgment — that what they will experience there will change them, open them up, break down some poisoned part of them, help them live with some unbearable pain, give them more hope. People who go to the theatre are frequently disappointed.

An interview on HowlRound with the A.D. of Z Space.

We have 10 new plays by 10 fantastic local playwrights. For Pint Sized III I plan to include everything our audiences love about the festival: entertaining theatre, great acting and direction, live music, beer drinking, and of course, our resident llama!

The festival runs July 16,17, 23, 30 & 31, 8pm @ Café Royale, (800 Post St @ Leavenworth in San Francisco) with a special touring performance, July 18, at Plough and the Stars, (188 Clement St. @ 2nd Ave in the Richmond District), SF.

Not quite sure what Sabotage Times is, but the pull quote is certainly intriguing:

I have come to the conclusion after a lifetime of acting and writing for the theatre, that the theatrical experience largely sucks and there is absolutely no redemption for it. The pay off is categorically not worth the discomfort endured.