This Man Will Pay You to Watch Theater

The Theater Adventure Rewards Program is coming this Thursday to the Schmee!

Our John Longenbaugh reports: “Pay as you can” evenings have been a tradition at just about every theater in town for over a decade, beloved of students, theater artists, and miscellaneous cheapskates who balk at regular ticket prices. Surprisingly enough, many theater managers find that pay-as-you-cans often result in a box office not far below the takings on their regular nights. When I was running Theater Babylon, we averaged a bit over eight bucks a head on these evenings, and since our student/senior rate was ten bucks, we figured that for a decent house and the good will of our patrons, it was worth it.

Now plucky fringe company Theater Schmeater has gone one step further: they’re paying their audience to see their show. That’s right: this Thursday, people who come to see the preview of the poetic drama The American Pilot (which opens on Friday) will not only get their ticket for free, but a dollar coin as well. “We started it with Kvetch,” says Schmee’s artistic director David Gassner (above), referring to their first show of the year. “Thursday preview attendance last year was pretty sad (four-five people average), and we figured it makes sense to pack the house, both for the actors to get used to a real audience and for marketing.” So far, Gassner claims that the outlay in cost has been made up at the donation box and at the bar.

While I applaud Gassner’s talent for publicity, I’ll admit I’m also appalled. Really, are theater artists this desperate? (With houses that small, apparently the answer is “yes.”) Or are audiences this broke? Maybe this an early sign of a return to the Depression-era giveaways—raffles for dishes and appliances—that lured audiences into movie theaters in the ‘30s. For those of us who’ll be attending the show on Thursday, there’s only one solution: toss our dollar coin into the donation box, then order a pair of doubles at the bar, and drown our misgivings about the sad state of Seattle audiences.

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Shifts and Jumps at PNB

photo by Angela Sterling

Our Sandra Kurtz reports:

Spring is contract time at PNB, and now that everyone has signed on the dotted line the company has announced more changes for next year.

The lead item is that Noelani Pantastico (above) won't be back — she's accepted a position with the Ballet de Monte Carlo. That's the group that premiered the Romeo and Juliet that PNB recently performed, with Pantastico dancing Juliet for all nine shows — she made an indelible impression in the role, and the Monte Carlo director must have been as impressed as the rest of us. She's still around through the rest of this season, though — she's dancing in Midsummer Night's Dream this week and will likely appear in the Robbins program in June (she does a wonderful Girl with a Purse in Fancy Free), so we can store up some memories before she's off.

As well as losing Pantastico, there are several dancers who are leaving the corps de ballet. The cliche is that corps dancers are literally the 'body' of the company, but cliches are generally true. These are men and women who know almost all the steps for almost all the works. In the classical repertory their biggest impact is as part of a group, the ensemble creating a series of architectural images, but like the tradition seen in 42nd Street (you're going to go out there a nobody and come back a star) they can shine on their own. Brittany Reid, who was already around backstage in her corps costume for the Midsummer opening night last week, was called on to substitute for Ariana Lallone, who had just pulled a muscle in the middle of a variation as Hippolyta. Reid managed to switch out her costumes in time to appear graciously as the Queen of the Amazons in the last section of the first act, making the audience think "wait, wasn't that someone else a few minutes ago?" Reid will be switching permanently at the end of the season, along with colleagues Kara Zimmerman and Rebecca Johnston.

Zimmerman is heading for the Cincinnati Ballet and a soloist's contract, but Johnston is changing professions and I am sad. I confess that I first started noticing her because of her red hair — in a sea of blonds and brunettes she was always easy to pick out of a crowd. But over the ten years she's spent here I've become very fond of her dancing. She has a rounded outline in space, a long series of 's' shapes curving from her toe up her legs and torso and around the back of her head. She has a lovely settled look standing still, but projects a real sweetness in movement. I always watch her interaction with her partners, especially in those long, square dance-like sequences where everyone swings from person to person down a long line.

Artistic Director Peter Boal has been bringing in new performers regularly since his arrival, many of them colleagues and students from his time at New York City Ballet, and all of them have been interesting to watch, but I am still going to miss this batch of 'graduates.'

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Longenbaugh Reports From Last Night's Arts Meeting

(image of Kwatinetz by Laura Schmitt)

A dispatch from John Longenbaugh:
Wednesday’s meeting at City Hall to discuss the crisis of arts groups leaving Capitol Hill was even more crowded than the meeting a few months back at the Capitol Hill Arts Center—all of the hundred or so seats were taken, leaving the event SRO. Co-organizer Matthew Kwatinetz, artistic director of the CHAC, posed a single question, then featured a dozen or so “inspirational speakers” who addressed it: Under what conditions would you support a Cultural Overlay District on Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood?

While the dilemma is clear—arts groups and venues are leaving the Hill in droves—just what exactly a Cultural Overlay District is, and how one will solve the problem, is still a bit foggy. Never mind. It was significant to have not just artists and administrators in the room, but developers and no less than five City Council members in attendance as well. Councilman Nick Licata, Sponsor of the meeting, was clearly thrilled to have such a large turnout, and pointed out that with Godden, Harrell, Rasmussen, and Clark also in attendance, there was actually a quorum for a committee meeting.

The two speakers who proved most popular with the crowd were 4 Culture Director Jim Kelly and Hallie Kuperman, the director of the Century Ballroom at the Oddfellows Hall. Kelly, a longtime advocate of affordable venues for artists, related a heartening anecdote from his time in New York, when 20 years ago dance and theater companies were being priced out of Manhattan. Public pressure pushed Mayor Koch to act, and the result was a series of deals with developers who were encouraged to donate and otherwise make available performance and rehearsal space to companies. “This is a problem we can solve if we have the will, the strength, and the desire to do it.”

Kuperman’s emotional recounting of the 15-year history of the Ballroom, which features dancing to salsa, ballroom, and swing music, included the melancholy observation that practically every other tenant in the Oddfellows Building (sold to developer Ted Schroth at the beginning of the year) has left due to increased rental rates. Her own rent has doubled, but she’s gone ahead and signed a seven-year lease, hoping that future changes on the Hill won’t bring another cluster of condos nearby with residents complaining about the “noise.”

It’s invigorating to see such widespread recognition of this problem, even if answers still seem vague. And now’s the time to act, no doubt; a lull in the housing market has quieted the development frenzy that seemed ready to stack condos on every square inch of the Hill. But I can’t help thinking that there’s still too much talk about incentives instead of restrictions, carrots instead of sticks. The simple fact is that art groups can’t reasonably compete in rentals or purchases in the current market. If they’re going to stay on the Hill, it’ll have to be with the same preservation-minded legislation that protects any other endangered species. That means saying “no” to developers as well as “yes” to artists.

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Actor Heath Ledger Found Dead

Australian-born actor Heath Ledger, 28, was found dead today at a home in Manhattan. According to the Associated Press, police said drugs may have played a role.

Most recently playing one of the many versions of Bob Dylan in "I'm Not There," Ledger was to appear as the Joker in "The Dark Night," sequel to "Batman Begins." He earned an Oscar nomination for his role in "Brokeback Mountain."

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"Shrek the Musical" Starts in Seattle

Shrek the Musical opens Aug. 14 at the 5th Avenue Theatre.

As reported this morning by The Seattle Times, the green one comes to the 5th Avenue Theatre, the first stop for Hairspray, The Wedding Singer, and Lone Star Love. I'm guessing the Mike Myers franchise will fare better than Randy Quaid's Brokeback follow-up.

Honestly, if they're going to make a musical out of a Mike Myers flick, why not Wayne's World? I can't imagine it would be tough to scare up Dana Carvey to reprise his role as Garth, either.

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Arts and Ends

It's probably no surprise that after Sherman Alexie picked up his first National Book Award in November for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, more plaudits would follow. The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association announced last Friday that it was also granting Alexie a plaque. Seattle's Matt Ruff will also be on the podium for Bad Monkeys. Also to receive hardware at the March PNBA dinner in Portland are Jim Harrison (of Montana) for Returning To Earth, Denis Johnson (Idaho) for Tree of Smoke, Lauren Kessler (Oregon) for Dancing With Rose: Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer's, and Aryn Kyle (Montana) for The God of Animals.

Book-It Repertory Theatre is also a winner. This week it announced a $50,000 grant from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation for its Page to Stage Residency program, which conducts readings in low-income schools and helps promote literacy.

All of which may help Seattle reclaim its crown from Minneapolis as America's most literate city. Unless more of our indie bookstores follow M.Coy to the grave this year.

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