Oh, look. Another theater fest.
Scheduled over the next three months in Chicago are at least seven different theater festivals, from the PAC/edge Performance Festival to Porchlight Theatre’s Finn Festival to Prop Thtr’s New Plays 2005. This pace has become the norm in recent years.
What began as a well-intentioned effort by the theater community to generate an aura of excitement has exploded into an annual blur of events–fest fatigue. Which demands the obvious questions: How many theater festivals can one town support? And what exactly is a festival?
“No one owns the word ‘festival,’ and calling something a festival is a way a lot of non-profits with small budgets can attract some attention,” says Alan S. Brown, a Connecticut-based marketing researcher and consultant for non-profit arts organizations. “But there is a risk of deadening the public to the vibrancy that a true festival can offer.”
While the locally produced and often indistinguishable new play festivals–usually staged as low-key readings–might appeal to diehard theater fans and FOAs (friends of the artists), a series of readings often does not fulfill the experiential promise dangled by the word “festival.”
So then it becomes an issue of truth in advertising.
“There is a tendency to superlative the superlative–that’s a Chicago thing,” says Prop Thtr producing director Stefan Brun. The company’s annual new play festival, now in its eighth year, will take place at the Chicago Cultural Center in June and July. “We’ve talked about whether this really needs to be called a festival, and it’s something I’m willing to debate. But I agree, there is a concern with diluting the waters.”
Producers acknowledge the problem, but defend their use of the term.
“You always want to make the events sound as exciting as possible,” says Circle Theatre co-artistic director Kevin Bellie, whose New Play Festival 2005 continues through April 3. “For the members of the theater company, it really is exciting. We’re presenting four or five short plays at a time and the lineup changes every night, so calling this a festival seemed a perfect fit to us.”
Philip Kotler, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University and co-author of “Standing Room Only: Strategies for Marking the Performing Arts,” agrees. “What other word could you use? You can’t call it a conference. You can’t call it a convention. We have to be accepting of their choice to use the word because that’s really all there is.”
Kotler is also a proponent of ritualism–“a city needs to be rich in annualized calendar events that become part of the basic fabric of a place”–but he thinks theater companies that operate on the margins of a community deserve a little slack. “They’re trying to achieve visibility, which is very hard to do.”
And while some theater festivals have been around for nearly two decades–Curious Theatre Branch’s annual Rhinoceros Fest, which is also devoted to new work, is a prime example–most have popped up only in the last 10 years or so.
While there were maybe 40 different theater companies competing for attention in the ’80s, that number has jumped closer to 200 in recent times. “So in a way,” Brun says, “fests have become a way to say to other theaters in Chicago: Hey, come see what we’re doing–let’s look at each other’s work and rub shoulders and maybe collaborate down the line. I think that’s one of the code translations of the word festival.”
So what makes a fest a fest? According to Brown’s research, audiences expect a density of activity, a multiplicity and synergy of related activities, and a sense of informality and fun–in short, something festive.
Perhaps most important, Brown says, festivals have to become part of the fabric of a community. “Can it obtain symbolic value? A community needs ritualism, and the strength of its rituals has a lot to do with the cultural identity of a community.” (Think Park City, Utah, host of the Sundance Film Festival.)
Of course, there is a basic (and understandable) level of instability within scrappy, non-union, off-Loop theater companies, many of which seem to present their so-called festivals almost at random. And often fests disappear within a year or two due to a lack of funds, manpower or interest. (The Chicago Comedy Festival is a recent example.)
As for new play festivals, Brun concedes that some accomplish a sense of inspired activity better than others. While it is vitally important for playwrights to hear their scripts come to life in a staged reading, “a lot of festivals can suffer from a reputation that they are nothing but self-serving and without any perspective of ever getting beyond the workshop stage.”
And while Brun says there is a significant number of people locally who “like to be in on the behind-the-scenes aspect of play development,” Prop does not break even on the venture.
“This was never designed to be a money-maker,” he says. “It’s really about audience development.”
Few, if any, festivals turn a profit, and even those that do–the Chicago Improv Festival and last year’s new play festival from Stage Left Theatre, LeapFest, which this year runs April 8-24 at the company’s Wrigleyville venue–only make a few dollars.
The most successful annual fests are those that meet the largest number of expectations, as Brown defined them. The Chicago Improv Festival, the two-week event which begins April 22 at venues around town, is now in its eighth year and has become a mecca for improv troupes, national and international–200 groups applied for a slot this year alone. Density: Check.
The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs will present free events in conjunction with the fest, including CIF Family Day (an afternoon of free interactive performances, improv workshops, and hands on activities), and CIF One World on One Stage (in which host Ken Nordine performs spoken word with his 5-piece jazz band and international improv troupes). Multiplicity and synergy: Check.
CIF also lures big-name comedic performers. Previous lineups boasted “Saturday Night Live” players Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch and Horatio Sanz, Jeff Garlin, Norman Wendt and Fred Willard. The “ambience retains the air of barely controlled chaos,” wrote Tribune arts critic Chris Jones last year. Fun, informal and festive: Check.
Another strong contender is Collaboraction’s fifth annual Sketchbook festival, with its amped-up vibe and electric pacing in which 16 ultra-short plays (all world premieres) are staged in an environment rich in music and visual art. This year’s event takes place June 15-26 at the Chopin Theatre.
Anthony Moseley, the company’s executive and artistic director, calls Sketchbook “a celebration of the doodling mind,” and, like CIF, it attracts both name brands, such as playwright Wendy McLeod (“The House of Yes”), as well as emerging writers.
In between plays (which are no longer than 8 minutes long), the audience is encouraged to get up, change seats, grab a drink, smoke a cigarette, tell a joke–all while a DJ spins music. After each night’s performance, the audience is invited to join the actors, directors and writers at the bar next door.
The PAC/edge Performance Festival should take note. Focusing on avant-garde work, the fest is now in its third year and continues through April 10 at the Athenaeum. Though the offerings can range from bewitching to wonderfully eccentric, what PAC/edge lacks is a sense of sustained energy. On opening night, the atmosphere was surprisingly quiet and staid.
Of the city’s Equity theater companies, only the Goodman has attempted to integrate the festival concept into its season on a regular basis, with last year’s Edward Albee Festival and the annual Latino Theater Festival, which is on hiatus for 2005 but is expected back in ’06.
Though Brown advocates the ritual, Goodman executive director Roche Schulfer says there are inherent challenges to that end. “The biggest trap is if you say you’re going to do it at the same time every year,” Schulfer says. “The logistics are very tough–what work is available and can you get the best work and bring it to Chicago at that specific time you’ve committed to?”
For an organization like the Goodman, festivals seem to work because they “support our artistic goals,” Schulfer says. A festival devoted to a famous playwright such as Albee–who also came to town for a Q&A session open to the public–has the double effect of flattering Albee’s ego (which might lead to future world premieres) and increasing the Goodman’s national profile.
If every festival had such a defined and well-thought-out sense of purpose–for the company and, more importantly, the audience–we’d be getting somewhere.
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Fests on the calendar
The New Play Festival 3
Bare-bones performances of multiple plays in a single evening. Through April 3.
Circle Theatre, 7300 W. Madison St., Forest Park. Tickets: $10-$12; 708-771-0700
PAC/edge Performance Festival
Avant-garde works of theater, dance and art installation. Through April 10.
The Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave. Tickets: $5-$20; 312-902-1500 or 773-722-5463
The William Finn Festival
The musicals of William Finn (“Falsettos”) performed in repertory. Through May 22.
Porchlight Music Theatre at Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. Tickets: $27; 773-327-5252
LeapFest 2
Scaled down performances of new plays, April 8-24.
Stage Left Theatre, 3408 N. Sheffield Ave. Tickets: $5-$12; 773-883-8830
The 8th Annual Chicago Improv Festival
Local, national and international improv performances. At various locations around town, April 22-May 1.
Tickets: $10-$25; 312-902-1500
Estrogen Fest 2005
Poetry, drama, music and dance created by and about women, May 11-June 5.
Storefront Theatre in the Gallery 37 Center for the Arts, 66 E. Randolph St. Tickets: $15; 312-742-8497
Sketchbook 2005
Ultra-short new plays interspersed with techno music and visual art, June 15-26.
Collaboraction at the Chopin Theatre. Tickets: $18-$25; 312-226-9633
New Plays 2005
Staged readings of new plays, in June and July.
Prop Thtr at the Chicago Cultural Center Studio Theater, 77 E. Randolph St. Tickets: Pay what you can; 773-539-7838
The 4th annual Striding Lion InterArts Festival
Workshops, performances and community events, in July.
Striding Lion InterArts Workshop at Holy Covenant United Methodist Church, 925 W. Diversey Pkwy. Tickets: TBA; 773-561-0494.
— Nina Metz
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ctc-friday@tribune.com
