The Great Migration
Posted: June 14, 2011 Filed under: Florida Stage Leave a commentLast night we had a potluck farewell party for Andrew Rosendorf, former playwright-in-residence, and Hurley Rosendorf, former puppy-in-residence. Andrew traditionally heads north every summer, but this year, he's not coming back in August (although Hurley will be, here's to hoping). In addition to Andrew, we've said farewell in the last few weeks to our 2010-11 season interns: Emma, Cortney, Sarah Linn, Brandon, and Buck; this week we say goodbye to Alison, our artistic apprentice.
These farewells don't have much to do with the closing of the theater*. Our interns come and go each season, along with visiting actors, designers, directors, and playwrights. There are also regular staff changes, although Florida Stage seemed to have a very loyal team, with many people able to claim decades of service.
Theater is an industry for nomads, whether the artists are working for a touring production or just looking for the next gig. I am not from Florida, nor was I from Chicago or New York (both places where I lived and worked in theater). Michael, our marketing director, has worked for theaters in Maine and California, but hails from neither state. Our former interns and staff members move on to other regional theaters, or to graduate schools around the country.
This migratory tendency is, in my opinion, a huge asset to American theater. It provides a freshness, a wider perspective, on creativity and artistry than what can be sourced from a single location. This country is vast and diverse, and without a strong network of regional theaters, we'll lose the connection to our neighbors, whether they're in the next county or two states over. Instead, we'd end up isolated, wearing creative blinders, recycling ideas and double-dipping into our theatrical canon.
Because saying goodbye makes me sad, I will instead joyfully shout, "Go forth! Make art!" and await the many postcards** that will come from the extended Florida Stage family as they roam the USA.
*I no longer have to write "theatre." Small comfort!
**Yes, folks, I'm serious about the postcards. Contact me and I'll give you my address. Any postcards I get, I'll scan and post on the blog.
5 Days Out
Posted: June 11, 2011 Filed under: Florida Stage Leave a commentIt's been five days now (depending on when you started counting) that we've been closed. The week has brought sadness, confusion, anger (especially on the part of some of our subscribers), frustration and loss. We're still figuring out how to close things down and, especially, figuring out what happens next.
Happily, some of our staff members have already found employment!
Others of us drink gin in the afternoons and go for long walks.
We mourn for ourselves, especially now that personal financial realities have set in, and we mourn for the larger theater community. Florida Stage produced new plays, and gave chances to young and untested playwrights, whether through education programs or through our new works festival. For a fledgling playwright, getting produced can be one of the hardest things in the world, and I wonder now where those people will turn.
In more positive news, we have this latest update:
We regret that Florida Stage is not able to refund money for tickets to shows that will not take place. However, the Palm Beach County cultural community is rallying in support of Florida Stage 2011-12 subscribers and Ella ticket-holders by developing a program that will honor your tickets at their theaters and cultural venues. Details of this program are in the works and ticket-holders will be contacted soon to learn more about it.
As we get more information about the whole process, we'll do our best to share whatever we can.
Closing FAQs (updated)
Posted: June 7, 2011 Filed under: Florida Stage 2 CommentsFrequently Asked Questions
Why has Florida Stage closed?
It started with the recession of 2008. The number of long-time subscribers began to dwindle. Annual rent for the company's home of 19 years in Manalapan had gone from $100,000 to $330,000, more than Florida Stage could sustain. The opportunity to move to the Kravis Center presented itself. It seemed like the perfect solution: a new home in a beautiful cultural center in the center of the community, reduced rent, the potential for growth working hand-in-hand with the wonderful Kravis Center staff. But, our core audience continued to diminish. Florida Stage subscribers went from 6,000 to 4,800 in our first season in the Rinker Playhouse. That number further declined, with only 2,000 renewing for next season. In spite of the generous support of a small group of loyal and passionate donors, and constant intensive efforts to raise additional contributions, funds to continue operating have simply run out.
Is Florida Stage filing bankruptcy?
Yes. Without the funds to continue, Florida Stage is filing Chapter 7 under the bankruptcy code, and has ceased operations with the close of its production on June 5, 2011. The summer production of ELLA, which was the highest selling musical when Florida Stage first produced it in 2006, had sold very few tickets and had to be cancelled. Without any box office revenue, and with the drastic downturn in subscriptions for the 2011-12 Season, there was no other option but to close.
It was only after exhausting every other possible option that the Florida Stage Board of Trustees voted to file for bankruptcy. The final decision was made on Saturday, June 4, the day before our closing performance of The Cha-Cha of a Camel Spider, and the staff was informed in a special meeting on Monday, June 6, at 10am.
How do I get a refund?
We regret that Florida Stage is not able to refund money for tickets to shows that will not take place. If you feel you have a claim to lodge as a part of the Chapter 7 proceedings, please contact Robert Furr of the Law Offices of Furr and Cohen at rfurr@furrcohen.com.
What happens to the Florida Stage staff?
There are no better theatre professionals in the country than those that comprise the Florida Stage staff. Their artistry and professionalism is second to none. Their character and loyalty is the very personality of Florida Stage for 24 years of theatre excellence. Our greatest loss will be the team that has given Palm Beach County and the nation some of the most remarkable new plays, which have gone on to thrill audiences at theatres throughout the country. Unfortunately, with the close of the theatre, all Florida Stage staff have lost their employment.
With the closing of Florida Stage, why should I support other arts organizations?
The arts, more than any other community endeavor, best expresses the personality, the heart, and the soul of a community. With the loss of Florida Stage, a small, but rich and unique piece of Palm Beach County is gone. It is up to each of us, personally, to support all of the arts in our community to nurture and protect that which is the best in us. If for no other reason, do it selfishly. Art will fill your heart. Art will help you discover your soul. Art will best define our human spirit. It will bring us together as a community. It will give meaning to our lives.
"I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If it is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. Above all, we are coming to understand that the arts incarnate the creativity of a free people. I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit." — John F. Kennedy
Florida Stage Files for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Protection
Posted: June 6, 2011 Filed under: 2010-2011 Season, About Florida Stage 12 CommentsFlorida Stage
For Immediate Release
Monday, June 6, 2011
Florida Stage files for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Protection
The theatre company ceases operations with the close of The Cha-Cha of a Camel Spider on June 5, 2011
Florida Stage, one of America’s premiere professional theatre companies dedicated exclusively to the development and production of new American plays, today announced the decision of its Board of Trustees to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court. This decision was based upon several critical financial challenges currently facing the organization, specifically a marked downturn in subscription sales for its 2011-12 Season, negligible ticket sales for the summer production of ELLA, and a lack of response to the company’s intensive fundraising efforts, which has resulted in an accumulated debt of $1.5 Million and an exhaustion of funds to continue operations.
“We have made the difficult, but necessary, decision to cease Florida Stage operations,” said Michael Schultz, Co-Chairman of the Florida Stage Board of Trustees. “Faced with such financial challenges, declining ticket revenues, and insufficient donations, we had no choice but to close the theatre company.”
Problems began with the current economic recession, starting in the fall of 2008. The company experienced a decline in ticket revenue and donations, which was further exacerbated by many of their contributors who were victims of the Bernard Madoff scandal. Florida Stage immediately began a budget cutting process, which resulted in furloughs, layoffs, and a reduction of their overall budget from $4.1 Million to under $3 Million. These proactive and important steps were simply not enough to solve all of the issues they faced. In spite of what the industry publication, Backstage, called "…the most anticipated shows of the regional season", their revenue stream continued to diminish.
With their highly anticipated move to the Kravis Center, it seemed clear that they had found a perfect solution to their situation. In tough economic times, reduce redundancies, maximize efficiencies, and expand collaborations. “We felt that our relocation to the Kravis Center was a model of how to respond to the ‘new normal’ of the economic downturn,” said producing director Louis Tyrrell, who founded the company in 1984 as The Learning Stage, which brought theatre and arts-education to hundreds of thousands of children over the years in the Palm Beach County School District. “By moving to the Rinker Playhouse, our rent and utilities were reduced by $200,000. The wonderful Kravis Center facility and staff welcomed us warmly, and took over security, front-of-house and usher operations, and provided additional box office services, among many other collaborative efficiencies. And moving to the center of the Palm Beach County community, we were sure that an expanded audience would welcome us to our new home, especially with the cross-pollination potential of both the Florida Stage and Kravis Center audiences.” But, instead of audience growth, the company experienced a continuing reduction in ticket sales. The Florida Stage subscriber base has diminished from more than 7,000 at its height to less than 2,000 for the 2011-12 Season.
But, in these many years and nearly 150 plays produced, Florida Stage was beloved by many, and developed a national reputation for its bold mission of producing exclusively new work that was always provocative and innovative, challenging theatrical boundaries. Despite their current plight, there are deep emotions and an abiding commitment to this theatre company. “Florida Stage is a milestone in my growth as a playwright,” said playwright William Mastrosimone. “Its focus on new and emerging work allows for established playwrights like myself to launch new work, but more importantly, young playwrights have a home to grow their talent so that the art may live for another generation.” And Helen Merrill Award-winner, Deborah Zoe Laufer, whose first professional production debuted at Florida stage, said, “Nobody has had more to do with the fact that I’m a playwright than Florida Stage.”
From its start in the Palm Beach County Schools, students were given their first theatre experiences, which helped them discover their inner selves, and through their own writing and performance opportunities, they built their confidence and communication skills. In 1987, in residence at the Duncan Theatre at Palm Beach State College (as Theatre Club of the Palm Beaches), Florida Stage grew quickly, from 400 to more than 4,000 subscribers in its first four years. Outgrowing the small college lecture hall, they moved to the Plaza Del Mar in Manalapan in 1991 where, with the generous support of Lois Pope, the company continued to expand.
Throughout this time, the generosity of their Board of Trustees, individual patrons, foundations, corporations, the Palm Beach County Cultural Council and Tourist Development Council, the Betty Bell Educational Trust, the State of Florida, the National Endowment for the Arts, and most recently, with the Florida Stage relocation, the Board and staff of the Kravis Center, and the Mayor and staff of the City of West Palm Beach, all contributed to the support of the Florida Stage mission and the excellence of its acclaimed productions, until the economic downturn and the loss of its core audience began to take its toll.
The history and impact of Florida Stage will live on as a legacy to Palm Beach County culture. The world-class artists who have graced its stage with their remarkable talents – from playwrights to actors, directors, designers, and the team of theatre professionals who are the true unsung heroes of the theatre – they will move on to create memorable theatre art wherever they go. And perhaps a new audience can be found and developed for the kind of thought-provoking new work for which Florida Stage has become renowned. Time will tell.
"Most of all," said Tyrrell, "we appreciate the audience that has been there for us throughout these last 24 years. They are the reason Florida Stage was able to exist. They, our cherished patrons, are the reason we were able to birth so many new plays that have gone on to thrill and astonish audiences around the country. For this, we are eternally grateful. For having to draw our curtain, we are heartbroken."
Script Notes: Carter Lewis talks about CHA-CHA
Posted: May 23, 2011 Filed under: 2010-2011 Season, About Florida Stage, Playwrights, Videos | Tags: Carter W. Lewis, Florida Stage, playwright, playwriting, The Cha-Cha of a Camel Spider, theater, theatre, video Leave a commentIs the black water rising again?
Posted: May 16, 2011 Filed under: Artistic Apprentice 1 CommentA little over a week ago, we opened Carter Lewis's The Cha-Cha of a Camel Spider and this play only has more relevancy today then ever. Erik Prince's company Xe Services (formally Blackwater Worldwide) has headed overseas to work with U.A.E. on creating military forces. If you have already gone to see The Cha-Cha of a Camel Spider or if you just bought your tickets, this New York Times article, posted online two days ago, will only make you more passionate about the show. Check it out here:
Secret Desert Force Set Up by Blackwater’s Founder
Also to learn more about Xe Services check out: FurtherMore: Privatized Military
~Alison Maloof, Artistic Apprentice
Gen Z Global Stage Recap
Posted: May 12, 2011 Filed under: 2010-2011 Season, About Florida Stage, Gen Z Global Stage, Young Voices | Tags: arts education, Children of Conflict, Dreyfoos School of the Arts, educational theater, Florida Stage, Gen Z Global Stage, Robert Goodrich 2 Comments
For this second year of Gen Z Global Stage, I was again honored to have worked with an amazingly talented group of young artists from across the globe. As recent world events demonstrate, young people are at the heart of social change. And few things have more dramatically changed the world, and our view of ourselves in it, than artistic expression.
In locations such as Florida, Chile, Singapore and The Philippines, participants spent 5 months getting to know each other through the Gen Z Global Stage Facebook Group; sharing their hopes and dreams, and collaborating on artistic pieces — some of which were presented this past Monday evening before a live audience here at Florida Stage.
The purpose of Gen Z Global Stage is not only to supply a venue for young artists to express themselves, but to also allow us — the audience — a glimpse into how they view the world. As many of us involved in the project were reminded, the challenges and joys of being a young person are remarkably universal.
This is a valuable lesson for these young people to learn as they venture out to make their way as citizens of the world. After working with them these past several months, I can't help but feel the world is in capable and creative hands.
— Robert Goodrich, Media Arts Specialist
Gen Z Takes the Stage
Posted: May 9, 2011 Filed under: 2010-2011 Season, About Florida Stage, Gen Z Global Stage, Press Releases, Young Voices | Tags: arts education, Children of Conflict, Dreyfoos School of the Arts, educational theater, Gen Z, Global Stage, Palm Beach County students, Robert Goodrich, Young Voices Leave a comment
West Palm Beach, FL – Florida Stage’s groundbreaking international educational collaborative, Children of Conflict, has been transformed into a broader artistic initiative called Gen-Z Global Stage. The theatre, along with the Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach and theatre directors and students in Singapore, the Philippines and Chile, has created a completely unique global educational opportunity. Gen-Z Global Stage is an effort to cultivate a web dialogue among young artists across the globe, and to facilitate artistic collaboration using digital technology. The web-based exchange will culminate in a multi-media theatrical piece on Monday May 9, 2011. The result will be the creation of a collaborative presentation that will represent all of these amazing young voices and in the process leave all the participants with a deeper vision of themselves as a part of the broader global landscape. This year’s project takes another step in that process with a fresh group of students. The final project presentation will be free and open to the public and will be held on Monday May 9 at 7:00 PM. on the stage at Florida Stage, The Rinker Playhouse at The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.
Children of Conflict was the brain-child of Susan Hyatt, former Director of Education for Florida Stage and focused primarily on connections with war-torn countries. The new Gen-Z Global Stage under the guidance of professional filmmaker and playwright Robert Goodrich seeks to focus more on helping students to discover their common connections through artistic expression. With a dialogue that functions via the internet, young people from all of the participating countries share their thoughts, ideas, fears, hopes and triumphs. The project has at its heart the desire to teach young people that even though they are separated by thousands of miles, and in very different cultures, they have more in common than they would have previously realized.
Robert Goodrich is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He has worked in both theatre and film for the past 20 years. The Cherry Lane Theatre in New York granted his play Occam’s Razor a staged reading in 2001. His feature film ICON won the Directors Prize at the Video Tusculum Festival. He was awarded Best Director for his short film Spaceship at The Palm Beach International Film Festival, Voices of Local Film. Among his produced plays are Room 101, Other Fish and Signal 20. He is currently the Media Arts Specialist at Florida Stage.
This year, students communicated in a closed Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_155635677803165.
The public can follow last year's discussion and interaction among the students through Google Groups by following this link http://groups.google.com/group/gen-z-global-stage
For twenty-four years Florida Stage has had at its core the precepts of community involvement and educational outreach as a key component of its mission. Now, as the nation’s largest professional theatre producing exclusively new and developing American plays, Florida Stage finds itself in the unique position of being able to facilitate this exciting new program.
OUR MISSION – Florida Stage develops and produces new plays in a passionate, intimate and caring environment, adhering to a standard of uncompromising excellence. We provide a safe harbor for theatre artists and audiences to share in stories of our humanity, a place where the sheer joy of creation and the Florida Stage Experience is paramount. We choose to provoke dialogue in our community and inspire people of different ages and ethnic and social backgrounds through our productions and our innovative educational programs.
Funding for this project was generously provided by the Community Foundation for Martin and Palm Beach
Counties and the Heckscher Foundation for Children.
Interview opportunities are available with all of the participants of Gen-Z Global Stage. Contact Michael Gepner, Director of Marketing for further information.
-30-
Tech, Previews and Opening of The Cha-Cha of a Camel Spider
Posted: May 6, 2011 Filed under: 2010-2011 Season, About Florida Stage, Artistic Apprentice | Tags: backstage, Carter W. Lewis, dramaturgy, Florida Stage, opening night, theater, theatre Leave a commentWhen you go to see a play, you know that there is a rehearsal process, but what happens during "tech"? And what is the point of a preview?
"Tech" is short for technical rehearsal. This is often the first time the actors have the chance to rehearse on the set. This is a time for them–with the help of th director and crew–to work out any kinks they may have with set pieces and props (although, many times before this rehearsal, pieces of the set are available during the regular rehearsal period). However, this isn't all that makes "tech" tech. Tech rehearsals are more geared towards set, lighting, sound, and stage management. Cues are built for each of these areas and it is the stage manager's job to call each cue during the show. During these rehearsals, the stage manager is learning the cues, along with adjustments being made by the designers. The actors do a lot of standing around while the technical crew goes to work.
Next, we have dress rehearsals. These rehearsals are for us to run the entire show, like a performance, to see what needs to be fixed or adjusted technically and sometimes with the actors performance as well. Since we have dress rehearsals, you may thinking, "then why do you also have previews?"
Previews give the cast and crew time to get comfortable with all the new adjustments to the lighting, the set, etc. The audience plays a very important role during previews. The audiences give us feedback, but indirectly. The director, playwright and dramaturg (me) sit in the audience and watch not only the performance, but also how the audience is reacting. This allows us to see if there need to be changes made before we officially open the show. For example, a funny moment may not be coming across quite right to the audience and we may not get laughs from the preview. So this information will allow us to make moments happen faster or slower, which helps make these bits become clearer to the audience.
Once we get through all of the tech, dress rehearsals, and previews we are ready stop all changes to the production and the show is completely ready for opening night and for the rest of the run.
Tonight is opening night of The Cha-Cha of a Camel Spider by Carter W. Lewis and I hope to see you all there!
~Alison Maloof, Artistic Apprentice
COMING SOON
Posted: April 27, 2011 Filed under: Florida Stage Leave a comment
May 4–June 5
The Cha-Cha of a Camel Spider
by Carter W. Lewis
BUY TICKETS
May 9
Florida Stage Education:
Gen Z Global Stage
May 17
Florida Stage Education: Young Playwrights Mentor Lab
June 16–August 28
Ella featuring Tina Fabrique
BUY TICKETS
TWITTER | FACEBOOK | YOUTUBE | BLOG
Florida Stage is the only professional theater in the Southeast producing exclusively new and developing plays by established and emerging American playwrights. Florida Stage is in residence at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach.
Archive: Florida Stage 
