All this week LA Stage will present coverage of Directors Lab West 2010 with reports from DLW Steering Committee Associate Producer Cindy Marie Jenkins, Production Coordinator Rachel Jenkins and DLW intern Doug Oliphant. Each year the Lab chooses a theme around which all their sessions are based and a play around which many group workshops are organized. For 2010 the theme is “Balance” and the play Measure for Measure. Click here to view all DLW 2010 updates.

Cindy Marie Jenkins

NETWORK OF ENSEMBLE THEATERS (NET)

Panel: Katherine Noon from Ghost Road, Teresa Chavez from About Productions, Leilani Chan from TeAda, Sean Cawelti from Rogue Artists Ensemble
Moderator: Mark Valdez
By Cindy Marie Jenkins (DLW ‘08)

“You approach rehearsal with some sort of plan, and then you go in with your fingers crossed.”

-Sean Cawelti from Rogue Artists Ensemble

This was a lively discussion on working with ensemble theaters and the role of a director within ensemble-based work. All four directors also double as Artistic Directors or in leadership positions for their organization and none have their own performance space. Being nomadic, Noon admits, “is a giant drain on the process.” The question of how to grow the respective organizations brought four entirely different answers with Cawelti outlining a very ordered process that rewards devoted artists but keeps the Rogue Artists’ ensemble small; Chavez revealed although the only company members are herself and Rosa Portillo, the work of About Productions is very ensemble-based; Noon and Ghost Road give all ensemble members in each project ownership in the work; and Chan describes an “echo system” where volunteers can take classes in thanks and the ensemble’s work often arises from class, a system that fits more with “the reality of our capacity.” Valdez, National Coordinator of NET, admits that sometimes “ensemble isn’t the right word…we’ve just kind of made the decision to walk through muddy water,” instead of having a hard and fast definition of ensemble. As these panelists described, there are at least as many ways to create inspiring ensemble work as there are members of NET.

DTLArtMob!
By Cindy Marie Jenkins (DLW ‘08)

“I dreamed about this last night.”

-Woman drawn to the LAPL Art Mob

Divided into groups on the first day of the Lab and given one of four iconic Downtown LA locations (Pershing Square, Los Angeles Public Library, MOCA and The Music Center), Labbies had one quest: create an Art Mob. They had to follow these guidelines:

1. They must create a site specific EVENT no longer than 10 minutes in length
2. The piece must thematically reflect ‘The Balancing Act”
3. They must use a least one line from Measure for Measure
4. They must reference at least one concept from one session talked about during the week

How to describe slightly scripted, well-executed, continually shifting pieces of art? They drew the audience - both the Lab and passers-by - into worlds where no piece of architecture was taken for granted and any area could be a stage. The willingness of people at Pershing Square and the Library to allow themselves to be drawn in to whatever they were witnessing contrasted harshly with the more traditional art spaces, where security almost stopped the short pieces in their tracks.

Doug Oliphant

POST FLASH MOB DISCUSSION
Discussion:  Lab Attendees and Steering Comittee
By Doug Oliphant

Settled in the small outdoor theatre space at Theatricum Botanicum, we all sat around and reflected on the tremendously successful round of Flash Mobs we all experienced, picking out great moments from each, reveling in the overall ingenuity of some, the great outside-our-group audience response to them, etc. A definite point of interest in our discussion was how engaged the community of each of the spaces was in the theatre that just invaded their public space. One group’s performance had a mother and daughter standing right next to us, staying from start to finish, never looking away, completely engaged in this impromptu show. While I was juggling before the group arrived, I was amazed to receive a $1 tip from a gentleman who told me to, “Keep up the good work!” Haha, ah man, I can now say I have made money for doing my art at Directors Lab West! Overall, some great discoveries on all things theatrical, ways to engage an outside community and how to keep peace with security whose life ambition is to ensure the two-foot tall stone bench is for SITTING ONLY, not standing on and reciting Shakespeare.

PRE-SHOW TALK THEATRICUM BOTANICUM
Conversation:  Ellen Geer
Moderator:  Anne Giselle Spiegler (DLW ‘03)
By Doug Oliphant

“I think our country needs the arts more than they even know it.” - Ellen Geer

Sitting in the sanctity of Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga, listening to Ellen Geer tell her story among the crickets’ and tree frogs’ sounds was quite a change in atmosphere from LATC and Downtown Los Angeles in general. Ellen shared her career path, explaining her extreme luck she ran across in her early days, learning from the masters including William Ball and Sir Tyrone Guthrie, establishing The Guthrie in Minneapolis and eventually coming across this land in the distant reaches of LA where she and her father created the Theatricum we know and love today. A mission of theirs she made very clear was their commitment to paying their actors and developing a system for that right from the get-go. She’s quite proud that they manage to get all these Equity actors for their shows and not pay them just based off the 99-seat plan but instead pay them an almost living wage. One of the kindest and most positive souls in the room, Ellen was great to talk with, great to let us hang out at the space and give us the artistic freedom to create as our minds told/tell us. She’s just another example of someone who dreams big and then applies it to the things she’s passionate about, follows through with it and actually turns it into something.

Directors Lab West is a unique forum which brings Theater Directors together with peers and seasoned professionals for an opportunity to collaborate and grow together as artists. Directors Lab West is modeled after the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab in New York City. Like its NY counterpart, the Lab is a series of discussions, working sessions, panels and symposia with some of the nation’s and region’s leading directors, playwrights, designers and other theatre practitioners. DirectorsLabWest.com