Name: Adam Greenfield
Title/Occupation: Literary Manager, Director
Organization/Company: Playwrights Horizons
URL: www.playwrightshorizons.org

1. Where did you grow up and how did you end up where you are now?

I grew up nestled between two freeways in Orange County, California. I did my best to be one of those kids who skateboards around the mini-malls with blonde hair and a deviant grin, but I was far too Jewish and queer to pull that off. So around age fourteen, I started smoking cigarettes and wearing black, and I joined the drama club. I knew pretty quickly that I was more of a director/dramaturg type than an actor, but I strutted the stage in high school productions of “Pippin” and “Can-Can,” etc., and I ultimately went to the University of Michigan’s actor-training program, wanting to take an active, performative approach to making plays, rather than a critical or academic one. After school, I went to Seattle, where I thought I’d be pulling espresso for a year before moving to New York. But I started up at the famed, now-defunct Empty Space Theatre, first as Literary Manager and then as Associate Artistic Director. We produced new plays exclusively, and it really was there that my literary tastes and approach to producing were shaped. As it turns out, the Pacific Northwest is an easy place to fall in love with, and I stayed there for nine years before finding my way to this cubicle here on W. 42nd Street.

2. Which performance, song, play, movie, painting or other work of art had the biggest influence on you and why?

Without question, it was Len Jenkin’s “Dark Ride.” When I first read it as a freshman in college, this play absolutely blew my mind. It’s a dizzying, labyrinthine, high-speed chase into that nebulous space where fiction and reality blur. It was totally eye-opening to me not only how he subverts the way we experiences time and space onstage, but how he could completely rope us in along the way. How he could transport us not to a place we could imagine, but to a place that our minds had to work hard to make room for — and that, ultimately, that place was the very theater we were sitting in. Before Jenkin, and since Jenkin, a lot of writers changed things for me, but “Dark Ride” and “American Notes” really rocked my world. They were the first plays that helped me understand how a piece of writing, how a live event can bend space and time.

3. What skill or talent or attribute do you most wish you had and why?

I wish I could write a play. I can’t. I’ve tried. It’s not pretty. I read a ton of plays, and, whatever I think of each one, I take my hat off to anyone who can type “End of Play.” Also, I wish I could play the piano.

4. What do you do to make a living? Describe a normal day.

My full-time-plus job is Literary Manager at Playwrights Horizons, and I also try to find as many outside directing projects as I can. As a Literary Manager, I’m constantly reading new plays (we recieve approximately 1,200 submissions each year) and writing my thoughts about what I’ve read. Reading plays is a creative act, but a lot of my day-to-day is administrative. I produce 20-25 play readings and workshops each season, which each involve hundreds of tiny, detail-oriented emails which take up a surprising amount of time. Despite the cloud of administrative tasks, though this is about as much fun as a guy could have sitting in an office. …And yet, it is an office, which means fluorescent lights, staff meetings, memos; when i daydream, it’s about spending more time in a rehearsal room, or about being a park ranger.

5. Have you ever had to make a choice between work and art? What did you choose, why, and what was the outcome?

I think I’m constantly making the choice between work and art, trying to walk that line. The salaried position I currently have is artistic; it is work, and it is art. Is that an oxymoron, or is it a lucky break? Depends on the day I’m answering this question. I feel cheery that my life right now contains a balance, but it’s a tenuous balance, constantly see-sawing.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Name: Kenneth Collins
Title/Occupation: Writer, Director, Designer
Organization/Company: Temporary Distortion
URL: www.temporarydistortion.com

1. Where did you grow up and how did you end up where you are now?

Born in Freehold, NJ. Spent a number of years in Harrisburg, PA. Moved to NYC in the summer of ’99.

2. Which performance, song, play, movie, painting or other work of art had the biggest influence on you and why?

Waiting for Godot. It was the third play I ever read (after Hamlet and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead). I was attending a Vo-Tech high school and had never seen a play, but I became fascinated with the notion of making theater. Most of the stuff happening (or not happening) in my work traces back to the initial impact Godot had on me.

3. What skill, talent or attribute do you most wish you had and why?

Telekinesis.

4. What do you do to make a living? Describe a normal day.

I tour and make work with my company, Temporary Distortion. Unless we are on tour, most days are spent attending to administrative details, followed by creative work (writing, designing or rehearsing).

5. Have you ever had to make a choice between work and art? What did you choose, why, and what was the outcome?

I’ve quit jobs and been fired on numerous occasions so that I could concentrate on making my work. It never seemed like a choice.  Sometimes it has been tough, but always worth it.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Shanta Thake

Name: Shanta Thake

Title/Occupation: Director of Joe’s Pub / Presenter

Organization/Company: Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater

URL: www.joespub.com

1.Where did you grow up and how did you end up where you are now?

I grew up in Santa Claus, Indiana. Seriously. Moved to New York City after college to become an actress and abandoned that particular dream about a month in when I realized I had absolutely no interest in auditioning. Got a job at the Public Theater as an intern 10 days after moving to NYC and have been at the Public ever since.

2.Which performance, song, play, movie, painting or other work of art had the biggest influence on you and why?

Paul Simon’s Graceland which I grew up listening to on repeat and still think is one of the greatest albums ever made- it’s most certainly a huge contributing factor to why I work in music. Also, Leonard Bernstein’s Mass which I saw in college and made me certain that live performance is not only important but can be transformative.

3. What skill, talent or attribute do you most wish you had and why?

I wish that I had a better memory so that when people asked me what shows I would recommend that are coming up I wouldn’t draw a total blank 9 out of 10 times.

4.What do you do to make a living? Describe a normal day.

Wake up. into work by 10. talk to amazing co-workers. email. email. meeting. listen to 400 new songs (approximately). email. meeting. email. email. meeting. see a show or three. drink cabernet. go to sleep. rinse and repeat.

5.Have you ever had to make a choice between work and art? What did you choose, why, and what was the outcome?

I chose both work and art although each has been compromised for the other on various occasions. The outcome is that I love my job and that I’m tired all the time.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Name: Alec Duffy

Title/Occupation: Artistic Director

Organization/Company: Hoi Polloi

URL: www.hoipolloiworld.com

1. Where did you grow up and how did you end up where you are now?

I grew up in Winchester, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. My family moved out to Apple Valley, Minnesota for my high school years. Then I went to college at Duke. After college, I spent a lost year-and-a-half in San Francisco before moving to New York in 2000. In 2001, I moved to Paris for a year to study at the Lecoq theater school. Then I returned to New York where I eventually founded my theater company, Hoi Polloi.

2. Which performance, song, play, movie, painting or other work of art had the biggest influence on you and why?

When I was in college, I learned about two artists, Linda Montano and Tehching Hsieh, who had spent a year tied together by a six-foot rope, with the rule that they couldn’t touch each other the entire year. They did this back in 1982, maybe. Their blending of art and life blew me away. Everything I do today is influenced by that. Every artistic venture is an attempt to address a personal weakness, and by opposing, end it.

3. What skill, talent or attribute do you most wish you had and why?

Generosity. I struggle with selfishness always. Always.

4. What do you do to make a living? Describe a normal day.

I’m on a TCG directing fellowship right now, so my days are largely spent preparing for rehearsals and trying not to eat too much sugar.

5. Have you ever had to make a choice between work and art? What did you choose, why, and what was the outcome?

Before I got this fellowship, I was working in offices for about six years. I’ll probably go back to that when the TCG well runs dry. I’m hopeful that I haven’t gotten too used to full-time art-making, and that it won’t be too hard to re-adjust to making art in the evenings and copies during the day.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Name: Bertie Ferdman

Title/Occupation: Performance Artist, Scholar, Teacher, and Curator

Organization/Company: Ex.Pgirl, MESTC/CUNY, Adjunct Lecturer (theatre) at City College, CUNY and Manhattanville

URL(s): http://www.here.org

http://www.thesegalcenter.org/

1. Where did you grow up and how did you end up where you are now?

I grew up in Puerto Rico. I ended up in Brooklyn because where else can a French-married Latin Jew live?

2. Which performance, song, play, movie, painting or other work of art had the biggest influence on you and why?

I saw Victoria Chaplin’s and Jean Baptiste Thieree’s Le Cirque Invisible many many many years ago and that blew me away. I still remember Victoria’s hair as she flew on that giant swing and Jean-Baptiste’s zebra costume, and his socks. I have rarely seen such poetry on stage.

3. What skill, talent or attribute do you most wish you had and why?

I wish I had a skill to cure people. I figure out what is wrong, and I can either fix it, or even do surgery on it. And take people’s pain away or disease.

4. What do you do to make a living? Describe a normal day.

I teach. I am also an “instructional technology” consultant. I’ve worked in academic technology for many years, helping professors at CUNY integrate technology in their courses. I don’t have a normal day!

5. Have you ever had to make a choice between work and art? What did you choose, why, and what was the outcome?

Yes: everyday. I don’t really choose, I just do what I can, on a day to day, and project to project basis. I also have two children, so that is a big part of the equation. The outcome: ten thousand jobs on my resume (which I “pile” according to the search) and 5 full length pieces; oh, and two big curated symposiums which I am also very proud of.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Name: David Levine

Title/Occupation: Artist, Director

Organization/Company: CiNE

URL:

1. Where did you grow up and how did you end up where you are now?

Grew up in New York City. Directed new plays from 2000-2004, then headed for Berlin. Came back doing a totally different kind of work.

2. Which performance, song, play, movie, painting or other work of art had the biggest influence on you and why?

Adrian Piper, “The Mythic Being” opened up an entire vista for me on the idea of acting when no-one’s looking, no-one’s noticing.

3. What skill, talent or attribute do you most wish you had and why?  

The confidence to be an even bigger dick.                                   

4. What do you do to make a living? Describe a normal day.

I teach in Berlin, and do projects in NY and Berlin. So I spend a third of my day on Email, and a third of my day actually producing work, and a third of my day worrying about money.

5. Have you ever had to make a choice between work and art? What did you choose, why, and what was the outcome?

It never seemed like a choice; art without even thinking about it. The only possible exception was heading to Berlin to teach, which I *feared* was choosing work over art, but it actually resulted in the kind of work I make today.

Popularity: 1% [?]

I was busy and missed the boat on this one but even having missed the press conference, I still endorse Ryan Tracy for Director of NYC Opera.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(New York, NY, December 31, 2008) Ryan Tracy (aka, Counter Critic) and special guests will host a press conference at 1841 Broadway on Friday, January 2, 2009, beginning at 4:00pm, to officially introduce himself, his advisory team, and his plan for rescuing the New York City Opera from extinction.

The conference will cover the following points:

• Introductions

• A Brief State of the New York City Opera

• The First Twelve Months

• Need for Fiscal/Administrative Transparency

• Limit of Term

• Administrative Re-Organization

• The Board of Directors

• Creative Advisory Board

• A Home for New York City Opera

• The Unsung Singer

• The Singer’s Body

• Stagione V Repertory

• Programming

• Sustainability

In early November, The New York City Opera suffered a major setback. A dispute between the City Opera board and director-designate Gerard Mortier culminated in both parties walking away from their commitments, after Mr. Mortier had already set underway a renovation of the State Theater (now the David H. Koch Theater) and canceled all fully-staged 2008-2009 productions.

This has left “the people’s opera” without a leader, and without a clear direction or strategy to get them out of artistic an economic turmoil.

On December 9, seeing no evidence of progress for the City Opera to find a new leader (and frankly, noticing that no one was really stepping up to the plate) Ryan Tracy announced his candidacy for the directorship of New York City Opera at www.countercritic.com, where he maintains an online, interactive campaign

headquarters:

Campaign Headquarters Quick Links:

• Give Money To New York City Opera…?
• Watch The Campaign Video
• Original 12-step Program for NYCO Recovery
• Bel Canto Amendment
• Not So Short List of Potential Advisors
• Smack Down for George Steele
• Read Ryan Tracy’s HD opera cover story for The New York Press

As an advocate and creator of opera, and as a concerned New Yorker who sees one of his city’s major opera institutions facing peril, Ryan Tracy has stepped forward to offer his leadership as a solution and a hope to New York City Opera.

The New York City Opera does not have to collapse. It can be saved. But we need smart, savvy, and fearless individuals to take decisive action and lead this company into the 21st century.

A Campaign Action Force has been assembled, and has worked tirelessly to flesh out a comprehensive rescue plan for New York City Opera, including recommendations for programming initiatives, nominees for executive positions, and general suggestions for running a better, more efficient and far more transparent public arts organization.

The purpose of this candidacy is to promote artistic integrity, to guard against financial irresponsibility, to help New York City Opera thrive and flourish for years to come, and once again to make this company worthy of being called “the people’s opera.”

The Counter Critic

www.countercritic.com

Popularity: 1% [?]