We are always interested in financial details about the professional theatre. This month's issue of The Believer has a new feature called "Creative Accounting," described as "an ongoing series that will show where the money goes for all of the major creative industries. Future issues will cover book publishing, television, fine art, and public sculpture."
The two-page piece details the costs--$170,029--entailed by the Civilians, a NYC-based theater company, to commission and workshop a new play. The Civilians are an unusual troupe. In their own words, "The primary activity of The Civilians is the creation of original projects from investigations into real life. Using methods that combine documentary and artistic practices, The Civilians’ process encourages a deep, inquisitive engagement between the artists and their subject matter. The resulting shows are boldly theatrical, often incorporating elements of musical theater."
The play in question, Brooklyn at Eye Level, is about the Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn. The Atlantic Yards is a mixed-use commercial and residential development project of 16 high-rise buildings, currently proposed in the neighborhoods of Prospect Heights and Park Slope. The development includes the Barclays Center, which would serve as the new home of the New Jersey Nets. Like many large-scale developments, the project is very controversial.
The Civilians divide their project into three parts. Investigation, over $36,000, covered interviewing local children, adults, and real estate experts. An Urban Studies student was funded to provide context on the history of Brooklyn. Transcribing 250 hours of taped interviews was over $2,500. The second part lead to the first presentation, at a cost of over $71,000. Development, another $62,000, included additional interviews and commissioning a playwright, at $10,000, to shape the play. It ended with a second workshop that ran for four days at the Brooklyn Lyceum. The show was not reviewed, but New York Magazine placed it in the "Brilliant/Highbrow" quandrant of its Approval Matrix for December 22, 2008. A fun song from the show, "Four Brooklyns," is online here.
If you don't know The Believer, it is worth a look. Published by the folks responsible for McSweeney's, it describes itself as "a monthly magazine where length is no object. There are book reviews that are not necessarily timely, and that are very often very long. There are interviews that are also very long." It teeters among contradictory qualities: ironic, sincere, trendy, unfashionable, serious, funny, over-serious, and sometimes more than a little cliquish.
