Category — Blogs

Here they are: The answers to our Theatre Trivia Quiz.

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Earlier this week, TDF’s Young Patrons Committee hosted its first-ever Theatre Trivia Night. It was pretty amazing: Over forty theatre lovers competed to win TKTS gift certificates, and the evening was hosted by Broadway darlings Celia Keenan-Bolger and Sarah Saltzberg (both of 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee fame.)

But if you couldn’t be there, don’t worry: We’ve recreated our quiz online. Just follow this link, and you can answer all of the questions yourself.

(If you’re stumped, then you can find the answers here.)

And in case you don’t know: Our Young Patrons Committee is made up of young professionals, ages 23-40, who come together to create and participate in projects that raise awareness and support for the theatre and TDF’s programs .

If you’d like more information about the Young Patrons Committee (or if you’re interested in becoming a member), just contact Chris Reichheld at development@tdf.org or 212-912-9770 x 341.

As a companion to yesterday’s essay from Patrick Berger, our education associate, about  imagining a “communal” method of creating theatre, we’re pleased to present playwright Vasina Hasu Houston’s thoughts on what it really means to create something “new” for the stage. (This essay originally appeared in LA Stage Times, and we are reprinting it with their permission.)

What do you think about Houston’s ideas? Do you agree with her or with Patrick Berger? Or both of them? Let us know in the comments section.

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When I was 20, I did not worry about writing something “new” or “different” in subject matter or form, although my work often was perceived as such. I still do not concern myself with a quest for something different. Then and now, I wrote and write to write, period.

If a play’s subject matter or form is deemed as being new or different, it is a natural outcome of artistic expression and not an intentional result. I write compelled by passion for characters and story. To concern myself with re-invention in the process of original invention seems a waste of energy. If we write from the gut without worrying about how it is going to be perceived or where it will be produced or if it is “new” or “different,” we are more apt to create something truly imaginative and fresh.

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Patrick Berger is Theatre Development Fund’s Education Associate and an active member of New York City’s arts education community. Last month, he made a presentation on the future of the theatre at  Theatre Communications Group’s annual conference. Here is  what he learned and experienced there.

And don’t miss playwright Valina Hasu Houston’s complementary essay on what it means to make something “new” for the stage.

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The future can be a scary thing. New technology, especially social media, is shifting the way people interact with each other and even with art. From June 16-18, I was able to join the mighty many of the U.S. theatre elite for the Theatre Communications Group’s (TCG) annual conference. The theme this year, which is also the 50^th birthday of TCG, was inspired by the theatre’s increasing interest in its future: What if?

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We were thrilled to have our Open Doors program recently featured on WABC-TV Eyewitness News. Take a look!