Guess What Chicago's New Mayor Did on his First Weekend in Office?

From the blog of the Chicago League of Theatres, March 3:

Thursday, March 3, 2011

A Big Deal

I don’t want to be all ushy-gushy about our new Mayor, but here’s the thing, not 5 days after being elected Mayor of Chicago, when I’m sure he has quite enough to do, the guy went to see a play. He had his choice of about 70 plays on Saturday night. He could have gone to a show he recognized the title of, he could have gone to a show that had a huge meet and greet potential, he could have stayed home. Chris Jones told him he should go, but I doubt that Rahm takes his marching orders from Chris. Astonishingly, he chose to take himself to a storefront theatre, to a world premiere production by a storefront company. If he didn’t know before, he knows now what an amazingly beautiful thing that is. I understand from the folks at Theater Wit that he called and bought his own tickets and that when he arrived at the theatre it was without fanfare and he even seemed a bit humbled by all the congratulations he received in the lobby. Big deal, right? He went to see a show. It is a big deal because when our Mayor goes out to the theatre on a Saturday night, he says it is important. I wrote him a note letting him know how appreciative I was and he wrote back that he would “continue to shine a spotlight on arts and culture.”

We’ll see what happens next, but I’m impressed. You can send him a note too... rahm@chicagoforrahm.com.

Deb

Playwriting Competition: MetLife Nuestras Voces Seeks Latino Themes

Found at the Collective Leverage blog of Chicago Theatres, February 3:

Playwriting Competition

2011 Met Life Nuestras Voces

GUIDELINES FOR THE 2011 MET LIFE NUESTRAS VOCES NATIONAL PLAYWRITING COMPETITION

In 2000 MetLife Foundation and Repertorio Español joined forces to establish The MetLife Nuestras Voces National Playwriting Competition in the hopes of discovering new American plays by established and emerging playwrights writing about the many themes and topics relevant to the Latino communities across the United States—plays that may be under the radar in other venues. It has been our privilege to promote and develop new plays, encourage bright new talent to continue writing plays by providing this forum.

REQUIREMENTS:
*Please read carefully. Plays that do not meet the requirements will not be read.
-Playwrights may be Latino or of any other ethnic or racial background as long as the play’s subject matter and characters resonate with Latino audiences and accurately depict the Hispanic experience.
-No screenplays, one act plays, musicals, adaptations or translations will be accepted.
-New and un-produced plays preferred. Plays that have had readings or a workshop production are acceptable.
-All plays must be original and full-length (minimum running time: 1 hr., 30 min) and can be written in Spanish and/or English.
-Playwrights must be at least 18 years of age and residents of the United States or Puerto Rico.
-Previously submitted scripts are accepted unless they have already placed in the top 10.

SELECTION PROCESS:
-Each script will be read by two independent judges selected by Repertorio Español, on a blind submission.
-Winners will be announced six to seven months after the deadline.
-Each participant will be notified of the results by e - mail. We request that participants do not contact the office to inquire about the competition’s results.

PRIZES:
Round 1: Finalists will receive a staged reading at Repertorio to further develop the script.
Round 2: Grand Prize Winner: $3,000 and a full production at Repertorio Español
2nd Place: $2,000 3rd Place: $1,000 Two runners-up will receive $500 each

Click for additional information and link to online application form

Pew's Cultural Data Project: Why Not Texas?

Collective Action, the blog of the Chicago League of Theatres, carries today with great satisfaction the news that the Cultural Data Project of the Pew Charitable Trust is extending its activity to Illinois. The project was pioneered in Pennsylvania and is now active also in Maryland and California.

Collective Action comments, Thursday, April 9, 2009:

Cultural Data Project

OK – this is the greatest thing. I heard about it a few years ago and thought it would never really come true, but then I heard it was in place in Pennsylvania and I was hearing good things about it and THEN, I heard it was coming to Illinois and NOW it is. What it does is simply this: it provides a data collection system. But…WE will be able to use the data.

We will be able to compare our data against other organizations of the same size or different size or geographic location or whatever. Things like salary averages, average ticket prices, annual budget, all sorts of information. Of course, the information will not be attributed to a particular organization (i.e., you will compare yourself with other theatres with budgets of between $250,000 and $500,000, as an example, not against a particular theatre). We will also be able to benchmark our own progress over the years.

Now here’s the really cool part, a lot of funders are on board with this and what will happen is that we will put the information in to this system once and then we will only have to click a button to generate a financial report for that particular funder. Uh-huh, no more rearranging the budgets to fit the particular funders needs for a report. Uh-huh click a button, that’s right. The data project WILL DO IT FOR US. The folks in Pennsylvania love it. I don’t want to oversell it but really, it sounds awesome. More in next week’s broadcast about the roll out.

Read More and access a 40-minute audio discussion with Bobbie Lipman, the Pew Trust's director for the Cultural Data Project, all at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .