how do you select a season?
That’s the question we’re asked most by you, our community and our audiences. It’s a straightforward question, and it’s one that truly lives right at the heart of our work.
When DA was founded and settled in, we designed the season-planning formula around four productions. We will always want to pick stories that speak to each other, and stories that connect with our company values. We decided to focus on four kinds of stories, based on a loose formula with rules that we love to break. The formula looked like this:
THE FALL SLOT: a classic
Our Town, season 5
This space is reserved for a play that’s well-known all over the country or the world, and has been for some time. This is often an homage to the American theatre of the past. This spot in the season gives us a chance to share with our community those plays that are a central part of the canon. Our very first play, The Odd Couple, was this kind of play. You may have read it in school, maybe your high school performed it; Neil Simon is a classic American playwright.
You’re going to see a lot of white guys in the “classic” space. That’s who’s been the most published and produced group of American playwrights for generations. Are they better than playwrights who are women or artists of color? Noperooni. But they sure have had better access to resources and publishing mechanisms, not to mention the “trust” of theatre-goers. Audiences sometimes want what they know–they want what their parents/teachers/textbooks say is a good play, or what feels familiar. That’s totally understandable. Nothing wrong with loving many of these plays: they’re classics for a reason.
We think it’s a good thing for you to have a sense of where we’ve come from, and we believe these plays are not only sometimes great, but they also remind us and teach us about the path we’re on.
Other DA classics you may have seen: The Philadelphia Story by Philip Barry (if you haven’t seen the classic film, it’s one of my all-time favorites), Love Letters by AR Gurney (Ben and I will do a reading of this one for a DA fundraiser on Feb 13th), Wait Until Dark by Frederick Knott, Our Town by Thornton Wilder.
THE HOLIDAY SLOT: a holiday show
Holiday Show! the holiday show, season 10
This space is pretty self-explanatory. We love the holidays, and we want you to create family traditions with us every holiday season. We love that you bring your kiddos and your parents to holiday shows ranging from goofy to sentimental. We love that we get to wish you a warm and joyful season.
We often write our own shows in this space: we’re a company of writers, and we also think we’re doing our best and most centered work when we’re telling stories for and about our community. The Main Street Holiday universe is one way, over the past decade, of sharing our love of our community with you. Most of the time, these will have some kind of music, too.
Other DA holiday shows you may have seen: Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, Main Street Holiday, A Chris Smith Carol, Adam Hummel’s Snowed Inn, City Council Christmas.
THE WINTER SLOT: we push the envelope
Constellations, season 7
This spot is where we share something new with you. This is the show that might stretch the boundaries of what our community thinks about the world. We love to consider ways of being that might not be our own, to try new forms of storytelling, and to learn new things with our audiences. These are the plays that get the most pushback. We get questions about why we chose an uncomfortable topic (racism, sexuality, illness, etc.), why there was so much swearing in this one (some folks do swear), or why the format was so strange (the storytelling was non-linear, absurdist, etc.).
There are specific answers to these questions based on each show, but the broader philosophy behind the “push the envelope” slot is this: growth is often born in discomfort. We grow together when we see and can consider new ways and ideas. We believe that theatre is designed to help us explore the world outside our doors.
These are the shows that most threaten our security or popularity: we will continue to do them until we close the doors for good. They are at the center of our work as artists. Our upcoming season example of this kind of play will open next month: Karen Zacarías’ Native Gardens.
Other DA “push the envelope” shows you may have seen: Steven Dietz’ Rancho Mirage, Will Eno’s Middletown, Lauren Gunderson’s Ada & the Engine, Nick Payne’s Constellations.
Ps. Merriam-Webster says this about the phrase “to push the envelope”
It “means to surpass normal limits or attempt something viewed as radical or risky. It comes from the aeronautical use of envelope referring to performance limits that cannot be exceeded safely. The phrase was originally limited to space flight, before spreading to other risky physical accomplishments, and finally metaphorically to any boundary-pushing activity, such as art.”
THE MUSICAL SLOT: a story driven by or supported by music
Godspell, season 7
This space is also fairly self-explanatory, but I’ll say this about our commitment to at least one musical every season: we’re musical artists. We surround ourselves with artists who express themselves through music, and anyway, musicals are just so darn fun.
We believe that human beings rely on metaphor to absorb concepts that might be tougher delivered in plain speech, and we know that music just…speaks. Our formative years as people and artists were all musicals, all the time. We just love them. Some people are snotty about musical theatre, but you just won’t find that at DA. We think they’re among the highest art forms.
We did a classic musical for our holiday show this year (see, there we go, breaking our own rules), and we’re going to do another one this spring (trust: you want to see Bright Star, written by STEVE MARTIN AND EDIE BRICKELL. WHAT.). Sometimes we put more of a play with music in this slot (think Peter & the Starcatcher), sometimes it’s a revue of popular music (Forever Plaid) and sometimes this show borders on being mostly music (Bright Star will feel this way).
Other DA musicals you may have seen: Little Shop of Horrors, The Rink, Urinetown, She Loves Me, Once.
SO. That’s a broad frame for how seasons have been selected in years past. That’s how we start thinking about seasons now. We try to supplement each season by adding the voices of other artists to the mix: that’s where the Friends of Friends Series comes from. We present at least three artists or groups who aren’t directly connected to DalekoArts. That way, we can share with you the work and ideas of artists all over the state and the midwest.
Season planning takes place all year — we read plays, go to see them, listen to musicals, stay up until 2am talking about shows we love and can’t stand, ask artists we trust about their favorites. Sometimes we even commission writers to create something just for DalekoArts (that’s what the Cesta Fest was originally designed to be). Right now (in January) each year, we’re usually finishing our plans. We will secure the rights to produce each of these shows (that’s another blog post), and then our wonderful show art designers, Chris Kind and Punchgut, will get to work to craft the visuals that allow us to tell you about the season. We’ll announce next season in the spring, and that’s when you have the option to jump in for a season membership and join us for the whole ride. I hope you’ll decide to do that this coming season, even if you never have before. We think these shows all speak to each other in lots of ways, so maybe they’re best experienced as a package deal.
We know that, as society continues to change, so does the theatre, so we are leaving ourselves open to new ways of thinking about season planning, and about how this long-form story is told. The truth is that we think about our season-planning as a very long conversation with you. We bring up those things we think are important, beautiful, worthy. We want you to share your ideas and thoughts with us, too (feel free to toss them in the comments below). And we express those shared ideas in theatrical form. We believe it’s the way we can be useful: using theatre as a tool, our season planning helps build community.
Thanks for tuning in!
Amanda
