Show Me the Money!

Today, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced that it will distribute just under $27 million in grants to 1,207 projects. Included in those numbers are 994 projects ($23,828,500) in the “Access to Artistic Excellence” category. According to the NEA press release, 1,697 eligible applications were submitted seeking funds for the creation and presentation of work in a variety of disciplines--a 22 percent increase over the prior year. For those keeping track, that means that just under 59% of the requests were funded (though many may have received a smaller grant than requested).

NEA Chair, Rocco Landesman stated that these grants will support “projects that have great works of art at the heart of them; that work to inspire and transport audiences and visitors; and that create and retain opportunities for artists and arts workers to be a part of this country's real economy."

With ten Oregon arts organizations receiving grants totaling $232,500, that works out to be just about 1 percent of the total. According to population estimates from the U.S. Census (2008), Oregon has 1.2 percent of the nation’s population. Seems to me, we got screwed out of .2 percent of what's due. But let's not quibble over rounding errors. You might note that six of the ten Oregon projects are to theater companies.

Here’s the list of Oregon's awardess, with project descriptions from the NEA. On behalf of Culture Shock, I extend a hearty congratulations to all of them:

Miracle Theatre Company
Category: Theater
$15,000
To support the West Coast premiere of El Quijote by Santiago García, based on the early 17th-century novel Don Quixote by Cervantes. Artistic Director Olga Sanchez will direct the piece.

Oregon Children's Theatre Company
Category: Theater
$20,000
To support the adaptation and premiere of Small Steps by Louis Sachar. The play will be a sequel to Sachar's novel Holes, which also was successfully adapted for the stage.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival Association
Category: Theater
$50,000
To support the development and world premiere production of American Night, a new piece by the theater ensemble Culture Clash to be directed by Jo Bonney. The project will be the first production in the company's American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle, a decade-long public dialogue, commissioning, and production initiative.

Portland Center Stage
Category: Theater
$15,000
To support the 12th annual JAW (Just Add Water): Playwrights Festival. The festival supports playwrights in the development of new works to enhance the repertoire of the American theater.

Third Rail Repertory Theatre
Category: Theater
$10,000
To support a final workshop and world premiere production of The Gray Sisters by Craig Wright. The production will be directed by Producing Artistic Director Slayden Scott Yarbrough and performed by company members.

White Bird
Category: Dance
$25,000
To support the presentation of dance companies in the White Bird Uncaged series. The project will include master classes and lecture-demonstrations.

Portland Art Museum (on behalf of Northwest Film Center)
Category: Media Arts
$35,000
To support the Northwest Film and Video Festival and its tour throughout the Northwest. The festival showcases new work by media artists living in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.

Eugene Symphony Association, Inc.
Category: Music
$12,500
To support American Encounters: Steven Stucky. The series will include performances of Stucky's recent compositions, a radio broadcast, and educational activities by the composer.

Artists Repertory Theatre (aka Artists Rep)
Category: Musical Theatre
$20,000
To support the development and production of Gracie and the Atom by Portland playwright and composer Christine McKinley. The production will be promoted through the theater's education and outreach program Actors to Go, which features student matinees, artists in classrooms, and post-show discussions.

Portland Opera Association Inc.
Category: Opera
$20,000
To support new productions of a chamber opera triple-bill comprising Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti and Monteverdi's one-act operas Il Ballo Delle Ingrate and Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. The artists will include the Portland Opera Studio Artists (POSA) and the POSA Chamber Opera.

Portland Taiko
Category: Presenting
$10,000
To support the development and presentation of Ten Tiny Taiko Dances. The series of new works will be created in collaboration with invited choreographers, musicians, and performance artists.

Although the organization is based in Vancouver, there’s one more project that touches Oregon:

Confluences (aka The Confluence Project)
Category: Design
$32,000
To support a landscape art installation by artist/architect Maya Lin at Celilo State Park. The installation will be located near The Dalles, Oregon, where one of North America's largest waterfalls was once located.

One final note: This post is an example of the new citizen's journalism that will soon be crushing "legacy media," which is what we're supposed to be calling that old fashioned stuff like newspapers. Frankly, I don't see why we need real reporters anyway. All I had to do was extract text from a press release, pull a list from a website, and do a quick Google search for census data. Any idiot could do it.

Even MORE shameless promotion

The Willamette Week just issued its annual Give!Guide, featuring 79 nonprofits doing great work in the community. The Give!Guide is an insert in this week's edition of the WW, but they've also created a website with lots of information about the listed organizations and the capacity to process donations directly. If you want to donate through the Give!Guide, you can select one or many organizations and make a donation online in a single transaction. ALL donated funds go to the designated organizations.

This year, the Give!Guide includes ten arts organizations – more than ever before. I like all of them:

Independent Publishing Resource Center
Literary Arts
Live Wire Radio
Newspace for Photography
Northwest Dance Project
NW Documentary
PDX Pop Now!
White Bird
Wordstock
Oregon Children’s Theatre

My particular favorite is Oregon Children’s Theatre. (Full disclosure: As my employer, Oregon Children’s Theatre is largely responsible for the fact that I haven’t been posting on Culture Shock lately). We’re proud to be in such august company. Of course, the Give!Guide also highlights organizations dedicated to social action, the environment, wellness, youth, animals and education.

The Give!Guide has three primary goals:

1) To encourage people 18-35 to get involved in philanthropy;
2) To attract new donors and/or volunteers to these causes; and,
3) To provide publicity and exposure for a variety of local non-profits.

To encourage giving, the Willamette Week has sprinkled in a lot of great incentives and rewards. On top of those, Oregon Children’s Theatre will be giving away ticket coupons and invitations to shop at the adidas Village Store with a 50% discount off retail prices. Also, the Collins Foundation will be matching all new contributions Oregon Children’s Theatre receives through the Give!Guide.

Shameless Promotion Edition

Excuse me while I plug Oregon Children’s Theatre, the performing arts company with which I am associated.

Tickets for the season opener, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” are flying out the door like winged crepes at the annual All You Can Eat Flying Hotcake Festival . OCT’s Artistic Director, Stan Foote, has loaded the show with fun gags and whiz-bang effects. The characters are familiar yet distinct from what you remember from the two famous movie adaptations. The set is a knock-out, as are the incredible costumes created by Sarah Gahagan (equal to her Drammy Award-winning costumes for last year’s “James and the Giant Peach”). Two 5:00 shows have been added on November 14th and 21st.

Read the Oregonian review, which called it a "sweet dream of a production." We also loved this review from NW Kids, including an interview with a six year old audience member.

Tonight is opening night for the thespians from OCT's Young Professionals program. A cast of ten talented teenagers will perform “Dis/Troy” in the company's black box studio at the Galleria. The play by Yokanaan Kearns is a contemporary adaptation of Homer’s Iliad that blends silly humor with lots of physical action. This production features some kick-ass fight scenes choreographed by John Armour, the aptly named fight director who has been responsible for much of the violence and mayhem you may have seen on Portland’s stages over the years. The production is directed by OCT’s own Marcella Crowson, who manages the Educational Theatre Program in partnership with Kaiser Permanente. Theater folks in town know and love her from her time as a stage manager for many productions at Portland Center Stage. Marci describes “Dis/Troy” as “not your eighth-grade teacher’s version of the Iliad.”

The show plays this weekend and next, with 7:00 p.m. performances on Friday and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00. Location: Galleria, 600 SW 10th Avenue, Third Floor. $5-10 Admission. Box Office: 503-228-9571. “Dis/Troy” will also be performed in the rotunda of Hatfield Hall (1111 SW Broadway) as part of the PCPA’s “Brown Bag Lunch Series.” That show will be free.

On Monday, November 9th (7:00-8:30) Marketplace Money and Oregon Public Broadcasting will be taping an episode titled, “Financial Futures: Talking money with your tykes, tweens and teens,” in the Winningstad Theatre. What does that have to do with OCT? As part of the reporting on kids and money, the show’s host, Tess Vigeland, will talk to the young actors from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and from OCT's youth improv troupe, Impulse. Folks from Live Wire! Radio will be on deck as well. More information, including how to get tickets can be found here.

Speaking of money: OCT just learned that it will receive a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in support of its commission and production of a stage adaptation of "Small Steps." Novelist Louis Sachar has been working with Stan Foote to adapt his sequel to "Holes" for the stage. The play will feature original music by Karl Mansfield. I'll tell you more about it later. The money from the NEA is very helpful for the project, but so is the validation that the company is playing in the big leagues.

Who's on Top?

OregonBusiness magazine just released its ranking of the Top 100 Nonprofits to work for in Oregon. I didn't make it to the award ceremony last night, but received the rankings this morning.

The organization with which I am associated, Oregon Children’s Theatre, ranked 26th in the “Small Company” category (with a score of 479.2). Woohoo! We're 26th!

Broadway Rose Theatre beat us at 21st place in the same group (score of 485.7); however, as a musical theater company it has the advantage of lots of happy singing and dancing to boost morale. Our friends at Portland Center Stage reached 30th place in the “Large” category (more than 75 employees) with a score of just under 411. I believe that means we kicked their asses, and I don't care who knows it. Oregon Shakespeare Festival brought up the rear in that category at 33rd place (score of 406.2).

Our other friends at the Regional Arts and Culture Council placed 9th in the “Medium” category (24-74 employees) with a respectable score of nearly 474. The table provided by OregonBusiness describes RACC’s purpose as providing “pre-natal to end-of-life social services to low-income people.” That sounds about right since they support artists.

The only other arts group in the rankings was Caldera, scoring 9th in the small category with score of 499.3 -- very well done.

Who ranked at the very top? Susan G. Komen for the Cure, OR/SWW Affiliate in the large category with a score of 520.7; Idealist.org in the middle group at 519.4; and, Oregon Rehabilitation carrying the small group (with a whopping score of 537.7).

EXPOSED! The True Mighty Toy Cannon Revealed

Did I mention that Oregon Children's Theatre is having a huge costume sale this weekend? The staff has finished sorting through the inventory and attaching prices. Frankly, I think most of the prices are ridiculously low, but what are you going to do?

If you don't want to miss out on the best items, you really MUST drop in for the Sneak Peek event after work on Friday. For a mere $10 entry donation (kids free), you'll not only get first crack at the merchandise, but you'll have access to the all-important free beer, wine and munchies, and can snap your fingers to the cool sounds of a live jazz band. I'll be there, looking suave in my new hairpiece:

Massive Costume Sale!

I try to avoid shilling for the arts organization that employs me, Oregon Children's Theatre. That's not what this blog is about, plus I don't want readers to think that the malformed opinions and potty mouth language that I spew under the guise of Mighty Toy Cannon have anything to do with that fine cultural institution.

With that caveat out of the way, allow me to promote the most stupendous, gargantuan costume sale that you are likely to ever experience in the entirety of your existence on this planet, may you live into a ripe old age.

Oregon Children's Theatre is selling off much of its costume inventory next week. No, this isn't being done out of economic desperation. We're doing just fine, though you might consider sending a donation. (I'll wait here while you write a check).

The company simply has too many great costumes that it will never use again. Why is that? It's mostly a matter of changing aesthetics and artistic vision. We're not about big, furry animal costumes, and we're no longer producing for the humongous barn of Keller Auditorium, a venue which required outsized costuming so that a six-year old in the top balcony could actually see a little of the action.

Over the past few weeks, staff and volunteers have been sorting through the inventory to get ready for the sale. We've been having fun seeing all that there is--and there is a lot. As official videographer, I've assembled three short films to entice you. Watching all three will eat up no more than five minutes of your busy life.

The first shows our staff trying on costumes:



We couldn't resist staging a staff meeting with some of the masks:



Finally, Stan Foote willingly abased himself for this video showing a fraction of the crazy party wigs that will be available.



Our landlords for the Galleria Building have generously allowed us to hold the sale in the now-vacated storefront on the corner of SW 10th and Alder (formerly occupied by Made in Oregon).

Friday, September 25th, 5:00 to 7:30

We're holding an exclusive pre-sale sale, with a $10 entry fee (kids free) to weed out the riff-raff and give the elite early access to the plunder. Not only will you get first crack at the inventory, we'll have a live jazz band* and beer and wine. Stop by after work and have some fun. You'll have plenty of time to dash over to the Armory for opening night of "Ragtime" at Portland Center Stage. (If you're going out to dinner or to the theater that evening, we'll hold your purchases until the next day).

Saturday, September 26th, 10:00 to 6:00

The big sale!

Also, watch for us on Good Day Oregon (KPTV Channel 12) throughout Friday morning's broadcast.

* Friday night's cool jazz stylings will be courtesy of the Mayfield 4, featuring the upright bass of Matthew Jones, long-time friend and colleague and member of Bourbon Jockey, the band with which I have been known to embarrass myself.

Fall.ART.Live ... Beer.DONUTS.Barbeque

This Saturday, Oregon Ballet Theatre (OBT) is hosting a free arts shindig “Fall-ART-Live” in its studio and out in the parking lot of its home base at 818 SE Sixth Avenue (between Belmont and Morrison).

The event will include short performances and studio workshops for both kids and adults. Most of the performances will be dance oriented (OBT, Polaris Dance, Linda Austin Dance, Josie Mosely Dance and Northwest Dance Project), though the Portland Opera is also on the roster. The workshops cover dance and theater. Do Jump! is in the mix, as is one of my favorites, Philip Cuomo (Portland Actors Conservatory and Third Rail) teaching “Body Imagination: An Intro to Physical Theatre.”

OBT has offered space and tables for other arts organizations to promote themselves and answer questions. Look for some of Culture Shock’s friends from Miracle Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Oregon Cultural Trust., Live Wire!, Mississippi Studios, White Bird and others. If you drop by in the afternoon between 2-3:30, I’ll be pulling a shift at the Oregon Children’s Theatre table. And if that’s not enough, you’ll find a beer garden (Bridgeport) and food from purveyors such as Bunk Sandwiches, Koi Fusion BBQ and the ubiquitous Voodoo Donuts.

OBT threw the event together quickly in the aftermath of its wildly successful Gala fundraiser and emergency appeal earlier this summer. The event is inspired by the organization’s new-found commitment to engaging the community, and is also intended to partially fill the gap created when it cancelled this year’s “OBT Exposed” which has been putting a rehearsal stage smack-dab in the middle of Portland’s Park Blocks for the past decade or more.

Over at the Mercury’s Blogtown site, Stephen Marc Beaudoin posted a jaded take on the event. Under the classy headline, “Fall.Art.(Dead?),” Mr. Beaudoin yawns and smirks at the whole thing. He seems to have gotten the impression that the OBT-initiated event is supposed to be a “new city-wide arts fest.” While OBT does call Fall-ART-Live a “festival,” nobody is seriously pretending that it’s anything more than a day-long arts fair and it's unfair to prejudge it as anything else.

In a follow-up comment Mr. Beaudoin points out that “many of the organizations hawking tickets at the event opted out of providing performers.” (In his post, these organizations are there to “pimp their wares”). Makes those organizations sound kind of sleazy and cheap, doesn’t it? Where do they get off not performing anyway?

How about if we try phrasing it this way: “Many of the organizations that were unable to perform are happy to have a chance to distribute information, meet the public and advocate for the arts.”

Dear readers, there’s a fine line between good-natured acerbic wit and just plain dickishness. Do me a favor and remind me when I step over that line. Which I will. Except that I'll claim it's just my world-weariness showing.

Title? We don't need no stinkin' titles.

Under normal circumstances, I’d post music related videos over at my eponymous blog site, Mighty Toy Cannon. Indeed, if you go there now, you’ll find a few new posts I put up over the weekend.

But right now I’m watching the Grammy Awards and feeling despair about just how bad (or boring) most of what I’m hearing is. How much are these people getting paid? Stevie Wonder singing “Superstition” with the Jonas Brothers? Kill me now, please. Morgan Freeman introducing Kenny Chesney, saying he’s proud to call him a “good friend.” Really? At least Robert Plant and Allison Krauss won Record of the Year. But didn’t that album come out two years ago? Okay, now Radiohead is playing with a marching band. That's not too bad and a very original idea. Or didn't Fleetwood Mac already do that on one of these shows years ago?

As an antidote, I listened some truly great music while taking the hound for his last walk of the evening. Then I came home and looked up some videos that made me happy. And I found a way to make the thematic connection to arts and culture in Portland:

One of my many weekend activities was welcoming a few thousand kids and their families to the theater (an estimated 5,000 people over the past three days alone). I took several dozen kids on backstage tours and watched their eyes grow wide with wonder as they looked into the house from the stage. Folks, tomorrow’s theater artists and audiences are coming to shows today and I’ve seen them.

So here are a couple of music videos featuring kids watching shows. The first one is from Morphine, the greatest rock 'n roll band that features a baritone sax as a lead instrument. Nay, let's just say one of the top five best rock n' roll band of ever and all times.



The second video is from the White Stripes, another band that knows how to kick out the jams.



For the record, Oregon Children's Theatre production of "Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type" does not have puppets and is not at all creepy like the preceding shows. In fact, it is heckuva lot of fun. One more weekend to go. If you have kids bring 'em to the show.

Lars and the Real Cow.

This morning, I received an insider tip that conservative commentator Lars Larson was preparing to skewer Stan Foote, Artistic Director of Oregon Children’s Theatre (OCT), on his KXL radio show. Mr. Larson’s staff had apparently spotted an incendiary OCT press release about its upcoming show, Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type, which included the following teaser: "The book is widely used and supported by unions as it promotes their message of organizing, empowerment, and solidarity. Lawyers of labor and employment law also recommend this book."

Now if you’ve ever listened to Larson’s radio show, you'll know that he has a beef (no pun intended...yes it was) with labor unions, particularly now that union workers have single-handedly destroyed the American auto industry. (Also, he doesn't like the illegal immigrants so much). So you can imagine his consternation upon learning that the region’s flagship theater for young audiences was propagandizing for the union cause. To Larson’s credit, he invited Foote to speak on the air about this pressing issue, rather than just trash talking about it.

Background: Click, Clack, Moo is a popular picture book by Doreen Cronin, with delightful illustrations by Betsy Lewin. It was awarded the prestigious Caldecott Honor in 2001, and named Best Children's Book by Publishers Weekly in 2000.

The plot of the slim volume is simple: The farm animals are cold. Banding together, they use a typewriter they have found to type a note asking Farmer Brown for electric blankets. When Farmer Brown ignores their repeated requests, the animals refuse to produce eggs and milk--in other words, they strike. Outraged, Farmer Brown sends his response: “There will be no electric blankets. You are cows and hens. I demand milk and eggs.”

The labor/management impasse is resolved when the farm animals offer to exchange their typewriter for electric blankets. Farmer Brown decides this a fair exchange and everyone gets what they want.

That’s the long and short of it. The stage adaptation expands on the book with a little extra back story and fun song and dance numbers (including an homage to Les Miz). Larson’s concern is that children watching the play will be unwittingly indoctrinated to believe that unions and collective bargaining are good for society. Paraphrasing, here are a few of the questions he posed in his interview this afternoon:

Aren't the animals making demands that will drive the poor farmer into bankruptcy? How is this any different than union autoworkers forcing GM out of business by making unreasonable demands for outrageous wages and benefits?

Should we be encouraging school kids to make demands? What if they ask for more recess? Are we supposed to just give them what they want?

Isn't using subtle messages to teach unsuspecting children that unionism is good a lot like a madrassa teaching Palestinian children that Jews are dogs that ought to be put in the ovens?

Would OCT ever consider producing a play that espouses conservative values? For example, teaching children that every life--even that of the unborn--has value.

To summarize: (1) Unions = Bad; (2) Culture = Liberal Bias.

Foote responded with equanimity (though with a chuckle of incredulity through most of the interview). I know he's not a fan of heavy-handed “message” plays – he’d much rather give kids something to think and talk about than to spoon-feed them a particular viewpoint, left or right. Click, Clack, Moo, does have a few lessons about the value of communication, negotiation, compromise and -- brace yourself -- standing up for your rights. Are those really such bad things to be teaching children? And while the conclusion is that the cows, chickens and ducks get something in return for their militancy, they also give something up in return – in other words, everybody wins. By the way, did I mention that this play has tap-dancing cows in tutus?

As for the liberal bias, Foote informed Larson that OCT’s production (2005-06 season) of Lois Lowry’s powerful book, The Giver, told the harrowing story of a purportedly utopian society in which one approach to reaching “perfection” was to euthanize "imperfect" children. Foote pointed out that the play’s subtext spoke to the importance of individualism and the value of human life--sentiments that Larson seemed to appreciate. Of course, The Giver also questions how much freedom should a society be willing to sacrifice in exchange for security; it doesn't answer that question, but challenges young readers to think hard about an important, and very real issue.

I think Larson was mostly looking to pick a fight to make a point about unions and how the conservative viewpoint never gets a fighting chance in our culture. Thankfully, he did not try to drum up listener outrage, nor did he issue the right wing equivalent of a fatwah against OCT. He also refrained from personally disparaging or belittling his interviewee--a tactic that seems all too common with his ilk. He even let Foote conclude the interview by offering a $3.00 discount on tickets to Click, Clack, Moo for anyone calling the OCT box office (503-228-9571) and saying “Lars sent me.” I’ll let you know if I hear of any takers.

Final note: OCT asked a talented member of its Young Professionals program, Fergus Firth, to produce a few promotional videos for Click, Clack, Moo. Fergus recently appeared in OCT’s production of Gossamer, playing the lovable dog, Toby. He also played the Prince for a few years in OBT’s production of The Nutcracker. What else? He's produced award-winning films with NW Film Center, and composed a piece performed by Fear No Music as part of its Young Composers program (which you can listen to here). This young man is an example of just how dangerous arts education can be.

Below is his video snippet of early rehearsals for Click, Clack, Moo to give you a better feel for how dangerously radical it's going to be.