Chameleon Theatre Circle: New play contest and festival

Burnsville, Minnesota


An example of community theater that facilitates the power of people to imagine and create new realities and communities for themselves is alive and well in Burnsville. Since its founding in 1998, The Chameleon Theatre Circle has served artists and audiences South of the River by staging nearly 70 plays and musicals, many of them original scripts by contemporary playwrights.


The company's work has been recognized over the years by numerous awards at state, regional, and national levels of community theater festivals, including the biennial MACT•Fest, sponsored by the Minnesota Association of Community Theatres. Chameleon also gained broader visibility when its 2000 production of "Hair" was featured in a PBS broadcast.


As it takes up residence in the new, Burnsville Performing Arts Center, the Chameleon will look to extend its horizons further when it opens its 12th season, Sept. 18, with "Paper Dolls" by Timothy Braatz, playwright in residence.


In addition to a Playwrights In Residence program – Braatz and Rick Raasch currently hold the positions – the theater cultivates and nurtures new work through its annual contests. This year, more than 300 playwrights from around the world made submissions to the 10th Annual New Play Contest.


Following a multi-panel process that started last October, eight plays were selected to receive concert-style readings in the Annual New Play Festival, held at the Burnsville center's Black Box Theatre, Aug. 29. The plays were selected based on Full Length, One Act, and 10 Minute categories.

Full Length Category:

"Ponzi on Sunday," by Jon Steinhagen, Brookfield, Illinois. In August 1920, famed financial advisor and guru C. W. Barron invites immigrant Charles Ponzi to his office for a “pleasant chat” after newspaper editorials suggest Ponzi's quick rise to wealth is based on fraud. A cat and mouse game follows between two men who want everything but will admit to nothing.

One Act Category

"Cue," by M. Thomas Cooper, Portland, Oregon. Four Hamlet characters – modern 1970s, classical, female interpreted, and German avant garde – find themselves together backstage waiting for a cue.


"Merry-Go-Round," by Sam Wallin, Vancouver, Washington. A circular play of interlocking scenes and the story of people pushed beyond their means, sacrificing the long term for the short. Pimps, prostitutes, hit men, office workers, CEO's, politicians and robots all play a role in this exploration of society on the edge.

10 Minute Category

"Old/Bored/Trouble/Dead," by John Allison, Ewing, New Jersey. Many parents have had a conversation with a teenager who refuses to appreciate loving care. Janine finds herself alone with her grandmother, who finds a way to actually engage Janine in such a conversation.


"Have Your Cake," by Sara Ilyse Jacobson, Washington, D. C. Lily, a 20-something woman, wakes up in bed with Caleb and Max, her two 20-something roommates.


"Good God Enters Flossing," by J. Stephen Brantley, New York, New York. It's a normal morning for Josh, Dinsmore, and Billy until the Ark of the Covenant appears in their living room. What sort of message is God sending, and why would He choose a trio of trendy Brooklyn queers to spread the word?


"The Winner is...," by Arash Karami, Irvine, California. After Stalin receives a letter saying that for the second consecutive year Hitler has outdone him and won the Best Dictator Award, Stalin's assistant and masseuse help him to absorb the assault on his fragile ego and brainstorm new and better strategies to win the next year’s award.

Submission by Playwright In Residence:

"Cossacks Under Water," by Timothy Braatz, Laguna Beach, California. Three stories come together onstage: Dmitri and Tolstoy's 19th century Cossacks; four 21st century Iowans in a town flooded with water and outsiders; and Lynn, looking back at her “journey” as she prepared to stage “The Cossacks.”

Each play generated a variety of informed discussions and insightful observations from dozens of audience members who arrived and departed throughout the day.


"As far as what this play was about ["Cossacks"], I really didn't care very much," said one observer. "I just really watched these characters interact."


Another attendee said the premise of "Good God Enters Flossing," in the 10 Minute category, was "really interesting – and now I want the whole play."


Of the four readings I attended, only one clunked, and that so badly that I wondered how it had survived the juries. "The Winner Is..." was poorly written from a lousy premise and featured pedantic preaching. Nor was it funny. No one should waste money giving it a full production.


In prior years, the Chameleon has produced seven scripts that have emerged from previous contests. Tickets for the six plays in the 2009-2010 season are available at the Burnsville Performing Arts Center box office, 12600 Nicollet Avenue, just north of Burnsville Parkway. You also can get them from Ticketmaster, but why would you?


The Metropolitan Regional Arts Council provided funding for the festival.

T•SUN 4GOV

Minneapolis, Minnesota

If you're not for profit, then what are you for?

Minneapolis, Minnesota


"Nonprofits are not founded to meet a need," says Michael Kaiser, "but to pursue a mission. If you are not pursuing a mission successfully, then you either have the wrong mission or the wrong strategy."


A thin line separates health and sickness in the arts, he says, and when executives run out of solutions it is easy for board members of unhealthy organizations to revert to their more familiar, for profit missions. When that happens, missions become about raising money, with a negative spill-over effect to the community.


"People come to [the arts] for solace and refuge," Kaiser asserts, "but we talk to them about how bad things are. I don't believe in talking publicly about my problems. That's what my family is for. Too many organizations are talking to the press and to their constituencies about problems."


"Executives have to provide fiscal stability so boards will believe the mission is good. It is the executive's job to have the solutions – and to ask for help."


Kaiser serves as president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts where he has created an online forum for arts administrators, and “Arts In Crisis: A Kennedy Center Initiative” which provides management consultation throughout the United States. He graduated in economics and music from Brandeis University and earned a Masters in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kaiser has been dubbed “the Turnaround King” for his work at the Royal Opera House, American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and the Kansas City Ballet.


He spoke to about 200 people at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul this morning, in a two-hour session moderated by Alison Young of Minnesota Public Radio. His visit is part of a 50-state tour started in Boston, March 18, designed to help arts organizations respond to the recession.


I last heard Kaiser speak at a Dance/USA convening years ago, prior to his gig with the Royal Opera House in London. Then, as now, his defining credo was "great art, well marketed."


To his eye, the arts face two economic facts of life: productivity cannot be improved (e.g., "Hamlet" needs the same cast it first had and Beethoven cannot be played faster) and, once a venue has been built, its earned income potential has been set in stone. The response of arts organizations for 30 years has been to raise ticket prices when faced with fixed earned income and rapidly expanding costs.


"The arts are still relevant," Kaiser says, "but they are too expensive." As evidence, he cites the Kennedy Center's free performance days when the symphony – that "irrelevant art form" – is the most well attended by people across all demographics.


The solution? I have long argued, possibly in reaction to Kaiser's earlier speech, that no arts organization ever cost-cut its way to success.


Cutting expenses, Kaiser says, runs counter to mission and does not work. When he arrived at the Royal Opera House with its $30 million deficit, he had to contend with a board that had decided to cut all artistic programming for 18 months. He never favors cuts for exciting, artistic programming and aggressive marketing. "I believe in cutting everything else."


The arts have to be exciting, he argues, in order to get people talking and to compete harder for the money. Make that exciting and risky. One place to start is the mission statement. "Often," Kaiser says, "we gather people in rooms and keep them there until the language becomes blander and blander and you offend no one and stand for nothing. Someone should leave the organization by the time you end a mission discussion."


Kaiser also believes that planned programming, four and five years ahead, makes for better art and provides more talking points. "Maybe you aren't doing the most exciting thing this year, but if you know the great things coming up, you have something for people to buy into and adopt." For organizations large and small, with and without their own facilities, advanced planning also allows for joint ventures. Kaiser is bullish on joint ventures, both for the current environment and for more normal times.


He also thinks a bit of tension between artistic and executive directors can be a good thing when it makes long term program planning happen. "You can't do marketing and fundraising until you do the programming. The three are very linked. You will get a better result if you start now than if you wait two years to see what happens."


With programming in-hand, organizations have two marketing challenges, institutional and programmatic.


"Institutional marketing is central to organizational health. It is the responsbility of the CEO and not the marketing department. It is what we do to get people excited about the organization. It is not expensive, but it does take time. It has to happen again and again. Programmatic marketing depends on many variables, and its cost should be falling with the adoption of technology and online communication."


Boards of directors are a key cross-roads in marketing efforts.


"A board is not a monolithic whole," Kaiser says. "Each member must be treated as an individual. Communicate with them at least once a month and not just at meetings. A healthy organization keeps reaching out and bringing in new people." To change a board culture, "Never ever add one member at a time. Have three or four new people become acquainted with each other and then bring them onto the board together."


Kaiser also favors involving artists and the rest of the staff in an organization's ongoing discussions.


From his book, "The Art of the Turnaround: Creating and Maintaining Healthy Arts Organizations," Kaiser outlined 10 rules that organizations ignore at their peril:

1. There has to be a/one leader who, at the end of the day says "This is what we are doing, where we are going, and how we are going to get there."

2. The leader must have a plan, a strategy, for getting from here to there.

3. You can't save your way to health. It makes you look irrelevant and you don't compete well.

4. Focus on the present and the future, not the past.

5. Extend your planning calendar. It costs nothing to do so.

6. There has to be one spokesperson, and there can be only one – positive – message.

7. Marketing is more than just brochures.

8. Don't aim fundraising gift solicitations too high or too low.

9. The board has to be willing to re-structure itself.

10. You have to have the discipline to do the first nine rules.

The man does have his detractors, many of whom expressed their views in comment replies to his July article on the Huffington Post, "Why The Arts Don't Pay for Themselves".


Ultimately, Kaiser says, there is no end of private funding available. "There is money in every community – 65% of arts money comes from individuals – we have to improve our marketing. There is no magic. It is just common sense."

Steppin' up and out for the Midwest Arts Conference

Minneapolis, Minnesota


When Minneapolis-St. Paul last hosted the Midwest Arts Conference in September 2001, current events had rendered the four-day summit of cultural leaders and mavens nearly prostrate. The air travel system barely had a pulse after the euphemistic "events of Sept. 11," the stock market was in the tank, and many artists and their purveyors stayed home. Huge question marks hung over all aspects of a world accustomed to all-but-certain predictions and expectations.


Since then, we have realized that the shocks of those days altered our cultural life but did not destroy it, our expectations adapted to less predictability and greater bewilderment, and the Midwest Arts Conference scheduled its return to the Saint Paul RiverCentre next month, Sept. 9-12.


In preparation, artists from throughout the U.S. are primping and preening, ready to display their wares to the wholesalers of the cultural establishment. This is especially true for Minnesota artists and, in particular, choreographers and their dance companies.


Just as fundraisers know that donors contribute to and invest in people with whom they have some degree of relationship, performers recognize that the process of connecting with audiences begins by forming relationships with the performing arts curators and directors who contract the engagements that define their venues. Thus, when Arts Midwest annually convenes hundreds of these pooh-bahs – they are called "presenters" in the trade – many more hundreds of artists, their managers, and agents also join the party.


Arriving mostly from 15 states in the middle of the continent between Canada and Mexico, more than 1,000 people are expected to attend this year's four-day series of workshops, seminars, and social gatherings. For most, primary attention will focus on the Marketplace exhibition hall and the rounds of showcase performances that will consume hours of introductions, window shopping, and deal-making.


More than 4,000 artists will be represented in Marketplace exhibit spaces for visitors wandering the aisles with varying degrees of purpose and intention. In the essential simplicity of the information exchange that occurs there, presenters will relate the problems they need to solve and artists will make the case that they have the solutions to those problems. When there is congruence, performances and community outreach activities will get scheduled and subscription seasons will be created.


This business of buying and selling usually begins at some earlier time when presenters first attend performances of the artists they eventually will invite home to meet the folks. The Midwest Arts Conference provides numerous opportunities for presenters to attend a variety of performances.


Twin Cities Triple Play: Opening Night, Wed., Sept. 9, 7:15pm-8:30pm


Sampler performances by 10 Twin Cities dance, theater, and jazz ensembles will be presented simultaneously at three venues in downtown St. Paul. These samplers are ticketed events, restricted to Conference attendees.

The Walker Art Center's Philip Bither curated the dance sampler at the McKnight Theater of the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. Performers will include the Twin Cities dance organizations Buckets & Tap Shoes, Catalyst Dances, and Hijack.


Robin Gillette, the Minnesota Fringe Festival's executive director, pulled together the theater sampler at The Lowry Theater, featuring performances by the Four Humors Theater, Nautilus Music-Theater, and Rockstar Storytellers.


Lowell Pickett, resident impresario at the Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant, programmed the jazz sampler at The Saint Paul Hotel's M ST. Cafe. His musical menu will include The Atlantis Quartet, Irv Williams Quartet, Tanner Taylor Trio, and Fat Kid Wednesdays.

Spotlight Showcases: Thu., Sept. 10, 6:30pm-9:30pm; Fri., Sept. 11, 3:45pm-6:45pm


The adjudicated, 15-minute Spotlight Showcases will feature 18 performance groups over two days at the Fitzgerald Theater in downtown St. Paul. One Minnesota-based group is included in the line-up: Cantus, a men's vocal chamber ensemble, will perform Thu., Sept. 10, at 6:55pm. A listing and schedule of the other 17 acts, including bluegrass music from Alaska, can be found here.


Live Performances at the Conference


The Midwest Arts Conference will include several live music and dance performances as part of its proceedings. Single-day tickets can be purchased from Arts Midwest.

Happy Hour, Thu., Sept. 10, 4:30pm-5:30pm, RiverCentre
A performance by Jeremy Davis & The Fabulous Equinox Jazz Orchestra will feature original arrangements of Johnny Mercer tunes and the Great American Songbook by a trio of male vocalists based in Rincon, Georgia.


All-Conference Luncheon, Fri., Sept. 11, Noon-1:30pm, RiverCentre
As it did in 2001, Minnesota's James Sewell Ballet will present a 20-minute performance from its repertoire of original, contemporary ballet. The company is beginning its 17th season in Minnesota.


Northrop Dance Series, Fri., Sept. 11, 8pm, University of Minnesota
In what for many will be the Conference's pièce de résistance, Wayne McGregor / Random Dance will kick off Northrop's 2009-2010 dance season with "Entity," a full-length work combining neuroscience, physical choreography, and software engineering. The British McGregor is resident choreographer of the Royal Ballet, and Random Dance is the resident company at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London. Single tickets available, $31-$55, 612.624.2345. Northrop Auditorium is located on the Minneapolis East Bank campus of the University of Minnesota.


Conference Brunch, Sat., Sept. 12, 11am-12:15pm, RiverCentre
Fans of television's "Days of Our Lives" and Broadway's "A Chorus Line," will want to add a dash of Kevin Spirtas to their eggs and java. Fresh from his gig as Corney Collins in the Las Vegas production of "Hairspray," Spirtas will croon a mix of Broadway and pop standards. (Spirtas also will showcase with Linda Purl, Fri., Sept. 11, 8pm, at The Lowry Theater.)

Independent Showcases: Thu.–Sat., Sept. 10-12, various times and venues


More than 75 artists and ensembles will perform at venues throughout downtown St. Paul – and two in Minneapolis – at independently-arranged showcases. Many of the acts will welcome locals. Performances by artists with Minnesota connections are listed below; a complete list of all showcases can be found here.

Minnesota's Butch Thompson, the legendary jazz pianist and former regular on "A Prairie Home Companion," will hold forth at The Artists' Quarter in the Historic Hamm Building, Wed., Sept. 9, at 9pm, 9:30pm, and 10pm.

Ananya Dance Theatre will present three, full-length performances of "Ashesh Barsha" at the Southern Theater, 1420 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis, Thu., Sept. 11, 7:30pm; Fri., Sept. 11, 8pm; Sat., Sept. 12, 8pm. Tickets are available at 612.340.1725, or from Conference Booth 921A. The Southern Theater is located near the Minneapolis West Bank campus of the University of Minnesota.

Mathew Janczewski, artistic director of ARENA Dances, has organized Twin City Dance, late-night showcases for 13 diverse Twin Cities ensembles – plus two guests – at the St. Paul Conservatory for the Performing Arts, Roy Wilkins Studios, RiverCentre, 5th Street entrance. Performers for Thu., Sept. 10, and Fri., Sept. 11: Maggie Bergeron & Company, 9:30pm; Cathy Wright Dance, 9:30pm; Bryan Gerber, 9:45pm; Shapiro & Smith Dance, 9:45pm; Flying Foot Forum, 10pm; Black Label Movement, 10pm; Buckets & Tap Shoes, 10:15pm; Zenon Dance Company, 10:15pm; Live Action Set, 10:30pm; Ragamala Dance, 10:30pm; Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater, 10:45pm; Kate Weare Company (NYC), 10:45pm-Thu. only; Epitome-No Question, 10:45pm-Fri. only; ARENA Dances, 11pm; Koresh Dance Company (Philadelphia), 11:15pm. Locals are welcome at these free performances.


8 @ 8 - The CIA (Choreographers in Accord) will showcase nine Twin Cities dance companies on stage at The Ritz Theater, 345 - 13th Avenue NE, Minneapolis, Thu.-Fri., Sept. 10-11, 8pm-9:15pm. Tickets are available at 612.436.1129, or from Conference Booths 902, 900B, and 724B. Ensembles include Ballet of the Dolls, Ethnic Dance Theatre, Flying Foot Forum, Jawaahir Dance Company, Katha Dance Theatre, Shapiro & Smith Dance, TU Dance, Zenon Dance Company, and Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre.


New Folk Booking will present several modern-acoustic, Celtic, folk, and world musicians in the Kellogg III room on the lobby level of the Crowne Plaza St. Paul – Riverfront: Thu., Sept. 10: Dáithí Sproule, 9:30pm; Billy McLaughlin, 10:10pm; Boiled in Lead, 10:50pm; Dennis Warner, 11:30pm. Fri., Sept. 11: Cooker John, 8pm; Greg Herriges, 8:45pm; Lehto & Wright, 9:30pm; Todd Menton, 10:15pm; The Galactic Cowboy Orchestra, 11pm.


Theatre of Fools will display its version of Vaudeville for the 21st Century, Thu., Sept. 10, at 10:01pm, 10:13pm, 10:23pm, and 10:37pm, in The Lowry Theater.


Buckets & Tap Shoes will present two performance segments, Thu., Sept. 10, Midnight and 12:30am, in The Lowry Theater.


Cantus will present selections from its 2009-2010 touring show in the Ramsey County Room 317, Landmark Center, Fri., Sept. 11, 8pm, 9:15pm, and 11pm.


The Rose Ensemble will present a free, full-length performance of early choral music at Central Presbyterian Church, Fri., Sept. 11, 8pm.

In addition to showcase and networking opportunities, the 22d Midwest Arts Conference will offer professional development workshops and seminars on topics such as Classical Music Basics, Innovating in Turbulent Times, Family Programming Basics, Dance Basics, Self-Represented Artists, Artist Managers and Agents, and Presenting 101.


A list of Marketplace exhibitors can be found here.

Minnesota's Buckets & Tap Shoes performed for 5,000 people at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater and the Vail International Dance Festival, Tue., Aug. 11, 2009. Engagements like this one often are the result of relationships built at regional and national arts conferences.

Mists

Pickerel Lake, Barnes, Wisconsin


Among others, the memorable elements of a weekend retreat to northwestern Wisconsin can include rain-drenched woods, the fourth movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in C# minor, the second act of American Ballet Theatre’s 1977 “Giselle,” four weeks worth of The New York Times Book Review, and an aging Scottish terrier’s inability to sustain long walks in high humidity.


We have visited this extended family hideaway since 1989, each visit reflecting both stability and change. Trees inch upward imperceptibly, their changes in height observable by comparing annual photographs. Declining lake water levels become noticeable only after a few seasons. New construction on neighboring parcels occurs quickly and one later recalls that the new always was there.


The summer season – Memorial Day through Labor Day – has its rhythms of grilling, boating, and fishing, with late July being a quiet interlude with few visitors. Fall brings a relatively early frost and finds a few deer hunters combing the woods. Winter hosts activities by skiers and snowmobilers, organized loosely around the pro football schedule. Spring means transition, a time for preparation.


For years, one particular place across the lake was busy throughout the summer, with constant arrivals and departures by car and boat, and with swimmers daily visiting their anchored raft. Last year, however, the pace of activity over there slackened. This year, the raft remains landlocked and the winter covering continues to protect the pontoon boat. Incrementally, the kids have grown up and life patterns have changed for the extended L---- family. In a few years, perhaps, one might observe a group of college students taking their departure following a New Year’s Eve blowout, similar to that of a few years ago at the cabin next door to us.

• • •

Forever is a long time.


Those words have tugged at me for the nearly three weeks since Robert S. McNamara died at age 93. His passing serves to remind that we write our epitaphs incrementally by what we do and by what we leave undone. McNamara’s summing up is a tortured one:

“Architect of a Futile War,” read the headline for his obituary by Tim Weiner in the New York Times.


“’Terribly Wrong’ Handling of Vietnam Overshadowed Record of Achievement,” said the Washington Post in introducing its obit by Thomas Lippman.


“A fool,” wrote the journalist and author David Halberstam in his book “The Best and the Brightest.”

In Lippman’s words, McNamara served as the “primary architect of U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam.” During his tenure as Secretary of Defense under presidents Kennedy and Johnson, from 1961 to 1968, 16,000 American soldiers died, with another 42,000 succumbing in the succeeding seven years under Nixon.


To these may be added the countless others who were wounded physically, psychically, and spiritually – just among Americans. Millions of Vietnamese also were killed, injured, and displaced.


As McNamara’s thinking in 1967 turned away from waging war and toward negotiation, he could have made a difference by making a public break with Johnson and resigning his post. Instead, he traded his loyalty and silence for an appointment in 1968 to lead the World Bank.


In his 1995 memoir, “In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam,” McNamara said we were “wrong, terribly wrong.” At the time, notes Weiner, the New York Times editorialized:

Mr. McNamara must not escape the lasting moral condemnation of his countrymen. Surely he must in every quiet and prosperous moment hear the ceaseless whispers of those poor boys in the infantry, dying in the tall grass, platoon by platoon, for no purpose. What he took from them cannot be repaid by prime-time apology and stale tears, three decades late.

Indeed. As millions of people found their voices to oppose the war the longer it carried on, McNamara owed them his in their effort to stop the bloodshed carried on in their names.


Still, he and his many colleagues in leadership need not twist in the wind by themselves. As Halberstam noted, McNamara was "a prisoner of his own background...unable, as indeed was the country which sponsored him, to adapt his values and his terms to Vietnamese realities."

• • •

I was 12 years old and attending summer camp on Green Lake near Chisago City, Minnesota, when North Vietnamese torpedo boats reportedly attacked U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 1964. Three days later, The Tonkin Gulf Resolution was approved by both houses of Congress, passing unanimously in the House of Representatives and nearly so in the Senate. The resolution provided presidents Johnson and Nixon with the authorization – and the implied blank check – that they needed to conduct the military operations of the war. The attack on Aug. 4 never happened.


It took three days to mobilize the country for war. It would take years to mobilize the people for peace in sufficient numbers to elect a congress that would shut off the war's funding.


I spent the summer of 1977 campaigning in south Minneapolis as a candidate for the city council. Every citizen should stand for office at least once as the undertaking is among the best educations one can receive. Visiting with voters at their doors provides the opportunity to be embraced, rejected, applauded, dismissed, and challenged in every way. You meet everyone you can imagine.


One hot day, I was invited inside by a resident of one house. It was the home of a family whose son had been killed in Vietnam. At the time, I told myself I would never forget the particulars of their story; unfortunately, I have. What has stayed with me, however, was the utter emptiness and absence of life in that house. For its residents, time had stopped. I was running for municipal office, but for these folks their enduring relationship to government would always focus on the national forces that had taken their child. It was my first personalized insight into the sacred trust that should bind citizens and their elected officials.


Frequently, presidents talk to or meet with the surviving relatives of soldiers killed in the nation's service. In his diary entry for Sept. 6, 1983, President Reagan noted his call to the parents of two U.S. Marines killed in Lebanon: "One father asked if they were in Lebanon for anything that was worth his son's life." Although their policies and directives may not change as a result of such interactions, I think it is important that presidents and others have the experiences.

• • •

My friend, John, graduated from Columbia University last year and since has been working with AmeriCorps. He came here to Pickerel Lake with us during a too-brief visit last fall. We had met 10 years earlier when he moved to Minnesota as a young dancer, fresh from high school. After two years, he returned to California to dance with a company there. He has dropped in to visit us a few times over the years, and we have traveled to both coasts to see his performances.


As a dancer, as a student, and on his own initiative, John has had the opportunity to travel and take the measure of most of the U.S. and much of the world, including Australia, South America, and Europe.


Various sets of past circumstances could have conspired to make of him a soldier, fighting in my name, and yours. I mean no disrespect to any soldier when I acknowledge that I cannot dwell long on that thought – it is too painful to contemplate. In following the dictates of his own conscience, John may become a lifelong warrior of a different sort, but one who also makes it more difficult for nations and people to choose wars.


I am grateful that he added his essence to the mists on these shores. Among others, his presence was a memorable element of a weekend retreat to northwestern Wisconsin.

Paul Thissen for Minnesota's Governor 2010

Minneapolis, Minnesota

An evening at the Burnsville Performing Arts Center

Burnsville, Minnesota


That "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" won seven Tony Awards after its Broadway premiere in 1979 may have owed more to the weakness of its competition that year than to the strength of its own merits. It is a dreadful story of maniacal revenge told using a torturous score. Easy listening it is not. Still, it won for best musical, actor (Len Cariou), director (Harold Prince), score (Stephen Sondheim), book turned into musical, scenery, and costumes.


Staging the work requires ambition and endurance by any who would attempt it, including those of the Summer Theatre program of Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District 191. Working with a cast of 10 principals, a chorus of 30 men and women, and an orchestra of 20, director Randy Day and his colleagues opened a decent production at the Burnsville Performing Arts Center, July 16. Several hundred people attended the July 18 performance.


The impressive range and facility of Javier Ferreira's voice in the title role stood out for its competence and clarity. For the rest, a dampening of sound from the main hall's orchestra pit, by whatever means, would have been welcome, as the un-miked instruments often overwhelmed the miked singer/actors as they faced-down the challenging lyrics and melodies.


Sally Graff's costumes conveyed a convincing authenticity of mid-19th century London styles. While serviceable, the un-credited set design made for awkward changes of scenery and failed to fully utilize the huge proscenium opening; resource limitations may have accounted for these results. The production runs through Aug. 1.


The access of student thespians to the grand facilities of BPAC had to inspire. A central feature of the complex is the all-glass, two-story lobby that defines an entire side of the building, with the second level lobby area accomodating 300 in banquet settings with views over the Minnesota River valley. A proscenium stage theater (45' x 100' – with 48' proscenium opening and orchestra pit) provides excellent sightlines for at least the lowest 700 (of 1,000 total) seats, while a black box theater can seat 150 in various configurations. The Center also includes a 2,000 sq. ft. art gallery, meeting rooms, and large rehearsal room.


Beginning this fall, BPAC also will be home to the Envision Academy of the Arts, a magnet school featuring dance, music, and theater, offered tuition-free to students in the District 191 communities, plus neighboring Lakeville. The Academy will have connections with MacPhail Center for the Arts, Minnesota Orchestra, Gustavus Adolphus College, and the Children's Theatre Company.


The BPAC is part of Burnsville's Heart of the City development, combining housing, retail, parks, plazas, arts, and eventual hotel in a central walking district. It is operated by VenuWorks, a management firm for venues throughout North America. Executive Director Wolf Larson hails most recently from northern California. Stephen Rueff, production manager, may be familiar to many Minnesotans as a longtime stage manager and event producer. Steve's early days included stints as a dancer for New Dance Ensemble and Zenon Dance Company. While living in New York, he toured with Meredith Monk and the Blue Man Group, among others.


The Center's only discernable misstep to-date has been its affiliation with TicketMaster. No self-respecting venue that respects its patrons should work with an operation that charges a $5.75 per ticket "convenience fee," on top of a $2 per ticket facility charge, and $2.50 for the convenience of printing the ticket on one's own computer/printer. Adult tickets for "Sweeney Todd" at BPAC were listed at $18 – before these add-ons.


Much more user friendly is the series of late-night meet-ups to introduce the facilities to artists, audiences, and their friends. The first of the series was held July 18, with two more scheduled for Sat., July 25 and Aug. 1, 9pm to midnight, in the first-floor lobby and art gallery. Live music and live-working visual artists will be on hand to facilitate conversation and networking.


Those attending the July 18 event included Denise and Rick Vogt, co-directors of Ballet Royale, a classical academy opening in September in Lakeville. Both are former dancers, and Denise is certified by the Royal Academy of Dance.


As a sign of the excitement and interest that the new Center is generating, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council will hold its annual meeting at the BPAC, July 28.

Revisiting the Sea of Tranquility

Minneapolis, Minnesota


Forty years ago today, Apollo 11 lifted off from its Florida launch pad carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the moon.


Four days later, Sunday, July 20, 1969, Armstrong and Aldrin steered Eagle, their lunar module, to a landing at Tranquility Base on the moon's Sea of Tranquility, while Collins remained in overhead orbit in his command module. Within six and a half hours, at 10:56pm EDT, Armstrong became the first human to set foot on another world.


In four days more, the three men splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, fulfilling the nation's commitment to land on and return safely from the moon before the 1960s ended. In announcing his support for the Apollo program to a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, President John Kennedy said

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

Five moon landings subsequent to Apollo 11 ended in 1972. We have not been back since. Some say we should not make the trip, and others say we never will.


I think we should and hope that we will.

Thanks for YES

Minneapolis, Minnesota


Vote Yes Minnesota, the organization that advocated for the Legacy Amendment to the Minnesota constitution that voters approved last November by 56+%, raised $3.97 million for its efforts. Writing for Finance and Commerce, July 13, Steve Perry reported that $1.82 million, or 46% of the total, was received in 15 donations of $25,000 or more. The single largest gift, $1 million, was contributed by Alida Messinger. Names of those donors accompanied Perry's report and are on file with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board.


Thanks to all who provided the money, the muscle, and the votes for a statewide crusade of civic and moral responsibility!

Summer arts amusements at home and in Burnsville

Minneapolis, Minnesota


During July, MinnesotaPlaylist.Com is featuring "Stories," video interviews with 11 people who were there, about Minnesota's performing arts past. Check-in with the Playlist regularly for brief but informative visits with Don Stolz, Judith Brin Ingber, Patrick Scully, Faye Price, Charles Nolte, Marcus Dillard, Barbara Fields, Carolyn Pool, Sheila Livingston, Barbara Kingsley, and Stephen D'Ambrose.

• • •

My friend, Stephen Rueff, is the production manager at the new Burnsville Performing Arts Center. Steve and the Center are starting a new late night series on Saturday evenings, July 18, July 25, and Aug. 1.


"Sweeney Todd" will be running in the Main Hall theater which will be kept open after the Saturday night performances for a Late Nite hang out. BPAC will set up lounge furniture in the art gallery and lower lobby, will book two music groups to play for 40 minutes each night, and the art gallery will feature two people to paint/sketch the room live each night. They are looking for other performers (spoken word/choreographers/video artists) to come by for short performances.


BPAC will build the Late Nite audience with word of mouth through the arts community, using 40 cast, 15 orchestra, and 10 crew members of "Sweeney Todd" as the seed audience. Anyone – that means you and me – can join them in the lobby after the second act starts, from 9pm to Midnight.


BPAC opened in January with a 150-seat black box theater, a 1,000 seat proscenium stage (45' x 100' – with 48' proscenium opening) with sprung floor and orchestra pit, an art gallery, and a second floor lobby/reception area that can seat 300 in a banquet setting. Take I-35 south from Minneapolis or north from Lakeville to Burnsville Parkway; go east to Nicollet Avenue; go north to Travelers; then one block east to free parking.


For more information, call Rueff at 952.895.4678.

How to spend Minnesota's public arts money

Minneapolis, Minnesota


The directors and staffs of the Minnesota State Arts Board and the eleven Regional Arts Councils have an opportunity without precedent to invest in the future of our state and build an arts legacy second-to-none, provided they think and act globally as well as locally, daringly as well as prudently.


Last Nov. 4, more than 56% of Minnesota's voters said YES to the Clean Water, Land, and Legacy Amendment to the Minnesota Constitution. Starting July 1, Legacy increased the state sales tax by 3/8 of 1% for 25 years to dedicate funds for lakes, rivers, streams, groundwater, wetlands, prairies, forests, fish, game, wildlife habitat, parks, and trails. The amendment also provides 19.75% of the collected funds for arts, arts education and access, and preservation of history and cultural heritage.


With statewide lobbying by Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, the 2009 Minnesota Legislature appropriated the first Legacy funds for fiscal years 2010 and 2011 (as reported by MCA):

Funding to the arts via the Minnesota State Arts Board and Regional Arts Councils will increase by $21,650,000 per year for the next two years, for a total of $43.3 million. Added to the $8.6 million passed in the state’s economic development bill, there will now be just over $30 million in state funding for the arts annually, compared to just over $10 million annually this year.

Here is how it breaks down in each year, 2010 and 2011:

• $16,775,000 for Arts and Arts Access Initiatives, “to support Minnesota’s artists and arts organizations in creating, producing and presenting high-quality arts activities; to overcome barriers to accessing high-quality arts activities, and to instill the arts into the community and public life in this state.”
• $3,245,000 for Arts Education Collaborations, for “high-quality, age-appropriate arts education for Minnesotans of all ages to develop knowledge, skills, and understanding of the arts”
• $1,080,000 for Arts in Cultural Heritage, “for events and activities that represent the diverse ethnic and cultural arts traditions, including folk and traditional artists and art organizations represented in this state, ” and
• $550,000 for Fiscal Oversight and Accountability (to the MSAB). The first three items above will be available 70% from the MSAB and 30% from the Regional Arts Councils.
• In addition to the dedicated funding above, libraries received $4.25 million per year which “may be used to sponsor programs provided by regional libraries, or to provide grants to local arts and heritage programs for programs in partnership with regional libraries,” (i.e., opportunities for artists and arts organizations to work with libraries).
• Also, the Humanities Center received $300,000 per year for “museums and organizations celebrating the ethnic identities of Minnesotans” to re-grant, so there may be further opportunities for artists and arts organizations.

In addition, over the next two years, the Minnesota Historical Society will receive $14.4 million, public television $6.3 million, Minnesota Public Radio $2.65 million, AMPERS (local public radio) $2.65 million, children’s museums $1 million, the Science Museum of Minnesota $900,000, Minnesota Zoos $900,000, libraries $8.5 million, Indian Affairs Council (for projects related to the preservation of native languages) $1.9 million, Perpich Center for Arts Education $1 million, and the Minnesota Humanities Center, $2.1 million.

Pretty amazing? Look up from your screen and say "YES!"


Following the legislature's adjournment, staff of the Minnesota State Arts Board conducted a series of forums throughout the state to solicit feedback about funding principles and suggestions for specific funding areas. Currently, the MSAB's thinking embraces the following principles:

• Statewide approach
• Demographic and geographic fairness
• Inclusiveness
• Sustainability
• Anticipatory and flexible
• Transparency and public involvement
• Accountability and stewardship

I attended the public forum in Minneapolis on June 6 and, with 40 others, ran my mouth for two hours about how the MSAB and the RACs should spend Minnesota's public arts money for the next two years. It was a fascinating and stimulating discussion. In the run-up to last November's balloting, I wrote here on Oct. 12 about the reasons why Minnesotans might want to vote YES, along with suggestions for how funds might be spent, with related posts on Oct. 29, Oct. 30, Nov. 5, and Jan. 22.


Today's Minnesota Mist posting updates and reflects my current thinking on the subject in response to the MSAB's request for input. You also should share your thinking, by the means described below.


I know what I am writing about. Besides knocking around Minnesota's arts milieu as a relatively successful arts administrator working with more than 50 communities during nearly 30 years, over the past 10 years, I served on 18 grant review panels for the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, and the Jerome Foundation. In that service I analyzed and commented about the programs, administrations, and finances of hundreds of small and mid-sized organizations. During the 1990s, I worked with the Bush Foundation and its consortium of funding agencies to raise $100,000 to assist arts organizations, post-flood, in Grand Forks, North Dakota. For many years, I led an organization with access to a $100,000 commercial line of credit based upon my signature. In my consulting activities, I have reviewed and analyzed the tax returns and financial statements of more than 24 organizations. Along the way, I have coached many individual artists and ensembles on a variety of organization, program, administrative, and life issues.


These activities have made me familiar with hundreds of individuals and organizations in all disciplines and corners of the state – from Lanesboro and Rochester in the southeast, to Duluth and Grand Rapids in the north, to Fargo and Fergus Falls in the northwest, and the nine-to-13 counties of the Twin Cities region. At whatever stage of their artistic development, all of these people embody the core values of artistic excellence, accountability and transparency as stewards of public resources, innovation, and respectful partnering in the intellectual and creative development of our people.


Although the legislature previously has been episodically very generous in its appropriations for the arts, its overall investment has not kept pace with inflation and growth of field since 1977. Individual elected representatives and senators who support the arts must acknowledge that fact of life, even as they seek to downplay their complicity in its reality. In this, the legislature differs not at all from the intents, practices, and capacities of our major corporate and foundation grant-making agencies.


With passage of the initiative by Minnesota's former governor, Arne Carlson, the legislature appropriated $13 million for the arts in 1998. This was reduced somewhat to $12.6 million for 2002, and to $8.59 million for each year 2003 to 2007. The appropriation for 2008 was $10.33 million. The average annual inflation rate of 2.71% during the 10 years from 1998 to 2008 made the $13 million appropriation for 1998 equal to $17 million in 2008 and, if extended, $17.9 million in 2010.


My current assumptions, for the points that follow below: $21,650,000 of new annual funding + $8,600,000 of "existing funding" = $30,250,000 of annual funding in 2010 and 2011.


My wish list for 2010 and 2011 begins with the principle of restoring, through the rule-making process, all MSAB and RAC programs to the levels they enjoyed in 1998 when funding was $13 million. This restoration would require an allocation of $17.9 million to fund the same programs for the same number of communities, organizations, and individual artists, adjusted for inflation, but also adjusted for current, statutory mandates and circumstances that recognize how communities, organizations, artists, and programs have changed or gone away over the past seven years. By what rationale would the MSAB and RACs do otherwise?


Then, the following minimum funding increases should be made to existing programs to allow for inflation and growth of field: (a) Individual artist initiatives, $1.25 million; (b) Institutional organization (general operating) support, $1.75 million; (c) Presenting organization support, $750,000; (d) Arts Across Minnesota touring, $750,000; (e) Arts education initiatives, $1 million.


All grants to individual artists by the MSAB or the RACs should equal or exceed $10,000. While current grants of lesser amounts for projects encourage the pursuit of artistic excellence, they rarely allow it to be realized. By what rationale should the grant amounts be less than $10,000?


If we believe that innovation and collaboration are keys to advancement, then funds should be available to any individual artist or arts organization, of any size, to commission new work from Minnesota artists in all disciplines. A $500,000 pool of commissioning funds, administered by the Minnesota State Arts Board on a once-per-year basis, should be available to applicants in amounts up to $50,000, with 20% of the available pool reserved for grants of $15,000 or less.


In the interest of sustainability, and to build infrastructure, the RACs should annually administer and grant from an $850,000 pool of technical assistance and equipment funds for all grantees of the MSAB and the RACs, regardless of budget size. The size of a specific grant should be without limit within the constraints of the total pool of available funds. Prior to 2003, the McKnight Foundation’s capital program made equipment and technical assistance grants to its grantees over and above its general operating grants. Grantees were eligible for one capital grant every five years. Applications were easy and straight-forward, and their approval helped build an organization’s physical infrastructure, including such things as telephones that work, computer networks that can talk to each other, lighting equipment, portable floors, choral risers at park pavilions, etc. For whatever good reasons, McKnight needed to discontinue this program; need for the program continues.


The MSAB should surmount bureaucratic obstacles and make an annual grant of up to $350,000 to the Performing Arts Archives at the University of Minnesota. This grant should be earmarked specifically to accelerate the acquisition, processing, and retention of records – broadly defined – for archival purposes from performing arts organizations throughout Minnesota.


Once annually, members of the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Forum of Regional Arts Councils should convene as the [new] Minnesota Cultural Facilities Commission. The commission should have a $2.5 million pool of funds from which to make annual planning grants of up to $500,000, and capital construction grants of up to $2 million, for projects whose total cost will be $10 million or less. This body also should recommend statewide priorities to the legislature for capital bonding projects costing more than $10 million.


In the interests of inclusiveness and demographic and geographic fairness, new program initiatives should make $1.5 million available statewide on an annual basis for music organizations (rock and roll bands, rhythm and blues bands, GLBT bands, Christian or other sectarian instrumental/vocal groups, VFW and American Legion bands, community theaters, and bands and choirs of specific affinity groups). These initiatives should provide streamlined processes for idiosyncratic grants of as little as $500 to $1,000.


A $1 million pool of funds, administered by the MSAB, should be dedicated to experiments in the provision of administrative infrastructure for organizations with budgets less than $200,000. Current RAC programs provide funds to hire consultants who can tell artists what they need to do. This new funding pool would aim to provide the savvy skill-sets to actually do the work.


All grants should be available to organizations that are not necessarily 501(c)(3) under the Internal Revenue Service code. Provision should be made for those, for instance, that are organized as limited liability corporations (LLC). If one considers that grants made to individual artists are made to "for profit" individuals, then it is not a major stretch to conclude that grants will be appropriate to some organizations that are "for profit."


Finally, although members of the legislature made it clear that a minimum of new arts funding should support increased staffing of the MSAB, the state's collective arts community should push back and insist that a minimum of $150,000 in new funds be devoted to the support of staffing positions at the agency. In other words, get the politicians out of the micromanaging of the personnel resources needed to conduct the agency's operations which have been understaffed for several years.


Now, it is your turn to weigh-in. Sue Gens, executive director, Minnesota State Arts Board, issued the following message on July 10:

Recently, the Minnesota State Arts Board and Minnesota's 11 regional arts councils completed a statewide series of public forums. The purpose was to collect input on how best to invest the new arts and cultural heritage funds that will become available this year. We are grateful to everyone who participated in these sessions.

If you were not able to participate, there is another way for you to provide input. Please take a few minutes to visit the Arts Board's Web site and share your thoughts by completing an online survey at http://www.arts.state.mn.us.

By what rationale would you not want to tell MSAB how to spend Minnesota's public arts money?

"Stimulus" funds on way to arts groups

Minneapolis, Minnesota


The National Endowment for the Arts announced today its FY 2009 Grant Awards for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. A total of 631 arts organizations nationwide will share $29,775,000 in grant amounts of either $50,000 or $25,000.


Minnesota arts organizations (26, or 4% of the grantees) will receive $1,025,000 (3.4% of the total dollars) to support the preservation of jobs that are threatened by declines in philanthropic and other support during the current economic downturn.


The grantees include American Composers Forum, St. Paul, $25,000; Art Start, St. Paul, $25,000; Children's Theatre Company, Minneapolis, $50,000; Coffee House Press, Minneapolis, $25,000; East Side Arts Council, St. Paul, $25,000; Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer, $50,000; Graywolf Press, St. Paul, $25,000; Guthrie Theatre Foundation, $50,000; Heart of the Beast Theater, Minneapolis, $25,000; Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minneapolis, $50,000; IFP-Minneapolis, $25,000; Illusion Theater & School, Minneapolis, $50,000; Loft, Inc., Minneapolis, $50,000; MacPhail Center for Music, Minneapolis, $50,000; Milkweed Editions, Minneapolis, $25,000; Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, Minneapolis, $50,000; Minnesota Opera Company, Minneapolis, $50,000; Minnesota Orchestral Association, Minneapolis, $50,000; Minnesota Public Radio, Inc., St. Paul, $50,000; Mixed Blood Theatre Company, Minneapolis, $25,000; Penumbra Theatre Company, Inc., St. Paul, $25,000; Public Radio International, Inc., Minneapolis, $50,000; Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Society, St. Paul, $50,000; Springboard for the Arts, St. Paul, $25,000; University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis (museums), $50,000; and VocalEssence, Minneapolis, $50,000.


With the exception of the Franconia Sculpture Park, no Minnesota arts organizations located outside of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul – in those places where philanthropic and other support is harder to come by – made the cut.


Also noteworthy: in spite of having the second or third most thriving dance scene in the U.S., not a single Minnesota dance organization was granted stimulus funds to save jobs. Nationally, 60 dance organizations (9.5% of the total grantees) were awarded $2,650,000 (8.9% of total dollars).


The economic stimulus package passed by Congress earlier this year included $50 million for the arts, of which today's grants are a part. In April, the NEA awarded 63 grants, totalling $19.8 million, to 63 state and regional agencies; in that round, the Minnesota State Arts Board received $316,000, and the Minneapolis-based Arts Midwest received $514,400.

Narcissism: How dumb is my audience?

Minneapolis, Minnesota


For some of them, getting hit in the head with a 2" x 4" would neither wake them up nor make an impression. They are God's gift to the world and prima donnas – very important people who have paid their money and can do what they wish. They may be bored or disengaged (not their fault!), but they are not selfish, arrogant, or rude. Rules and other people just don't apply or matter to them.


"They" are the miscreants who leave their cell phones on during performances; answer those cell phones during performances; check email during performances; text with friends during performances; take still and moving photos during performances, with and without clicks and flashes; talk to members of their party during performances; sing along with the lyrics from the stage; leave and re-enter the auditoria during performances; and trip over everyone in a row on their race for the exits before the curtain rings down. In Minnesota, particularly in Minneapolis and at Orchestra Hall, "they" also are the unfortunate souls who cannot restrain themselves from hacking and coughing throughout performances regardless of the season or weather.


"They" are our cultural narcissists and, judging by reader postings on today's New York Times blog by Dave Itzkoff (Arts Beat: Cultural News and Views), a vast majority of us want "them" to go away.


Itzkoff recounts his Monday report about a Sunday incident at the Orleans hotel in Las Vegas when two-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone stopped mid-performance to confront a patron who was using an electronic device. Itzkoff apparently thought LuPone was playing the diva and implied she was wrong. That prompted a letter from LuPone to Itzkoff, published today, in which she asked: "What do you expect me, or any performer for that matter, to do?"


Itzkoff's blog, inviting readers' comments, was posted at 10:37am this morning. The first reply came at 10:58am. Response #500 went up at 4:10pm. While somewhat repetitious, it is entertaining and often compelling reading.


Respondent #258–Karen suggests issuing hot pink rule sheets as people enter the theater, informing them they are subject to ejection. Respondent #275–Andrew suggests that performers deal with it as athletes must when ignoring unruly fans in the stands. Respondent #411–Christopher favors allowing performers to use pistols from the stage in order to clean up the gene pool.


A small number of miscreants seek to justify – or bully – themselves; most notoriously, Respondent #18–Charles C.:

I paid my money, and I’ll do damn well what I please as an audience member. If I want to talk or tape or film, ehtier out in the open or sereptitiously I will do it. Look back at the days of Shakespeare when the audience participated in conversation, and now we have prima donnas who strut like a Perez Hilton on a stage acting as they want and feeling immune from appropriate reaction. Here’s what I will do in the future, I will have eggs and rotten vegatables with me and I will offer you a serving it you confront me, ot if you demonstrate haughty aires on a stage that I am financially supporting. [sic]

Respondents #244–Garrett, #332–Anna, and #488–alice563 have several thoughtful and specific words for Charles C. – including the information that in Shakespeare's day the players also could throw stuff at the audience.


Overwhelmingly – overwhelmingly – readers support LuPone, even though a sizeable part of their number question whether it is a performer's place and duty to tell off the crowd. A strong consensus favors greater enforcement by ushers and theater managements. Although one might agree that theater managers, rather than performers, should enforce standards of etiquette and decorum, what are the performers and the rest of the audience to do in the face of management's indifference?


We do have leverage. The collective we have made an art form of our willingness to restrain the behavior of those wanting to smoke $5 packages of cigarettes in our midst. Can we be no less effective on behalf of many who pay much more than that to patronize theaters? Maybe we should risk ejection ourselves by standing up, mid-performance, to call-out the narcissists who believe it is all about them. That might be a 2" x 4" that could get management's attention and lead to change.

Investing for success

Minneapolis, Minnesota


"Where do you want your business to be after this harsh recession and how bold do you plan to be in achieving that goal?"


That's the question posed by Nelson Davis on huffingtonpost.com as he recounts the pitched competition between cereal company rivals W. K. Kellogg and C. W. Post in Battle Creek, Michigan, during the 1930s. Their story is a classic illustration of the adage that one cannot cost-cut one's way to survival and success during tough times. Traction and dominance in the marketplace follow from investments in products and their marketing.


Michael Kaiser, the so-called arts-turn-around guru who now leads the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, has long voiced the mantra "Good art, well marketed."


Many artists and their organizations will not survive the current recession and, indeed, many of them should proactively cash in what few chips they have. I have been working with several excellent artists in recent months, however, who are just warming to the challenges before them.


I have been telling them to do what they must in order to "survive," and to use this time to plan and position themselves for the recovery: order their financial processes, build their networks, hone their artistic craft to an engaging excellence, and own their niche with the most effective visibility.


With 10% of America's workforce now under- or unemployed, individuals can adapt the same advice to their own particular circumstances. It is not always a pretty effort, as the Kellogg-Post story showed, but it is a necessary one, and a part of life's grand adventures.

A marriage in Iowa

Mason City, Iowa

Civil Marriage Ceremony for Gary Swenson and Dean Genth
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Music Man Square, Mason City, Iowa


Officiant: The Reverend Dr. Mel White
Members of the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus
Directed by Dr. Stan Hill
Accompanied by Timothy De Prey