An Update from Our Artistic Directors

The now-expired Equity 99-Seat Plan enabled Boston Court to grow and develop in ways that would never have been possible if that plan had not existed. Many of our careers were built in 99-seat houses, and we wear that badge proudly. From our first production, The Theatre @ Boston Court has paid actors more than the plan required and, as we hope we have demonstrated, we have challenged ourselves to increase our pay to artists as we are able. It has always been our goal at Boston Court to transition to an Equity contract as the organization grew, and we feel we must continue to give each play what it needs, including working with a blend of Equity and non-Equity actors.

For that reason, as Equity has not provided any options that would enable us to continue to grow slowly to a contract over time, The Theatre @ Boston Court has begun to produce under the new LA 99-Seat Theatre Agreement. Our 2017 season will be composed of only three plays, not our usual four, and will employ the smallest number of actors in our history in order to afford to be in compliance.

While several other theatres have also decided to convert to the LA 99-Seat Theatre Agreement, already a number of theaters have announced that they will not be able to make the leap to the new Agreement. Those theatres will either cease production or find ways to work without an Equity agreement. We mourn the losses this will mean for our beloved theatre community. We treasure the opportunities the 99-seat Plan afforded us, and the rich gift it has been to our vibrant community of passionate and talented theatre artists. We are proud to be part of the amazing LA theatre community, and look forward to continued partnership and collaboration.

Jessica Kubzansky and Michael Michetti | Artistic Directors, The Theatre @ Boston Court/Boston Court Performing Arts Center

The Golden Dragon: Production photos

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Seven Spots on the Sun: video preview

Seven Spots on the Sun, by Martin Zimmerman from Boston Court on Vimeo.

SHIV: Production photography

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

My Barking Dog

Statement re: AEA’s proposal

Boston Court Performing Arts Center has been closely following the statements and discussions surrounding AEA’s recent proposal to its membership for a new promulgated agreement to replace the AEA Los Angeles 99 Seat Plan. Many of us have individually participated in various discussions online and in town halls. Some of these discussions have prompted us to make the following organizational statement to bring clarity to the way our organization is structured, as well as state our support for the community at large:

Boston Court Performing Arts Center, originally founded in 2003 as The Theatre @ Boston Court, is a 501c3 company that has a lease agreement with a privately owned facility in Pasadena. Each year we program two performance spaces with four The Theatre @ Boston Court main stage theatrical productions, 25+ Music @ Boston Court events and a rotating visual art gallery, as well as numerous readings, public service events, and community rentals. Our full-time staff is employed by the performing arts center, and their salaries and our budget reflect the performing arts center as a whole. The Theatre @ Boston Court is one of the programs under the umbrella of Boston Court Performing Arts Center.

We have always valued our artists, paying actors performance stipends well above what is required by the AEA 99 Seat Plan, as well as a rehearsal stipend. We have reached out to AEA over the years, trying to find a way to produce outside the 99 Seat Plan. Unfortunately our overtures have not yet resulted in negotiations.

The Theatre @ Boston Court stands with the vast majority of the Los Angeles intimate theatre community in opposition to AEA’s current proposal. We strongly believe that, if enacted, this agreement will not lead to a substantial increase in Equity contracts, which supply a living wage to actors. We are not certain what the result will ultimately be for our organization. What we know for certain is that we, along with many of our colleagues in the community, believe the new proposal will have a detrimental effect on the quality and quantity of the new, innovative or risk-taking works which currently make the Los Angeles intimate theatre community so vibrant.

We remain hopeful that actors, producers, and theater makers of all stripes, will come to an agreement that allows both the artists as well as the art in Los Angeles to flourish.

-Boston Court Performing Arts Center

Production Photos: THE MISSING PAGES OF LEWIS CARROLL

Visit BostonCourt.org for tickets and more information.

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Photo credit: Ed Krieger

Announcing: THE MISSING PAGES OF LEWIS CARROLL

PLAY/ground Micro-interview: Steven Dietz

Boston Court: In what way has this feeling of wanderlust changed from the post-war era in which your play is set, and how has it remained the same? Or has it changed at all? Is there something inextricable about the need for adventure and American youth?

Steven Dietz: Oh, I’d love to know this and I don’t … but let me hazard a guess:  I think the need to run our lives past the “out there” must be as strong now as it has ever been.  However, I think wanderlust now often manifests itself in a virtual way.  We are given such a rich illusion of the “out there” – such a seductive feeling that we are “going places” when we Google our way across the world – that I wonder if we are willing to risk the fundamental hardship that comes with an actual, not virtual, quest.  “The road” to me is not romantic in the least;  it is a conscious disruption of the norm, of the habit of American life.  That takes guts and a wild soul and perhaps a healthy amount of societal disregard.  And that is likely the gift that Youth gives to a culture-at-large:  the beautiful naiveté;  the beginner’s disregard for consequence.

**

Steven Dietz’s play Mad Beat Hip & Gone will be presented Saturday, November 8th at 11am.

The reading is free and open to the public, but reservations are recommended.

To reserve, call 626-683-6883 or email JoeM@BostonCourt.com

Steven Dietz’s thirty-plus plays and adaptations have been seen at over one hundred regional theatres in the United States, as well as Off-Broadway and in twenty countries internationally.  His work has been translated into ten languages.

Mr. Dietz is a two-time winner of the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award, for Fiction (produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company, Off-Broadway), and Still Life with Iris; as well as a two-time finalist for the American Theatre Critic’s Steinberg New Play Award, for Last of the Boys, and Becky’s New Car.

Mr. Dietz received the PEN USA West Award in Drama for Lonely Planet; the 2007 Edgar Award® for Drama for Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure; and the AATE Distinguished Play Award for Jackie & Me, adapted from Dan Gutman. Other widely produced plays include Yankee Tavern, Shooting Star, God’s Country, Private Eyes, Inventing van Gogh and The Nina Variations.

Recent work includes Rancho Mirage (Edgerton New Play Award, NNPN Rolling World Premiere), Bloomsday (commissioned by ACT Theatre, Seattle.), and The Shimmering.

Mr. Dietz and his family divide their time between Seattle and Austin, where he teaches playwriting and directing at the University of Texas.

PLAY/ground Micro-interview: Lauren Yee

Boston Court: How do you use comedy to help tell a story which seems, on the surface, dark, scary and, in a lot of ways, sad? 

Lauren Yee: I love attacking a story from a sideways angle. I love surprising an audience and allowing them to run the gamut of emotions. When you’re dealing with difficult subject matter, like in in a word, humor can help to get an audience on your side. To me, humor and pain go hand in hand. What I find hilarious usually is so because it lives right on the surface of deep-seated pain.

**

Lauren Yee’s play in a word will be presented on Saturday, November 8th at 5pm.

The reading is free and open to the public, but reservations are recommended.

To reserve, call 626-683-6883 or email JoeM@BostonCourt.com

Lauren Yee’s plays include Ching Chong Chinaman (Pan Asian, Mu Performing Arts, SIS Productions, Impact Theatre), Crevice (Impact Theatre), The Hatmaker’s Wife (Playwrights Realm, The Hub, Moxie Theatre, AlterTheater, PlayPenn), Hookman (Company One workshop), in a word (Hangar and Williamstown workshops), King of the Yees (Goodman Theatre commission), Samsara (O’Neill Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Victory Gardens’ IGNITION Festival), and The Tiger Among Us (MAP Fund, Mu Performing Arts). Upcoming productions in the 2014/15 season at Victory Gardens, San Francisco Playhouse, the Cleveland Public Theatre, Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company, and Encore Theatre.

Work developed at Lincoln Center/LCT3, Goodman Theatre, Magic Theatre, The Public, Rattlestick, and Kitchen Dog. Former Dramatists Guild fellow, MacDowell fellow, and Public Theater Emerging Writers Group member.

Fellowships: Women’s Project Lab, Ma-Yi Writers’ Lab, Playwrights Realm Page One residency, Playwrights’ Center Core Writer. Commissions: Goodman Theatre, Lincoln Center/LCT3, Mixed Blood, Encore Theatre, and TheatreworksUSA. BA: Yale. MFA: UCSD. www.laurenyee.com