#TBACON

No, it's not a delicious new breakfast meat (that was my first thought anyway), it's the Theatre Bay Area Annual Conference!

It's happening next Monday, May 14th and has speakers, a vendor faire, breakout sessions and all kinds of info for all kinds of theatermakers.  You can go for the full day, or just for the evening 'after hours' sessions.  And, if you've got the time but not the money, they still need volunteers.

I'm super excited to be moderating a breakout session on gender parity for the conference.  Here's the program description of the panel:
Research tells us that women make up the majority of ticket buyers and theatre attendees. Yet, the issue remains that work of, for and with women make up a disproportionately smaller percentage of programming field-wide. Join this discussion as we look at how this issue affects the Bay Area theatre scene and what the future might look like.
This panel happens from 3-4pm - come on by and say hi!

For info on TBACON, including registration and a preview of the conference program, go here.

A book for actors that's not about acting

I just finished reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.  I highly recommend this book.  It's really easy to read, and a fascinating look at why we do the things we do and how so many of the things we do are habitual.  It's a great tool for understanding yourself, as well as how to break or change old habits and create or build new ones.

Also, the book got me thinking a bit about how actors' lives are different.  We have comparatively few habits and routines - I do different things just about every day.  I go different places to work my multiple day jobs, and my schedule is constantly changing as I add auditions and fold in new projects or say good bye to old ones.  Because my day to day isn't 'routine', there are a lot of things I don't do habitually.

Even so, this book is still a terrific read.  You'll learn about keystone habits, and see how habits are influenced by groups, and understand why even when you build a strong habit, it may still falter under extreme pressure.

An excerpt from the book is available here.  It's a guide to how to replace a 'bad' habit with a better one. 

Counting Actors April 2012

Here are the stats on the 11 shows counted in April.  To learn more about this project, including how to contribute, visit this page.  To read all the posts in this series, going back to June 2011, go here.

11 shows counted:
CenterREP/Rumors
Berkeley Rep/Red
ACT/Maple and Vine (not included in the count below are 3 local union understudies, 2 m, 1w)
Ross Valley Players/Harmony in Hiding
AlterTheater/References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (in this production a woman played a young boy character)
Aurora/Anatol
TheatreFirst/Oleanna
Magic/Any Given Day
Instrumental Theater/A Game (this production is part of the BOA Festival)
MTC/Othello (in this production, Bianca and Emilia were given some lines usually assigned to minor male characters)
TheatreWorks/Of Mice and Men


The Stats:
8 male directors, 3 female directors
10 male writers, 1 female writer
64 total actors: 37 men, 27 women
42 union actors, 22 non-union actors
32 union men, 11 union women
52 local actors, 12 non-local actors

Thank you thank you thank you to all who shared stats with me - audience, theater staff, cast members, show directors, including Lauren Bloom, Anne Hallinan, Amy Prosser, Eva Rebane, Kathleen Antonia and Paul Cello. 

The blog post with stats for May will be published between June 1 and June 5. 

I do my best to just put up the numbers, and leave emotion out.  But I know that seeing these numbers inspires emotional reactions in the reader.  If you've got a strong reaction to what you're reading, please share this post with others. 

Thanks!