Julie Felise Dubiner

Today while talking about theater budgets, I said that I wished we talked less about what things cost and more about what they’re worth.

Resist like Vashti. Be brave like Esther. Be a pain in the ass like Mordechai. Freylkhn Purim. Fuck off, Nazis.

And we haven’t even started to feel the impact of the loss of KCACTF. (Yes, the festival continues, but KC was the one who funded all the internships and fellowships.) I would not have had the career I’ve had without that program and I know that that’s true for many others as well.

Be a little dreamy about the future even in these strange days and trying times.

I ask all of our current theater leaders to consider: instead of or in addition to that building project, create real paths into the profession for people getting started and coming up. Double dog dare you to find ways in your season to give starting artists real responsibility and authority.

Without the smaller, more nimble theaters who were expected to take risks, are we in an artist-crushing cycle of risk-mitigation?

On one hand - that's great - writers make more money, actors get more work weeks, designers and directors get paid more - but it limits the number of writers, actors, designers, and directors who get hired.

In addition to the loss of training programs, there is a general lack of opportunity for starting artists. So many small and midsized theaters that were proving grounds have closed. And, larger theaters have been doing more co-productions.

Especially and selfishly, as I am (ahem) late career, I want what I have built to survive, I need to let new people know what I did so they can remake it for the times they find themselves in. GenX suffered for folks not doing this, women in particular, and I'd rather leave a more joyous legacy.

I never really had a mentor for real real, and I suffered for it and have spent a lot of my career working with students and interns intentionally.

I don't think theater will ever go away or anything, and I do think that many institutions are too big to fail, as it were. But I wonder who we will be in 10 years if we don't bring back these hands-on training programs, and prioritize mentorship.

It feels impossible, honestly. I hope I'm just discouraged and not actually right. We've had some great students from nearby universities and a state arts group. But, it's not the same as a full-season, full-time program as part of a cohort.

We are in a very expensive part of the country, and we all agree that we would have to provide a living wage that reflects the housing costs here.

We are in a strategic planning cycle at work, and we all agree that we want to bring the apprentice program back - it was discontinued in the shutdown and the free housing the theater used to have no longer exists.

Ok. A few weeks ago, I was invited to write an essay about dramaturgy and theater and life and all that. I decided to write a kind of fun (I hope) look at what my career has been. The word limit was very low and I wound up cutting a lot about internships and mentorship.

I mean. Does anyone have the heart for a regional theater rant these days? Because I have feelings.

Fuck off, Nazis.

Borscht

I made borscht. No. You shut up.

Shabbat shalom. Gut shabbes. Fuck off, Nazis.

If not Nazi, why Nazi shaped?

Ramadan Mubarak! Laissez les bons temps rouler! Gong Hei Fat Choi! Gong Xi Fa Cai! Fuck off, Nazis.

Fuck off, Nazis.

Mir veln zey iberlebn.

"Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it." ~ happy birthday, Thomas Paine.

Birthday cake with two poorly drawn fencers.

Birthday party. Fencing cake.

17! He still needs us. A little.

...including many who, I believe, have been cruel and dismissive out of jealousy (or have a displaced understanding of our art form) of her success. It's interesting and awful to see so many of those same people so ready to tear down a powerful and successful woman for what men around her did.

In the introduction to the Bloomsbury I & You, I talked a bit about how many artistic directors, literary managers, and others (including women) didn't take her or her work seriously because they underestimated the power and universality of women's stories...

...by giving generous career advice, and for real by creating fun, beloved, and popular plays and characters for artists and audiences all over. That is who she is. I know her, I believe her, and I stand by her. It's her birthday today - and I hope she has all the cake and ice cream.

I am not the only person to whom Lauren has given a real boost - I've seen her support fellow theater people (especially women) by helping them find agents, arranging introductions to literary and artistic offices, through promoting their work on her platforms...