4 ms·

Hamilton was workshopped for a very long time and then had a long Off Broadway run at The Public Theatre where additional changes were made. A huge amount of mo

by Grakel 5y ago

Hamilton was workshopped for a very long time and then had a long Off Broadway run at The Public Theatre where additional changes were made. A huge amount of money went into it because of the trust that Lin Manuel had generated with previous work. Spiderman was in tech for over a year (beta testing) because the damned flying didn't work. Then they radically changed the script because it hadn't been workshopped, and it was still terrible. I would encourage you to work on a theatrical production some time. I think you'll find a lot of familiar difficulties, including insane schedules, incompetent management, project bloat, abuse and burnout.

wombatmobile 5y ago
> … insane schedules, incompetent management, project bloat, abuse and burnout. … and as TFA says, financial calamities, and yet, we persist, and we love all of love it, and this art will never die. Why? It’s the essence of us. Story telling is the BIOS of humanity.
mbg721 5y ago
People talk about network effects and how beneficial it is to be in Silicon Valley if you're a startup--the same thing has got to be true about New York for on-stage performance. The last time I was there, I picked some random off-off-Broadway thing to go see for twenty bucks, in what was basically a hotel bar, and the quality of the acting was incredible.
- kingcharles 5y ago
  Totally. Sets and props and costumes don't necessarily add anything. Go to a theatre festival like the Edinburgh Festival and you can see dozens of amazing productions with amazing talent acting out of a broom closet, wearing the clothes they fell out of bed in that morning.
- oddthink 5y ago
  It's definitely true. My kids go to school very close to Broadway, and it seems like something like half the parents are in some Broadway-related jobs, from performing to backstage to office, a lot of them living in Manhattan Plaza. It's a very hit-or-miss industry, so there will be periods when you're not doing anything, and then you're left with this pool of extremely high-talent people doing small productions, waiting tables, and the like.
kwertyoowiyop 5y ago
Sounds like the difference between a low-budget game that gets plenty of iteration and playtesting before its wide release, and a AAA game that gets shoved out the door for Christmas because the fiscal quarter depends on it.

by Grakel 5y ago

wombatmobile 5y ago

> … insane schedules, incompetent management, project bloat, abuse and burnout. … and as TFA says, financial calamities, and yet, we persist, and we love all of love it, and this art will never die. Why? It’s the essence of us. Story telling is the BIOS of humanity.

mbg721 5y ago

People talk about network effects and how beneficial it is to be in Silicon Valley if you're a startup--the same thing has got to be true about New York for on-stage performance. The last time I was there, I picked some random off-off-Broadway thing to go see for twenty bucks, in what was basically a hotel bar, and the quality of the acting was incredible.

kingcharles 5y ago
Totally. Sets and props and costumes don't necessarily add anything. Go to a theatre festival like the Edinburgh Festival and you can see dozens of amazing productions with amazing talent acting out of a broom closet, wearing the clothes they fell out of bed in that morning.
oddthink 5y ago
It's definitely true. My kids go to school very close to Broadway, and it seems like something like half the parents are in some Broadway-related jobs, from performing to backstage to office, a lot of them living in Manhattan Plaza. It's a very hit-or-miss industry, so there will be periods when you're not doing anything, and then you're left with this pool of extremely high-talent people doing small productions, waiting tables, and the like.

kwertyoowiyop 5y ago

Sounds like the difference between a low-budget game that gets plenty of iteration and playtesting before its wide release, and a AAA game that gets shoved out the door for Christmas because the fiscal quarter depends on it.