Name: Nicholas DeMaison
Websites: www.myspace.com/operacabal, www.southhadleychorale.org
Hometown: Rochester, NY; now resides in New York City
Artistic Disciplines: music composition, conducting
Fractured Atlas Member Since: June 2007
Fractured Atlas Services Used: Development Grant, Fiscal Sponsorship, Event Liability Insurance, Calendar of Events

Both a composer and conductor, Nicholas DeMaison is the founding music director of Opera Cabal, a fledgling experimental opera company bent on the creation and production of new music, new opera and new theater; and the director of the South Hadley Chorale, a 90-voice symphonic choir in South Hadley, Massachusetts.  Recently, he took the time to answer a few of our questions…

Who/what are your biggest influences?

As a composer, the usual suspects, from Perotin to Feldman, Manoury, Scelsi, and Lucier; as a conductor, Boulez, Carl St.Clair, Gustav Meier, and Lucas Vis; as the builder of artistic communities, organizations like the The Walden School, The La Jolla Symphony and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE).

What has been your greatest success to date?

It seems that “successes” for me always come in unlikely places and forms.

When the South Hadley Chorale decided to hire me, I was pretty stoked  despite the fact that I would be making a 150-mile commute every week from NYC up to central Massachusetts.

And Opera Cabal’s biggest success so far was also, strangely, its biggest disaster.

We typically make use of non-standard performance spaces: private homes, art galleries, old warehouses…whatever.  About a year ago, we organized and booked our second 4-day festival of new opera/music/theater (Delusions : 2007) at the Zhou B. Art Center in Chicago’s Industrial Bridgeport neighborhood.  Artists and musicians were coming from New York, San Diego, Madison, and Buffalo to perform/display their work.  During the performances on the second night, the commissioner of the Chicago Police came to the gallery and shut down the festival, citing the gallery’s lack of a Public Presenter’s License.  Turns out, the gallery had run into this problem before…

(Editor’s note: Read more about the gallery’s closure here.)

We left that night completely defeated, feeling that nearly seven months of planning, preparation etc. had just evaporated.  On Saturday morning, some friends who had heard about our disaster offered to let us use a large performance space in their home.  We scrambled for the next 9 hours, moved our entire setup (sets, lights, sound equipment…everything) across town to Hyde Park, and at 7pm, Phyllis Chen’s Toy Piano Roadshow, the Nonsense Company, and Opera Cabal played to a modest, but very devoted crowd of 25.   It was the most powerfully intimate and magical performance I have ever experienced, and it drastically changed the way we think about our work.

How did you hear about Fractured Atlas and what motivated you to become a member?

I heard about Fractured Atlas from Nathan Davis, a NY-based percussionist, and even though at the time I had no idea how I might use the varied services offered, it seemed more than likely that at some point in the future I would.

How do you use your Fractured Atlas membership?

Event advertising, event insurance, and a professional development grant.   Opera Cabal has applied for fiscal sponsorship, as well.  As soon as I am no longer an “underemployed” musician, I plan to look into the health insurance packages.

How would you finish this sentence: “The artist’s role in society is…”
“…to demonstrate an alternative.”

How can we read more about and experience your organizations’ work?

We haven’t officially started advertising any of these events, but Opera Cabal has two upcoming shows this season:

- My own “Ursularia,” and new pieces by Rick Burkhardt, presented in collaboration with The Nonsense Company; at Chicago’s AVaerie, Dec. 11-13, 2008
- Sciarrino’s “Lohengrin,” in collaboration with The Nonsense Company and UC San Diego; at UCSD’s brand spanking new Prebys Music Center in La Jolla, CA; May 16/17, 2009

And the South Hadley Chorale performs Bruckner’s Mass no. 2 in E Minor on March 15, 2009, in Mount Holyoke’s Abbey Chapel; South Hadley, MA.

To read more about our/my work, you can check out our reviews in Time Out Chicago, and the blogs Telecommuniculturey and Deceptively Simple.

Images:

Top: Nicholas DeMaison

Middle: Ryland Barton, Jonathon Eliot, and Griffin Sharps performing Eliot’s “Lamia.”  Opera Cabal’s Collusions : 2007 Festival, April 2007, Zhou B. Art Center, Chicago.

Bottom: Majel Connery (Artistic Director, Opera Cabal) as St.Ursula, in Nicholas DeMaison’s opera “Ursularia.”  Opera Cabal’s Collusions : 2007 Festival, April 2007, Zhou B. Art Center, Chicago.

Consultants report that the hardest part of helping artists and arts managers create a strategic plan is getting them to answer the questions: ‘Who are you?’ and ‘What do you do?’

Why is that? Why can’t we tell our audiences, patrons, customers, funders, or collaborators who we are in five sentences or less? Because we are complex, creative, multi-skilled people that have frequent transformative experiences.

“If I am so expansive and mutable, why do I have to define myself in such limited terms?” Because people who don’t know you will only give you a five sentence opportunity to explain yourself; before they turn their attention to the next headshot in the pile, the next poster on the wall, the next proposal on their desk, the next email in their inbox, or the next artist in the gallery. Also, if you don’t create a brief description of yourself and clearly communicate it, others will do it for you. Finally, knowing who you are in simple terms is the key to obtaining meaningful success.

Ironically, it takes a lot of reflection and research before being able to condense yourself to five sentences or less. You will probably fill notebooks trying to discover the core or your creative identity. Well, here are some steps to guide you through this process.

STEP 1 - Answer the following question without a filter and with complete honesty:

• What is your purpose?
• What do you do?
• What do you want to do?
• Where do you want to be in the future?
• What are your core values?

STEP 2 – Now you probably have a pretty hefty list of words, sentences, concepts, images, icons, graphs, doodles, etc. So, let’s whittle it down by getting really honest. Ask yourself:

• Which of these things really motivates you?
• Which of these things give you energy?
• Which of these things take your energy?
• Is anything on the list something you are “supposed” to want or do?

Answering these questions is really important, because sometimes we invest time/resources into things we don’t actually want. Sometimes the goal is not even consistent with who we are.

For example, let’s say you wrote on your list: “I want to act in a film.” Do you really want to be an actor? Maybe you b*tched and moaned in high school about wanting to go into acting, so your parents took out a second mortgage to send you to a big NYC theatre school. Somewhere in the back of your subconscious you discovered you didn’t like acting after your first semester, but felt so obligated to get some return on your parent’s investment that you finished a four year program and spent three years waiting tables trying to “make it” as an actor. The problem is you really want to paint. Your lack of motivation for acting is clear to the casting directors, so you never book a gig.

“Sunk costs” are very difficult to accept in life. However, if we are not honest with ourselves the “sunk costs” and the “opportunity costs” will increase. I had to attend an organizational management class in business school to learn that creativity and innovation require a willingness to fail and a willingness to scrap what doesn’t work. In fact, it is not a failure but a part of discovery.

Over the summer, I did a strategy analysis on Pixar and learned about their practice of “killing their babies.” Meaning, creators must be willing to divest a project completely if it is not working regardless of the time and resources invested. This philosophy has allowed Pixar to experience phoenix-like emergence from the ashes of disappointments.

The founding team members (Steve Jobs, Ed Catmull, and Alvy Ray Smith) were experiencing stagnation and setbacks in their careers when Pixar was formed and suffered $50 million losses during the first decade. They “killed their baby” in decade two, by abandoning the business model of selling computer hardware tailored to animators and became animators. This willingness to change direction led to a redefinition of the animated feature film industry, record breaking box office sales, $7.4 billion buy-out from Disney, and a significant spot in film history.

Honor yourself, do what motivates you and what works.

STEP 3 – Once you have eliminated the energy-depleting and “should” items from your list, you are ready to look beyond your needs. Unless you are a “masturbatory” artist (which is perfectly fine if that is your thing), I encourage you to consider your audience. Ask yourself:

• What tangible things do you offer your audience, patron, customers, etc.?
• What intangible things do you offer?
• What value do you create for your audience?
• Are you communicating in a way that your audience understands?

I do not advocate creating your work to meet perceived expectations of your patrons or audiences; that is usually a recipe for bad art. I encourage you to authentically create and find audiences where your work resonates. Also, if audiences don’t “get it,” you can cultivate their appreciation by clearly and concisely describing your work’s value.

Recently, I attended a gallery talk at the High Museum in Atlanta, where an artist spent over an hour discussing his work and his creative process with a group of 30+ patrons. Afterwards, I heard a patron comment on how glad she was that she came to the talk, because she didn’t “get it” before. The artist helped her acquire an understanding and love for his work by explaining the political statements, describing the hard work of the creative process, and sharing his personal story.

STEP 4 – Once you have a list of things you truly want to offer and have determined which offerings attract audiences, I encourage you to assess you resources and capabilities. For each creative offering on your list, ask these questions:

• What resources and capabilities do I need to make this offering?
• If I do not have the resource or capability, can I acquire it?
• If I can acquire it, how much will it cost? Monetary costs? Non-monetary costs?
• What will be the return on my investment of time, energy and resources? Monetary? Non-monetary?

After doing this assessment, you can see if there is anything you want to eliminate from the list. Perhaps you decide to focus on the low hanging fruit and tackle the more difficult projects as your resources increase and capabilities develop. Perhaps you decide to go for the projects with a better financial or emotional return. You will probably discover that your revised list is more focused, realistic, actionable, and likely to result in success.

STEP 5 – Create the following statements:

• A description of your creative offering (What do you do or make?)
• A vision statement (Where do you see yourself in the future?)
• A mission statement (What is the purpose of your work?)
• A values statement (What do you stand for?)
• A value proposition (What benefit do you give to others?)

*Try to keep your statements to five sentences or less.

For more information on this first phase of the strategic planning process, check out our online course: “Professional Identity: Demystified.” Just click on “Programs & Services” on the Fractured Atlas home page and select “online courses.”

Currently, we are in the process of reviewing course proposals submitted by numerous experts in the field of art and business in order to expand Fractured U.’s offering. For more information contact me at kamal.sinclair@fracturedatlas.org.

Several of us from Fractured Atlas will be at the Technology in the Arts Conference this week(end) in Pittsburgh.  FA Managing Director Arwen Lowbridge and I will be doing a presentation called “The End of Data Entry: Liberate Your Organization through Automation and Integration”, while Director of Member Services Adam Natale will be teaming with a colleague from Dance/USA to do a session on online learning.

I know this is a niche event, but it seems like everyone I know is going to be there (which is kind of a sad commentary on the narrowness of my world, but I digress…) so if YOU will be there as well, drop me a note at adam [dot] huttler [at] fracturedatlas [dot] org.

Ian Moss has some insightful things to say about the misguided tendency of some funders to make large grants to already successful artists:

[I]n a world of six-hour news cycles, the idea that the average person (or even a highly-educated person) would somehow “realize the theater is important” because a heretofore unknown organization gave one person a nice sack of cash is absurd. People “realize the theater is important” because they have transformative experiences attending theater events or, more probably, because they participate in theater at a young age. Giving $200,000 to Tony Kushner accomplishes neither of these things.

There’s little doubt in my mind that, all things being equal, people with fewer resources generally find ways to stretch them further.  Fractured Atlas’s grant program makes micro-grants of just $250 to $1,000, but the recipients often do great things with the money that wouldn’t otherwise have happened.

What a large award (if it’s structured properly and doesn’t have too many strings attached) can do, however, is provide a safety net that allows an artist or organization to take big risks or make large bets that would otherwise not be possible.  But here, too, the more established/mature/flush the recipient is, the less likely such an award is to have this effect.

As you may know, Fractured Atlas began its life as a performing arts production company.  (I was a theatre director and I founded the company, in part, to provide a vehicle for producing my own work.)

Well, the first show I produced was called The Pumpkin Pie Show.  It featured a series of stories written and performed by Clay McLeod Chapman (with whom I spent a year at Sarah Lawrence College).  We took it to the 1998 Edinburgh Fringe Festival where we got decent reviews but bombed at the box office.  (Note to self: if you’re going to produce a show on another continent it helps to have a semblance of a plan for getting folks in the door!)

Anyway, Clay has been plugging away for the past 10 years and is now celebrating the 10th anniversary of The Pumpkin Pie Show.  Since our histories are so linked, I thought he deserved a shoutout.  He’s also offering a special discount for Fractured Atlas members.

So here’s the deal:

the PUMPKIN PIE show
stories written by Clay McLeod Chapman
performances by Clay McLeod Chapman and Hanna Cheek

October 16th - November 1st
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at 8 PM
at UNDER St. Marks Theater
94 St. Marks Place
(btn 1st Ave and Ave A)
New York, NY

Tickets: $18 ($15 students/seniors)
www.horsetrade.info
or call SmartTix (212) 868-4444

Members of the Fractured Atlas family can use the code “FRACTR” to be eligible for $12.50 tickets.

Some praise from the press:

“Like a collection of David Sedaris short stories, these are imaginative, slightly surreal tales that will stay with you for years.” – Canadian Broadcasting Center (FOUR STARS) (2008)

“The energy in this show is so intense, I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or worry that Chapman would leap into the crowd and start throwing chairs.” – See Magazine (FOUR STARS) (2008)

“Chapman and Cheek match each other character for character, voice for voice, imparting narratives so compelling and frequently funny that it’s a disappointment when they stop.” – City Pages (2008)

“Chapman… has crafted his language with care and wit, and it’s an uncomfortable pleasure to witness his characters come to life.” – Edmonton Journal (FOUR STARS) (2008)

“Clay McLeod Chapman and Hanna Cheek make kicking your theatrical ass seem easy…” – Fringe Famous (2008)

Americans for the Arts (actually the Americans for the Arts Action Fund) has published a comparison of the arts positions of John McCain and Barack Obama.  I’m not wild about the list of issues they asked the campaigns about, since they address only very superficial considerations.  Still, it’s an interesting read.

If you haven’t yet registered to vote, I’m here to remind you that your time is running out.

REGISTER TO VOTE ONLINE

Also, since I don’t have five real friends, but hopefully at least five blog friends, it’s my duty to pass this along:

Name: Cara Winter
Website: www.carawinter.net
Hometown: New York, NY
Artistic Disciplines: writing, acting
Fractured Atlas Member Since: February 2002
Fractured Atlas Services Used: Fiscal Sponsorship, Health Insurance, Liability Insurance

Cara, tell us about your work in a few sentences.

For about a decade, my focus was on performing, and I worked and toured all over the country.  But I’ve always written, on the side.  I am often inspired by the work I’m doing as an actress; for instance, I wrote two children’s plays while teaching acting to children, and wrote a play about an alcoholic while on tour with… well, you get the picture.  Last summer, my first play, “Social Work”, was picked up and produced by the Manhattan Repertory Theatre; and I have three more adult plays, all in-progress: “Poker Face”, “Seeds”, and “Alan Alda sat next to me on a park bench”.

Who/what are your biggest influences?

David Auburn, Aaron Sorkin, and Amy Sherman-Palladino are my major writing influences.

What has been your greatest success to date?

As a performer, it would have to be playing to a packed Fox Theatre in St. Louis.  Incredible.   As a writer, it was when “Social Work” was produced at the Manhattan Repertory Theatre.  The actors were amazing, the director and co-producer were incomparable.  Then the “aftermath” of the play’s success was SO cool:  several requests came in from development types to read the play (one at the Public, one at the Flea, as well as a film producer).  It was an incredible experience, and I learned so much.

How do you use your Fractured Atlas membership?

Fractured Atlas has helped me to obtain liability insurance (when I produced a short film), fund-raise and promote my production/s, and network with other artists.  For a while, though, the most important aspect of my association with Fractured Atlas was access to health care.  Last August we welcomed our first child into the world (a son, Avery), so having good health coverage was a priority.  My husband is also a freelancer, so he doesn’t have coverage through an employer.  Without FA, I’m not sure what we’d have done!  Glad I didn’t have to think about that.

Finish this sentence: A world without art is…

lonely.

How can we see/hear/read/experience/learn more about your work?

Whenever I’m in production with a piece, I usually send my blurb to Fractured Atlas’s community calendar.  I also have recent news on my own website: www.carawinter.net

Images:
Top: “Social Work” by Cara Winter at Manhattan Repertory Theatre;
Catherine Gowl as “Margaret” and Stas May as “Geoff”.  Photo by N. Warren Winter.

Bottom: Cara Winter as The Ghost of Christmas Past, with Cork Ramer as Scrooge; National Tour of “A Christmas Carol”.

A one-day workshop for non-conformist performers determined to take their vision from the page to the stage. The workshop will feature a panel discussion with notable actors and writers who have seen their work produced On or Off-Broadway, and break-out groups that will provide instrumental tools to seeing one´s work produced: development, budgeting, fundraising, marketing, and more.

Presented by TeatroStageFest, HOLA, and CUNY Grad Center in association with CUNY and Instituto Cervantes.  An official event of the 2008 NYC Latin American Cultural Week.

When:  Saturday, November 8, 2008; 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Where:  Martin E. Segal Theatre Center; CUNY Graduate Center; 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street

Free admission

Prior reservation required.  Reservation and Information: info@teatrostagefest.org or 212.695.4010

Schedule:

10:00 am -12:00 noon: Produce-Yourself, Introduction to Artist Driven Projects

12:00 noon - 1:30 pm: Networking Lunch.

1:30 pm - 3:00 pm:  Group discussions led by industry professionals focusing on development, identifying producers and partners, budgeting and fundraising, and public relations and marketing.

Found a great comment on censorship tonight by one of my favorite authors, Philip Pullman.

He observes:

“The inevitable result of trying to ban something – book, film, play, pop song, whatever – is that far more people want to get hold of it than would ever have done if it were left alone. Why don’t the censors realise this?” (The spelling of realize is correct - it was printed in a British newspaper)

What do you think?