This is where I’ll be in May doing research for my P73 play. My friend Yuri is helping me get my Russian back in working order so I can conduct interviews without a translator, and I’m trying to plan my itinerary so have writing time while I’m there, too. I have a silly romantic notion of writing at Patriarch’s Pond because I love Master and Margarita and there is a supernatural thread creeping into the play, but we’ll see. I’ve no actual desire to meet the Devil in Moscow.

This is the working title of the play I’m writing during my fellowship year here at P73 and since I’m nearly finished with a messy first draft, I’ve been thinking a lot about why I decided to call it this.

When I was seven I wrote my first play and called it Polish Doll.  It was about a doll who comes to life and makes friends with a storekeeper. Then a man comes along and buys the doll and the storekeeper is left alone. I played the doll — and danced the Polish Doll variation from The Nutcracker as my waking up scene.   My friends Megan and April played the storekeeper and customer, respectively. My mom let me invite friends and she served popcorn.

So what I’m saying is, I think it’s pretty clear why I called it Polish Doll though in retrospect it really was the storekeeper’s story. I’m hoping for a similar revelation with this new play.

If I could go back, I would play the storekeeper.

We’ve been busy with follow-up from Sixty Miles and have been dealing with various development and programming deadlines. Also, in our spare time, we’ve been attending numerous panels on the current economic downturn. Each one has been more depressing than the other.

Last month, we attended a panel that specifically addressed the concerns of small- and mid-sized theater companies. Ben Cameron spoke at the beginning (why is he always on these panels?) about how, during these times, non-profits need to start thinking “outside of the box, etc.” He concluded his valedictorian-like speech (I admit, I was galvanized by his words…) by saying that the Doris Duke Foundation (he is on staff at the Foundation) is open to all theaters, including ones as small as Page 73. (Really? Hi, Ben! We’re happy to oblige, Doris Duke Foundation! Call us!)

Not surprisingly, during the Q&A, most people expressed anxiety.  There’s  a general sense that no one is looking after small- to mid-sized theater companies (Is anyone looking after any theater companies, though?  We were almost left out of the stimulus package, for crying outloud.)  By the end of the meeting, some of us came away with the idea that collective action might help us weather these uncertain times.  We’ve been batting around this idea (collective action by theater companies of the same size) with other non-profits.  If we share resources – if we discuss our concerns and advocate our interests in tandem – we’ll be in a better position to address the tough issues that we’re probably going to face in the coming years.

Apropos of nothing (or maybe everything…) we’ve started drafting our budget for 2009-2010.  We keep revisiting our initial predictions.  Should we be more conservative?  Or are we being unnecessarily pessimistic?   There was an article in The Economist last week (or was it the Times?) about the unreliability of financial forecasts during this economic downturn.   Do we start with a worst-case scenario and hope (pray) that our numbers are far better than expected? Is “worst-case scenario” reality, at this point?

We had hoped for a second production in 2010.  Given the cash crunch that we probably will face next year, this will be highly unlikely. Now is not the time to expand programming – that’s what everyone keeps saying at these panels.   Just hold on to what you have – again, this is the mantra that is repeated over and over again by the cognoscenti.  So you start revisiting your programming and planning — and make conservative predictions for the future because (you tell yourself) no new donors/funders are going to appear in this market.   All this prognosticating, though, is bad for the soul: It leads to over-thinking and doubting one’s ability to raise any money in this climate. (It doesn’t help when you hear funders say that they expect that this downturn will get rid of any “excess” theater companies. Yep. Heard someone actually say that. Because I’m paranoid, when this person said “excess”, I thought s/he was looking right at me.)

Not sure what we’re trying to say here. Certainly, we’re worried. And maybe now’s not the time to add a second production.  Still, we’re not throwing in the towel. We’re going to keep all of our development programs and produce one production a year. Nothing wrong with that.

In this climate, that seems to be quite an accomplishment.