Monday, March 3, 2014 – Observations Along the Road

userpic=roadgeeking The following are articles related to California Highways that I’ve seen go past during February:

New Highway 92-El Camino Real interchange in San Mateo will ease backups. State transportation officials are moving closer to finalizing a plan to overhaul a major interchange where state Highway 92 meets El Camino Real. San Mateo residents have until Feb. 15 to submit comments on a draft environmental report on the $16 million Caltrans project, which is designed to ease congestion on Highway 92 and improve traffic safety. If the plan is approved in its current form, Caltrans expects to begin construction in 2017.
More Express Lanes Coming to Ease Bay Area Congestion. Nearly 300 miles of toll lanes are coming to the Bay Area by the end of the decade. But for some people that won’t be soon enough. People are willing to pay to get where they have to go faster, which has made so-called “hot lanes” — express lanes designed to ease congestion — popular among commuters.
Big names to help rechristen Bay Bridge span for Willie Brown. A who’s who of more than 500 people from politics, sports, entertainment and high society is expected to join former San Francisco Mayor and ex-Assembly Speaker Willie Brown on Treasure Island for Tuesday’s official rechristening of the western portion of the Bay Bridge in his honor.
S.F. Artists Snub Willie Brown, Install Rogue Sign Naming New Bay Bridge After Emperor Norton. Much to the chagrin of San Francisco progressives, the western span of the Bay Bridge was officially rechristened the Willie L. Brown Jr. Bridge Tuesday in a ceremony held on Treasure Island. But while politicos, including Gavin Newsom, flocked to Treasure Island to celebrate, a group of artists remained on this side of the Bay Bridge and did a little celebrating of their own, honoring their successful attempt at upstaging Willie Brown. Late Monday night, a group of unidentified artists installed a large sign at the Bay Bridge onramp at Fifth Street, commemorating Joshua A. Norton, not Willie L. Brown.
$349 million, 20-year proposed fix for Highway 29. Easing traffic congestion in south Napa County, the focus of a yearlong Caltrans-funded study, may cost more than $349 million and take 20 years, the Napa County Transportation and Planning Agency reported Monday. The draft Highway 29 Gateway Corridor Improvement Plan calls for expanding the highway from four to six lanes from American Canyon Road to Highway 12/Jameson Canyon, as well as new interchanges at Highway 12/Jameson Canyon and Highway 221 and improvements to the juncture of 29 and Highway 12/Carneros Highway.
Willie Brown Bridge now open. Former S.F. Mayor Willie Brown (center) celebrates his bridge honor Tuesday with Assemblyman Isadore Hall and NAACP’s Alice Huffman on Treasure Island.
Tear down SoMa’s stub of I-280, national group recommends. The notion of demolishing the stretch of Interstate 280 that lands near the Caltrain yard South of Market is gaining support – and national attention. Until now, the idea of tearing down the stub end of the freeway, putting traffic onto wide boulevards – a la the Central Freeway and Octavia Boulevard – and developing the vacant land, as well as unused portions of the Caltrain yard, into a new neighborhood has been mostly confined to city planners and dreamers, which one might argue are the same thing.
405 Freeway closures through Sepulveda Pass planned this weekend . What’s more complicated than Carmageddon and could seriously mess with the flow of Angelenos’ long Presidents’ Day weekend? It’s Jamzilla. That’s the monster-evoking moniker that transportation officials have adopted for the 405 Freeway lane closures slated to begin late Friday, just in time for the post-Valentine’s-Day dinner rush. For 80 hours — from about 10 p.m. Friday until 6 a.m. Tuesday — most or all lanes on the busy northbound side of the freeway will be closed.
Pacifica residents rally against Caltrans’ plan to widen Highway 1. About two dozen people gathered Saturday afternoon along Highway 1 to launch a campaign against a Caltrans proposal to widen roughly 1.3 miles of the coastal corridor. The opponents claim the $51.6 million project is unnecessary and would tear the fabric of the small beachside community. They hope to replicate the success of a recent grass-roots movement that forced Caltrans to abandon a proposed bypass around nearby Devils Slide in favor of a tunnel, which opened to great fanfare last year.
The 710 Long Beach Freeway: A History of America’s Most Important Freeway. From the corporate investment of Jamestown to the Wolf of Wall Street era, economic interests have superseded many other American values. The I-710 Long Beach Freeway, meanwhile, has become the country’s most important — although clogged — economic artery, in the vascular system of American capitalism. The business of America is business. Yet, the 710 Freeway’s primary function has aided in the largest trade deficit in world history, facilitating the exporting of U.S. manufacturing jobs, while Pocahontas pajamas, children toys, and a litany of consumer goods are imported onto thousands of diesel powered trucks.
Transportation board endorses plan for Highway 29 upgrades. A $349 million, 20-year plan to expand Highway 29 in southern Napa County drew debate from elected officials Wednesday on whether it was worth the cost to fix the traffic snarls snagging motorists between Napa and American Canyon.

userpic=theatre_tickets Monday’s at lunch are my normal time to write rants. Today’s is based around an article a friend sent me entitled “Arts Education Won’t Save Us from Boring, Inaccessible Theater“. In it (and I recommend reading it), the author discusses why the audience for live theatre remains white and greying. He opines that it isn’t because of a lack of arts education; rather, it is because of the content of the shows, the nature of the edifaces, and the policies they impose. Some of the ideas he discusses are ones that Ken Davenport has discussed before on his excellent Producers Perspective blog. I agree with the author somewhat, but disagree with him as well.

First, the goal of arts education is not to get people into the theatre. The goal of arts education is to encourage an appreciation of creativity in all of its forms: be in drama, comedy, dance, art, or music. The creative process in the individual informs other areas of life and produces more rounded individuals. Remember, what we call scientists today were philosophers in the past; their artistic side encouraged their scientific endeavors and vice-versa.

Does having younger playwrights bring younger people in the theatre? Not necessarily, because one never sees the playwright. What brings people into the theatre are good stories that are relevant to them; stories that are well-written and engaging. What does this mean in practice? The playwright doesn’t need to be young, but needs to understand the sensibilities of the young. This can be helped with an appropriate dramaturg who can shape the story so it appeals to a younger audience. A critical player in this is the Artistic Director, who also has the young sensibility. The artistic director needs to not only program for the reliable older audience, but include in the season mix material to challenge the older audience and bring in the younger audience.

When plays speak to the audience, the audience comes. A good example of this is the Pasadena Playhouse: when it presents plays with African-American themes, the African-American audience comes out in droves (and, alas, the non-African-American audience often doesn’t). The problem is that when those themes go away, the audience doesn’t stick. Audiences come out for specific shows; they aren’t subscribing.

I posit the notion that audiences don’t subscribe because of cost. A vision might be interesting, but when you have to drop $800 or more for two seats in one shot — well, it is easier to buy the seats for individual shows. One of the reasons I like the Colony Theatre is that they allow me to split my payment; I believe that if more theatres offered split payments for seasons (2 or 4 payments), they would get more subscribers.

Another reason theatres have trouble getting subscribers is that they don’t cultivate relationships. Relationships between the theatre and the audience are vital. From the audience perspective, the relationship makes you care about the theatre — it makes you want to support them, it makes you want to donate, it makes you care about the existence of the organization. From the theatre’s perspective, it allows you to know the audience, and just how far you can challenge them. It also creates your best ambassadors, for what brings people into the theatre is word of mouth.

This is the other thing that is hurting the theatre community: we are losing the voice of the critics. Trained critics help the audiences discover shows — they alert people to what might be of interest. Arts education might make you receptive to theatre, but unless you know what shows are out there you won’t go. For many theatres — especially small ones with no advertising budget — the only mediums are email and postcards, which tend to go only to audiences that already know you or know theatre. Critics are in major media outlets, and are seen much more broadly. Even if the critic doesn’t like the show, the description of the show might speak to you.

Lastly, the author blames theatre policies. I agree with him on some points — there should be an easier ability to obtain refunds if plans change or to reschedule tickets, but I can also see the problem that if tickets are returned too late, they can’t be easily resold. Other points he is off about — there is a certain etiquette that people must understand that is simple common courtesy: turn off your phones, don’t illuminate your face during a show, and arrive on time.

So what are your thoughts? How do we get more people to the theatre?

Day: March 3, 2014

California Highways News for February 2014

Monday Rant: How To Get More People to the Theatre