| SECOND CITY-ITIS
by Jason Loewith on 10/23/2007 05:05:00 PM
At first rehearsal yesterday for DEFIANCE, we held a small reception for friends and donors, one of whom is the mother of a prominent actor on the national scene (he was formerly a Chicagoan and returns on occasion to play roles locally). She and I were discussing the prospects for future productions of our world premiere THE ADDING MACHINE: A CHAMBER MUSICAL, and I was telling her that things were looking indeed quite good for an off-Broadway production in February of 2008.
Most of the responses I've gotten from colleagues and friends locally about this news have been ecstatic: That's wonderful! Wow, how great! etc... But this woman's response was uncharacteristic and quite refreshing:
"New York, New York, New York! Why does everyone care about New York?"
Indeed!
Since moving to Chicago from New York eight years ago, I've been struck by Chicagoans' unusual case of Second City-itis: a strange disease, the symptoms of which include intense envy of New York's cultural bounty, and simultaneous disdain for it. So, while Chicagoans will be quick to "diss" anything that comes here from there (especially if it has that intellectual, "New York-y" tone to it), we are quick to show our immense and jingoistic pride when anything we make goes there.
I've always found our thinly-veiled envy of the New York scene distasteful, like this woman I spoke to yesterday did. One of the things that brought me to Chicago was its self-reliance and rightful pride-of-place: unlike LA (where people make plays to get movie deals) and New York (where people make plays to become theater celebrities), Chicagoans make plays because they believe in making plays for their community. That's why our community is so generous, so wonderful to work in, and so robust.
So the envy of New York, and those who "make it there", is patently absurd. Let's just celebrate who we are and what we do, and get back to work! We're the city that works, right?
Now this is not to say that we shouldn't send productions to New York, nor that New York producers shouldn't visit here more often to sample the talent available. Goodness knows, if THE ADDING MACHINE: A CHAMBER MUSICAL runs in New York just for three months, it will make about fifteen times what it made for the authors here. And more offers will pour in, and the Next Theatre will be playing a major role on the national stage... and that's all exciting and wonderful, because the truth is (and I know I won't be popular saying this): New York is the center of the theater universe. There are just more extraordinary artists there per capita, and more people paying attention to what they do. And that means there's a lot more money for those artists when they make it big.
But that doesn't mean that it's a better place for me to make theater. And that doesn't mean that we in Chicago have to feel we're in second place. I don't derive my value from who I am in relation to someone else; I'm my own person. Chicago should do the same. Chicago is a great, great theater city; it needs not compare itself to any other city.Labels: Defiance, Second City-itis
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