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But he hasnt dumped the old toy for the shiny new one.
Harris contributed mainly (a) cash and (b) hype.
So … is this a new thing?
He talked to Vulture from Rome as he took a brief break from trying to write on deadline.
When did you pivot to producing?
And no one could teach me that.
From the first show I did at Yale to the last year, I had lines down the block.
Thats when it started.
I think the biggest thing is that theres no thing thats too nice for the layman audience.
And we got really lucky that people responded well to that invitation.
Why was it important to you to get that fund from HBO?
I lived in L.A. for six years, and Ireallywanted to be in the film-and-television world.
All I wanted to do was theater.
And theminuteI started doing theater, all those people started knocking at my door again.
So many of our best artists, right as theyre finding their voice in the theater, leave.
And then all of these resources that were put into this one artist are gone.
Theater peoplehadto engage with these questions about where their own liberal sensibilities intersected with white supremacy.
And I didnt even know what the second act was or the third act.
Was the plan for it to be digital theater from the beginning?
And then corona happened.
Theater was shut down.
So its like, how can we make it okay for someone who has seizures?
Or is a paraplegic?
Or has three kids?
How do we make it possible for them to see theater all the time?
I gave them a nominal amount of money.
I gave them $50,000.
And with that, they rented all the cameras.
note: They also did some crowdfunding on their own.]
Now, the show that made the money back and then some from pure donations wasHeroes.
And these are the conservative numbers.
They had 25,000 views over four days.
Everyone who was a designer got paid as well.
Is that something you feel is widespread?Yes, absolutely.
There are artists that are 90 percent there and just need that tipping over.
Also, neither of these things would be possible without significant designers onboard.
I know its going to feel like a production in a way that other things havent.
I got $250,000 a year from HBO [for the production kitty].
The worst thing they could say is no, you know?
And the best thing they can say is Heres $250,000.
Theyre so annoyed with me now because Ive done so many of these little things.
Theyre like, Can we just give you the money so it stops coming out of our business affairs?
Cuz, like, we dont care about what youre doing with this weird theater shit.
And of year twos money, $100,000 is already claimed for a larger investment project that were doing.
But the rest of the money I want to go to micro-grants.
Little enhancements along the way.
So if people take one lesson from this, its …
Look, this is doable.
We dont actually have to sit around watching Zoom for the rest of our lives.
I am not rich!
Like, I literally am not actually rich.
In the sense of my peers, right, I have, like, money now.
because theres a lot of people that need that help.
If Movement Theatre had this kind of money right now,theydbe doing that.
The thing is that what I sawCircle Jerkdo was something that looks better thanSNL at Home!
