The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper: 1. Enough with the goddamned Shakespeare already. The greatest playwright in history has become your enabler and your crutch, the man you call when you're timid and out of ideas. It's time for a five-year moratorium—no more high schoolers pecking at Romeo and Juliet, no more NEA funding for Shakespeare in the heartland, and no more fringe companies trying to ennoble themselves with Hamlet. (Or with anything. Fringe theater shouldn't be in the game of ennobling, it should be in the game of debasement.) Stretch yourself. Live a little. Find new, good, weird plays nobody has heard of. Teach your audiences to want surprises, not pacifiers.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Ten Things Theaters Need to Do Right Now to Save Themselves
The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper: 1. Enough with the goddamned Shakespeare already. The greatest playwright in history has become your enabler and your crutch, the man you call when you're timid and out of ideas. It's time for a five-year moratorium—no more high schoolers pecking at Romeo and Juliet, no more NEA funding for Shakespeare in the heartland, and no more fringe companies trying to ennoble themselves with Hamlet. (Or with anything. Fringe theater shouldn't be in the game of ennobling, it should be in the game of debasement.) Stretch yourself. Live a little. Find new, good, weird plays nobody has heard of. Teach your audiences to want surprises, not pacifiers.
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5 comments:
This was blunt, and I actually don't think they were joking. I did find myself laughing at the truth of it though. These are things that people probably think pretty often, but usually don't say. And a big YES to the first one. For years I have lived under the cover of darkness, thinking that I was the only theatre major alive who truthfully was not a huge fan of Shakespeare. The pretending is over! Now that I have something to back me up, I fell better saying I think it's overdone. As for the rest of the points, they also hit pretty well. For the most part they are actually true. Maybe some theatres will actually follow through here.
This is great. I really liked the "Tell us something we don't know." A director in my community theatre wrote one play a year, and it was always a fairy tale, but modeled after the original, freaky Brother's Grimm version. It was always an amazing script, and pretty soon became a "thing", and people who weren't regular theatre-goers would show up once a year to see this original script.
The children idea is completely manipulate...and will totally work. Children love "acting classes", bring their friends, get their parents involved, etc. I'm still ridiculously faithful to the theatre I grew up with, and there's a lot of people like me who would still do a lot for it, if it needed help.
I find this article a bit ironic considering that the 2012-2013 Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Season includes a Shakespeare so well known it only rivals Hamlet in its iconicism. I don't necessarily agree with everything written here, but I think the general attitude is pretty accurate of what theatre need to be doing. I'm all for the statements about producing new works. (Hell, I'd do pretty much anything to get Kurt's ghost to play my venue.) I'm intrigued by the idea of giving each show at least one performance with audience participation a laRocky Horror Picture Show. Picture a Rocky Horror style production of Hedda Gabler: audience members getting excited about dressing up like its the 1890's... tearing up books to throw onstage when she burns Lovborg's book, yelling out "Kill yourself!" every time she reaches for her father's pistols...
Anyways, I agree that a bar is a great way to get money (and that generally getting snacks at a theatre is way overpriced), but I don't think having an illegal bar is the right choice. Then again, I'm a prude, so I might not be the best judge.
Overall, I thought this was a great article with some pretty good suggestions. My only criticism is that I wish it could've been a bit more blunt...
For the most part, I found this to be a pretty accurate list. I doubt that ten is enough points though. For most points such as, not relying on Shakespeare, having childcare, and building bars, are right on the money. For other points, I'm just not so sure. Dropping out of grad school, while I'm sure is a great idea for some, is not a universal answer. I, personally, value higher education and think that for some, MFA programs can be absolutely wonderful. Having one entire point devoted to that seems a bit silly to me. That's not particularly useful advice. I'm sure that on the list of the TOP TEN things that theaters need to do, dropping out of grad school does not deserve to be #10. That list could have included something much more helpful.
YES! I completely agree with everything this author has said. The majority of theater is old and tired, it's saying the same thing over and over again and playing to the same audience over and over again. I love the classics I really do but I think that it is time to get some new classics into our repertoire as theater artists. We need to talk to our generation as opposed to older ones. The theater is stuck, it has hit a brick wall. We need to look at Shakespeare and see what he did that was so great but not just use everything that he has written. Take the idea of a routy audience, and new works that are related to ancient stories and texts and make them relevant to our current climate. Because Shakespeare did these things he is truly great.
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