Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Theatrical Reinvention
donhall: "Reinventing ourselves as we go through life is a natural part of being a human being. As we mature, encounter new circumstances, build new relationships, the acts of self reflection and personal growth are as necessary as breathing and feeding oneself. Without a bit of constant personal transformation, we stagnate and eventually become fetid, like a swamp."
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4 comments:
I really enjoyed reading this article. I find it interesting to read things that can relate life to theater, and vis versa. This piece was especially fascinating because right now in theater there are so many remakes of shows, and as theater itself, not just venues, change, how important is it to readdress older pieces? in my film studies class, we discussed the issue of whether an award winning film like crash should be redone in ten years in order to reanalyze race relations.
This article, although it speaks to mainly ones own personal changes and changes in ones theater, speaks to much more than just those two topics.
This article begins bringing up an idea behind the goals of any given theater. Are you an educational theater? What is your role in the community, and your mission statement, etc. An article like this reminds me that, every so often, we need to make sure that we step back and examine what we are doing, and make sure that this is in line with the actual priorities of our theater (or any organization). If it's not, when and why did it change. A process such as this keeps your organization relevant and productive.
Alrhough I agree with this article, I also think that a lot of things in it were pretty much implied. I mean, Piaget has a term for what he's describing: "assimilation" which may also be "accommodation". Also, if you look at Lawrence Kolbergs Stages of Moral Development, you might find the same thing. It's just as Alcyone put it in his work, "At the feet of the Master" in his first chapter, Discrimination (although not the type one may think) basically states this in its first few statements.
Jacob...I need to find you at some point to have this conversation, because that's totally fascinating. I agree with Sylvianne too, the main reason we gravitate to theatre, or a reason I should say, is the familiarity of seeing experiences we all know occur in other beings who are part of this large story we identify with. I feel like it's all in the timing when it comes to redoing pieces. That's more tricky, and I don't know much about that, but what I do feel is always important is always keeping older forms of theatre still intact somewhere, even if it's in hints. The foundation, the story, should always be there for instance. Certain things should never change. Real actors who are flesh and blood should never change. It sounds a little silly, but I'm genuinely afraid that humanity will take that step someday and throw the magic of live theatre out the window. Everything in moderation I suppose.
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