Thursday, January 23, 2014
We Are The Play: How I Learned to Make Theater as a College Student, or a Case for Working With our World
HowlRound: In the contemporary world of theater, the play is put on a pedestal. The play is sacred. We sit around a table trying to find the mystical “world of the play.” When an actor asks a question in rehearsal, the director responds, “What does the play want?” Then they have a conversation trying to figure out what the illusive play must want. But the play is not out there floating around for them to discover. The play is the moment before the actor asked the question and the next time the actor will try something, already there, already alive. I believe that theater must never serve the mystical play more than the people in the room. The living, breathing people in the room making the play, and the real, human world that they live in, are always more important than the play.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
This is really cool. It made me rethink the whole "think about your locals" slogan when picking plays. The theatre I usually work with just picks a show that they want to do and then tries to get the rights for it. We never really worry about if we have the resources to do the show because we know that people will come audition, we have space that we can rent, and we have designers that have been with the group for decades. I don't think it really crosses anyone's mind if the show is appropriate for the year or the situation. I don't think we ever wonder what the shows are about either. We just kinda do the show as it suits us. The play is what we make of it.
I really enjoyed this piece because I feel like it got down to the heart of what we do as theatre artists in college. Sure, we have the huge Chosky, but we also have Playground. This piece talks about making theatre for theatre's sake, BUT, using what you have. I would have loved to do Chicago in high school, but the fact of the matter is, we didn't have strong girls to hold up he matriarch trio that is Velma, Roxie, and Mama. That's a common example, but it holds. Daphne brings up a great example with her Patti Smith-based production and I think we could all take a few things out of that book. What this article is trying to say is if you use your resources as efficiently as possible, you can succeed.
In the wake of Playground, this article couldn't be more appropriate! I agree that it is important to supplement classroom learning with actually doing and creating things in the world. It's such an amazing feeling to be collaborating with my peers, creating work that we are all passionate about and invested in. It's a chance to put our learning to use and to let our minds go free. It helps us remember the reason why we are studying and working so hard!
Post a Comment