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Monday, July 02, 2018
Theatre shuts out the working class. I’m devastated to think of the voices silenced
Mish Grigor | Stage | The Guardian: In 2015, I made a theatre show, The Talk, about my working class family and their working class sex lives. I interviewed them about their sexual histories, and edited their stories into verbatim scenes that I get audiences to read.
3 comments:
ZTR DP Summer
said...
I think that this article makes a very valid point, especially in an era when theater is competing with film and television to the extent that it currently is. In recent discussion with many young people I know, I have often heard that theater can never be the ultimate art form because tickets to the shows that most people hear about are extremely expensive and therefore the audience is a very select group of wealthy (often older) people. This contrasts movies which can be easily viewed, for much less, in movie theaters all over the country or television shows that can be watched on computers using basic streaming services. Because of all of this, the group of people being affected by modern theater is extremely small which then leads to an even smaller group of people who are interested in producing it. This cycle makes it confusing to try to pinpoint how to solve the issue. Is it a problem stemming from who the creators are and who they are targeting or is it a problem of accessibility for the audience? Either way, improvement in one will most likely lead to improvement in the other. Personally, I believe that we must first fix the issue of creators because spreading ideas and creativity is much easier than working with expenses. Then, once the creators are creating new work to attract new audiences, there will be a greater push for equality in accessibility, eventually causing more people to become viewers and then creators themselves. Hopefully through a process like this, driven by artists who acknowledge the issue, a solution will be found.
I would this article particularly interesting because it sheds light on a important fact about society. Theater appeals to different types of people. In this example, it is specifically targeted at the middle class. And addressing middle class problems. It is interesting how in the creative process some argue that it is almost unfair to write about something that you cannot experience; specifically when a wealthy creative mind attempts to write about the working class. However, other creative artists are now struggling to find jobs in the field. Jobs that are incredibly hard to attain and will take years of work in the industry to even have a slim chance. It’s intriguing that the root of the problem is the fact that institutions specifically in Australia simply are not supporting young artists. People need to support theater, either way. It brings us together, it is an art form unlike any other that allows us to convey the emotions of ourselves in a unique way that is unmatched and uncovenable through any other artistic medium. Without theater, we are not ourselves. Without theater, there is no entertainment.
This article focuses on a particular issue in the theatre that should be noticed more often. I had never stepped back and realized but the shows that I have seen, read or know of do not accurately (if at all) represent the working-class. As mentioned in the article "Its middle-class stories about middle-class problems." When I seek out any type of entertainment most of the time I want there to be a relatable factor and that cannot be the case for working-class people in the theatre. Although saying that there is a need for shows that portray the working class is only the tip of the iceberg. In order to write shows that can accurately portray this class, it is best that the writer would have lived through the experiences he would touch on in his writing. That being said acquiring the experience for a job in this line of entertainment can be very difficult and costly (making it nearly impossible for someone growing up in the working-class to obtain a job like this). I do not know what is the next step to making accurate representation for the working-class in the theatre a reality but this article was informative and eye-opening and I will be looking into this topic more.
3 comments:
I think that this article makes a very valid point, especially in an era when theater is competing with film and television to the extent that it currently is. In recent discussion with many young people I know, I have often heard that theater can never be the ultimate art form because tickets to the shows that most people hear about are extremely expensive and therefore the audience is a very select group of wealthy (often older) people. This contrasts movies which can be easily viewed, for much less, in movie theaters all over the country or television shows that can be watched on computers using basic streaming services. Because of all of this, the group of people being affected by modern theater is extremely small which then leads to an even smaller group of people who are interested in producing it. This cycle makes it confusing to try to pinpoint how to solve the issue. Is it a problem stemming from who the creators are and who they are targeting or is it a problem of accessibility for the audience? Either way, improvement in one will most likely lead to improvement in the other. Personally, I believe that we must first fix the issue of creators because spreading ideas and creativity is much easier than working with expenses. Then, once the creators are creating new work to attract new audiences, there will be a greater push for equality in accessibility, eventually causing more people to become viewers and then creators themselves. Hopefully through a process like this, driven by artists who acknowledge the issue, a solution will be found.
I would this article particularly interesting because it sheds light on a important fact about society. Theater appeals to different types of people. In this example, it is specifically targeted at the middle class. And addressing middle class problems. It is interesting how in the creative process some argue that it is almost unfair to write about something that you cannot experience; specifically when a wealthy creative mind attempts to write about the working class. However, other creative artists are now struggling to find jobs in the field. Jobs that are incredibly hard to attain and will take years of work in the industry to even have a slim chance. It’s intriguing that the root of the problem is the fact that institutions specifically in Australia simply are not supporting young artists. People need to support theater, either way. It brings us together, it is an art form unlike any other that allows us to convey the emotions of ourselves in a unique way that is unmatched and uncovenable through any other artistic medium. Without theater, we are not ourselves. Without theater, there is no entertainment.
This article focuses on a particular issue in the theatre that should be noticed more often. I had never stepped back and realized but the shows that I have seen, read or know of do not accurately (if at all) represent the working-class. As mentioned in the article "Its middle-class stories about middle-class problems." When I seek out any type of entertainment most of the time I want there to be a relatable factor and that cannot be the case for working-class people in the theatre. Although saying that there is a need for shows that portray the working class is only the tip of the iceberg. In order to write shows that can accurately portray this class, it is best that the writer would have lived through the experiences he would touch on in his writing. That being said acquiring the experience for a job in this line of entertainment can be very difficult and costly (making it nearly impossible for someone growing up in the working-class to obtain a job like this). I do not know what is the next step to making accurate representation for the working-class in the theatre a reality but this article was informative and eye-opening and I will be looking into this topic more.
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