Friday, November 16, 2018
Having Our Cake and Eating It Too
Breaking Character: There are few treats in this world better than a cake baked especially for you. Most cakes are too large to eat alone, so you experience the pleasure of people. A cake’s enjoyment often depends on its company. Additionally, cakes are both celebratory and potent time markers. Many of our life events revolve around this confectionery marvel. I remember with clarity particular cakes and the occasions they signified: the vegan robot cake for my son’s third birthday, my Uncle Bill’s retirement “Better than Robert Redford Cake” – named by his sister (who was a Sister, and found the Redford moniker more appropriate for her Catholic faith than its original “Better than Sex Cake”), and my 23rd birthday cake, delivered to me by a new boyfriend on a motorcycle. Baking a cake takes time. It’s an exercise that requires patience and love; under all the butter, sugar, and flour, all those empathetic qualities are palatable.
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9 comments:
What a delightful article. First, the director starts off with talking about the varying reasons one might do a project; as either a work of passion or a work of necessity. I think this was important for the article to bring up moving into its next topic. It's important to recognize why you are doing a project to strategize how you need to approach the project. The Director then goes to tell the story about this play and how it became relevant in the immediate present. I think it is easy for all who work in theater to understand the effect in can have on an audience and how great of a tool it can be to help people see a world that is not theirs. The Cake, is interesting because it shows the uncommon opinion of the normal theater goer. It forces us to eat our own words and try to see a different perspective. It sounds like it doesn't make us change our minds, but just helps us to listen.
It is very interesting how the author compares the process of baking a cake to the process of shows being picked for or by a director. After reading the article, I understood what the production was about. I had a conversation with the article which for me was not just a reading experience with the oohs and aahs at the well expressed thoughts and also agreeing with what the author was saying. It was me responding to what the author had to say and asking questions that were being answered one way or another in the article. The article also posed some questions for me that gave the opportunity to answer before it went on. One thing that I got from this article is that beliefs and opinions are different and they can cause a train wreck but we can do to avoid that train wreck is have a conversation in which both parties listen and learn from each other. “When beliefs collide at the most awkward, uncomfortable, and distressing times, people do not abandon one another. They listen. They learn. And though they may never agree, they do not hold contempt for one another.”
I thought this article did a very good job of describing the joy of producing theater that you care about. This director describes the experience of working on a show that felt like it was a cake baked just for her. I thought that was a lovely way of thinking of a project that you connect with. There are shows that are not particularly interesting or relevant to the time and they do not feel as special as when you find a show that has a message to send and is complex and new. Working on a show that feels like a cake baked for you is what makes theater so exciting and so much of having that experience is the people that you work with. This director mentions that the group of people she worked with were part of what made her experience so unique and meaningful and I think that is an important factor that can sometimes be overlooked but is often what makes the difference between a mediocre show and a great show.
Wow, this feels like a really important play. It is definitely the story we hope for--people struggling with deep-set ideas and values who compassionately confront a new reality, rather than rejecting it outright. The story of the conservative baker and the gay couple is politically very relevant, but, as the author unpacks, the emotional relevance of food has a ubiquitous significance. I appreciate that the author creates a fully realized and humanized baker character. It is often easy to forget, in this polarized political landscape, that the opposition is also populated by people, and their values are as closely held as our own. It is often said that we shouldn’t be trying to bridge these gaps, just to grow our side’s strength, but I think this play (from the description, at least) shows what is lost when we do that. I hope it has a happy ending, though the author of the article seems to imply that it doesn’t exactly end with a Shakespearean wedding.
This play is very well placed in time. The baker lawsuit has become a household chitchat. This play seems like a show I would love overall but the way the article described the show caused some concern for me. In this scenario you can tell what audience the show was written for. The show was written to have a “right” and a “wrong” opinion with Della’s “wrong” opinion probably being changed by then end of the show and in this case I completely agree with the aforementioned “right” opinion so I take up zero issue with the show in that. I worry that you are only catering to an audience that already agrees with the right side of the argument. The author talks of listening and learning from both sides of the article but I find it hard to see how they develop Jen’s character arch what is she learning and changing from Della. By only having one viewpoint majorly change you risk alienating the audience that most needs the show.
Unknown 10:08am is Chase Trumbull. Computer goof.
I first heard about this story a couple of weeks ago, when talking to my friends, this is one of the proposed ST’s for next year! I am thrilled to see if it makes it to our stage. I admire everyone involved in the process of developing a ‘healthy’ debate for CATF’s production . The writer for writing a bigot that is so sweet you can’t hate, and that grows through the process of the show, and all the creative team who engaged in making this a topic of conversation even when the Supreme Court made a final -negative- say in the same conversation. I can imagine the sense of devastation the creative team felt when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the baker. Almost like all the work the company did to put this show on the community’s stage was negated by the time they opened. But I was so pleased to read about all the patrons who decided they needed to see an ‘alternate’ ending and went to see the show.
I think this play seems really interesting based on both its description and on the viewpoints expressed by the director in this article. I love the way that her passion for the play and the issues it addresses shine through, and I think the idea of creating a bigoted character who the audience also roots for is a really fascinating idea. I think it emphasizes the way that these prejudiced people are also just people, and have viewpoints that can grow and change over time. It’s often said by people on both sides that we should just remain within our own community and write the other side off entirely, and I’m glad to see a show being produced that emphasizes communication and shows the results of that as a character really scrutinizing their own prejudiced beliefs and moving past that. I think this show is very relevant to today’s political issues and I’m glad that it’s found a director and creative team that are working on something they love and think is meaningful.
I like Char had heard whisperings that this might be something that we are doing next year and though I wouldn't see it I think that it is important to do. This article and this show just sound so wholesome and honestly there is nothing I feel like I need more now than just some wholesome theater that reminds me why I went into this ridiculous business in the first place. These are tough times and it is hard to feel like by disengaging from the tough stuff that you are ignoring important things but sometimes you just have to take a break. We are all gearing up for some fight or some quest to make the world a better place and I think if we can all just turn off our brains for 90 minutes and see something happy we would all benefit.
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