AMERICAN THEATRE: In receiving the Presenter of the Year Award from NAPAMA during the Association of Performing Arts Professionals’ (APAP) annual luncheon, Todd E. Wetzel began his acceptance speech with a simple statement: “We don’t do this work in order to win awards. We do it to create community, while simultaneously belonging to one.”
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Art is something that anyone can create and anyone can confide in. Art has no boundaries or limitations making it an outlet that many turn to. Art is something that creates relationships and ulters perspectives. It forces unpopular opinions and creates evolutions that make people realize that we are on in the same. Art has the power to create community because of its open mindedness. Within every and any form of art there are questions to be answered and problems to be solve and that always requires a team effort. There is always a lot to learn from and about art because it is ever changing. It is every person's human nature to solve throughout the create, and more often than not, it results in art. It's something that speaks to any audience and reaches people from all over the world. It is am universal place where anyone is welcome. Its collaborative effort to create new beauty. I think without art the world would probably be the most boring and claustrophobic place.
A refreshing point of view. In our world it is so easy to get caught up in everything. The day to day things, the grander thinking on shows, planning, etc. all finds its way into entangling our lives and making us forget why we are doing what we do. It was nice that this article talked about that and reminded me why this industry instead of the same skills and or relatively the same job in a different industry. Some of it has to do with exactly as Eyring interprets Wetzel’s opening. It is about community and collaboration with everyone. A community is formed that we all belong to and that we all strive to maintain and develop. However, I think it stems deeper. It isn’t just a community in our industry but a community for the world. The reason I joined entertainment is because of its ability to reach out and touch people; bringing them together in ways that nothing else can. Entertainment is one of the few common things among all cultures, all people, and all societies which is how it sort of connects us. When it happens, it feels blissful and that why we do what we do.
I really enjoyed reading this article; people do not always realize how much community is necessary for theater but these experimental shows that actively pull in the audience emphasize and make the need for people a lot more obvious. Community is why I love theater; of course there are times when I would rather just do work by myself but, for nearly all of my work, it is impossible for me to carry something out with absolutely no assistance. I don’t always think about how crucial other people are and I am glad that this article brought this topic up. You can’t put on a show without people and I also thought it was interesting that some of the shows discussed in this article think of the audience as part of the collaborative team. It is obvious that thinking of the audience and how they will react dictates some choices for a show, but it is fascinating to see the audience being considered as some of the actors.
Building community through art is nothing new. Artists at their core, no matter what medium they work with, are storytellers. Storytelling brings people together by sharing your experience with others, or having a shared experience with the people around you. Like this article mentions, theatre is a huge creator of community. I know that in the program I made theatre with in high school, we were almost like a family. In the theatre, a lot of the time, you are spending so much time with the artists around you, that the creation of a community is not unexpected, especially in a setting like a regional theatre, where many personnel are long term. I guess because I experience the community backstage, I forgot how theatre also brings community to the audience as well. It is no surprise why so many mission statements for non-profit theatres involve a clause about bringing art into a community.
In my opinion the performing arts exist to provide communities with the opportunity to understand and experience different ways of viewing the world. The preforming arts exist as a way to bring communities together and to create a place for diverse audiences to join and collaborate over mutual interests, or new findings. The performing arts are also their own entity that cannot exist without community. The performing arts need audiences to experience them, and communities to create them. Theatre Is a collaborative art that promotes the essence of community. I think it’s incredibly important for theatre artists to remember the way that their art can affect the audiences that experience it. I love the visual arts, but I chose the performing arts as a career path because yes, visual arts can affect audiences but there’s no guarantee, whereas performing arts literally cannot exist without an audience. I want to affect people with my art, therefore I have joined this community that has given me the ability to do so.
It is really awarding to be a part of the art community. The speech from Todd Wetzel really highlights how people view all artists from all disciplines and places as a whole. Indeed, no matter what field we focus on or which approach we choose to express our feelings, making art is an extraordinary activity of human beings. However, it is not that doing art requires something significant. It can be just some quick sketch in the park, or few lines of words in the diary. The point is seeing through the limitation of our lives and create things that feed our mentality. The title of an artist should not be confined to those who are fortunately enough to make living out of it, in contrary, the community of art including every person that has imaginations and dreams beyond their physically being. We are all part of this great community.
The most valuable part of an artistic community to me is the creation of a space to share different points of view of the human experience. I think that art has a special way of bringing people together in a way that forces them to address greater issues as a community. There is no way around the struggle that lies ahead of us, and, therefore, no way to avoid important conversation. I think that it is really fascinating to consider the audience a part of the team in creating art because, at the end of it all, what matters is not what we meant to last, but what actually did last in their minds, and, therefore what goes out into the world with them. Their interpretation is really what brings all of the pieces of the design and the concept together. Something that I have really felt is the community developed across projects. The way that all theatre-makers relate to one another and continue those important conversations and care for each other stretches beyond a specific project and into our lives.
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