New York Theater: Theater may be an ephemeral experience on stage, but the ways we have presented and attempted to preserve American musicals everywhere else – the printed page, photographs, the cast album, film, video, online — have helped determine what the public wants to see on stage.
3 comments:
To be honest, when I saw the title of this article I didn't want to click on it immediately. I don’t like the bridge between the arts and technology. I think it creates lazier and less inspired art. It makes art lack individuality and simply is for consumer use. While items might be well advertised online, an experience like theater shouldn’t be dulled down to be ‘relatable’ to the general public. This article really made me think about theater. What is its purpose? However, purposes change. What it once was is not what it is now. Just like religion was used for an explanation for how the world functioned, and how evolution happened– now science exists and we can look to facts to explain supernovas. Maybe it's the same with theater, it was once used as a storytelling form, but now that there is excellent technology, which is more and more accessible, it has replaced theater, people now watch movies, tv shows, and even more prevalent– short videos. Although it is grim, it is the sad truth.
Before clicking on this article I was most definitely thinking of the first definition of fixed. In my mind this article was going to talk about how technology “healed" or “saved” theater. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it was not what this article was going to talk about. I think the reason my brain went to the first definition was due to all of the discussion about trying to save the industry after covid or the discussion of the dying art form. I had never thought of technology being used to make broadway more permanent art forms. But I couldn't agree more. When I really think about it, when I have seen a show more than once the acting changes every time. Performers will never be able to deliver the same performance twice, which is what makes theater what it is, but the technology supporting the performance can be seen the same way twice. This really shifted the way I view the permanence of the design and art I work on.
I have never thought about this concept before reading this article. Since I'm only eighteen, I have never lived in a time when the theater wasn't "fixed". Every show that I have seen on Broadway tours has been "fixed", every show that I have acted in has been "fixed", and every show I have worked on tech for has been "fixed". I'm not really much of a theater history guy, so I have never known about the evolution of theater and theatrical texts until reading this article. I find the author's remarks about recording technology and home video really interesting because, in this digital age, I don't think about stuff like that often. I also find the discussion about digital theater during the pandemic to be intriguing because I didn't view it as much of an innovation, but when you actually think about it, it is the first version of anything of its type.
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