more thoughts on theater, campfire, corporation

you know, if you create a new piece... you have think who you're creating it for. Who is your audience? What are you really trying to say, what impact are you really trying to make, and what story/wisdom/ideas are you trying to impart, and, very importantly, WHO are you trying to relay that story/wisdom and those ideas TO??? What conversation are you trying to start and with WHOM?

People create a new show and then they... go to Fringe. Or they sumbit it to a minor or major regional theater company. They get it jammed in the cogs of the system- some make it, some don't. Some are great, some aren't. OR, they go to another festival, Fringe or another sort, either in the States or to one that is hosted internationally.

I think this is... okay. Sure. Yes. Okay... but, um, I am just thinking here... what group of people, what audience pool are the majority of theater practioners reaching out to? What kind of people do theater artists really want to reach? Festivals and Fringes are great.. but at least here in the States... who the fuck goes to those Festivals except theater enthusiasts/supporters/lovers/artists? Of course, I'm making a generalization, but I know for certain, theater events, theater festivals are NOT major cultural or community event anymore. They just aren't. I don't classify it a community event if certain or members or groups within the community are directly or indirectly excluded. The DC Fringe Festival is coming up in a few weeks out here. And these shows will, no doubt, be attended by friends, family members and supporters of the artists who are presenting the works, plus there will be some word of mouth and external publicity, which will pull in some interested theater goers (who can afford the costly $15 ticket) from off the street. But, it is extremely likely that 90+ percent of every Fringe show in the Festival this summer will have at least a few empty seats for every performance.

Are Fringe artists and all theater artists in general happy with this? Honestly?

As an artist, I, personally (and maybe this is just me), have no DESIRE to just communicate to a theater crowd, or to only a crowd that can afford theater. I want to talk to everybody. I don't want to have boundaries of class or race or gender when it comes to presenting my art. Not just my art, but every piece of art, it should be for EVERYONE. Right?? The conversations that theaters start, they should be conversations for everyone. Right?? If I do a Fringe show one day, I will be disgusted if my house is filled with just theater people or upper/middle class folks who can afford the ticket. That doesn't achieve much. They doesn't reach everybody. That reaches a slice of the world, generous citizens, yes, but ones that partipate in this discriminatory theater system.

That will make me sick! Because those aren't the only people I want to include in my conversation. The disappointing thing about the American Theater system is this very issue. The politics of it, the business of, the ego campaign of it... it closes off the conversation to whole groups of people. These communities/groups of people who are excluded, they have no concept what theater is and it's power. They have no concept they could, if the system were different, be welcome to particpate in the conversation, or even to just listen. For some, maybe if they went to a decent public school, have the only experience of theater being sitting in complete boredom during a school assembly and having to watch some play, that no body was interested in.

They're school might have, though, hosted a Diversity Assembly, a Heritage Celebration, or a something like that, as they did at my middle and high schools and university. And this they liked, this was a party! this was open, this was free, and this was a celebration of everyone in the community. This is also theater. This is where theater really lives, and this is what so many theater artists in the world either do not recognize or are so stringently opposed to partaking in... i don't know why, because maybe it isn't "real art" ? I don't know, I'm just speculating.

It's hard. And for years and years and years the American Theater system has built this coroporate structure of theater that is specifically for only a seletive audience pool. But, I think, if the system wants to evolve for the 21st century and really be a relevant force in the culture, in the communities, then it will need to wash away all these aristocratic notions and ideals of theater. These notions have been so ingrained for so long that most theater artists may not even realize they hold on to them so desperately. It's hard, I know, but it will have to be done on a wide-scale. And the TDF and other artistic administrators can work work work at improving this and that, improving the new play track and what not. They can toy with data and theories and "audience development" and all that, but it really will not, I firmly believe, help the theater emerge as a major voice or home in America in the 21st century.

People are constantly looking for stories. They're looking for metaphor and they're looking for answers. This is why people watch TV, invest in home entertainment systems. This is why adults join clubs, sports leagues, have social gathers, chit chat outside laundry mats, over coffee and cigarettes, in street-side churches, weight watches meetings. That necessity to BE APART of SOMETHING has not disappeared within the human genome. But the theater is perplexed because people are not coming to them anymore? Well, well, maybe it's because for decades and decades, the American theater has instilled an idea that certain people were welcome and certain people were not.

People are looking for commuity. And if the theater in the US can make a genuine effor to welcome other commuinities- not just welcome, but invite, and actually GO TO THEM-- then we will see the further evolution of theater in the US over the next century.

And I'm serious. Bring R&J to the apartment complexes. Cast a few people from the community in the play. Bring a new work to a shopping center. Go where the people are, becasue they sure as hell ain't coming to YOU anymore!