October 20th, 2004. It was a warm Wednesday afternoon in Minneapolis, and it was the day when-- according to some--- I became a bit of a fossil.
What was I doing on October 20th, 2004? That was the day I declared my undergraduate major-- bachelor of arts, theater.My parents didn’t take me totally seriously. They thought it was an excuse to slack off for four years, then I’d get a real job doing something respectable once I graduated.
Well, we have now reached September 2010, and I am writing this on a break from my rehearsal, which happens to be in midtown Manhattan. I moved halfway across the country, and now from 9-6, six days a week, I make theater. For a living. I’m not getting rich at it, but I do make a living.
So.....why? “Why do you do it?” Mom, Dad, and everyone asks. I could be making twice as much money if I got an office job someplace, and I could afford to go to the theater as much as I pleased. I certainly don’t have to tie my passion to my livelihood. And why does it have to be theater, when people who make movies are making so much more money?
Now, I like TV and movies as much as the next girl. (My current obsession is True Blood- helloooooo, Sookie Stackhouse!) But there is something about those talking pictures that just don’t inspire me.
TV and movies might be more popular, but they are controlled and manipulated within an inch of their lives. Audiences are more or less aware of what you can do with computers and a green screen, and they sit very placidly on their couches and in theaters, waiting to be impressed. We are a screen-oriented society, and we spend so much time in front of them every day that TV and movies just aren’t special anymore. (At least not to me.)
I love live theater because it’s live. I work in production, and I really enjoy the element of working without a safety net. In theater, we can’t “edit it out in post”-- whatever happens, happens, and there are 500 people watching the entire time. I can’t come to work with less than my A game at any time-- ever.
I love the energy that gets shared between the audience and the actors and this is really why I think theater is still relevant in the age of the internet. People who sit and watch plays are very aware that the people onstage are real, and I think it provides a more intense experience of empathy. It’s one thing if a character onscreen gets blown away by a shotgun, but to watch Romeo and Juliet dying in person, in front of you onstage is an entirely different experience.
For me, laughing and crying with a group of strangers is an affirmation of our collective humanity-- just as much for the actors as it is for the audience. If you’ve ever seen an actor genuinely crack up onstage because of some miscue, and watched the audience realize it too--- you might feel, like I do, that people aren’t quite so bad sometimes.
And that’s why I make theater in the age of the internet.
What was I doing on October 20th, 2004? That was the day I declared my undergraduate major-- bachelor of arts, theater.My parents didn’t take me totally seriously. They thought it was an excuse to slack off for four years, then I’d get a real job doing something respectable once I graduated.
Well, we have now reached September 2010, and I am writing this on a break from my rehearsal, which happens to be in midtown Manhattan. I moved halfway across the country, and now from 9-6, six days a week, I make theater. For a living. I’m not getting rich at it, but I do make a living.
So.....why? “Why do you do it?” Mom, Dad, and everyone asks. I could be making twice as much money if I got an office job someplace, and I could afford to go to the theater as much as I pleased. I certainly don’t have to tie my passion to my livelihood. And why does it have to be theater, when people who make movies are making so much more money?
Now, I like TV and movies as much as the next girl. (My current obsession is True Blood- helloooooo, Sookie Stackhouse!) But there is something about those talking pictures that just don’t inspire me.
TV and movies might be more popular, but they are controlled and manipulated within an inch of their lives. Audiences are more or less aware of what you can do with computers and a green screen, and they sit very placidly on their couches and in theaters, waiting to be impressed. We are a screen-oriented society, and we spend so much time in front of them every day that TV and movies just aren’t special anymore. (At least not to me.)
I love live theater because it’s live. I work in production, and I really enjoy the element of working without a safety net. In theater, we can’t “edit it out in post”-- whatever happens, happens, and there are 500 people watching the entire time. I can’t come to work with less than my A game at any time-- ever.
I love the energy that gets shared between the audience and the actors and this is really why I think theater is still relevant in the age of the internet. People who sit and watch plays are very aware that the people onstage are real, and I think it provides a more intense experience of empathy. It’s one thing if a character onscreen gets blown away by a shotgun, but to watch Romeo and Juliet dying in person, in front of you onstage is an entirely different experience.
For me, laughing and crying with a group of strangers is an affirmation of our collective humanity-- just as much for the actors as it is for the audience. If you’ve ever seen an actor genuinely crack up onstage because of some miscue, and watched the audience realize it too--- you might feel, like I do, that people aren’t quite so bad sometimes.
And that’s why I make theater in the age of the internet.
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Comments
Do you know how hard it is to keep from laughing when somebody seriously quotes Shakespeare at you to make their point?
It's all about the roar of the grease paint and the smell of the crowd.