Part of deciding the framework for this next play is making a personal call about what theater is actually supposed to do; what it is actually good for.
That should be a fairly straight-forward thing, and for some playwrights it might be ... but I keep changing my damn mind -- which has a direct impact on what the next play should look like.
I'm not a zealot anymore. I'm not even sure theater should be an art.
I don't know how (or if) theater should compete with Breaking Bad, for example, (the finale of which changed the make-up of our audience last night) or the movie de jour.
Even if I honestly thought we could compete, we'd be more and more behind with every step down the economic ladder we are. When Truant Arts looks up that ladder, we see nothing but assholes above us (not "assholes" like "Hey, don't be an asshole." We see literal assholes, because everyone has more financial wherewithal than we have, and few of them have the decency to wear pants.
But, if I'm gonna spend the time and resources to write a new play by Jan 2014, I need to know what it is I think theater can do now; what it is good for.
I had a moment last night when we offended/or startled/or bored/or disappointed a middle-class, middle-age guy during Chaos, and Other Worldly Possessions. I started to re-define my opinion of theater. It should be visceral. You should hate it, or you should love it ... but not just with your brain. It should crawl inside and start swirling your chemistry around. You should not be able to look away.
That's what I want.
How to do this without special effects?
That's the next question.
That should be a fairly straight-forward thing, and for some playwrights it might be ... but I keep changing my damn mind -- which has a direct impact on what the next play should look like.
I'm not a zealot anymore. I'm not even sure theater should be an art.
I don't know how (or if) theater should compete with Breaking Bad, for example, (the finale of which changed the make-up of our audience last night) or the movie de jour.
Even if I honestly thought we could compete, we'd be more and more behind with every step down the economic ladder we are. When Truant Arts looks up that ladder, we see nothing but assholes above us (not "assholes" like "Hey, don't be an asshole." We see literal assholes, because everyone has more financial wherewithal than we have, and few of them have the decency to wear pants.
But, if I'm gonna spend the time and resources to write a new play by Jan 2014, I need to know what it is I think theater can do now; what it is good for.
I had a moment last night when we offended/or startled/or bored/or disappointed a middle-class, middle-age guy during Chaos, and Other Worldly Possessions. I started to re-define my opinion of theater. It should be visceral. You should hate it, or you should love it ... but not just with your brain. It should crawl inside and start swirling your chemistry around. You should not be able to look away.
That's what I want.
How to do this without special effects?
That's the next question.