Right now I am in the office with the IT people waiting for my digital story to load. I’ve had problems, but I’m getting help and hopefully we’ll figure it out. I’m working on it and I hope it will be up here soon!

I wrote this over the weekend while working on my digital story and decided I might as well post it on here. I’m also practicing adding pictures.

Art had always been my favorite class, next to English. I liked that it was an outlet for me. It was the one class where the teachers couldn’t tell me I was doing something wrong. I always felt like I had more freedom. So one day in 6th grade, my art teacher was looking for students to help paint the backdrop for the school musical. We were doing Guys and Dolls, which takes place in New York. My job was to paint the Empire State Building and I did my own research for it. After that I got involved in run crew and then I wanted to learn how to work the lights. I was fascinated with all parts of the process and how they came together in one complete show. By the time I’d finished high school, I’d tried everything from designing to acting, but my favorite job was head of stage crew. Looking back, I guess I really was acting like an assistant stage manager. I wasn’t calling the show, but I was backstage making sure things ran smoothly. When I got to college, I continued my involvement in theatre, mostly as a fun hobby. I had not planned on majoring in theatre (I’d heard stories of starving actors and that it could not be a reliable career field), but as we all know, life seldom goes as planned. Right away, I begged Gregg to let me be a part of the run crew for the musical, Godspell, despite having an evening class. I asked Julie if I could help in the scene shop, even though I wasn’t in any stagecraft class. I was very close to my theatre department in high school and I wanted to find something like that again. I liked theatre people. I liked their slight quirkiness and their open minds and hearts. So in college I took a mix of theatre classes and other classes. I continued to take theatre practicum as well, all production positions. Eventually, I came to realize that theatre could be more than a hobby for me. I was passionate about it and I liked it more than any of the other disciplines I’d tried out. I have not been able to pinpoint it, but something special made me keep coming back to theatre. So I made the decision to declare as a theatre major and started completing the major classes. I also took classes in the computer science department, sort of as a back-up plan. I came to focus on stage management. I’m pretty good at it and it gives me the chance to meet lots of people and stick my nose in every part of the process. And that takes me to where I sit right now. Basically, I’ve decided to take the risk (of starting a career in the theatre), but try to protect myself along the way. A speaker at the leadership conference I attended this weekend said that you don’t learn by succeeding; you learn through mistakes. He told a story about ice skating, hitting his head, and wearing a helmet the next time. I feel like I have to try this. Even if I “fail”, I’ll learn something- like don’t do that next time. I’m taking this class, in part, to learn how best to succeed. My next step is to find out if I can make a life out of theatre.
My 2-minute digital story will include a version of this.

This is left over from our class discussion on Wednesday. We were discussing the role of the theatre critic at one point. Lucia asked whether we thought that this role would disappear or diminish in time. I think that it will change, but I certainly hope it does not disappear. I think it’s important to have actual theatre critics, meaning people who love the theatre enough to make a living out of seeing and writing about it. Though I acknowledge the danger of placing too much weight on one person’s opinion, this is not an issue for me because there will always be more than one critic for comparison and theatre critics tend to be more educated about theatre than the average reviewer. Having theatre critics is in everybody’s best interest. It is in the audience’s interest to have reliable reviews to read so they don’t waste their time and money on shows they don’t like. I think this would prevent negative experiences for some audience members and help them maintain a positive view of the theatre. This is good for theatre people too. It is also in the best interest of theatre people to have a third party critic to review their work and give feedback for possible improvement. Yes, it still blows for those shows that get bad reviews, but such is the reality of this business.

This is a question I have been thinking about for a long time. Gregg has asked it in nearly every class I have had with him, I’ve wondered about it myself, and I’ve had to discuss it when explaining myself to others. It’s been in my head for a while, but I’m only beginning to come to some conclusions.

Why do I do theatre?
I do theatre because I love it. I love the vitality of theatre. To me it is something alive, always changing. That’s fascinating to. I love that it is challenging. I am good at a lot of different things, but I like to do theatre because it is not easy for me. I am constantly asked to think in new and different ways. I love that theatre is collaborative. I like people and I like connecting and working with them. Also, I do theatre because I feel like I have something to say. This seems strange because I usually stage manage behind the scenes, but I still feel like I’m helping communicate a message, which I really like.
I can recall a conversation I had with Tori years ago that got me started really thinking about this. She was asking me if I was going to declare myself a theatre major. By this time I had pretty much made up my mind that this was what I wanted to do. I told her that I hadn’t planned on it coming into college, but I just hadn’t found anything else that I love as much. I learned that Tori hadn’t wanted to be a theatre major originally either, though she ended up committing to it. Then she talked about how theatre is the one thing that consumes so much of her time and energy, but she just doesn’t care. It seems to me a sort of round-about, even magical, way of coming to do theatre, but this idea recurs. Reggie mentioned in class last night how people do this because it is the only thing that they want to do. Steve wrote in his blog how he was so passionate about his theatre classes that he actually forgot he was a double major [link] . People who do theatre, including me, tend to automatically make it their priority. Why is that?

What makes theatre so special?
I think that it has to do with the stories and the moment of performance, but I haven’t worked it out yet. I’m sure it ties in with the fundamental human drive to communicate. I’ll admit, I was skeptical when Gregg said that theatre people view the world differently from other people. I thought, are we really that special? I don’t know. I do think that the fact that theatre is collaborative trains us to view the world differently. Compared to all of the other arts, theatre is the only one you could not do by yourself. By definition, there must at least be an audience and a performer. You are utterly dependent on others. This is special because it forces you to open your mind. You can’t do it all your way and you have to try hard to communicate with other people or it won’t work.

What is the point of it all?
This is a question I often get from people who do not understand why I do theatre, especially those who are not familiar with theatre. It is true that the industry is very wasteful in terms of resources. How we can put so much time, material, thought, etc. towards something and produce nothing lasting? Theatre is so intangible and many don’t see the value. The best answer I can give them is that the point of it is that moment, the moment of performance. It’s that connection and whatever lasts in people’s minds that is so special. Is it even possible to even pin it down in more concrete terms?

These questions and many more are something that I really want to continue exploring.

This is my first post and like a first rehearsal, the point of it is simply to get it over with. So now the real work can begin.