I was reading an interview with a number of playwrights in the last issue of American Theatre, and I found a rather insightful thought: theatre, by virtue of its place in contemporary society, needs to be bigger and more important. We ask our audience to make increasingly larger sacrifices in order to attend our productions. We need to offer a product that is worth the forty, eighty, hundred dollars, we are asking for tickets. We can't put on something that can be shown on television, just another procedural or a crass commercial event. When we write a play, and ultimately I realize the we must be sublimated to an I, must take a look at the topic, the story, the characters, the show itself and ask the question, "Is what I'm offering enough to justify the sacrifice I am asking so many others to make?"
Is it?
Think about what we are asking. Not just the audience members, but also al the people required to put the show together. Director, designers, riggers, carps, electricians, costumers, assistants, interns, actors, understudies, box office staff, marketers, and so on and so forth. It is a huge undertaking. Does a play so incredibly about your personal experience which no one can relate to, does that rate the sacrifice? Does a broad comedy about sexual shenanigans within a golf office?
I just feel there needs to be more, and I will probably still write plays that are a bit to small, bit too personal... But I'm going to try to keep that in mind, that for my plays to be fully realized, I have to ask a lot of other people...
2 comments:
What about going the other way and dropping ticket prices? Do you think this is even a possibility? Lets face it, even some of the biggest commercial productions don't do as phenomenally as projected (Young Frankenstein, case in point -- hence the ridiculous ticket prices). I used to have this vision when I was a teenager where I would open up a string of black box theaters all over the place and charge movie ticket prices for plays. You can do that here in NY, but I meant to do it in places where good, professional quality theater is hardly ever available. It all feels like one big pipe dream now...
Hello,
My name is Kaity Moss, and I work Walker and Bloomsbury Publishing. We are currently getting the word out about our new book, ‘Notes on Directing’ and we were hoping to send you a free copy. However, to send it to you we need a name and address. Maybe, if you fancy the book you can review it in your blog. I would appreciate it if you sent a response with your information to this e-mail- Brenda.Johnson@bloomsburyusa.com
Thank you so much for your time, we hope to hear from you soon.
~Kaity
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