Thursday, March 16, 2006

whooohoooo!

so, went to an IBP meeting last night (stategic planning comittee, company development) and then came home and started reading "the fervent years"...

gonna get some thoughts down on a couple of things...

are musicans theater artists? When they are performing or recording for the theater, then undoubtedly they are. Does just knowing how to play a guitar make you a theater artist? No. However, making music for the theater implies/requires a different set of concerns than just "rockin' out" or most any variation thereof. Inasmuch as and when a musician is involved in making theater, and they are taking the concerns of theater seriously, they are theater artists.

that's obvious, right?



What are the particular concerns of our times? How do we portray them in a way that they also address universal concerns? Are particular concerns always an example of at least a class of universal concerns? I have no idea.

I few years ago I got all hot and bothered about the idea of street theater,
and for a short while tried to get some things going on that front...
some of those ideas still threaten to resurface from time to time.
I still love the idea of an update of "the king play".

Technology, Magic and Systems of Control - The Cell Phone Piece (a composition for actors)

One of the first plays mentioned in "The Fervent Years" is "The Adding Machine" -

"Plays about the nullity of the average man, like Elmer Rice's Adding Machine, were high-brow amusement."
pg. 18

and the more I think about that comment and the script and my take on it,
the more I think I am preparing to subvert the author's intention.
I'm o.k. with that, as long as it results in a good show, and not mush...
I know I want the audience to see the shades around what appears to be so much
black and white. We'll see.

that's all for now...
Posted by at

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

This entry is in response to something I said in that meeting, so I feel ok in responding to it here. Just because a musician picks up a bass and plays in a band that plays music for a play does not make that person a theatre artist...I don't care how much concern they have for it. They MIGHT be a theatre artist, but that act of playing the bass in the Theatre, for a PLAY does not qualify it. It qualifies them as a musician however. Even if a musician COMPOSES music, that is then used in the theatre does not qualify them as a theatre artist. By the same token, a guy that picks up a hammer and puts together flats, a lighting guy that gels lekos or an actor playing Hamlet..NONE of this presupposes that person is a theater artist.

8:33 AM
Anonymous said...

That was me..jmiz.

8:35 AM
Anonymous said...

And do "The Adding Machine". Your passion for it is obvious..you're just the guy to do it. I'll play bass!

8:48 AM
Found in the Alley said...

I wonder if there is such a beast as a musician theater artist. My impression from the IBP plays I participated in and from the musicians I've met who have done theater work is that most musicians in theater are playing a journey man role, you know, it's a gig. Actually that's not why I did IBP - I did it because it was new and was a chance to work with artists and friends I enjoyed. What I learned that I didn't like about theater work, as a musician, was the schedule - having to do the same show over and over for the run. Now I think there are theater people who also happen to be great musicians like Tony. But a purely musician-al theater person I don't know.

3:42 PM
Anonymous said...

One could argue that great musicians create "theater" in their own right. I saw Rodney Crowell walk out with a chair and a guitar and create one of the great theater pieces of my life. One could certainly make that argument I think..just as I could make the argument that Suchu, a modern dance company, is also the best theater company in town.

But to my mind, neither Rodney Crowell or Suchu are theater artists. Once is a great musician, the other is a great dance company..both music and dance of course are two of the pure artforms that help compose the bastard art form of theater...but in and of themselves to not comprise theater. A theater artist works with all forms.

9:05 AM
Anonymous said...

Hi Killian..That was me again...jmiller. Loved Churchbus and the TGL over New Years! Bring back the bus!

9:08 AM
Found in the Alley said...

Hi JMiller. Thanks, actually it looks like the bus is coming down for Art Car Weekend playing the Proletariat May 13th!

Good point about how good live musicians are actually in the business of making "theater." But I think you're right to make an exception about that because in this sense we're talking about Theatre with a capital T and the e-r reversed =)

10:28 AM
Anonymous said...

woot! I'm back on the bus!

3:49 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)