City in Pain by Citizen Kane

Pop Quiz:  What’s the most uncomfortable thing to watch onstage?

1. A girl forced to masturbate a guy.

2. A girl being dry humped by her ‘boyfriend’ while she’s passed out.  Oh yeah, he’s pointing a gun to her head at the same time.

3. A guy being raped by another guy while he’s held at gunpoint.  Oh yeah, let’s give the gun some action too.

4. A guy shitting onstage.  Runny diarrhea stuff.

5. A guy eating a baby.  No jokes.

Answer: You’d be surprised at what you find ‘easy to take’ (laughable even) when you’re bombarded by all of this and more in an hour and forty-five minutes.

Honestly, while these acts are shocking and discomforting (and amazingly well executed I may add), they are just a handful of the images and moments in the play that will stick with me for a long time.  I had read the play many a time (and decided to read the first half of it again before going to it) so none of the images were surprising per se but you can only reach a certain extent of preparation for baby eating.  Actually that was the least of it for me.

What was most disturbing were the sounds I heard tonight.  I think I’ll be haunted by the laugh of Cate for a very long time.  Awards should be given for laughs that turn into cries.  It’s a special talent that I hope to never hear again.  Or sexual grunts that are somewhere between pleasure and pain.  The soldier’s sounds during the rape are unfortunately unforgettable at the moment.  The disgusting coughing attacks of Ian, the rain on the rooftop, the ominous drone in the blackouts which didn’t let you relax ever, the crying of Ian after he has been Oedipus-ed.  The list goes on and on.  A soundtrack of pain.

But I’m making it sound like it wasn’t fun.  It was.  I laughed.  I might not want to admit I laughed at some moments but laughter is an interesting defence mechanism…okay, I’ll be honest, I’m also all for the darkest of humour.  Give me someone having a coughing attack because of their one lung while they try to help a crying girl from having a seizure and I may giggle.  (See it first and then judge me.)

Blackouts are always a hard thing to pull off.  Here are some advantages and disadvantages:

1.  They can be stressful when combined with the right sounds.

2. The imagination can wreak havoc during them when left with a disturbing cliffhanger moment.

3.  They can become tedious if there are too many.

4. It’s trying if they seem as long as the scene that just happened.

I’ll put this out there: I think actors and the crew should get their acknowledgement and recognition but I still question how to deal with curtain calls for shows that would be better off without one.  I think it would probably come across as totally pretentious to have no curtain call BUT at the same time there are scripts that you’d rather just be left to bask/wallow/ sit in the feeling rather than be jarred out of it.  (I have to give credit here to my mother and a conversation we had about this).  How do you cater to that section of the audience?  Can you?  Has anyone ever been to a show with no curtain call?  In any case, I understand the instinct/choice to let audiences off the hook a bit at the end and give them a peppy song and smiling actors but I personally want to stay stuck for a while.

Random acts of positive energy:

Walking down Yonge coming up to Dundas.  Past sketchy strip clubs.  Late at night.  Homeless people passed out on the sidewalks.  My mind is racing with thoughts of violence, war, what’s wrong in the world, the sexual violence I witnessed onstage.

In front of me.  A guy with a big piece of chalk.  Draws a heart on the sidewalk.  ”Hey man, write something positive on the ground!” “Me?”  Hands piece of chalk.  ”Something that makes you smile.”  I draw a music note.  ”Music, eh?  That’s great man.  Write your name too!”  Smiles exchanged.  Positive energy and a bit of hope passed from one stranger to another.

Fernando Krapp did not write this blog

So I didn’t plan on writing down my thoughts but you know I thought it best to procrastinate with this tonight rather than read more Canadian theatre history…yeah, this is how I spend my Thursday night, what?

I feel very excited about Toronto theatre this fall.  This is mostly due to the entrance of two new artistic directors to the theatre scene who are willing to take some pretty daring risks.  For example…tonight’s show was an original translation of a play that has no recognition factor at all to the public (this ain’t no Frankenstein) and is written by a generally unknown playwright to Canadian audiences.  Oh yeah…and his style is likened to Ionesco and Beckett.  It reeks of commerical success, don’t it?  Yeah, not so much.

WHICH IS WHY WE SHOULD BE CELEBRATING!  Before even seeing the show I had to commend this choice just for the big balls that have been shown.  Okay…so after being tempted, how did the show ‘perform’?  <I have to stop this sexual innuendo as it could get very messy and I would rather not relate the image of big balls to a certain someone>

I gotta say that I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I laughed a lot which was a quite blatant desired reaction.  My laughs were mainly at a certain Count (Hollyman) who just hit the style of this show spot on.  The physical comedy from this guy was perfectly executed throughout the show.  When someone can stall in a one-handed push up and speak words of love and have me laughing AND believing him…well you gotta be doing something right.  While he stole the show the others were just as funny…although the leading lady seemed a bit forced in the style.  I think mid-way through the run she’ll find she has settled into it.

5 Things one might do for love:

1.  Shower a wall of astroturf with roses (forget a bed of roses…this is so much better…although get rid of the cheeseball song)

2.  Demand a duel!  (these days this is done by calling someone gay.  which is a fad I wish would die already.)

3.  Put your lover into an insane asylum.  (this is called tough love)

4.  Shoot a polar bear so you can take its skin, make a rug out of it, lay your baby on it and get down and dirty! (not sure if this would actually be sexy or just creepy in real life…)

5.  Kill yourself when your love dies.  (even though it’s so Romeo & Juliet’s thing)

Question: When an hour and a half play seems long (and the person beside you looks at his watch at the exact same time you were thinking ‘this is a bit repetitive’) is it failing?  When it reignites fifteen minutes after that and grabs you again is it succeeding?  Or is it just making up for the last fifteen minutes and balancing things out to just plain even?

Answer: Big balls can produce big expectations from others.  The performance may not have induced tears and cries of joy at the climax but I was happy to put my time in and look forward to another round.  (I just couldn’t resist it)

Hanging out with Buddies! Yet again…

I know the following definitely comes from living with a person who is a professional musician and is one of the most talented programmers/synth-masters/electronic artists/Logic software teachers out there. Basically if you’re going to advertise yourself as exploring electronic music (whatever the hell that is now) and performance (whatever the hell that is now), I’m going to get excited about it but I’ll also come with high hopes/standards.

This leads me to my tip of the day:
GarageBand is sometimes better as a personal outlet for creativity.

There are so many people out there who are aspiring to be the next MSTRKRFT because of all this easy access to programs and software and gidgets and gadgets from Urban Outfitters and Long and McQuade. Don’t get me wrong, Justice apparently did their album on GarageBand. And they have my respect. But just because you smoked a bowl and put together this amazing ‘beat’ of cymbals and tom toms with a distorted sample of Gene Wilder from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the mix does not mean you should play this publicly OR post it on youtube. It means you had some fun. Get sober, listen to it again, see if you like it. Then get some sober friends to listen to it (the kind of friends who will tell you if it sucks, which it probably does) and see if they tell you that you should post it along with your latest mash-up of Hilary Duff and Joel Plaskett.

I’m all for people delving into their artistic side. I’m all for people experimenting with the arts. I am even up for watching these experimentations. But I do think people would do better to come to terms with the fact that owning music software programs does not make you a musician. Remember those good old days when people learned instruments? It was easier to judge who had skill and who didn’t because usually the people who didn’t know guitar wouldn’t pick one up. Well, if you don’t know music, then please, put the laptop down.

Everyone knows nudity is by now a cliché in performance art. Slathering your body in glitter, blood, chocolate…it’s all been done. But does it get old? Maybe not. I never would have guessed it beforehand but the highlight of the night was seeing snatch. Yes. Seeing snatch and watching a naked woman roll around in fake blood, chocolate syrup, some sort of vegetable soup and yellow liquid soap. I can’t really explain why this was so enthralling to me other than the fact that I had no clue what the woman was going to do next was ultimately a very engaging factor. Also, the fact that I would not do this to my body. And why not? Well, I don’t even like to taste PULP in my orange juice, so I can’t imagine I would like vegetable soup on my body.

Pop Quiz:

What’s my favourite country song?
1. I Lost My Girlhood and Became A Man
2. Billy Graham Made Me Queer
3. Don’t Let Hormones Ruin Your Singing
4. I’ve Got Friends Who Don’t Fit Into Places

Answer: Rae Spoon is wonderful.

My Buddies Valentine

Does the fact that I went to Buddies alone on Valentine’s Day make me sad or pathetic?  To some people, maybe.  Does this perception change when you know that I’m married (he “put a ring on it”)?  Maybe then it’s even more sad and pathetic.  OR maybe it shows that we give each other enough love every day that we don’t need to be bound by Hallmark and Carlton cards to do it on just one day.  Just saying.

A tricky thing for an audience member to get rid of is their expectations.  I bought a ticket expecting to be shocked, provoked, offended, uncomfortable, awkward – this is the kind of art I enjoy.  Does that mean I’m into S &M?  Artistically, yes.  I want risk most of all.  This is a space for you to push the envelope.  Go there.  Unfortunately, risk was not the theme of the night.  Some stuff was safer than the free condoms in the bathroom.

I sound like a cynic though.  There was some great stuff, it’s just those damn expectations.  How do you get over that?  I haven’t seen Avatar yet and now I know I won’t like it because there is no way it will ever live up to the hype.  James Cameron will fail.

Getting back to Buddies, I got to watch a gay Flight of the Concords episode tonight.  I should state that I’m not a huge fan of television.  The plot was very worthy of a half-hour sitcom.  The songs were sometimes funny.  The songs were sometimes very dark.  I liked those ones of course.  I never knew the choking game was actually called Space Monkey.  Very scary stuff…perfect topic for a song.  Thank you for Space Monkey.

Tip of the Day

Play songs about Space Monkey instead of actually playing Space Monkey.

It’s a lot safer.  And in this case I favour safety over risk.

So here’s the situation:

You are experiencing art (whatever form that might take, whatever can pass for art these days –which is a lot).  You are experiencing art and you want to like it.  You want to like it and you want to understand it.  Understanding it will help you like it.  This is the battle that can go on in my mind.

“Just like it already!”

“Just understand it already!”

I recognize I’m an audience member who wants to be on the performer’s side.  But don’t’ take that for granted.  Make sure I can at least make out your words when you’re singing.  Or when you’re putting on old white Christian man voices.  Besides me not understanding, there was some beautiful wordplay and singing.  Sometimes you don’t have to understand.  The lack of understanding gives more power to the chills in your bones.

I’ve saved my first experience tonight for the last entry only because it was by far my favourite.  This one satisfied all my expectations.  Yes, a big fat tranny superstar was my saving grace tonight. Let me bring up the question that I sort-of posed above – what is art?  In this case, art is a big fat tranny superstar undressing and dressing in front of a group of people.  Have you ever seen an obese person try to put on ‘slimming’ underwear?  I felt transported back to the time where there were the traveling Freak Shows.  You have to question why something is defined a freak.  What does that say about me?  If I was walking down a street holding hands with my husband I’d be considered a freak by someone.  We’re all freaks to someone.

You may be wondering why showing off an obese body and doing some tap numbers classifies itself as my best experience on Valentine’s day.  The answer is simple.  Anything that can help question all of our gross labeling, our random ideas of beauty, our obsession with our physique, and our strict gender roles is something that I fully support and need in my life.

Pop Quiz!

What do you call a woman who only has sex with a woman?

1. Lesbian
2. Gay
3. Homosexual
4. Dyke
5. Queer

Answer:  Labels are messy.

My Friday Night With Buddies

Sexy and unsexy all at the same time

You know what’s hard to do?  Simulate sex onstage.  I just don’t buy it.  And I don’t think anyone else in the audience does either.  I don’t mean to advocate for real sex onstage (although maybe we just need to get over that hurdle…look at the movie Shortbus people) but maybe you just don’t try to do it.  Or take it offstage like the Greeks did with violence and all the good stuff.  I’m all for nudity, but when you fake that something actually went in somewhere in front of me…you lose me.

What some people can easily do onstage is parody foreign talk shows.  Some people do that very well.  So well that I want more of that and less of unbelievable sex onstage…and I mean that in the negative way.

Firemen visiting a gay bar are a nice way to start off a helping of entertainment.  While I don’t smoke it was a good time for all my friends to have a puff outside and watch the sirens come on down Alexander Street.  The Firemen (are there firewomen now?) were in and out and I was back in my seat in no time with a lot of the smoke from the machine aired out of the room.

I used to be a big WWF fan.  Macho Man Randy Savage, Jake the Snake, Hulk Hogan and the like.  I saw them live one time in Halifax.  The Bushwackers and all that jazz.  I think I had a little thing for Jake the Snake.  Have fun reading tons of Freud into that.

Anyway, I realized tonight I am an avid fan of females impersonating male wrestling that brings me back to the 80s in a good way, not like American Apparel but like when I hear the original Police recordings.  I want to step into that ring and throw down that chair on my enemy.  I want to wear spandex.  I want to have a snake around my neck.  So I probably wouldn’t go that far, but I do love all the theatrics.  I especially love it when they are blatantly obvious.

The soap opera element to wrestling is the best.  All that feuding and fighting over females…just like nana’s stories on the tube.  You could be watching Another World with Vickie and Jake and Ryan for god’s sake, only add lots of baby oil, moustaches and unitards.  The best part is obviously those little interviews where the wrestlers talk to the camera lens and throw threats at their opponents.  Or where they are caught backstage doing some hanky panky and promising their loved one to take them to Bermuda or somewhere.  I say loved one but I mean whore.

After the wrestling match I moved on to watching horror movies.  I have to say that I usually am easily scared and grossed out but am not really into gore.  Give me Funny Games anytime over something like Saw.  I want to be psychologically fucked.  Needless to say, something that focuses on tearing bodies and faces apart is not really my cup of tea.  It did make me feel squeamish, uncomfortable, awkward and astounded but maybe not the right way.

Pop Quiz!

How do you know when people are improvising onstage?

1. When they say “where was I?”
2. When their scene partner stares at them for five minutes and then shoves a prop in their face to put them back on track
3. When they bump into a tree and try again and again to place it upright but in the end concede that it really has fallen down for good
4. When all of the above occur

I must admit I have never, until tonight that is, watched a horror film and have actually been scared for my own safety and life.  Thanks to the liveness of the theatre I have experienced yet another human emotion.  Chaos (and drugs) is scary.

I like skinny white dudes with red-framed glasses.  I live with one.  And tonight I had the joy of watching a second one in sparkling silver booty shorts dance and sing Beyonce tunes.  It was like a dream that I had never had realized.  But a dream I apparently would like to have again and again.  I’m all for simple.  Give me people in front of me and that’s entertainment.  Give me wind machines, smoke and a cover of Say My Name (Say My Name) and that’s better than the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.  I found myself smiling and getting one of those audience crushes on the lead singer of a band type of thing.  You know you’re enjoying it when you want to go backstage and act like a bumbling idiot just to say ‘Hi!’

TIP OF THE DAY!

Bad drag is more entertaining than good drag.

For evidence of this ask anyone who frequented the Halifax gay bar NRG when it was open OR anyone who saw Kyle Cameron in the Angels & Heroes classic Pussy on a Shingle.  Show them the chest hair.  Forget about tucking.  It’s best to play with the fact that we know you have it.

More to come tomorrow.

I may just have to go to a rave again…

The Theatre of Cruelty

When reading Artaud and focusing on The Theatre of Cruelty, I cannot help but think about rave culture.  Is this a contemporary version of what Artaud wanted to attain?  It could very well be on the right path.  Think about it.  Raves incoporate a major spectacle for the senses.  There are extremely intricate and huge light shows that dazzle and entrance the people in attendance.  The pounding music, ranging from house-y pop to heavy drum and bass to hypnotic trance, the sound and beats and rhythm hit people in their body. It is a visceral reaction.  The dancing comes out of what the senses are feeling and hearing.  You also have people becoming part of the action.  They are the actors. They dance and communicate and feel.  Text becomes less significant.  Even in the songs, the text/lyrics are usually second place, if they are even there at all.  It is a new language we are communicating with at raves.  It is a visual language.  Even the things people wear, the crazy costumes, masks, colorful pants…it all ties into the rave culture and theatre of cruelty happing at a rave.

 

How is it cruelty?  Think about the metaphysical factor Artaud talks about in his text.   With or without drugs, the majority of people at a rave hit a higher plain of reality because of the sensory spectacle, the exhaustion, sweat and heat of dancing and the loss of reality.  The ‘real world’ is not found in this warehouse.  It is an other community.  It is an ‘other’ way of communication.   This is not to say its all sunshine and lollipops.  You can have the ugly side of our existence at these raves too.  The overdoses, the fights, the crying…everything is pushed to the extreme at many of these raves.  The theatre of cruelty is all around.

 

I wanted to discuss the notion of getting rid of the classics, the masterpieces and getting rid of the texts.  A notion that many people get up in arms about, still to this day.  But we have to think about what Artaude was doing, or trying to do, in his time.   He was trying to break apart the hierarchy of the theatre.  He was trying to take the script off of its throne.  And in order to do this he needed to go to the extreme.  In order to make a change, a difference, he called for the demolition of it all.  Take away the power of the word by taking it all away.  If he wasn’t living in a time and place where the theatre was limited and restricted by the power of the text/script would he have gone to this extreme?  I doubt it.   Just thought I’d put that out there.

Brecht & Me

Two Things Brecht and I have in common:

 

1. Brecht liked to continually work on the play.  Even after the previews (which he introduced into the process), Brecht would gladly give notes and make changes to the text/performances.  As a director, I like to attend performances throughout the run.  I’m not one of those types who flies out after the opening.  I like to give notes throughout the run.  It keeps the actors on their toes, it keeps the production alive, and, let’s face it, you’ll never get it completely right.  It’s forever a process.  The director Andrei Serban was famous for making small (or large) changes right before openings.  These changes kept everyone thinking and working.  I believe in all of this.
2. Brecht looked at blocking as a crucial part of his directing.  He was meticulous about it.  When I read this, I thought I was studying myself.  The blocking of a play is all important to me as a director.  How you pick something up, when you pick something up, where you walk to, how you exit…it all matters.  Those choices are much more important to me than all the rest the actors make for the show.  The blocking makes the picture, which ultimately is what the audience will see/enter into…blocking is the map.  The guide.  The key.

 

Two Things I could learn from Brecht:

 

1. Brecht did not like to discuss in rehearsal.  He liked to just do it.  You want to make a choice, show it!  Don’t talk about it.  I need to try this.  I would LOVE to try a rehearsal process where no discussion is allowed.  I can’t even imagine it.  I think of this as anti-Stani boy and anti-Katie Mitchell and anti- so much of theatre that I know.  I also utterly respect this decision.  Just do it, to borrow the slogan from Nike.  Why not?  Sometimes the talking and the research and the discussion just gets in the way.  Throw your brain away.  Why the hell not?  Brecht was a great experimenter.  He would let  people/get people to try things so many different ways.  And he still might not keep it.  I look at this with huge admiration.  As a director I definitely get actors to try things…but throwing good bits away?  How do you do it?  How do you sacrifice it?  How do you trash all that work?  I think it lies in the fact that you are trying and doing so much, it becomes inevitable.  All of this serves as inspiration.  To shut my mouth and move.
2. Brecht loved open rehearsals.  He loved to be working with the audience as early as possible.  Um…what?!  Wow.  I can’t imagine bringing someone in to watch the rehearsal in the first or second week.  I hate having people come in any time before a dress rehearsal.  Brecht’s practice made me question this…why do I not like the outside eye?  There’s a community and a safe environment (maybe even sacred) that not every person should be able to enter into it.  There is a reason it’s rehearsal.  It’s not going to work right now.  The ‘audience’ will be judging something that is not at all finished.  Yes, there is the nervousness of people coming in and judging.  What comes with this judgement is an opinion..here’s how to fix it.  I would rather be the only cook in the kitchen.  Me, along with my company.  I fear an audience member in rehearsal becoming another director.  Brecht also loved this.  He loved to have two to three directors working alongside each other.  Um…what?!  I could definitely learn a lot from this process – mainly patience.

Toronto Theatre redeems itself (Fall 2009)

I just had to write an extra post to pay tribute to the theatre that is going on this fall in Toronto.  I will admit, last year I went to see a lot of theatre in this big city and was highly disappointed by the majority of the productions.  I can count on one hand the shows from last year that have proved to be memorable and serve as inspiration.  BUT this fall has proved to be different!  Here is a rundown of five shows that have made Toronto theatre respectable again -

Goodness by Volcano Theatre.  I love minimalism and this show had just actors and chairs.  And great singing.  Also, they consistently played up the theatricality, never denying us the simple and all-encompassing fact that we are in the theatre.

Neon Nights by The Scandelles presented by Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.  This show converted the blackbox space into a seedy Montreal strip club.  The analysis of stripping broke down any romantic and sexual notions the audience brought with them, the dancing was jaw-droppingly good, the parody of lesbian strip acts was hilarious and all-too-real and it brought fun and play back onto the stage.

That Face by Nightwood Theatre.  A nineteen-year old female wrote this heart-wrenching script that shows the ugly in all of us using addiction as its catalyst.  The acting was, for the most part, spot on but the major star of this show is the script.  This is biting stuff that makes you squirm in your seat.  There were many people wiping away tears at this show.  One of the more intense shows I’ve ever seen.

The Nightingale and other tales by Canadian Opera Company.  Robert Lepage broke down all the hierarchy of the opera with this production.  The singers were taken off their pedestals and played an ensemble role in this production.  The orchestra was onstage where everyone could see them and appreciate them.  The singers sang as well as manipulated puppets, sometimes wading through a water-filled orchestra pit.  The puppeteers and acrobats stole this show with their sometimes simple shadow puppets with their hands and bodies evoking the most pleasure in the audience.

BASH’D presented by Theatre Passe Muraille.  A highly original piece with only two men and some angel wings.  This gay hip hopera was very racy and tackled some major issues such as gay marriage.  While some of the songs fared better than others, the motivation behind this piece was highly political and respectable.  The finale, which consists of a memorial to all of the gay people who have been killed in bashings, still brings goosebumps to my skin.  This is theatre that is trying to make a change.

Body Break

I have to start this thing off with  a little venting session.  I promise I’ll keep it as short as I can and get on to my thoughts on the content of Blau’s article, but I feel it necessary to voice this opinion:

 

I HAVE NO TIME FOR INTELLECTUAL SHOW-OFFS.

The amount of times Blau uses, what I call, twenty-dollar words is absurd.  And for what reason?  The point of an article is to relay your information.  Why make it so hard for your audience?  I do not consider myself stupid by any means, but this article had me looking up words every second sentence practically.  Also, why bring up concepts and make up new words with them without giving an indication you have done this OR why make references to plays and its characters without actually setting up that you have done this.  This article was like a game you would find in a newspaper that you have to DECODE.  I just don’t see the point other than to let Herbert masturbate linguistically for a while, which I ‘d rather he did in private.

 

Okay.  Now I’ll take a deep breath, shake that off and get to the content, which is actually quite great,(after I figured it all out)

 

The thoughts on the body Blau details just kept me thinking about exactly what I’m doing right now.  I am typing on my computer, entering these words onto a blog, putting it onto the internet where others will read it and I will read their work.  WHERE is the body???  You look at futurism and the machine as the biggest and bestest, we’re totally getting there.  As Blau points out, we HAVE freed ourselves of the body.  The internet is an interesting thing.  Many people are able to free themselves of their being when they are in a chat room or posting comments.  They are not in their body but just a thought on a screen.  Also, the internet is loaded with pictures of people but instead of an ode to the body the overwhelming amount of pictures on the interent of people and their bodies can just desensitize it to us.  We take it for granted.  It becomes the corpse.  The machines are taking over.  You think of what you do that is automated…the beautiful contraption that Alexander Bell invented to communicate with others is now used for either texting or you get automated responses.  Many bank tellers don’t have to talk to anyone because they are using email transfers, ATM machines, or their debit and credit cards.  We are becoming so dependent on machines and we don’t’ even notice it sometimes.  As Blau says, the real has been abolished.

 

On that note, technology HAS triumphed the body.  In many ways.  Yes, film can show us it and we don’t have to deal with the actual thing but also, think about the art of photoshopping and, of course, plastic surgery.  The body can be changed in many different ways in this day and age and can take on different shapes and looks with a click of a button or a sew of a stitch.  IT has been mutilated by technology.  People refuse to accept their body because they have the option not to.

 

When Blau talks about theatre in the 60s and the need for intimacy and touch, I have to think…aren’t we at that stage again?  We have screens to give us our “safe sex” and we are kept at a distance from one another by voicing our thoughts over the internet.  A theatre that is participatory and involves intimacy and touching would definitely be beneficial to the numb, un-touched and human relationshipless people in the world today.

 

As Blau asks, How far will we go with the body?  Will we continue to ignore it?  One of the best quotes from the piece, is that “if you pull out the booger long enough”.  I know he’s talking about the inside becoming the outside but it does show that it’s all part of one thing.  You can’t have one without the other.  That is the “awful truth”.  So how does theatre deal with this?  How does training deal with our body?  How do we present our bodies on stage in this day and age of technology?  Do we deny it?  Do we offensively abuse it and shove it in people’s faces?  Do we do crazy diets on television to be The Biggest Loser?

 

What do we do with this ‘cage’ around us?

Love letter to Meyerhold

I never knew how much I agreed with Meyerhold until now.  Meyerhold’s views on theatre are eerily similar to what I strive to do in my work.  I have even been using some of his methods/exercises without knowing they were created by him….such is the case with a lot of theatre exercises.  We’ve been doing it so long we don’t know where it came from exactly.

There are two things I would like to specifically talk about and expand on regarding Meyerhold:

1. The two lives he led – the one public and high profile and the other being low key and exclusive (big money theatre vs. experimental cabaret venues)
2. The belief Meyerhold held in art as a tool for social criticism

The first point I bring up because isn’t that still the case today?  I know of so many artists who lead the life of an artist who makes money and, when they can, lead the life of an artist who does art for the sake of art.  Also known as selling out.  I know that when I do ensemble work in Annie a bit of my soul is taken away but my bank account flourishes.  When I direct a theatre piece by Martin Crimp for my independent theatre company my bank account dwindles and my soul and heart is rejuvenated.  Meyerhold seemed to do this for a while but it seems the two things began to merge, as I believe they should.  It is important to stick to your guns.   Meyerhold gained the power he needed and chose to slowly infiltrate his experimentations into these bigger theatres, as far as I can tell.  I think more leaders and directors of commercial and big budget theatres today should look at Meyerhold for encouragement.  The experimental can make the transition.  The double life can be meld into one.  It doesn’t have to happen all at once, but it is something we should strive toward.

The second point I bring up because, as stated in my manifesto, it is something the theatre artists of today need to be reminded of often.  Art can indeed be a tool for social criticism.  I wonder why more of the theatre today leans towards safe and entertaining?  Is it because we are so comfortable we don’t need to fight for anything?  That cannot be.  Is it because we rely on our government and their methods of work to change things?  That surely cannot be.  Is it because of the capitalistic ways and who is actually in charge of the theatre in Canada that we have chosen to shy away from tackling current social issues with our dramas?  I’m sure there are many societal factors at work and, to be fair, there are theatre pieces being done that tackle current social issues, but they are few.

Meyerhold’s commitment to theatre and his strong belief that it could do some good and create real debate/controversy is truly inspirational.  Let’s get out there and make people yell and throw food again!!!