It’s all Greek to me.
A Greek Chorus. Oh, who are we kidding? It's actually just some wasted BFA Acting students.
I am a Theatrical Neo-Conservative. I said it. I don’t want to maintain the status quo of the arts, I want to put it in reverse. A few thousand years in reverse. Trust me, this is for the sake of mankind. In short, theatrical art’s lifeline is inherently dependent on our ability to Speak Greek.
A quick lesson: The Greeks were the Founding Fathers of theatrical events as we know them. The Greek mentality, and given, this is such a sophomoric interpretation but just bear with me so we’re all on the same page here, BUT: the Greek mentality rested on some basic principles. One of which is referred to as “The Golden Mean.” As you can probably extrapolate, “The Golden Mean” refers to perfect harmony. Imagine an equilateral triangle, the top corner labeled “Deus” (or The Gods), the lower left “Polis” (The Government), and the lower right “Oikos” (The Family).
When the Golden Mean is activated, the triangle is, as I said, equilateral. If one of the angles is out of sync, the triangle is skewed. If the deus, polis, or oikos is not in balance, the entire triangle is thrown out of whack. Let’s look at arguably the “perfect” play, Oedipus: the family is out of sync (murdered father, mother-wife), therefore the polis is in shambles and the gods are angry. We have miasma – chaos! We seek to right the “wronged” angle and restore The Golden Mean. The Greeks were problem solvers. They saw a societal ill and presented a method to change it in order to reach harmony. Regardless, they brought up important questions and theoretical (as well as practical) debates – if the Gods controlled Oedipus’ fate was he really hubristic? Could he escape his destiny? If we are unhappy with the current situation, who do we have to blame? The Gods? The cornerstone of the family? The Government as a whole? Where does the problem begin, and where can we end it? Just for starters…
The Greeks made sure drama was a tool for dialogue, and dialogue allows us to progress as a people. Right now, as I am preparing to get in gear for some upcoming projects for In Vino Veritas (five points if you can tell me why we’ve named ourselves that), my production collaborative, a lot of things have been put into focus…
Where do I begin with the ills of theater today? It’s not held in high societal regard – Middle America doesn’t view artists as “important” as doctors, lawyers, politicians. And yet, when a culture becomes obsolete, the only thing they leave behind is their art. The de-emphasis of drama, as well as the glorification of trash television and reality t.v., removes the artist from his or her well-regarded status. We’ve lost the bigger picture in the era of “Me, me, me!”
Here’s a thought, and artists, I hold us at a fault: it’s never about “Me.” There’s no “I” in art. A former teacher of mine would have the class repeat after her: “I am me.” A venomous mantra. The glorification of the me is a dangerous, dangerous thing. It is our job to serve the story, not serve ourselves. Go on “The Real World” if you want to work out your bullshit, this is the theater. If we can’t get past ourselves, how are we going effect change? And if we don’t effect change, we become irrelevant. And irrelevant art doesn’t survive.
Our artistic polis is out of whack! We’ve got to set it straight or this artistic miasma will run us into the ground. We need to understand that it’s not about “my” work, it’s about “the work;” not about “my” vision, but about “the” vision.
Yes, yes, I concede that one must know oneself, but that’s overrated. We discover who we are through what we do. And I certainly don’t want to discover that I’m a selfish, whiny, insolent actor who can’t put her own baggage to the side to say, “Hey, I have a job here.” It’s not gonna kill you to have an identity crisis.
Now let’s expand: theater has become inaccessible to the modern man. My dad doesn’t understand Shakespeare. Shakespeare, like the Greeks, wrote for the people, to the people. And yet, today his work is regarded as high scholarly and difficult to understand? What is wrong with this picture?
Us little, greedy artists have lofted the language and locked up the pedestrian notes that Shakespeare provides us. We’re holding hostage potential work to create progression in society! My God, my friends, let it go!
Theater has taken such a 180 that the Average American can’t see him or herself in the art. No one wants to see something if they can’t relate to it! I had another teacher who said, “If a play is a good play, it can be done in a parking lot.” God, how I love this lofty adage! Spoken like a true, embittered soldier. Fact is, this too is false. Aristotle included “spectacle” for a reason. People want to get taken in by the magic! It’s human nature to want to see something special, something you won’t see every day – and we need to use this as a tool to further the story we are telling. I’m not a proponent of the Disney-fication of Broadway, but hell, they’re doing something right! What adult in their right mind would put down money to see The Little Mermaid, otherwise?
Us “hardcore” artists are getting it wrong. It’s not about they story “we” want to tell, it’s about the story that must be told. Forget that freaky, performance art shit. It’s not working and people don’t want to see it. So get over the fact that your Lower East Side movement piece in front of slideshows of iguanas and black boxes is a massive, massive failure. Ask yourself: What am I trying to do? Serve yourself? Make yourself feel real good? Well, there’s your problem.
Things suck right now, guys. Really, they do. So create something fabulous and start the conversation going. Our polis is fucked. The oikos is being denied uniform equality! And do we even have a deus? Discuss!
The Greeks didn’t have everything right. I’m not a fan of slavery and women couldn’t even attend the theater. But they had some really great ideas that we claim to base ourselves around but don’t really embrace. Don’t talk the talk if you can’t walk the walk.
Performance is about the audience. Never about you. Take that in on a deep breath and when you let it out, imagine a perfect triangle.
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Tags: Acting, Aesthetic, Broadway, Cut Myself, Drama School, Greek, In Vino Veritas, Kevin, Playwrights, Relevance, Religion, Review, Sex, So Help Me God, Society, Subversive, Theater
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