REVOLUTION BABY!!
Morgan
really evaluate how to bring it back to life. How to make it successful
and something people ENJOY again. I think we can change it. And I think
there's no point in doing theater at all unless we make it important
again. I'm talking about artwise and businesswise. A quote to chew on:
Current theatre is in decline because on the one hand it has lost any
feeling for seriousness, and on the other for laughter. Because it has
broken away from solemnity, from direct, harmful effectiveness- in a
word from Danger. For it has lost any true sense of humour, and
laughter's physical, anarchic, dissolving power. Because it has broken
away from the profoundly anarchic spirit at the basis of all poetry.
Antonin Artaud, translated by Victor Corti
Morgan
and some bad ones. Also been reading Sarah Kane. I really like a few of
her plays. Would love to do one at some point, although it may not be
the best way to bring in the masses. Still worth doing I think.
Here's the emails:
So this is a mail from him, then my reply, then his reply to that. But
they are backwards on the page. The first one is the most recent one.
----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Gavin
Awesome. Yes. Let's try to go through this one by one. And let's try to
see with practical eyes.
Paragraph 1
Yeah, that's pretty amazing. A troupe of commedia actors on and
offstage would certainly make a great play, it could even be period and
well researched and probably very easily sold and produced. And really
really entertaining. A snob's play, but still a cool play. THe art
project within and art project is a fascinating idea, and first things
that come to my mind is
1. It would be a great PR tool for any theater work you might be
doing... I bet you could get national press coverage... how many local
theaters do you know would have a piece on them on good morning america
or some shit. Shit, these guys are LOOKING for stories like that... I
bet they would jump on it.
2. Have a small crew follow them around and make it a documentary also.
Get festival recognition.. that would be good marketing too.
I don't know what it is about commedia, but what I've seen of it is
riveting. It's classic storytelling, classic comedy, unbelievably
entertaining, spectacle spectacle spectacle, high/low relationships,
and the audience was directly involved.
Paragraph 2
Of course it's fucking necessary. But we don't get a lot of the
necessary shit we need in this country. We don't get maturation rituals
and we NEED that. We don't have a strong cohesive myth set and we NEED
that. And we don't have public gatherings were we socially experience
catharsis. We need that just as much. That's what theater is. First, my
probably very way off theory:
We only figured out how to record anything, sound or images like 150
years ago (I'm a Jung fan, so bear with me). We've been a species for
millions and millions of years. You don't get over shit that quickly.
It can evolve, but it takes time. So businessmen were some of the first
to jump on it, photography ruined the traditional purpose of painting,
records ruined the traditional purpose of musicians, and movies ruined
the traditional purpose of theater. It is not a coincidence that
impressionism and all modern art started at roughly the same time we
got photography. These new forms of recorded entertainment are vastly
fucking VASTLY more efficient than the old methods. They tie in
advertising with it real quick and all of a sudden, ads are shown to
millions at once. That's fucking weird. The movies still had a social
element, so did music -- you'd gather at someone's house to dance to
records, photography's pretty cool... then the television. No social
element except for a very exclusive family one. I fucking love
screaming at scary movies in the theater. I do it at home and it's
unsatisfying. The group thing, something about it. Music is still a
group activity, but acting never really recovered. The ONLY
economically viable theater today is so majorly musicals... and that's
basically seeing a music show. Enter the internet.
I was talking to a friend the other day about how online file sharing
affects music. I've heard conflicting things that they drop cd sales,
some say they've raised them by exposing people to new music, but fuck
it, the industry is changing and you can't go back. Yeah, you can
download music and it probably fucks the artist, but especially with
community sites like this one, the possibilities explode. Instant
exposure to millions of people. If you can grab their attention that
is. THe power of the middleman publisher becomes obsolete. You have
your content, whatever it may be, and hundreds of millions of people
instantly have access to it. THat's huge power. Back to music, I really
think it'll boost live shows. People can hand select any kind of media
they want and INSTANTLY have it, I really think they'll be driven away
from tv (I honestly believe tv will be obsolete in 10 years) and get
much more entertainment live. It is in a sense an ultimate democracy,
and that's why any ANY sort of snobbishness left in theater will be the
last nail in its coffin.
As artists we have to have intimate knowledge of every new tool for our
craft. Michelangelo experimented with grinding gemstones and ended up
painting the sky in the last judgment with a paste of lapis lazuli.
They'd never done that before. New tools. I don't know of any theater
groups that have any kind of video content online. It's so fucking easy
to with digital equipment. This is a huge new tool so it must be used.
Make your site and your online content entertaining, send it on the
internet rounds, if you entertain people at work online, fade to black,
"See more at Beauty Bar this Saturday at 7:00pm. Bring a date and I
PROMISE you will get laid," and you will have people at your show. It
makes it so much easier to brand yourself too, which theaters need to
realize this if they want to survive in our capitalism. A website can
make people realize what you're about a lot better than a fading flyer
on a lamp post. How many theaters do you know work on their branding?
None in SF and we have big theaters. I think berkeley rep and NOTHING
comes to mind. We are bombarded with images all day. An institution
must be associated with a brand. Branding is easy and fun, and will
probably help give the group direction. In fact, Myspace just put up a
new filmmakers page like they have for bands. How many theater groups
will take advantage of this? Probably not that many, because a shitload
of people who choose to be involved in live theater do it to feel
really smug. Oh yeah, that was your question, right? Why do theater? It
probably will never die, it's just been weakened. I think what's wrong
with theater is shakespeare. Honestly. You can make a living doing live
theater in this country only three ways: musicals, summer stock, and
shakespeare. Musicals suck, summer stock sucks, and shakespeare should
not be done anymore. Or at least give the dude a 30 year break. One
generation, something. I love shakespeare and even I hate seeing it.
It's through and tired for a while. It's like, why make Dukes of
Hazzard the movie? Yeah, I get it, but write something new. That's my
other main issue. Anyway, oh, before we move on, I personally think
that in western classical history, art has only been made for the rich.
Yeah, you could get shitty art, but the best artists were doing
portraits and writing minuets and writing homo-erotic poetry for the
really rich dudes. What did we poor assholes have? Some music. But the
theater morgan. The theater. The theater is the people's art. LET'S
GIVE IT BACK TO THEM!! FREEDOM!!!!
Ahem.
1. The co-op. Great idea. I did the bay area generals here a few years
ago, the big ones for all the pro companies, and i got this email from
one of the directors there. He said he liked my monologue, blah blah
blah, they were arranging acting circles, would I like to come. $20. I
thought it was a scam at first, but i thought, fuck it, I can hit him
and take it back. I'll give it a try. So it was me and like 5 other
actors, two directors. And we meet once a week for like 6 weeks and we
did monologues, got and gave notes, gave eachother ideas, lots of
talking, networking, and beer drinking afterwards. I don't keep up with
any of those guys anymore (really regret that), but I certainly learned
a lot, good notes, and learned a lot about the local scene. This was
very important. I will check it, but as far as i now, there is not a
resource for this. A strong business plan fixes an inefficiency. This
is a vastly important inefficiency. We start a website called
actingcircles.net or something which is a simple community page that is
easy to use and arranges these, like at least one for every day of the
week. Great resource. It will tie together the community tremendously,
but more on that later. Plus, you start getting hits, you sell a few
adbars, and arrange with amazon.com to get a percentage of every play
sold through the site. Don't get me started on my victor hugo page i
made in high school that got courted by a brand new company called
amazon.com and I, with my high fucking dumbass morals, turned it down.
The money is there to be made.
2. Arts exchange -- great idea but I can see a lot of assholes getting
ahold of that and fucking it up. Constant feedback of "Your a fag!"
It's a great idea... you could easily attach it to the above idea. Add
venues for all the arts in the community resource. I don't know how it
is in new orleans or austin, but san francisco lives and breathes
through craigslist. EVERYBODY gets their jobs, rooms, used furniture,
and dates through craigslist. It's ridiculous. It's brought the city
together in an unbelievable way. Their artist resources suck though. We
need to fill this hole very quickly. I'm going to think about this.
3. Serial theater has been on my mind for over a year now and it
astounds me that it isn't done. Never here. The key here is keggerfying
it. Practically no one I know has gone to a live comedy show before I
drag them there. And standup is generally better than theater, because
even if it's bad it's good. Nobody goes to plays. Seriously, nobody.
Except the small circle of actors. GOd I have so many ideas. I had this
idea about hosting a film festival here. They have billions of film
festivals in san francisco. The midget albino film festival. Every
small little niche. Fucking fancy pants artsy hipsters go to one movie
so they can say they're going to a film festival. These people will not
be coming to my film festival. There is not one san francisco comedy
film festival. My festival will be hosted at several bars in one
neighborhood each night. Each neighborhood gets its own night at a few
of the bars where you get beer and buffalo wings and pizza for your
admission and you get to see funny shit (only funny shit that would
make you laugh in a bar is accepted -- that's the branding of it).
Dude, you'd have people packed and it would be a great time. Just like
I said that reporters are looking for stories, people are looking for
things to do. The one component that must be involved is: The
opportunity for hooking up must be present. The higher this
opportunity, the more popular. If you go see a play, you're not going
to hook up. If you go see music, there's a good chance you might hook
up. Alcohol adds to the opportunity to hook up so people flock to that.
Why do you think people spend 40, 60 bucks a night at bars every single
fucking weekend? Just because there is the opportunity to hook up. Any
95% of them fail week after week, but they never stop going to the
bars, and they never stop spending huge amounts of money. We're not
going to be the new alcohol, but live theater done right could be huge
with this attitude. That's what makes me think of commedia. I don't
know why, but something in that style makes me think it could be a
hooking up environment. Audience involvement is absolutely critical.
But not everyone wants to perform. At music, you can dance somewhat
anonymously. Music at shows? Get a dj or a band and have them play
between shortish improvised chapters? Music, dancing, yell out a
suggestion and see a funny scene. more music, dancing, etc etc. Is this
too douchebaggy? It's not getting the dance club scene, but fuck those
guys anyway. They don't see live shows. I think if done in the right
tone, people would see this. I don't know.
4. Theaters don't branch out more because this is what happens: You're
an actor and you might go on a few auditions and get frustrated, you
don't see much of a local scene, so eventually, some go "Fuck it! I'm
just going to do it on my own! Do it my way!" And they start their own
theater group. And then they get so possessive of their ways, that they
don't compromise, ideas become stagnant, you see other companies as
rivals, your shows eventually suck, and it dies. Why is that? It's
because there are no community leaders. Where could you go, who could
you go to in austin to meet actors, ask questions, get a good handle on
shit? Nowhere. Nobody. There's a handful of big theaters in town, but
they are as unreachable to actors in this city as hollywood. It's just
as useless. This is where I think a community resource online would be
hugely helpful. It would band everybody together, ideas would be
exchanged (a lot in text - which i think is hugely helpful)... people
love messageboards. I have my messageboard that I read, and I know the
people on it, it's fucking weird but it's how you spend your time at
work. All those actors in shitty office jobs could spend their days
dialoguing about ideas, getting inspired, and then getting off work and
actually doing shit. Plays would increase tenfold. More plays = more
parts = more people actually doing shit = so much better for everybody.
You're right about the masks. When you think about masks in the day
they had a purpose. In greece, they were used to read to everybody
there. Commedia, what were they used for? To increase effect. Seeing a
guy get slapped on the ass maybe is funnier if he's wearing a mask.
People wouldn't buy masks so much today, but you can still use it to
increase effect. The boss actually shoots steam out of his ears --
unfunny example but you get the idea. Eyes turn into pinwheels, you
could do some really cool really creative shit. Spectacle at its
finest. Spectacle spectacle spectacle. Damn straight. And yeah, hot
girls, lots of tits everywhere. You're right on with that. Existential
humor would definitely work in most of the coastal cities, if it's
funny that is. It still has to be funny, but it could be awesome.
They've done realistically played cartoony humor live on stage and it's
hilarious... i'm not too aware of a realistically played existentially
comedy live on stage. Could be really cool. And a fat guy talking to a
hot girl who farts isn't funny. But if the hot girl farts, then it's
funny. Status. The fickle uninterested lovers, there's lots of new
types to explore and stake out. In fact, that's what I'll do. If I find
something funny, I'll try to determine if it's because of a new
situation or new type that is an improvement on an old one. One drunken
weekend I bet I could get 10 good ones. Office is perfect for
master/servant relationships.
Getting late, better go. Went out of my way to the albertsons like 3
times and she wasn't working any of those times. It's so fucking far,
but I'll probably go tomorrow on my day off. What? It's on my running
route!
----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: weird lonely elephant girl
Date: Apr 3, 2006 9:37 PM
So I was reading my old theater history book for the first time ever
and I got to the section on commedia. My favorite thing it said was
that the people in the troupes would LIVE that character, cause they
only played one character their whole life. And lots of them would
eventually lose their own identity and just BECOME this character. What
a way of life! Traveling forever. No home. No city they identified
with. Nothing! Just a character. That was their home. Someone should
write about THAT, man. What if (this is where my artisty is
flawed--well, one of the many places--I know I'm getting way ahead of
things here) but wouldn't it be amazing to start that up again. This
troupe of people who do nothing but travel and play shows. NOTHING.
That's their existence. Just to see. As an art project within an art
project. The book said that the time of commedia was without a doubt
the most successful theater has ever been and the most the public has
ever adored the theater. Why is that? What is it about commedia? And
what would it take to make that happen again?
Here's the problem I have with my profession: Why? Why the fuck do we
do theater? I've gotten a plethora of okay answers, but the only one
that REALLY rings true is "Because it's fun for me." I'm not sure this
is enough. Something pulls at the back of my brain though. "Theater is
important to the masses." It is necessary, isn't it? Obviously not in a
water and air kind of way, but still, important. I need to do something
vital, I think. I can't pilfer my life on fluff. I do fully realize the
irony, ego, and just plain sillyness in the phrase "make a difference,"
but I do feel a strong desire to...uh...you know...I feel that art is
necessary. It's vital to me. I wouldn't want to live without it. It has
changed so many things. But is theater where it's at anymore? Am I
chasing after an outdated artform? Has my romanticism got the better of
me again here? "No," says the voice, but I'm not sure why. It can be
revitalized. I know it can. There is a way. Art in general can be
revitalized. I want to take art back from the TV (not that I don't
respect television, there are some really great shows out there, and I
do have my own love affair with many of them--many really shitty ones
too). Art, like it used to be, has been forgotten. Was it ever
remembered though? The masses did love Shakespeare, right? That's not
just hearsay? People did at one point read and love poetry, did they
not? Have paintings always been for scholars? Here are ideas that have
been going through my head, and keep in mind I'm working in arts
administration so that's kinda the pathway I took here. I mean I do
think that that's where alot of problems lie, in marketing, the kind of
theater chosen for a company, and such :
1.) An arts educational co-op. There were a couple of training groups
in New Orleans, where actors would get together weekly and just teach
each other shit and work on things. Why can't this be bigger? Like a
huge event? Like people from all over come together for free (or a
SMALL fee to cover rental of a space) and learn. The only requirement
is you have to have something to teach back. I'm always wanting to take
classes, but as an artist on an artist salary, it's really fucking
hard. Why can't we just teach each other. And maybe a few spaces in
each training group/class could be reserved for students who have
nothing to teach back, but just want to learn.
2.) Arts exchange. It is so helpful to talk about things like this with
you. It's inspiring, you know? People need this, but we are so isolated
in our art these days. Everyone keeps their shitty poetry a secret, and
as a result, it stays shitty, and the few people that aren't writing
shitty poetry, they are actually writing good poetry, are to scared to
show it to anyone cause it might be mistaken for shitty. People need
someone to bounce things off of. They need---like---an arts penpal. Why
can this happen? It would just take someone to organize it. People sign
up and get a random penpal, someone they don't know, to look at their
work, and send them their work, or if they don't want to do that, send
them --like--a really good book or painting or something. Some piece of
art they find inspiring. That's such a problem. People need to be
inspired!
3.) Serial theater. This is why I like your commedia idea. TV is so
addictive because it keeps you hanging. The show ends, but the story's
not over, you have to tune in next week to find out what happens. And
people do. Why don't more people do serial theater? I very rarely see
it offered.
4.) Why can't theaters come together more? Businesses are successful
because they branch out, buy each other up, and are all over the place.
Theaters get their space and live in that little tiny world until they
finally go under. I realize it's becuase we don't make enough money to
branch out, but why can't we group together to even out our funds. If
you have 10 theaters all making money for one huge pot, if a show at
one theater bombs, it's not a big of a deal, right? Of course a success
isn't as big either, but that's a small price to pay, I think. It's
insurance. It's predictability. That's what makes a business successful
right? I know shit about finances or business law. It's just a thought.
Okay enough of my revolution-baby bullshit. Commedia. I did always like
Roseanne. Hmmm... Masks. That's a tough one. I don't know if every
character could be masked now. You could have a few really freaky
masks. Spectacle. That's what people want now. Make the masks
spectacle.
I love the idea of performing in a bar. That's really what theater
needs, I think. It needs the fun back in it. No more velvet seats you
know? So bars. Tits and violence and humor. And masks. Tits and masks?
That's kinda hot. Violence and masks? Humor and masks...
Oh! I remember what I was gonna say. About the office humor. There's
this comic strip called "Get Your War On." I think it's accessible
online. It all takes place in an office. And this theater comapny in
Austin turned it into a play and it was really really good. Vignettes
kinda woven together into a not really cohesive but very entertaining
play, that toally catered to people's short attention spans.
I personally prefer existential humor so I say put it in. But I don't
know how it would be recieved. No, you know what? I think if you did it
right, it would be really well recieved. Fuck fart jokes. They get
boring so fucking fast. I'm all for low humor but you can only step on
a nail so many times before it's just completely boring. I was bored of
that shit by the time I was 13. You have to reinvent it and writers
don'trealize this. Yes, there are some things that will always be
funny, but it has to be atleast tweaked you know? It cant simply be
someone farting. Fat guy talking to a hot girl, fart? Yawn. Elizabeth
Taylor selling her new fragrance, fart. A little funnier, but still...
I like the uninterested lovers idea alot. What about passionate lovers,
but just not passionate for each other. As in people that fall in and
out of love very very quickly. Or people in a monogamous relationship
consistantly cheating on each other, but to scared of being alone to
break it off.
Bah. I don't know that I quite understand what the typical Commedia
storyline was like. Do you know? Was there a central character whose
story we followed or was it just farcical maddness?
I think stick with the office, but then introduce characters that don't
belong there. A drug dealer in an office? Awesome. Also, it would be
easy to establish the master/servant dynamic there and cubicals are the
perfect place for lovers to get caught fucking.
I'm sorry all this is a little disjointed, but I wanted to reply
immediately even if my thoughts weren't completely developed.
I'm with you on the phone thing. My least favorite part of my job. I
finally figured out how to listen to a voicemail before you send it and
now I'm obsessed with how idiotic I sound on answering machines.
How's it going with coffee girl?
Morgan
----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Gavin
Date: Apr 3, 2006 1:59 PM
Wow. How old are you? 24. That's my favorite number. You see, and I see
this as a major failing, that even if I was trying to write a creepy
guy and I spent weeks concocting the creepiest scenarios and the
creepiest dialogue I could think of, I wouldn't even come close to how
creepy that is. And the porno guy. Probably not so entertaining for
you, but hugely so for me. The whole distance and safe from tangible
danger thing. That aside, I always love it when I get to see my bosses
drunk. I used to play guitar for events when I worked at the aquarium
here, and one event, the general manager, my big big boss then, was
there drinking and you could see this clear progression throughout the
night. Everyone's timid and put together at the beginning, but by the
end, my boss was standing in front of my, suit crooked and undone,
wavering from side to side just staring at me for 15 minutes. I guess I
like to see what's generally bogus high status unhinged.
I'm exhausted and can't think properly right now, but commedia I was
thinking it would be improvised specifics and dialogue but have loose
plot points to follow. Nothing complicated, very simple and clean, good
classic comedy. But I am terrible at coming up with even the simplest
plots... I think tried and true comic situations would be best. The
same with the characters. I think a lot of them would translate well
and still exist in modern comedies. El Capitan would work well as a cop
or a middle manager in an office or a thug or a drug dealer or in a
million other scenarios. The whole servant/master thing has to be
reinterpreted but class and status are still very real today.
I think it basically comes down to breaking down where the comedy lies
in the old stock types and deciding what has to go. And then figuring
out if some new figures have emerged. I think the whole office culture
is vastly untapped. Instead of the passionate lovers (which doesn't
exist too much anymore) what about apathetic uninterested lovers or
something like that? I read Catch 22 and it has some great comic types,
very existential. There's a soldier in it who is so scared of time and
death that he craves boredom and misery because it makes time seem to
go more slowly. Do you think more abstract existential characters like
that would resonate?
I wouldn't want to get too heady... I would love to indulge in some
good old physical comedy and farce but there certainly is a new angle
to be explored here. I really wish I had a good creative group of
people here that I could phsyically work on this with, but alas, such a
group does not exist.
I'm not describing this the way I want to. I've been really excited and
inspired about it, but I'm not translating that here and now. Masks.
What do you think about masks? Would masks alienate a modern audience?
And I'm not thinking a theater audience. I would target this to the
young/live show/drinking crowd. Masks are fucking amazing when done
right and I think this convention has to be reinterpreted too. How? I
haven't figured that out yet. I've been doing research on different
mask styles, bali's got some good stuff, I like the stylization and
readability, Italian masks are good clean funny masks, julie taymor has
done some really good stuff that translates well to modern audiences..
I haven't figured this out at all. I'm doing a bad job talking about
this.
Have you watched roseanne at all lately? It's on every night at 11PM
here and since I bought an eighth of weed a few weeks ago and have no
self control and have to smoke it if it's around, I've found myself
high and watching roseanne quite a bit lately. And I've been struck by
how seamlessly it goes between really very very funny jokes and very
real and tragic moments. You would never see that in a sitcom these
days. I want nothing to do with stupid surface donkey-braying comedy. I
have nothing against fart jokes and am incredibly sophomoric myself but
those are easy laurels to rest on. I'll shut up until I can describe
myself more concretely.
Work fucking blows today. Fuck, I have 4 really difficult phonecalls to
make, and I've been trying to avoid them all day. I hate the phone. I
would be happy never to talk on the phone again. AAH!