Me? Writing?

[efilsiertaeht]

I started a new blog on blogger. Same name. Because I want to have a professional-like theatre-only blog. But I'm thinking I'll actually post here for now as well, since people might actually read them over here.

So without further ado (and cut since there are 3 of them), here are the first three entries.


Entry #1: In that phase again

I like

Comments

I feel like I can be pretentious at you and it's OK.

[huc_et_illuc]

Yes, you do have to go see Tings.

In my head, political theater, more than most other theater, is harder to read into being from a script.

Most, uh, whatthefuckdoyoucallit, literary theater is mostly separated from most literature by the physical embodiment of the characters, which it's easy to make up in your head.

But political theater is a lot more explicitly about ideas. And the only thing political theater has to set it apart from everything else political (essays, etc) is theater's ability to slit open all your filters and hit you in the lower Dantian. The New York Times can talk at you about how shitty it is in Darfur as much as it likes, but there's something about smelling the big men with guns as they saunter into the medical tent that excises, for an instant, the ability to be complacent about it. So it seems almost a disservice to read political theater. Watering down.

(I say all this because you've studied political theater more than I have, and I want you to tell me why I'm wrong).

Re: I feel like I can be pretentious at you and it's OK.

[efilsiertaeht]

See I think political theatre needs a story. Because if there's not a story than there's nothing for the audience to commit to, and nothing for them to realize. For instance, there's the sniper who wants to go to college, and the first time you see him he's doing jobs, and then you find out that actually one of the people responsible for ravaging the town of other people you met, but at the same time you feel for him because he just needs money to go to college, and the next time you see him he's gonna sell his guns so he can go to college, and the final time you see him he threw his guns away without selling them because he didn't want them to end up in the hands of some kid, so he's not going to college and he's back to doing jobs killing people and he doesn't even have guns. Powerful story, right? But the audience doesn't have to commit to him, all they are being asked to do is realize that not all snipers are bad people