When you can't say anything nice...
Be vague.
Sage advice from a fellow co-worker.
Monday kicked off the workshop week at the theatre. It is an honorable project. Very few theatres take the time anymore to workshop a playwright's work. The plays are read. And discussed. Plot, intention, themes, production challenges. Mostly its three hours a play, sitting in a room around a table listening to a cast read what is before them, followed up by the dramaturgist or playwright asking questions to solicit feedback. It can be very productive and instructive.
Sadly the plays are not discussed solely on their own merit as a play. They are critiqued in reference to how well they can fit the theatre's model. Trimmed to 50 minutes in length and limited to 4-5 actors. Or less if deigned to tour...
The week started of with a meeting among the artistic staff. And while I understand the artistic director's intentions, I couldn't help but feel jaded by the tone the meeting took. It presented itself as an open door for discussion. A need to touch base and "expand as artists." To push ourselves. The limitations at the theatre are such to limit creativity and promote pragmatism. A practical problem solving approach to everything...striping most "artistic" value into a straight forward to do list to meet a deadline.
The discussion then delved into three question he wanted each of us to address....
What as an artist are you most proud of from the fall 2008 season?
How as an artist, do you wish to grow or expand?
And what would you like to shut the door on and forget about regarding the fall season?
I'm being diplomatic in my paraphrasing...the questions came off as if the artistic director was addressing a room full of second graders....
I thought hard on them...frustrated the tone the questions took, but I pondered on them none the less. I wish I could give a sincere answer to the first question. But most of my proudest moments...the ones that keep me alive and interested in theatre happened outside of the theatre the questions were raise at. I am immensely proud of my intern for the high school program as she has made incredible leaps and bounds not only in her sewing capacity but also in her attitude, timeliness and professionalism. She continues to be a joy to work with. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Iona...not only in managing my time to juggle a full work load, but 12-14 hours a week working with a passionate group of volunteers on an incredibly visual and inspired set of costumes. I am very proud of the dress of trash bags and palm leaves I submitted to the Trash to Fashion show, which in turn won an award and brought additional publicity to the theatre.
But I was not very proud of the work done for the theatre itself. That is not to say I do not feel I did good work. Quite the contrary. Aladdin's costumes for the most part turned out very well...evoking the Middle East without relying too heavily on cliche. I loved the piece work I did assembling the princess' robe...cutting up and reassembling a saree to make the most of its intricate border. I am proud of cleaning up stock last week...a thankless job, but satisfying. I am impressed that I finished Christmas Carol. But my overall lack of pride has more to do with the overall quality of an entire production, and not my own small part in it. Even if my own work had blown me a way, I would lack that sense of pride if the rest of the production could not follow suit. It is both a very selfish and very collective mindset to be in.
But with egos and the managements inability to see the dark clouds, or at refusal to address the negative, I could not with a eased conscience state a positive attribute of the fall season.
Instead, I focused on my own growth "as an artist." And it boiled down to just that...the need to feel like an artist instead of addressing each show as a pragmatic checklist to get through. I expressed a need to get back to the essence of a design, to focus on the details, to help bring out the visual additives that can really help support and magnify a production. I want to feel like an artist again. Instead of just the person who gets the work done.
But for all this talk of "artistry" this vague notion of creating something meaningful and deep...perhaps even visually stunning...its just that. A vague notion. An ideal. Talk. We lack the personnel, the time, even at times the skill and creativity to follow through on that. Everyone is so over taxed...casts working on 2-3 shows at a time...on top of workshops and meetings such as these. I am pulling double and triple duty...designing a show, building a show, doing maintenance on a show, on top of the more mundane aspect of running a shop such as restocking, cleaning, budgeting and machine maintenance (albeit running the shop really only means managing myself). But it all adds up. Very quickly.
A few of the cast had some brilliant proud moments. One actor related the tale about one of the children just not getting the syncopation of a song down. Until the actor went over the song with the kid again. And he got it...promptly coming offstage to tell the actor he got it, and it was like he had been doing it wrong the whole time until the actor showed him how to do it! That glimpse of realization the child had upon solving the problem...and his acknowledgement to the actor for the help given spoke volumes.
Another cast member relayed a story about how...a month and a half into a show...after it had already left to tour the other islands, she made a discovery about her character that suddenly made everything click...that realization that it is never too late to find out something new. Never too late to dig a little deeper...
And one of the outside director's singled a cast member out, commenting in his quirky way how frustrating it was to see the actor struggle with not only memorizing lines, but also the panic and frustration that would keep her floundering...but she fought through it and came through shining in the end.
There is good done here. But in again back to the second question presented...I cannot grow much further as an artist here.
So when you cannot say anything nice...be vague. And enjoy the good that others to find.
Sage advice from a fellow co-worker.
Monday kicked off the workshop week at the theatre. It is an honorable project. Very few theatres take the time anymore to workshop a playwright's work. The plays are read. And discussed. Plot, intention, themes, production challenges. Mostly its three hours a play, sitting in a room around a table listening to a cast read what is before them, followed up by the dramaturgist or playwright asking questions to solicit feedback. It can be very productive and instructive.
Sadly the plays are not discussed solely on their own merit as a play. They are critiqued in reference to how well they can fit the theatre's model. Trimmed to 50 minutes in length and limited to 4-5 actors. Or less if deigned to tour...
The week started of with a meeting among the artistic staff. And while I understand the artistic director's intentions, I couldn't help but feel jaded by the tone the meeting took. It presented itself as an open door for discussion. A need to touch base and "expand as artists." To push ourselves. The limitations at the theatre are such to limit creativity and promote pragmatism. A practical problem solving approach to everything...striping most "artistic" value into a straight forward to do list to meet a deadline.
The discussion then delved into three question he wanted each of us to address....
What as an artist are you most proud of from the fall 2008 season?
How as an artist, do you wish to grow or expand?
And what would you like to shut the door on and forget about regarding the fall season?
I'm being diplomatic in my paraphrasing...the questions came off as if the artistic director was addressing a room full of second graders....
I thought hard on them...frustrated the tone the questions took, but I pondered on them none the less. I wish I could give a sincere answer to the first question. But most of my proudest moments...the ones that keep me alive and interested in theatre happened outside of the theatre the questions were raise at. I am immensely proud of my intern for the high school program as she has made incredible leaps and bounds not only in her sewing capacity but also in her attitude, timeliness and professionalism. She continues to be a joy to work with. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Iona...not only in managing my time to juggle a full work load, but 12-14 hours a week working with a passionate group of volunteers on an incredibly visual and inspired set of costumes. I am very proud of the dress of trash bags and palm leaves I submitted to the Trash to Fashion show, which in turn won an award and brought additional publicity to the theatre.
But I was not very proud of the work done for the theatre itself. That is not to say I do not feel I did good work. Quite the contrary. Aladdin's costumes for the most part turned out very well...evoking the Middle East without relying too heavily on cliche. I loved the piece work I did assembling the princess' robe...cutting up and reassembling a saree to make the most of its intricate border. I am proud of cleaning up stock last week...a thankless job, but satisfying. I am impressed that I finished Christmas Carol. But my overall lack of pride has more to do with the overall quality of an entire production, and not my own small part in it. Even if my own work had blown me a way, I would lack that sense of pride if the rest of the production could not follow suit. It is both a very selfish and very collective mindset to be in.
But with egos and the managements inability to see the dark clouds, or at refusal to address the negative, I could not with a eased conscience state a positive attribute of the fall season.
Instead, I focused on my own growth "as an artist." And it boiled down to just that...the need to feel like an artist instead of addressing each show as a pragmatic checklist to get through. I expressed a need to get back to the essence of a design, to focus on the details, to help bring out the visual additives that can really help support and magnify a production. I want to feel like an artist again. Instead of just the person who gets the work done.
But for all this talk of "artistry" this vague notion of creating something meaningful and deep...perhaps even visually stunning...its just that. A vague notion. An ideal. Talk. We lack the personnel, the time, even at times the skill and creativity to follow through on that. Everyone is so over taxed...casts working on 2-3 shows at a time...on top of workshops and meetings such as these. I am pulling double and triple duty...designing a show, building a show, doing maintenance on a show, on top of the more mundane aspect of running a shop such as restocking, cleaning, budgeting and machine maintenance (albeit running the shop really only means managing myself). But it all adds up. Very quickly.
A few of the cast had some brilliant proud moments. One actor related the tale about one of the children just not getting the syncopation of a song down. Until the actor went over the song with the kid again. And he got it...promptly coming offstage to tell the actor he got it, and it was like he had been doing it wrong the whole time until the actor showed him how to do it! That glimpse of realization the child had upon solving the problem...and his acknowledgement to the actor for the help given spoke volumes.
Another cast member relayed a story about how...a month and a half into a show...after it had already left to tour the other islands, she made a discovery about her character that suddenly made everything click...that realization that it is never too late to find out something new. Never too late to dig a little deeper...
And one of the outside director's singled a cast member out, commenting in his quirky way how frustrating it was to see the actor struggle with not only memorizing lines, but also the panic and frustration that would keep her floundering...but she fought through it and came through shining in the end.
There is good done here. But in again back to the second question presented...I cannot grow much further as an artist here.
So when you cannot say anything nice...be vague. And enjoy the good that others to find.
posted by Unknown at
3:13 AM
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