tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16876687.post5193835995699890562..comments2024-02-27T16:59:54.089-05:00Comments on (The New) Theatre Ideas: Welcome Back, Tom Loughlin!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16876687.post-4803317884072300912007-07-26T12:40:00.000-04:002007-07-26T12:40:00.000-04:00Scott, I think this is where we differ on the matt...Scott, I think this is where we differ on the matter. The mystical attitude needn't be applied to talent or new ideas, but the collaborative circle idea (again, without having read it) seemed to be very much also based on close personal relationships -- for which colleges are very fertile. This is a somewhat mystical endeavor, and no amount of workshops are going to create the sort of relationships that result in a grouping of this sort if it just ain't there.<BR/><BR/>I think this is part of the reason why I'm more in tune with the collaborative circle idea. It seems less commercially or agenda-driven and more instinctual and free-form. I have to say I'm not terribly concerned with the economic side of these discussions; do what I gotta do to get by and always hope for better, of course, but the sort of creative hotbed that emanates from these hardscrabble groups could never be achieved by think tanks.Paul Rekkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14877967547670893967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16876687.post-68622408539917617362007-07-26T09:53:00.000-04:002007-07-26T09:53:00.000-04:00I guess when I think about facilitation, it isn't ...I guess when I think about facilitation, it isn't about spawning collaborative circles so much as supporting them once they start to come together. What is it about colleges, for instance, that often leads to such groupings? The tendency is to take a real laissez faire, almost mystical, attitude toward the development of talent and new ideas, but I'm not certain that it has to be that way. Other disciplines have think tanks, for instance. And where is the theatrical version of writer's colonies and retreats? This all intersects with some of the other writings about class, and how wealth allows certain people to have these experiences, while less well off artists struggle with day jobs and exhaustion. It just seems counter-productive to me.Scott Waltershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06465161646609405658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16876687.post-50110465254504450142007-07-25T14:59:00.000-04:002007-07-25T14:59:00.000-04:00I'll certainly have to pick up a copy of Collabora...I'll certainly have to pick up a copy of <I>Collaborative Circles</I> and read more, but it sounds as if it's a better definition of the ideas I had been trying to work out under the tentative heading of "tribalism".<BR/><BR/>I had some hesitation (and many had much more than that, it would have seemed) at some of the necessary structure of the tribe. If I'm jumping to the right conclusions, Farrell's subjects are closer to the vein of my ideal.<BR/><BR/>The facilitation question is a biggy, though (and one that I could really use an answer to in my current position). Aside from the common occurrence of college or otherwise close friends deciding to work together, it seems that the group can only be spawned from the individual. As artists we enjoy our blogosphere and the discussions, arguments, and theoretics that take place here, but we are <I>inspired</I> by creative acts. <BR/><BR/>How does one get others to riff off of ideas and play hot potato with artistic impulse? I'm starting to imagine it's by creating work as an (but not exclusive to the) individual and hoping like hell that others can still see the immense value in creative relationships enough to come play along.Paul Rekkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14877967547670893967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16876687.post-85249435721835632572007-07-25T11:30:00.000-04:002007-07-25T11:30:00.000-04:00Hi Scott,Another book that might interest you is D...Hi Scott,<BR/><BR/>Another book that might interest you is Diana Gyler's The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community (2007)<BR/><BR/>I read it earlier this spring after viewing an excellent PBS documentary entitled, The Question of God, which examined and compared the lives and writings of C.S. Lewis and Freud. The Inklings, which I previously knew very little about, were featured prominently in the documentary and caught my interest.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com