Irrelevance 2.0
Repeat of quotation from below: U.S. Army Chief of Staff (1999-2003) Eric Shinseki once said, "If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less." Gonna be a mantra here.
So, we're going to start keeping track of all the new ideas that are floated in this space that are rejected because they will change things. Alison shudders at the thought of losing that "breathless, magic moment when the lights go down and the entire possibility of theatre hangs in the darkness" (apparently under the assumption that the lights will no longer go down in the theatre once ads are introduced -- never mind that many, many performances across this country already have a pre-show speech (live or on the God mike) asking theatregoers to turn off their cell phones, subscribe to the whole season, patronize the program advertisers -- horrors!); George envisions a Century 21 ad prior to The Cherry Orchard (apparently under the assumption that a similar ad won't already be in the program -- we'll sell ourselves only so far, I guess); and Lucas Krech is ready to let the whole art form die rather than permit ads into the temple -- even ads for other theatre performances, which was my proposal.
New Ideas: 0
Doing Things the Same Damn Way: 1
All aboard for the Irrelevancy Express!
Stay tuned for the next New Idea -- same bat time, same bat channel.
So, we're going to start keeping track of all the new ideas that are floated in this space that are rejected because they will change things. Alison shudders at the thought of losing that "breathless, magic moment when the lights go down and the entire possibility of theatre hangs in the darkness" (apparently under the assumption that the lights will no longer go down in the theatre once ads are introduced -- never mind that many, many performances across this country already have a pre-show speech (live or on the God mike) asking theatregoers to turn off their cell phones, subscribe to the whole season, patronize the program advertisers -- horrors!); George envisions a Century 21 ad prior to The Cherry Orchard (apparently under the assumption that a similar ad won't already be in the program -- we'll sell ourselves only so far, I guess); and Lucas Krech is ready to let the whole art form die rather than permit ads into the temple -- even ads for other theatre performances, which was my proposal.
New Ideas: 0
Doing Things the Same Damn Way: 1
All aboard for the Irrelevancy Express!
Stay tuned for the next New Idea -- same bat time, same bat channel.
Comments
There is a qualitative difference between pre-show announcements to which audiences have become accustomed and staged, paid advertisements in the playing area that some of us, at least, consider the center (yes, I'll say it: a locus of sacred possibility) of the theatrical experience; between a print ad that can be elided and a living hard-sell that can't be escaped; between a performing art that moves even closer to the experience of commercial film and TV and one--just one--that refrains from the embrace of consumerism.
Pasting ads where they've never been before, because we all have our price: "I've got a mortgage to pay," what Christopher Buckley in "Thank You for Smoking" defined as "The Yuppie Nuremburg Defense."
This is a New Idea?
So there is a qualitative difference -- and that quality is... the fact that it's paid for? What if it wasn't paid for? What if it wasn't in the sacred space? What if it was something that was played over the sound system? What if it was not paid for, but was a plug for another show at another theatre (like the Amazon recs that come with each book search)? Then would you feel less violated?
I can hear the response (not necessarily from you, Scott, I'm not putting words in your mouth, but I'm trying to keep my bases covered) that if I don't like it I should just lump it and get my own theater: "Love It or Leave It." I've heard that before, in a different context. Such ludicrous and impractical suggestions hardly constitute a rationalization of this position.
Welcome back!
My take is on my blog:
http://mirroruptolife.blogspot.com/2006/05/theatre-poeple-thinking-like.html
Running a theatre company, and being an artist in the midst of it, all these things are very interesting to me.
the link is;
http://mirroruptolife.blogspot.com/2006/05/theatre-people-thinking-like.html
Thanks
I for one think that position is wonderfully provactive. I think that we "artists" should stop thinking and acting and producing with such "holy intentions" toward the form of pre-show.
Three cheers you son of a gun! Welcome back!
p.s. I think you might even be right!