"You never change anything by fighting something that is already existing. To change something, build a new model and make the existing thing obsolete. " - Buckminster Fuller
And the second part, which I will add myself: If you're not willing to build a new model, quit bitching about what already exists.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Why Study Theatre History?
So tomorrow I begin teaching "History of Theatre I," which runs from the Greeks to the Elizabethans. And the question I have for the theatre blogosphere is: why? Is there a reason to study the dead past in something like the theatre? The usual reason to study history is the old saw that "those who don't know history are condemned to repeat it." Would that it were so! Would that we could repeat Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Seneca, Plautus, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Johnson, and Webster simply by ignoring them! So that reason is out the window. So what works better? Remember, I teach at a liberal arts school, so these kids can repeat "it important to be a well-rounded person" right along with me. So as I look them in the eyes, what can I tell them? Help!
Monday, January 15, 2007
Tom Loughlin Says It Better Than I Could
Tom over at Poor Player renames MLK Day "The Killed All My Heroes Day," and does a beautiful job talking about how the violence of the 1960s affected our generation. His reaction to the JFK assassination says it all.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Think Again: Funding and Budgets in the Arts
Every once in a while, I think I'll post a link or two to posts written earlier in the life of Theatre Ideas that seem worth revisiting ...
-
When Vulture writer Jason P. Frank published his interview with 1776 cast member Sara Porkalob on October 14th, the online theater world h...
-
In an essay entitled "Defining Racism: Can We Talk?," from her book Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? ...
-
Recently, we had a discussion in my Theatre of the Oppressed class about the question: what makes theatre "good"? What are the ch...