Buckminster Fuller Got It Right

"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.

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!

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.