Absolute Truth

In general, I am the relativist your mother warned you about.

 But there are Unassailable Truths.

 Theatre is local. We can argue about every single other facet of theatre. And we probably will. But all theatre is local. And the future of live theatrical performance relies on that fact.

 Theatre is not dead, despite the bi-weekly articles and blog postings to the contrary.

Theatre remains well attended, and well liked, despite (USian) theatre artists raging contempt for their society and for their audiences.

But here in the United States we love our hierarchies, and we love our commodification. We want The Best. We argue about what constitutes The Best, and then we pay top dollar to assure that we have it. Anything that isn't The Best by the arguments we have chosen is nothing. The Best, when it comes to theatre in most people's minds is New York, and Broadway. Now of course they have no idea what they are referencing when they say "Broadway" in reference to theatre, they are simply asking after the brand name. Those who don't reference Broadway naturally reference New York. Broadway is the brand name and New York is the capital of my field. In the way that Hollywood and Los Angeles are the touchstones for film.

The difference is that they (film and theatre) don't work anywhere near the same way. The film industry is just that. It is a machine that churns out a product that they export. It may be a good product or bad. But it isn't trapped in L.A. for the duration of it's life regardless of quality. Theatre is perishable. Now the more intrepid folks will travel to Broadway to see a show. But in this moment of course that means a multi-million dollar musical which is produced by the same folks who produce your movies, or hell just an adaptation of your movie. Give us another five years and we'll give you the stage version of the movie version of the musical adaption of the film of the Producers. But that's a different rant entirely.

So folks want New York. And artists move to New York. Because they want to be with the Best, and get recognition among the Best. And being the Best in a small pond isn't worth anything. And so all the Best and brightest of each smaller city and town leave those cities and towns to swim with all the other fishies in the Big Pond. And the smaller cities and towns are left with lesser talent holding the standard. Or with no representative theatre at all. How is that good for the state of theatre? Why are we so hell bent on skimming the talent pool of the United States and dumping them in the same over-saturated market? It's expensive to produce theatre there. There is more talent than money or venues. There are more shows than even potential audience members never mind interested audience members.... And so we are sending our talent off to choke on each others filth in one small tank. (I think I've exhausted the poor fish metaphor now... sorry about that).

This whole thought process is in response to the off the cuff closing line in this post from The Working Group.

"they are making some of the best theatre in the midwest (if not country). Bring'em to NY I say!"

Which is enthusiastic, but wrong headed.

Why take a group that is making great theatre where they're at, remove their comfort level and funding mechanisms, make their day-to-day lives more difficult, and most importantly on the meta level - remove them from the lives of the younger artists who are seeing what good art looks like, and the audiences who can see that Their People can make good art for THEM.? Not that liberals can make good art for each other in one city on the east coast. But that theatre can be made for them by them right where they're at.

I am in the process of putting up a small show. A tiny show honestly. It has no epic ambitions in scope of story or production. It is an Austin company putting up a show about people that Austin will recognize.

It isn't revolutionary. It's not going to change the way you view anything other than your own relationships and your interactions with the world.

See what I did there?

In New York this play would never open. It would cost (at minimum) triple to put on, and we don't have that capital. But here in Austin we can put it on. We can show other artists in our little universe what our approach to the small theatre aesthetic is, and we can tell the stories we want to tell. We can give seven other actors (aside from myself) the chance to help create a story they are interested in, and we have six chances to make a difference in someone's evening/week/life.

And maybe we are just reinventing the wheel. It's not the first relationship anthology show down the pipeline - or the millionth. (Though we do have a dozen original songs and a live band performing for you as well - It the Live Music Capital of the World!).

But this is live theatre. The wheel has to be reinvented.

(With a nod to Scott Walters who has discussed such things at length and is probably being subconsciously paraphrased here.)