Theatre
The challenge of creating theatre is much like the challenge of voting: monumental action, miniscule effect. Theatre is transient, local, temporary; it is rare that the influence of one production upon a community can be noticed. Every time a play is produced, the tiniest of ripples are produced; two or three people have their lives affected in some small way, and the rest find some entertainment and go home. So it is difficult to muster the energy to continue making theatre year after year, production after production; great artistic effort is expended for very little reward. We artists all want to change the world, to improve lives... but few of us will. The sad thing is it must be this way.
The power of theatre is that it exists everywhere and at all times; that, unlike with film or other media that are created once by one group of people and then cross borders and last through time, there are literally thousands upon thousands of people all over the world putting all their art and sweat into creating thousands upon thousands of productions at every given moment. And it's not like a political grassroots movement, either, where people all over are contributing to the same thing - no, each individual stagework is distinct and separate from all the others worldwide. Theatre artists are quite literally making their life's work out of creating the best art they can in a format which is extremely limited in time and space. Think about that. That is an unbelievable amount of creative energy, surging through the theatres of cities and towns like the electric power grid. On the whole, more humanpower and thought is being put into theatre around the world in one day than is put into popular, mass-produced art in a month.
A great continuum is being kept alive. Millions of people do not attend the theatre, and millions of people see poorly done productions, but millions of people have their lives improved brick by brick by theatre: they see a show, laugh and feel better; they see a show and have their eyes opened in some way; they participate in a show and find a home, a friend, a calling or a satisfaction (because if theatre is meant to affect people, then you must not forget that it is people who make theatre in the first place). Local art - which in our Internet age is beginning to encompass such former oxymorons as local film - is simultaneously the least Important and the most important. It is local art that makes a group of people living in one place into a human society, and not just a bunch of sophisticated animals living in one place, not just a population. Take the theatre out of a community and even the neighbors who don't attend will feel the loss, because theatre is the clearest symptom of a people trying to understand - and better - themself.
It is the way our human society is built; it is the way democracy works. And like voting, and like living, it is hard to do because Nobody can claim responsibility for any great good achieved by their singular effort; but Everybody must give it their all, or nothing is achieved.
Era-defining films, earth-shattering novels, popular songs, iconic artworks - these Great Works create giant beacons in the sky. Theatre artists carry lamps down city streets.
The power of theatre is that it exists everywhere and at all times; that, unlike with film or other media that are created once by one group of people and then cross borders and last through time, there are literally thousands upon thousands of people all over the world putting all their art and sweat into creating thousands upon thousands of productions at every given moment. And it's not like a political grassroots movement, either, where people all over are contributing to the same thing - no, each individual stagework is distinct and separate from all the others worldwide. Theatre artists are quite literally making their life's work out of creating the best art they can in a format which is extremely limited in time and space. Think about that. That is an unbelievable amount of creative energy, surging through the theatres of cities and towns like the electric power grid. On the whole, more humanpower and thought is being put into theatre around the world in one day than is put into popular, mass-produced art in a month.
A great continuum is being kept alive. Millions of people do not attend the theatre, and millions of people see poorly done productions, but millions of people have their lives improved brick by brick by theatre: they see a show, laugh and feel better; they see a show and have their eyes opened in some way; they participate in a show and find a home, a friend, a calling or a satisfaction (because if theatre is meant to affect people, then you must not forget that it is people who make theatre in the first place). Local art - which in our Internet age is beginning to encompass such former oxymorons as local film - is simultaneously the least Important and the most important. It is local art that makes a group of people living in one place into a human society, and not just a bunch of sophisticated animals living in one place, not just a population. Take the theatre out of a community and even the neighbors who don't attend will feel the loss, because theatre is the clearest symptom of a people trying to understand - and better - themself.
It is the way our human society is built; it is the way democracy works. And like voting, and like living, it is hard to do because Nobody can claim responsibility for any great good achieved by their singular effort; but Everybody must give it their all, or nothing is achieved.
Era-defining films, earth-shattering novels, popular songs, iconic artworks - these Great Works create giant beacons in the sky. Theatre artists carry lamps down city streets.