Art is an experience, not the formulation of a problem. - Lindsay Anderson

[emac821]

So I made All-State and so did Mags!!!  Opening Night went great last night, but the audience was tiny.  Come on people, support the performing arts!  Oh who am I kidding, it's Georgia.  Anyways you should really come see Earnest, the cast is wonderful, and it's tonight and Saturday night at 7!  Please, please, show some respect for the arts!!

And

Comments

[madamedavid]

Have you ever seen or read The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe? It's a brilliant play, and early on the character of Trudy explains that she and her alien friends were discussing where goosebumps come from. Do they come from the heart? Or from the soul? Or from geese? They discuss a lot of this kind of thing... like the difference between a can of Campbell's tomato soup (regular soup) and Any Warhol's painting of a can of Campbell's tomato soup (art). Stuff like that.

Later on in the play, she's talking about the aliens' experience at the theatre. I'm slightly paraphrasing:

In the middle of the show one of 'em turns to me and says, "Trudy, look!"

I said, "Yeah, goosebumps! You like the play that much?" I had completely forgot to tell them to watch the play, they had been wathcing the audience the whole time! They said, "Trudy! A whole bunch of strangers gathering in the dark. Laughing at the same things, crying at the same things. Trudy," they said to me, "The play was soup. The audience: art!"

Imagine that! What a souvenier to take home with you... goosebumps! They had to go back to their planet unexpectedly, but they said they'll try to keep in touch and watch us. And maybe one day we'll do something and they'll laugh. Or we'll do something and they'll cry. Or maybe, just maybe, we'll do something so outstanding... that it gives the entire universe goosebumps!

And, I swear to you, I get goosebumps every time I read, see or think about that monologue! That's what it's all about.