So much to say
Well I'm finally back from a week in Panama City Beach. The trip was everything I hate about the world but I remarkably had a good time none the less. While I and the people I was with clearly did not fit in (no greek letters on our shirts, etc...) we had a remarkable time with each other and the warm beautiful weather was certainly a nice break from the cold dreariness of Michigan. I'm sure I'll have more to say about the past week at a later time, but for now I just want to deal with the present and future.
I've been thinking a lot lately about where to go next, both literally a figuratively. Ideally I would like to someday have my own theatre company and produce my own work, however that is an idea that is clearly not feasible directly out of college. The way I look at things I have a few options of places to go. One part of me wants to go back to London and attempt to find work in the theatre there. The problem being the hassle that comes with trying to obtain work visas for another country and the logistics of needing a job when i arrive to afford to actually live there. However, this is the option I feel I'd be the most happy with. I could also possibly move to Chicago. It's a city where I would have a number of contacts already in the theatre whom I could hopefully use as references to possibly get a job. But when it all comes down to it, my biggest dilemma is whether i should follow what i want to do artistically, or what I want to do professionally. While there is definitely a similarity between these two, it is hard to challenge the conventions of theatre when you are not already an established theatre artist, because as shallow as it sounds, there is still the unfortunate issue of money. I need to live somewhere, I need to eat to survive, but on the other hand, I need to create (as cheesy as that sounds).
There is a problem in america today, especially in the arts. Monetary gain is so much more important than artistic expression, that the arts community has become too conservative to accept anything new. People would rather experience the same things over and over again than be challenged by something new. Why produce a play by a new playwright to an audience at half capacity when you can do Oklahoma! for the 3000th time to a sold out house? Why see art by Gary Hume, Damien Hirst, Tracy Emin and countless others when you can just buy a poster of a Van Gogh and hang it in your living room? This is of course not to suggest in any way that Oklahoma or Van Gogh are not worthwhile, but just that there can be a balance between the classical and the modern. The american audience is afraid. They fear change and they fear challenges to their conventions of what art is. Why read Bret Easton Ellis when they can read Danielle Steele? If it's already sold more copies it must be better. Hide behind a wall of safety rather than take risks. This is the reason I've barely seen a new comic in the sunday paper since I've been born. Comic artists die and the papers rerun their strips rather than give a new artist a chance. Wake from your slumber American art scene and embrace the emerging artist. Stop banning art exhibits as important as Sensation, stop patronizing Broadway just because it's Broadway, don't see a movie just because someone famous is in it. If something isn't good, don't force yourself to enjoy it because you're "supposed" to, and open yourself up to new experiences and allow for the possibility that maybe, just maybe something new can be something good.
I've been thinking a lot lately about where to go next, both literally a figuratively. Ideally I would like to someday have my own theatre company and produce my own work, however that is an idea that is clearly not feasible directly out of college. The way I look at things I have a few options of places to go. One part of me wants to go back to London and attempt to find work in the theatre there. The problem being the hassle that comes with trying to obtain work visas for another country and the logistics of needing a job when i arrive to afford to actually live there. However, this is the option I feel I'd be the most happy with. I could also possibly move to Chicago. It's a city where I would have a number of contacts already in the theatre whom I could hopefully use as references to possibly get a job. But when it all comes down to it, my biggest dilemma is whether i should follow what i want to do artistically, or what I want to do professionally. While there is definitely a similarity between these two, it is hard to challenge the conventions of theatre when you are not already an established theatre artist, because as shallow as it sounds, there is still the unfortunate issue of money. I need to live somewhere, I need to eat to survive, but on the other hand, I need to create (as cheesy as that sounds).
There is a problem in america today, especially in the arts. Monetary gain is so much more important than artistic expression, that the arts community has become too conservative to accept anything new. People would rather experience the same things over and over again than be challenged by something new. Why produce a play by a new playwright to an audience at half capacity when you can do Oklahoma! for the 3000th time to a sold out house? Why see art by Gary Hume, Damien Hirst, Tracy Emin and countless others when you can just buy a poster of a Van Gogh and hang it in your living room? This is of course not to suggest in any way that Oklahoma or Van Gogh are not worthwhile, but just that there can be a balance between the classical and the modern. The american audience is afraid. They fear change and they fear challenges to their conventions of what art is. Why read Bret Easton Ellis when they can read Danielle Steele? If it's already sold more copies it must be better. Hide behind a wall of safety rather than take risks. This is the reason I've barely seen a new comic in the sunday paper since I've been born. Comic artists die and the papers rerun their strips rather than give a new artist a chance. Wake from your slumber American art scene and embrace the emerging artist. Stop banning art exhibits as important as Sensation, stop patronizing Broadway just because it's Broadway, don't see a movie just because someone famous is in it. If something isn't good, don't force yourself to enjoy it because you're "supposed" to, and open yourself up to new experiences and allow for the possibility that maybe, just maybe something new can be something good.