Stage Management
I'm often asked why I am not a professional stage manager for a living.
I often wonder the same thing.
The stress of the show... the excitement... the look on the performers' faces: absolute trust. It's pretty much one of the most amazing jobs I can think of.
And then I read articles like this:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/performer-is-injured-during-spider-man-performance/?hp
And I am terrified inside. I can't imagine being the stage manager in charge of that show.
And then I find out there are seven:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118029227
Massive. The scale of that show is where modern theater is heading. People are getting tired of wit and want spectacle. Tired of words and beauty and want violence and action. Flashing back through theater history, this happens and shows get bigger, just like the economy inflates. Eventually though, there becomes no where else to go. People get hurt trying to be the biggest and the best. It's like any other cut-throat industry out there. Only, when we play with our lives it's not to save someone. It's to tell a story. Stories that most of our audiences don't take seriously. Stories that people just want to laugh at or escape into. What they don't realize is how much those stories *are* life. And if they aren't told...
I like theater. I love stories. I'm good at what I do.
I'm also terrified of that responsibility.
Does that make me a coward? How much do I really care about that answer?
I often wonder the same thing.
The stress of the show... the excitement... the look on the performers' faces: absolute trust. It's pretty much one of the most amazing jobs I can think of.
And then I read articles like this:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/performer-is-injured-during-spider-man-performance/?hp
And I am terrified inside. I can't imagine being the stage manager in charge of that show.
And then I find out there are seven:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118029227
Massive. The scale of that show is where modern theater is heading. People are getting tired of wit and want spectacle. Tired of words and beauty and want violence and action. Flashing back through theater history, this happens and shows get bigger, just like the economy inflates. Eventually though, there becomes no where else to go. People get hurt trying to be the biggest and the best. It's like any other cut-throat industry out there. Only, when we play with our lives it's not to save someone. It's to tell a story. Stories that most of our audiences don't take seriously. Stories that people just want to laugh at or escape into. What they don't realize is how much those stories *are* life. And if they aren't told...
I like theater. I love stories. I'm good at what I do.
I'm also terrified of that responsibility.
Does that make me a coward? How much do I really care about that answer?