With all the recent talk of “how theatre failed America” I thought I might repost something I wrote almost two years ago.
The original post is here.
Enjoy!
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Writer Warren Ellis created a series called The Global Frequency in which he posits the existence of a global network whose mission is to save the world from destruction. Rather than superheros who fly around in red capes, we find more or less ordinary citizens connected by cellphones and other wireless networks. Each person on ‘The Frequency’ is some kind of specialist in a given field. In the pilot to a now abandoned TV series based on the work, one of the people needed to prevent a major disaster is an olympic gymnast. Not your typical comic book character.
The point is that in a world with the networked potentials that we have today, limiting our activities to traditional notions of role and geography, be they crime fighting or artistic, is looking backwards. The Poor player, while being somewhat self deprecating, makes the important and necessary observation that we need to reorient our vision.
There has been a lot of talk in the last few days regarding Terry Teachout’s recent article. He points out that some of the best theatre being made in the US is occurring in regional theatres. Interestingly enough, this theatre is being made on the same model as The Global Frequency. That is, teams of artists are assembled from across the country, if not internationally, to create works for a localized community. A need is found within a given socio-geographic space, for a particular kind of work. The artists who can best manifest that work are brought together to create. These works in turn, if successful, often go on tour or end up as co-productions with other regional theatres.
This is an amazing feat and something made possible precisely because of modern technologies. The Looking Glass Theater in Chicago is one company that comes to mind when I think of this networked national theatre. I was fortunate enough to board-op their co-production of Metamorphoses with the Berkeley Repertory Theatre a number of years ago before it came to Broadway. As the show toured cast members would leave and new ones would be added in, so there was an interesting mixture of the original ensemble and local actors, one of whom I had worked with at Impact Theatre a year or so before.
There are local theater’s all across the US. This is the New York Off-Off-Broadway scene or the companies I have worked with in California, Impact and ERP among others. The Poor Player tells us of ones in Buffalo, NY. The regional theatre movement of the 1960′s and 1970′s broke the stranglehold on American Theatre that New York had and created a vital new model for producing works in this country. Even as the original intent of these institution evolved to be more national in scope, smaller companies crop up to take on the role of local theatre. But in our connected world it is not enough to simply call for isolationist tribalism. We must look at how to further connection and cross pollination between artists and communities. We must look forward, not just back at the past.
The voice of Duluth might live in Sacramento and the costume designer who understand her lives in Minneapolis. Unless there is a network, a Global Frequency, this artistic team might never find one another. Creating theatre is never so simple an issue as geography or even friendship. These things are important, but in the end it is about finding those people with whom you have a sympathetic artistic relationship and creating works that are vital and powerful. As I said yesterday it is important to look for ways to expand the network.
When I look at the US government I see an entity that is wholly out of touch with the modern world. Where everywhere else technology and ideology are breaking down traditional boundaries, through organizations like the EU and technologies like VOIP and social networking sites, the US Federal government is concerned with Sovereignty. They want to create physical barriers and psychological barriers between US and THEM. They want to reclaim a 19th century idea of the nation state complete with hard power dominance, while everywhere else energy is flowing towards a post-sovereign state influencing events through soft power. There is nothing wrong with history. I find it fascinating to read of events gone by. But it seems silly to me to try and force the energies of change into old fashioned models that do not sit harmoniously with the contemporary world.
But the old models of Self and identity are washing away with time. Be they national or personal, the individual is on the way out. A holistic organic model of self needs be explored. The connections between examined rather than boundaries.
The future is here. We need only reorient our vision and embrace its potential.
