I recently heard this question:
"What are you doing to save theatre today?"
I want to know something else.
"What are you not doing to save theatre today?"
Is it the internet? Is it television? What up? Why aren't people going to plays as much anymore? Weigh in.
7 smart alecky remarks:
Well of course at the tv and the internet played a role. But I think so did the flight to the suburbs as that changed our culture and took a way customers.
umm... i am saving theatre today.
Last night (after midnight, so that counts as today) i started a new project that seeks to answer a number of questions on this blog. including: what should the cultural alliance be doing, why do people choose booze over art, and is Milwaukee an art city?
I'll unveil more about it soon.
Also, last night i failed to attend the theatre show i was planning to see because it was sold out. So looks like Dale Gutzman might have the answers.
I'm liking Dave Reid's thread and blog. I'm a walker who likes to live in a place where I can walk to everything. That is what city living is all about. Think about big theatre towns. NY. Chicago. London. Lot of walking there. Might sound simple, but I think Dave is on to something. Though it doesn't solve the problem of why the Third Ward is full of condo dwellers who say they want to be close to all the performing arts and just end up getting drunk most nights at home while arts groups embarrass themselves with half houses.
And I for one look forward to anything that Rex hatches after midnight. Rex? Does this deserve a video response? I'm game for taping you. Let me know.
Also, yeah for Dale G. And I think if you asked him if he knew the answer he could tell you with decades long experience that there is no answer and he's cathching a lucky break right now because he's doing something that people seem to like and the fates have aligned in a mysterious way to attract audiences to it.
The better question is: what is theatre doing to save itself? Is it blogging and twittering to let new audiences know about new shows and progress? Have the union actors begun thinking that any videotape of themselves in performance might be used to increase audience size and thereby improve their job security? Has the notion of "not-for-profit" yet been forgotten as a cast-off crutch? Has "the theatre" come to the realization that instead of creating an iconoclastic culture hearkening to a socio-economic structure that no longer exists, it should embrace the internet, film, video, bars and the wide variety of general populace that it claims to serve?
Hard questions, and harder answers. But the questions need to be asked. And I'm a fan!
My hatchling idea is described up on my blog: rwinsome.blogspot.com. it's a survey of Milwaukeeans about art.
check it out!
Bill, i'll question your question with another question: What do you mean by "theatre" in your question, if not all theatre artists? Doesn't that make your question identical to the question Schmartsy (a theatre artist) was asked, inspiring him to ask us this question? (i'm all about questions these days)
@jonathan west> Well part of the problem with the Third Ward is simply that not enough people live there. Yes there are lot of condos but in truth it isn't dense enough yet.
Of course there's more to it than that, someone on here questioned if the theaters are blogging and twittering and that's a good point as they do need to look at different methods to attract people.
PS thanks for the props too!
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