Who’s the final authority . . . the director, the writer or the producer?
Are there any new stories being told?
Can one survive and make money in theatre, as an actor, writer or director (without teaching, without producing or supplimenting income via TV or workshops)
Are musicals based on decades old movies the worst thing to happen to theatre.
What’s the difference between TARZAN on Broadway or any of the shows they do at Disneyland or Universal Studios Theme park? Both have audiences, actors, action, music . . .
Do people care about playwrights?
Those are a few . . .
I suddenly flashed to a Toby Keith song:
I wanna talk about me Wanna talk about I Wanna talk about number one Oh my me my What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see I like talking about you,you,you,you, usually, but occasionally I wanna talk about me I wanna talk about me
*LOL*
Scott,
Was that comment directed at anyone in particular, or yourself, or just something you thought was funny, or what reason did you have for quoting Toby Keith and that particular song?
awesome questions josh. no one died and put me in charge, but i offer up my answers:
the final authority…i think that’s a case by case basis. the boring, but probably most truthful answer is it’s usually a combo. the higher the budget, the more it swings to the producer though.
new stories…do you mean in a joseph campbell kinda way? if not, i would say in Toronto anyhow, there are some, but not enough. new stories more often than not come from new, young artists and we have to fight very hard to get the resources to tell new stories right now. it’s far from impossible however.
living off the theatre….i know a couple people who have survived that way, but yeah, this probably has to do with your standard of living too and how many people rely on your income. if i ever have any munchkins running around this shit will not pan out on its own.
can i just say that muscials are the worst thing to happen to theatre? no, that’s too broad and inaccurate. the worst thing to happen to theatre are the plethora of producers that are unwilling to take risks. musicals based on old movies are the same as sequels of horror films. they’re safe financial investments where you can pretty much imagine the artisic product before the 1st reading ever happened.
the difference between tarzan on broadway and at disney land… there’s probably a PhD thesis on spectacle and performance here. the line is definitely blurring. the good thing about the NYC version is it pulls in people who come to see theatre (whether it is or not). these folks often also spice it up by hitting Times Square to get tickets to something random and off-off-broadway while they’re there. at disneyland they’re just blowing that cash on sunscreen and parking.
People caring about playwrights….I don’t know about all people, but the ones that i run Praxis Theatre with like em a lot. We have a mandate to produce new works so, we want them to send us their best scripts and be happy and wealthy and wise….
Thanks Mike,
I just threw those questions out from the top of my head . . .
And it reminded me, now that I just finished a project right before the deadline, that I had planned to send y’all a new script, to see what you thought . . .
will do so now!
word up. look forward to it.
Joshua, Mike, Scott, awesome!
I’d love to dig into the “new stories” topic Joshua has suggested . . . probably down the narrative theory trails: levi-strauss, a structural analysis of myth (the same stories revisited across many cultures); will wright, sixguns and society (generic icons); david bordwell, classical hollywood narration (the dominance of a particular approach to storytelling); todorov, the fantastic (how variations on the “complex discovey plot” [onset, discovery, confirmation, confrontation] can used to break down “all” horror stories into like parts).
For me, it’ll have to wait until I’m off this vacation and have my mind back in the saddle. or have the saddle back on my mind. or have the horse back in front of the saddle. or the cart before the storm. what? I’m lost. ;-)
Until then . . . Scott, I’m going to check out that song.
Cheers!
Ian
Scott’s on the money with that. The blogosphere is all about repesentations of the self.
The real meme of all those manufactured memes exchanged as chain letters amongst bloggers is that each one offers an opportunity to “talk about me”, represent “who I am, where I came from” in a self interviews.
Any suggestions?
Ooo, so much to talk about . . .
Who’s the final authority . . . the director, the writer or the producer?
Are there any new stories being told?
Can one survive and make money in theatre, as an actor, writer or director (without teaching, without producing or supplimenting income via TV or workshops)
Are musicals based on decades old movies the worst thing to happen to theatre.
What’s the difference between TARZAN on Broadway or any of the shows they do at Disneyland or Universal Studios Theme park? Both have audiences, actors, action, music . . .
Do people care about playwrights?
Those are a few . . .
I suddenly flashed to a Toby Keith song:
I wanna talk about me
Wanna talk about I
Wanna talk about number one
Oh my me my
What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see
I like talking about you,you,you,you, usually, but occasionally
I wanna talk about me
I wanna talk about me
*LOL*
Scott,
Was that comment directed at anyone in particular, or yourself, or just something you thought was funny, or what reason did you have for quoting Toby Keith and that particular song?
awesome questions josh. no one died and put me in charge, but i offer up my answers:
the final authority…i think that’s a case by case basis. the boring, but probably most truthful answer is it’s usually a combo. the higher the budget, the more it swings to the producer though.
new stories…do you mean in a joseph campbell kinda way? if not, i would say in Toronto anyhow, there are some, but not enough. new stories more often than not come from new, young artists and we have to fight very hard to get the resources to tell new stories right now. it’s far from impossible however.
living off the theatre….i know a couple people who have survived that way, but yeah, this probably has to do with your standard of living too and how many people rely on your income. if i ever have any munchkins running around this shit will not pan out on its own.
can i just say that muscials are the worst thing to happen to theatre? no, that’s too broad and inaccurate. the worst thing to happen to theatre are the plethora of producers that are unwilling to take risks. musicals based on old movies are the same as sequels of horror films. they’re safe financial investments where you can pretty much imagine the artisic product before the 1st reading ever happened.
the difference between tarzan on broadway and at disney land… there’s probably a PhD thesis on spectacle and performance here. the line is definitely blurring. the good thing about the NYC version is it pulls in people who come to see theatre (whether it is or not). these folks often also spice it up by hitting Times Square to get tickets to something random and off-off-broadway while they’re there. at disneyland they’re just blowing that cash on sunscreen and parking.
People caring about playwrights….I don’t know about all people, but the ones that i run Praxis Theatre with like em a lot. We have a mandate to produce new works so, we want them to send us their best scripts and be happy and wealthy and wise….
Thanks Mike,
I just threw those questions out from the top of my head . . .
And it reminded me, now that I just finished a project right before the deadline, that I had planned to send y’all a new script, to see what you thought . . .
will do so now!
word up. look forward to it.
Joshua, Mike, Scott, awesome!
I’d love to dig into the “new stories” topic Joshua has suggested . . . probably down the narrative theory trails: levi-strauss, a structural analysis of myth (the same stories revisited across many cultures); will wright, sixguns and society (generic icons); david bordwell, classical hollywood narration (the dominance of a particular approach to storytelling); todorov, the fantastic (how variations on the “complex discovey plot” [onset, discovery, confirmation, confrontation] can used to break down “all” horror stories into like parts).
For me, it’ll have to wait until I’m off this vacation and have my mind back in the saddle. or have the saddle back on my mind. or have the horse back in front of the saddle. or the cart before the storm. what? I’m lost. ;-)
Until then . . . Scott, I’m going to check out that song.
Cheers!
Ian
Scott’s on the money with that. The blogosphere is all about repesentations of the self.
The real meme of all those manufactured memes exchanged as chain letters amongst bloggers is that each one offers an opportunity to “talk about me”, represent “who I am, where I came from” in a self interviews.