After a 40-day hiatus, University of North Carolina theatre professor Scott Walters has revived his popular and controversial Theatre Ideas blog. Back in early May, Walters closed the doors on his blog and expressed disappointment with the regional bickering that had begun to dominate the debate:
“I have used this blog, especially during the past five months, to develop my ideas about theatre tribes. I have floated the first drafts of ideas to see what needed to be clarified, fine-tuned, or scrapped entirely. It is now time to truly focus on the development of those ideas. It does not serve my purpose to continue scrapping with the usual bloggers about whether the theatre tribe idea will work – I know it will work; or whether it is worthwhile – I know it is worthwhile. I am wasting my time, and I don’t have any to waste.”
“Despite being filled with progressive minds, theatre is currently a conservative art form – conservative in the traditional sense of clinging to the past and resisting the siren call of the new. We currently have centralized theatrical power in a few places, and we know from other situations that those with power rarely give it up freely. While I have nothing against New York or Chicago, I believe the future of the theatre lies in geographical diversity, sustainable values, and a local focus, and the need to constantly address those two cities on this blog is wresting my focus from where it ought to be.”
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: the theatrosphere is simply a more exciting place to be when Walters is in the ring. So whichever direction Walters decides to steer his blog, we can’t wait to see what happens next!
Thanks, Ian! I needed some rest and time away to clear my palate. I suspect the blog will become a bit less intentionally combative, at least until I start getting tired and beleaguered again. But I missed sharing my ideas with people who care. Also, when I was at the National Performing Arts Convention in Denver, it became very clear to me that the blog was being read more widely than I thought. In addition, Mike Daisey told me that many of my posts served as inspiration for his “How Theatre Failed America,” especially the number-crunching posts. So I decided I needed to come back, despite looking like a flip-flopper.