. . . fix it. University of North Carolina theatre professor and Theatre Ideas blogger Scott Walters argues the case for the theatre generalist:
“. . . given the economics of theatre, the generalist is vastly more valuable than the specialist, and that theatre history bears this out. Moliere was a great playwright AND the leading actor for his company AND the head of the company. Shakespeare was a great playwright AND and actor in his company AND one of the owners of the company. The specialist is a symptom of our industrial approach to the creation of theatre art, a model that is fast becoming economical unworkable.”
– Scott Walters
Mike Lawler – on travel
Substitute: “Generalist”
With: “Multi-talented”
And this is not so crazy.
Furthermore, because theatre forces young artists to be multi-talented, and then perhaps specialize once they are established, shouldn’t a multiplicity of skills (production, design, publicity, management direction AND performance) be mandatory in training programs?
“shouldn’t a multiplicity of skills (production, design, publicity, management direction AND performance) be mandatory in training programs?”
Amen.
Interesting examples, Shakespeare and Moliere, but the vast majority are not generalists, and tend to specialize in one field, especially to begin with. Once a person is established in one capacity, it is much easier to say, produce and act, or write and direct. But the format of staging a show requires that each person do their specific job in order to present the show. There’s nothing wrong with being able wear more hats, but if everyone had a million slashes in their job description, it would get annoying.
more to the point is how the heck do you not burn out to a crisp by doing all that stuff.
I have to tell you that the generalist concept is a bit overrated. If you don’t believe me please come and take over my job for a bit…..smiling
Tracy Letts was an actor who then decided to write plays. The generalist (or whatever you want to call it) is still alive.
I like the generalist idea to a point, but I have to agree with Philip, you’ll go mad doing everything, especially without a lot of experience behind you. I think artist, and especially theatre artist are community craving animals and function best with a group. It doesn’t have to be a large, multi-tiered organization, just a small committed band who can split responsibilities. ON the first Cart/Horse show I did way more than one person should and I think the show suffered for it.
The important thing though, is to get out and do it. While I may not love all the shows and all the execution that I’m seeing these days, I LOVE the rampant desire to get things on their feet. More artists need to take responsibility for their work.
It is interesting that there doesn’t seem to be a place in the imagination between the specialist one-person-one-job and the one-person-does-everything model, which has been identified as “generalist.” Doing more than one thing doesn’t mean doing everything, it means being able to divide the labor among a group of multi-talented people. The original definition of the theatre tribe is a group of people who want to work together who have all the skills necessary to do the work. Yes, at a certain point you don’t have the time or energy to do it all — which is why you divide the work reasonably. Come on, folks, this isn’t rocket science. Surely you can imagine a different way without creating straw men.
Hi Scott,
Maybe it’s because my peers and I here in Toronto (and anyone feel free to correct me if I’m assuming wrong on this) are living in the one-person-does-everything model. And we’re all too familiar with its problems. So when we hear someone telling us we need to become generalists . . . well you can imagine how it sounds.
Semantically, I believe that’s the point of contention.
That said, you have, for some time, been arguing for a much more nuanced definition of generalist. Maybe we’re reading the quote out of context?
Ian — I was writing in response to a guy who was justifying his annual 150,000 to 200,000 travels by saying he just wanted to be a sound designer, and that required him to travel that much because there wasn’t enough work in LA to keep him busy. He was using this to counter Mike Lawler’s question concerning the environmental cost of traveling. So that’s the context.
I am commenting on the idea that the goal is a one-man-one-job arrangement, which I would say is wasteful and ultimately unsustainable.
“Mother always said that practice makes perfect”. Attempting to get outside more than one or two areas means you have to divide your attention and time, which often means you’re not as well versed in either area. There is something to be said for specialization and it benefiting the overall quality of the show.
That’s conventional wisdom. Unfortunately, it is no longer viable in theatre in this economic climate. In this case, specialization leads to perfect being the enemy of good. The theatre (not to mention our environment) can’t afford to hire an army of specialists.
Ok let me respond a bit clearer. I think the problem is not with specialists but with specialists who are over committed. Case in point. You hire a LX designer. They are doing three other shows and show up for the run for lights and the tech week where they have to miss a day to look after one of their other shows. That is the standard of most specialist designers.
Now I just hired a young designer who is able to use these two shows that we are producing to be a bit of her entre into the Toronto scene. She is a specialist but because of the importance of all this to her she has been in rehearsal 85% of time. For two shows. So we have a dedicated specialist who is committed fully to the project in both time and focus. I don’t need either a specialist or a generalist who is spending their time doing other things/jobs etc. I want one who is there fully for the show in question.
Now this applies to indie theatre. For the regionals they will always keep flying the pros-from-dover in.
I think this is where Scott’s tribe idea comes into play… because, ideally, it would be a group that is supporting its members working only on the tribe’s own shows. In other words, members wouldn’t need to be working on multiple shows at the same time just to put food on the table. I know exactly what you are saying and have had the same frustrating experiences – I once had a lighting designer quit a show I was directing 4 days before opening (before everything was even hung and focused) because another show he was doing at the same time had gotten accepted into a fringe festival, so he needed time to go work with them some more to plan for the transporting of the design. Luckily, we had a master electrician helping out who basically saved the show, but the designer who left us in the lurch ended up winning an award for our show. Anyway, long story short – the generalist approach works much better if the generalist is trying to work in only one place.
It works well for me. I was trained primarily as an actor, and that is my favorite kind of work to do in the theatre. But I also discovered that I had a talent for dialects, and I have found that work sometimes easier to get that acting work (and it pays better). And though it is not my strongest skill, I’m a competent director, too, and have tried my hand at that a few times, too. If working for one company was my primary job, I would be more than happy to do all three of those things at various times and I wouldn’t overextended at all if I was just doing it in this one place… I would actually just be steadily employed.
Hey Laura,
Ok. I do understand what you mean but I think that I am perhaps a tad cynical. What I have seen is that most people wanting to make theatre are actors. Actors first and then everything else a poor second. So regardless of tribe or not what happens is that if a better acting job comes along they are gone. Gone for a day, a week or gone for good. And now instead of just losing an actor you lose someone skilled in several jobs and the company takes the hit.
It would take a very diffeerent kind of dedication to a company to make a tribe work. Not to say it can’t be done but in all honesty I would find it hard to know where to even begin to find those people.