Where Is The Theater?

One of the Things I've Been Wanting to Talk About.

2008-06-11T15:40:00.000-07:00

I've been reading the most recent TDR which is all about Grotowski and is timely in my life. The first two bits in the journal, other than Schechner's introductory essay (which incorrectly identifies Stephen Wangh as being DEAD! This is NOT TRUE and a hell of a typo!), are two speeches of Grotowski's dealing with, largely, the validity of systems of theater work. Both the pieces were spoken in the same year, the first to a group of people many of whom who claimed to work "according to Grotowski" at the end of a seminar in Europe around the ten-year anniversary of the founding of the Laboratory Theater of 13 Rows. The second to a group of actors and directors at BAM in NYC. The first piece is a serious rebuke of much of the work that went on in the seminar and the second is an attempt to answer the question "Is Stanislavski Valid Today?" – a question which Grotowski immediately points out makes no sense as Stanislavski is either important for each person or he is not and that no one should attempt to answer for another. Essential to both speeches is the idea that a "system" of theater work as a transmittable entity (e.g. The Grotowski system, the Stanislavski system) is an impossible idea. He says:

We all know that we didn't arrive at final results, at products here. However, we can tell where we felt a seed, some impulses, some nourishment. Or, that there wasn't any air, any fertile soil. It is not a problem of "being faithful to some system." The problem is whether a seed of truth, a seed of a theater of truth, was there. That is the only problem. Because "system" in itself has no value.

And, later:

In fact, to work in my spirit means to work in one own's spirit. Nobody can work the way I do, because everyone is different.

Grotowski goes on to acknowledge that the closest thing to a Grotowski system or, as he puts it here "method", would be

To work without lying, without imitating the work, without hiding, without an easy way out; to go towards the actor, to go towards him fully, with all your being; to go until you forget about yourself, to expect the same from him and to meet him.

In the second piece, in reference to Stanislavsky, Grotowski touches on this same difference while admiring his predecessor:

The second reason I have a deep respect for Stanislavsky is his effort to think on the basis of what is practical and concrete. How to touch what is untouchable. He wished to find concrete paths to secret, mysterious processes. Not the means – against these he fought, he called them clichés – but the paths.

So, for Grotowski at this time the means, that is to say the methods or systems, were almost purely subjective workings while the more objective paths could be shared.

I have been since the last year I spent at NYU looking for a system and while I have been open to the idea that this system existed somewhere already and my work might be as easy as figuring out how to sign up, I have had a gut-sense that I was on my own to develop it, to cull it from the profound myriad sources I've had access to. 9 years later, I feel even more deeply that this is so, but I have begun having doubts about the validity of such a search. Landing here in San Francisco to work as a performer on a piece with a schoolmate (and, hopefully, fellow contributor to this conversation, Randall Cohn), I have realized that one of the major obstacles I am facing in this search for a system revolves around the more basic question of "What is the theater for?" I struggle with this question almost daily and this struggle takes on many nuanced shades. For this post, though, I want to focus on just one.

I like Grotowski's proposal of the purpose of theater illustrated briefly above and, because it bears repeating, printed again here:

To work without lying, without imitating the work, without hiding, without an easy way out; to go towards the actor, to go towards him fully, with all your being; to go until you forget about yourself, to expect the same from him and to meet him.

So, I take this, for now and now alone, as a satisfactory purpose for the theater. A problem is presented: if this is the purpose of theater, than all of our work, individually, is aimed at one point in the future. Each show is trying to do the same thing and it either does it better or worse. I'm not sure that that sounds like the most exciting season of theater for an audience, let alone a ten-year run of seasons. Further, if in our work we find that the theater becomes a blockade to our purpose, our intimacy, our shared revelation, than we must leave the theater and continue on our path without it. (As we know, Grotowski left the theater shortly after these speeches – is this why?) What does that say about the theater as entity outside of our work? That it is empty, a vehicle only and, when we are done, a vehicle in the woods left to the Kudzu? Why did we start in theater, then? Was theater chosen from the get go as the result of a careful consideration of the best way to implement our purpose? I for one found the theater first. And I still love the theater. I have particular aesthetic likes and dislikes and I am happiest when working in the theater. And I believe that the audience is crucial to the theater – I'm not at all into "process-oriented" theater. I love the purpose considered above, but I also fear that it leads inevitably away from the theater. Your thoughts, stalwart community?

Crom. 1st Post. Answers.

2008-06-11T11:33:00.000-07:00

Who are you?

My name is Christopher Cromwell. I am a native Californian and a current Yankee. I'm also a British Citizen, though I've never lived there. I've recently been an innkeeper and now I am making theater again. Theater still doesn't pay.

Why are you important?

I strive towards honesty with those I love and I write well.

What is your history with the theater?

Arrived at my high school 6 weeks late and happened into a class that emphasized writing for performance. Studied at NYU (Playwright's Horizon's and then the Experimental Theater Wing). Ran a theater for teenagers. Self-produced performances. Ran out of money. Became an innkeeper. Stopped innkeeping. Returned to the theater through a college connection.

What training that you have physically undertaken do you value most?

The core curricula at ETW: character creation and performance, 6 viewpoints (Overlie), Hart voice, Wangh's improv, choreography. Deb Margolin's performance and playwriting classes have been equally fundamental to my work. Also, Elevator Repair Service's sense of collaborative playbuilding, though that is as much mental training as it is physical.

What training that you haven't undertaken do you value most (or is this impossible)?

Of course it's possible, but that value might be misplaced. I'd like to know first hand about Thomas Richard's and Mario Biagini's work in Pontedera. To a lesser extent, I'd like the same from Bogart's company. I'd like to train more with Mary Overlie.

What are three things you've always loved and think you always will love about the theater?

Revelation, the opportunity for expanded and new languages (language of the body, of character, of rhythm and music, language of all these in combination…) and the joy of shared experience. Also, voyeurism… let's call that a half-a-thing.

Where do you live?

I live in Maine. For the summer of 2008, I live in San Francisco.

Where would you like to live?

A place that looks and feels like CA, close to a city like NY, priced like Buffalo, NY, where all of my beloved diaspora lives.

What sound(s) do you love?

The twitters and calls of eagles, osprey and hawks; people talking in languages I don’t know, loud noises far off, music practice falling out of windows, voices of my friends and family.

Which sound(s) do you hate?

Myself screaming, mindless foot-tapping, pen clicking, nail-biting, etc., jet-skis, purposefully loud motorcycles, gas-powered yard care machines.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

Law or Finance.

What profession would you not like to?

Computer Engineering.

What is your current profession(s)?

Heading toward entrepreneurship.

What is the last bit of truly great theater you've seen?

BigDanceTheater's Production of Mac Wellman's Antigone. Margolin's O Yes I will.

How much was the ticket?

Don't recall.

What do you long for in the theater?

Revelation. Newness.

What have you never seen onstage, but always wanted to?

Grotowski's work from the 60's. Or any of his work for that matter. His ideas have been so goddamned important in my relationship to the theater and, yet, I will never, ever see his work first-hand.

Where is the nexus of the theater world and why is it there?

In this country, NYC, but I don't think that is economically sustainable. Over my life, I think we'll see a broadening of the nexus of the theater world, through small, non-equity production companies in cities like Pittsburgh, Austin, Kansas City, the two Portlands, Ithaca, etc.

What is one of your favorite words?

Categorical.

Where did you grow up?

Sacramento, CA. Oahu, HI.

How do you work on sincerity, on opening yourself to those you love?

Some sort of daily practice helps. Sometimes that's theater work, sometimes Aikido. Yoga hasn't been sufficient on its own.

Does this work get easier with time? Harder?

So far it remains as hard as ever. It's a fight against something innate, I think and it works like an arms race. Each time I figure out a trick I use for avoidance, a particular style of lying, my mind, my body just figures out a new and different style. So, I think this work is perpetually difficult and there is no achieving perfection here.

What is one thing you can see, as you write this, that enthralls, perplexes or uplifts you?

A hummingbird came to the creeping vine outside my window and not finding what it wanted peered into my room and at me, came closer to the glass, tapped it with its beak, looked at me again and flew off.

How old are you?

31 at the end of this month (June, 2008)

Questionnaire

2008-06-10T13:54:00.000-07:00

This is the questionnaire for your first post. It's intended to broaden this community’s knowledge about you and to set your ideas and arguments into a context that helps us better understand them. There are certainly no right answers and, further, every question is open to interpretation. (If you notice some familiar questions, I have pulled some from the Proust Questionnaire – which Proust did not write, but answered – and the Pivot Questionnaire reportedly based on Proust's). If you feel there should be other questions, add them to your answers.

Who are you?

Why are you important?

What theater do you most want to make, see, read about, etc.?

What theater can you live without?

What is your history with the theater?

What training that you have physically undertaken do you value most?

What training that you haven't undertaken do you value most (or is this impossible)?

What are three things you've always loved and think you always will love about the theater?

Where do you live?

Where would you like to live?

What sound(s) do you love?

Which sound(s) do you hate?

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

What profession would you not like to?

What is your current profession(s)?

What is the last bit of truly great theater you've seen?

How much was the ticket?

What do you long for in the theater?

What have you never seen onstage, but always wanted to?

Where is the nexus of the theater world and why is it there?

As you see it, how does the theatrical world interact with the non-theatrical world?

Is this a worthwhile interaction?

Could the interaction be different or better or both?

What is one of your favorite words?

Where did you grow up?

How do you work on sincerity, on opening yourself to those you love?

Does this work get easier with time? Harder?

What is one thing you can see, as you write this, that enthralls, perplexes or uplifts you?

How old are you?

Hello, Welcome!

2008-06-10T12:17:00.000-07:00

I’ve been wanting, for awhile, to create a forum for an ongoing discussion of the theater, its merits and possibilities, its current state in my country (USA) and the world, its nuances, attractions and failings. I don't get to talk about the theater much where I live and when I do its usually an attempt to explain, without offending anyone, why I don't value very highly the work of Andrew Lloyd Webber or Stephen Sondheim. I almost never get to delve into questions asking after the heart of the theater, its usefulness or purpose, what it may be a vehicle for, or what constitutes success in it.

So, the basic purpose of this forum is to seek ideas, proposals, arguments and answers to questions about theater we rarely get to ask.

Everyone is welcome here – practitioners, students, fans, academics, etc.

I would like all of our contributions to be contextualized to some extent in a sense of the speaker. To that end, I ask that your first post be answers to a brief questionnaire. There are a thousand schools of performance and each has its own language. It should help us to know something about each of our speakers, although I hope that the questionnaire leaves a great deal of room for creative interpretation; I don't mind having to work to contextualize your posts. After the initial post, the conversation is open.

I will turn off comments and ask you to do the same because I prefer to have all posts equalized and in-line. If you have a comment on someone else's post, make a new post with it. If you feel the need, title your post "Comment: TITLE OF POST YOUR COMMENTING ON." This may create an oddly flowing blog, but I find this idea attractive. What river runs straight, after all?

Welcome, friends and strangers! I hope this is the beginning of a very long discussion.