12:21 Creativity v. Community

"How do you learn all those lines?"

Followed by groans from the actors.  I'll tell you why we groan: we get asked literally every day. By friends, family members, audiences, people we meet on the street, bankers, ATMs, baggers, grocers, Neptunians, and the obligatory 800lb. gorilla/Cthulu.

This is not to say that we bemoan the asking; we as humans are naturally and understandably social creatures; we welcome questions.  But why always the same question? Why:

"How do you learn all those lines?"

This question is the heart of what I want to accomplish since attending grad school: demystifying the artistic/creative elements in our society.  I am a practicing artist, primarily acting and directing and what I have come to realize is that our community doesn't understand artistry.

I aim to make art more clear, engage in deeper duologue with a broader community through various social media, including, but not necessarily limited to: Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Myspace, the theatre, and talking face to face.

Why?
Not because I'm tired of the same old questions, but because I'm tired of artists saying: "That's the way it is." Fuck that.  We as an artistic whole (see what I did there?) deserve better dialogue, better understanding of what we do on a daily basis, both the practical work and the process of making art.

So this is the start, this is the rallying cry, but it's also a Q&A (however one sided....for now)

Q: How do you learn all those lines?
A: It's a bitch, the grunt work if you will.  You can't play until you learn the rules, in theatre those tend to be the lines.  Personally? I repeat them as a continuous speech in my house/on the street (yes where people can hear and often think I'm nuts) until I get them word perfect and can repeat them at speed.  It makes rehearsal the next day a pain because I haven't memorized any cues and so I just stare at people, but I really STARE at them so that's artistic.

Q: How long does it take you to rehearse?
A: It is different for every show, sometimes shorter, sometimes longer.  Some shows we get upwards of six to eight weeks rehearsing six days a week. Some shows we get less than two weeks with three hours every other day.  It is hectic, often because we are balancing other commitments in addition to our theatre jobs.

Q: What is your real job?
A: Nothing sets my teeth on edge more than this question (aside from when people say 'real world' i.e. when you go out into the real world: another post).  This is my real job.  I am really an artist.  People tell me that this is not a career, that it is impossible to make money this way, that I should not be so selfish.  But this is it.  I can't pretend that I hate it, I can't hang my head and tell anyone I'm sorry for not becoming a doctor who saves lives or a lawyer who reaps immortal souls.  But neither do I think my job is any less important or impressive than anyone else's, not better, but definitely different. 


This is a stepping stone, a primer to start discussing because questions are important, answers less so; it doesn't matter what the answer is or even if there is one, but that there is a connection, an understanding between performer and audience.

Because if you notice in the trend of questions they are always about the past or the future: how did you do something as opposed to what are you doing? Where will you go as opposed to what do we do now?  I find it very telling that we talk more about the rehearsal of a show than the show that has just happened before god damn witnesses! Why is that?! (...another post?! < excessive interrobang)

Questions that I have been asked or would love to be asked or even ask the audience:
What do you find meaningful in this piece?
What does it inspire you to do?
Where do we go from here?
What can we do about this?
Why rather than how.

I want nothing more than to commune with patrons, but let it be more than a quick chat in the lobby.  Let us go to a bar/apartment, pull up a chair, drink copiously, and hash this shit out; because if we as a community can't figure out a work of art, what are we gonna do about the scary stuff like racism, bigotry, prejudice, environmentalism, feminism, sexism, juvenilism, (so many isms, let's shake it up:) fratricide, patricide, genocide, suicide, homocide (this isn't much better), and...real jobs? Unless that is what art is meant to do? (wait for it...another post)