American Theatre Wing

I'll admit it. I've been watching the American Theatre Wing Seminars on cable. I think it's on CUNY TV, but don't quote me on that. I usually find myself watching it when I want to torture myself.

Not that I have anything against the Wing. Hardly. There is a place for the American Theatre Wing, but you'd think a bunch of theatre people could put on a more entertaining show. For F sake, James Lipton did it on Inside the Actor's Studio! But, to be fair, I've only watched a handful of these seminars and maybe it is similar to my early encounters with South Park. Let's face it, I had a really hard time with Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo. I'm not good with potty humor.

As usual, I digress.

The most recent seminar I watched was about the commercial viability of Off Broadway and it made me wonder why no one seems to be discussing the quality or the social/political relevance of Off Broadway. This is not to say that there is nothing of quality or relevance on or off Broadway. I'm just saying that all that glitters is not gold. Nor is everything that makes a veiled or not-so-veiled jab at the current administration necessarily maverick.

I also wonder why no one sees fit to discuss the viability of creative endeavors happening Off Manhattan. A new building is going up on 110 Livingston in Brooklyn inside which will be a new theatre space begging for a resident company. Other arts organizations are a bit nervous about a new company coming in and raiding their audience share in the area. Others are more optimistic, painting a very rosy picture about Brooklyn's future as an artistic area to rival Manhattan. I don't know if that is true, or even psychologically possible, but I do love Brooklyn. Wouldn't it be interesting if something did spark here?

Of course, I don't think a comfortable, brand spanking new, state of the art space is where a vital theatre will be born. A little discomfort is good for the artistic soul. Having to create in spite of obstacles, both internal and external, makes for exciting theatre. It means the drive is present, the passion, the need to express something eclipses the opposing forces and defeats them. That's exciting.

Everytime I start to dream about a big, splashy Broadway production I need only turn on an American Theatre Wing seminar (I'm begining to tape them) to see that I just don't belong there. I don't wear jewelry, I don't wear slacks, and I don't talk about different scenarios as "models". I'd much rather drink a few beers and emphatically declare that something is pure crap only to have the group down at the end of the bar declare the same about me. I could sit cross legged with my business voice on and throw around words like "viability" and "sustainablility", but I think I'd prefer to burn myself out screaming about that which claws at my all-too-human conscience. I'd prefer to be messy, raucous, and ugly.

It just looks like much more fun.