Saturday, after a Master Class

It gets very dark when it rains.  Crazy weather day.  Stomach still killing me, and barely got any sleep, but decided to roll out of bed and try to get to this master class with Peter Ksander at On the Boards.  He's a set designer.  I thought it would be really full, because the presale tickets (for the performance There There) are all sold out, and I wouldn't get in...blah, blah, blah.  Anyway, my bus was late, so I missed my transfer, and so I stayed on the bus and went with plan B because it started to pour.  (So wet out today.)  Anyway, it was raining pretty hard when I walked over.  I was the first attendee there, just the Regional Program Director sitting in the lobby when I walked in.  A few more people came in and then the weird monsoon weather hit, with hail and hard blowing rain.  Everyone else came in soaked, all of our jackets drying off across chairs along the lobby perimeter.  I think there were 12 or 13 of us altogether.  Made for a great conversation about theatre, art, space, performance, etc.  Lots of ideas and thoughts to process.  Glad I made it.

Anyway, if there is a goal for audience engagement with the work, I think in addition to thinking about how we stage work, we need to address cultivating the audience for the work as well.  And I think that needs to include creating an "in" for the audience at the performances.  Not being hostile to the audience.  Not being so confrontational that you essentially say "fuck you" to the audience because they aren't hip enough to get it.  I understand the desire for elitism.  I understand wanting to exclude, especially if you were ever an outsider, a black sheep, ostracized, etc (I've certainly been there), but you have to let people in.  To not do it (well aside from being an unhealthy way to live) is to risk being so insular you implode or become irrelevant.  This isn't something that was discussed, it's just something I think about a lot.  People complain about work being too safe, but you gotta build the audience for other types of work, so it's supported.  So it can thrive and add something to the conversation.  We need the conversation.  So, how do we make it happen?  (And I think this is especially important if you want to address the human condition-which art does, and want to affect society.  Someone needs to witness the work, and be affected by it.  Art doesn't, or shouldn't, exist in a vacuum: you need an audience.)

Doing laundry, listening to football game, and going to the show again tonight (hopefully, I can get in with my comp.)  No pictures, yet.  Am hoping my stomach will hurt a little less before I leave.  Maybe it's inflamed.  I don't know.  Just. Really. Hurts.