Once again breaking the silence...

Since the rest of the theatrical blogosphere is having a collective pow-wow, why not? On theatre and the value of:

As an audience member, I value good theatre no more than I value you good music, good film, good visual art, good dance, good literature, good art. Why? Because I enjoy the product, not the form. I also assume that the value I place on good theatre is no greater than the value that a Cubs fan places on a good game. While appreciative of any Cubs fan who comes to see a show of mine, I in no way wish to replace their baseball with my theatre. My theatre is intended for me and others who will enjoy it or come to appreciate it as I do, not to convert those who live with a different world of values and interests.

As a creator, I work primarily with the stage for a number of reasons. As an actor, it allows me to tear open an instinctual hole and allow bits of me free that don't otherwise see much daylight. Not quite therapy, at it's best it's more of an ear-to-the-ground interconnected primalism thing. Purely in it for the adrenaline. As a director and writer, I choose the stage because I envision productions beyond the horizon of what is currently available in Chicago theatre much more readily than other art forms. I've often thought that I have a musical heart and a cinematic soul, but my mind is theatrical - that is where the ideas lie.

The value I place in theatre as a creator is simply the value I place in my ideas. I'm unapologetically Wilde-ian in my view of art. The community will embrace what the community enjoys. I will embrace what I enjoy. My version of embracing also includes creation. I don't make theatre to express the value of theatre, I make theatre to express the value of what I want to express. The form is merely the means.

Universally speaking, theatre is no more important than any other art form, and I use that in the absolutely loosest sense possible: including not only film and music, but food and politics and sports and business and science and humanitarianism, all of which can transcend at times and devour at others. On the reverse, this also means that theatre is no less important than any of the above.

Why theatre, then? Because it's what I choose. And for anyone else? That choice is theirs.

Also, come see Faster.

P.Rekk
2008