{"id":411,"date":"2012-02-01T10:10:16","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T15:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/theatricalimperative\/?p=411"},"modified":"2012-02-06T08:32:56","modified_gmt":"2012-02-06T13:32:56","slug":"how-theatre-artists-become-essential-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/theatricalimperative\/2012\/02\/how-theatre-artists-become-essential-part-2.html","title":{"rendered":"How Theatre Artists Become Essential, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite the fairly widespread recognition of great artists as hard workers, the challenge of raising the overall value of theatre artists in the U.S. today is that most Americans just don\u2019t see them as vital to improving daily quality of life.\u00a0 Whole generations have grown up without rigorous, consistent, or engaging arts education in their schools.\u00a0 Many producing organizations haven\u2019t helped much, reacting to this problem by spending resources competing for a dwindling core of \u201cconnected consumers\u201d rather than working to diversify and expand the pool of those who might be inclined to participate if properly invited.\u00a0 For any potential participant who starts from this outsider perspective, no amount of \u201cexcellence,\u201d and certainly not exchange for high material worth, will sway them to see artists as personally<\/em><\/strong> valuable.\u00a0 Too often we producers place our faith in the \u201cIf you build it, they will come\u201d promise of the film Field of Dreams.<\/em>\u00a0 But in the case of the vast majority of Americans, no matter how well we build it, they simply won\u2019t<\/em><\/strong> come, because they have no idea why what we do matters.<\/p>\n

So, what is a theatre artist\u2019s job, exactly, and why does it matter<\/strong>?\u00a0 It can\u2019t be to entertain.\u00a0 Entertainment is, and always has been, a commercial endeavor, and as such, to reach the broadest possible audience, confirms what we already know, rather than challenging us<\/strong>.\u00a0 In fact, the etymology of the word \u201centertain\u201d points to an attempt to \u201ckeep someone in a certain frame of mind.\u201d\u00a0 Entertainment works best when it conforms to and mirrors our collective thinking.\u00a0 As a result, raising the value of entertainers is pretty easy, requiring little more than a good marketing plan.<\/p>\n

We also have to be careful about re-iterating the old saw that artists matter because they \u201creflect\u201d our world, our understanding of things, in new ways: this narrative lowers the status of artists, placing them in a re-active rather than pro-active position, and won\u2019t give us a measure of value that we can substantially raise.\u00a0 Anyway, I think artists DEFINE, rather than reflect, these understandings.\u00a0 The similarity of the work of artists to that of scientists has been obscured, I think, by the technological explosion of the past century – but it\u2019s useful to compare.\u00a0 Scientists uncover, characterize, and often employ the basic truths of natural processes, the patterns that underlie our environment.\u00a0 Thus, scientists matter because they rigorously attempt to shape our evolving understanding of the way the physical world operates.\u00a0 Scientists become useful<\/strong> when they use this evolved understanding to address real-world problems (like health issues), and their value is raised even in the eyes of people who have no idea exactly what they do or how they do it.\u00a0 The impact is tangible.<\/p>\n

Theatre artists uncover, characterize, and often employ the basic truths of human relationships and the communication that shapes them, the patterns of behavior that underlie our selves<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 And of course, these basic truths are in a constant state of change, just like scientific truths.\u00a0 So theatre can\u2019t rely on our current collective mindset; it has to re-shape it, re-imagine it, expand it.\u00a0 Theatre artists matter because they rigorously attempt to shape the evolving mindset of the community they want to impact.\u00a0 And they become useful<\/strong> when they help participants apply this evolved mindset to address real-world problems, from those in personal relationships to those between individuals and their governments.<\/p>\n

Before we look at how artists can increase their real-world impact, on the way to mattering more, I have to speak briefly about the word \u201csuccess,\u201d just to clear a few potential obstacles. First, an artistic project\u2019s \u201csuccess\u201d lies in the rigor and clarity of the attempt, regardless of the actual impact on the chosen community; both artists and scientists can, and often do, fail to clear the first hurdle, and yet gain critical information and momentum for the next attempt.\u00a0 Next, an artists\u2019 \u201csuccess\u201d cannot be held to any outside objective standard; comparing the work of one theatre artist to that of another who has a different community in mind, or a different impact, is apples and oranges.\u00a0 We can always comment on artists\u2019 \u201cexcellence\u201d \u2013 whether they were \u201cgood\u201d or not – using the commonly defined, oft-disputed standards, but we can only speak to their \u201csuccess,\u201d to whether or not their work mattered, when we carefully define and measure what they were trying to change, and in whom.\u00a0 Artists only work so damn hard to become \u201cexcellent\u201d so that we will not only be self-satisfied in the rigor of our attempts, but also impactful in their execution.\u00a0 No artist ever cited great ticket sales as their proudest personal success \u2013 we cite the project that actually led people to take concrete actions toward greater justice or more freedom, even if it was only a few, or even one; the project that led to revolutions; that had integrity despite<\/em> market losses; the project that woke something up.\u00a0 \u201cSuccess\u201d for the theatre artist is fundamentally a measure of social profit<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This social profit, the real-world impact <\/em><\/strong>a theatre artist can make, has three major phases.\u00a0 First, simply naming the unnamable <\/strong>can be very important: to identify, put words to, and transform into credible human behavior an impulse our collective mind can\u2019t currently pinpoint because it\u2019s buried deep in our emotional or intellectual or moral core.\u00a0 When we can see this impulse manifest in a character\u2019s action and language, we can measure it within ourselves.\u00a0 It\u2019s hugely empowering to finally find the name for a thing you know you have inside you but which you have been unable to seize.<\/p>\n

Second, fostering empathy.<\/strong>\u00a0 Because of the collective nature of the form, when we, the audience, hear an impulse aptly named and recognize it in ourselves, we immediately assume it in others.\u00a0 In this way, the spark of empathy is generated.\u00a0 In a flash of insight, we understand how someone who acts <\/em>very different from us might actually be thinking, or feeling, or believing the same fundamental things. \u00a0We realize everyone struggles with the really critical questions of human existence \u2013 the ones that really impact quality of life, like how difficult it is to raise your children well, regardless of your race, or class, or historical epoch.\u00a0 The theatre artist thus builds bridges to humankind throughout history, not to mention between humans from truly different worlds who happen to be in the same room watching. \u00a0In that latter regard, theatre fosters active connectivity to the people around us.<\/p>\n

Finally, paving the way honest, impactful dialogue on intractable issues<\/strong>.\u00a0 By revealing the intention behind language in an atmosphere of empathy, theatre artists can help people forge a new vocabulary for discussing problems which were previously un-discuss-able.\u00a0 Many of the gulfs that exist between us in our daily lives have causes buried so deep in the architecture of our character (for better or worse), that they\u2019re just un-talk-about-able, un-articulate-able \u2013 we don\u2019t have a language for even identifying the two sides of the chasm, much less bridging it – and theatre artists help start the conversation by revealing or enabling insights about other people that can form a baseline for the dialogue.\u00a0 Think about that argument you always have with your partner \u2013 you argue about the same old signifiers, you use the same old language, you react to what you think you heard rather than to what the person \u201cactually said\u201d (which is what they say when they mean \u201cwhat they meant\u201d) and the only way to get past this intractable lock is to talk about the intentions<\/em> underlying the language.\u00a0 The same is true in our ongoing struggle to define our own personal values in relationship to those of our peers and our society.\u00a0 In both areas, theatre artists can provide the critical tools: not answers<\/em> to our intractable problems, our communicative chasms, but the proper articulation of the real questions we need to ask (what does it specifically mean to be moral on this issue?; what\u2019s the common ground I hold with these people who were raised so differently than I was?).\u00a0 These tools are especially critical in America, where our seeming starting places are just so far apart, and our current language for discussing our most intractable problems so impoverished and hackneyed and trifling.<\/p>\n

Greek theatre artists tried to tackle the problem of striving for an ethical life, the life of purpose, with all it\u2019s myriad challenges; a \u201cgood\u201d life of acting on one\u2019s own values without dishonoring those of others. \u00a0Shakespeare and his contemporaries tried to explore the shifting political landscape of an urbanizing and democratizing world, seeking a new, more equitable, understanding of power.\u00a0 Williams, and Miller, Kushner and Hansberry and August Wilson, all the great American writers of the 20th<\/sup> century worked to give voice to that which was unspoken within what Auden called our \u201cnormal heart;\u201d to unveil the dreams-deferred that were weighing down our national struggle toward more equity, justice, and freedom for all.\u00a0 I believe it is incumbent upon today\u2019s theatre-makers to find their place in this continuum: to consider the role of art and artists in our society not primarily from an aesthetic point-of-view, but from a civic one.<\/p>\n

As Ralph Waldo Emerson says in his essay Art: <\/em>\u201cYet when we have said all our fine things about the arts, we must end with a frank confession, that the arts, as we know them, are but initial. Our best praise is given to what they aimed and promised, not to the actual result. He has conceived meanly of the resources of man, who believes that the best age of production is past\u2026Art has not yet come to its maturity, if it do not put itself abreast with the most potent influences of the world, if it is not practical and moral, if it do not stand in connection with the conscience, if it do not make the poor and uncultivated feel that it addresses them with a voice of lofty cheer. There is higher work for Art than the arts.\u201d\u00a0 Let\u2019s get to work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite the fairly widespread recognition of great artists as hard workers, the challenge of raising the overall value of theatre artists in the U.S. today is that most Americans just don\u2019t see them as vital to improving daily quality of life.\u00a0 Whole generations have grown up without rigorous, consistent, or engaging arts education in their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-a-strategic-approach-to-raising-artist-value","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/theatricalimperative\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/theatricalimperative\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/theatricalimperative\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/theatricalimperative\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/theatricalimperative\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/theatricalimperative\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/theatricalimperative\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/theatricalimperative\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/theatricalimperative\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}