Hmmm...
If nothing else (but there are things else, I'm just saying, even if there weren't) this trip is definitely leading Stina and me to come up with some philosophies.
New Orleans is a great city for walking. It's all very flat except for the occasional tree root pushing the concrete 2 feet high. Some of you may know that when I walk I talk. So we spent much of today and yesterday talking about why we want to do this.
For some context I must confess, Stina and I have been feeling a bit disheartened by our busking thus far. We have only busked 3 times (aside from by-invitation shows) in the month and a half since leaving Seattle. We haven't been able to quite get into the groove. So this brought up some questions for us... namely, "Why?"
"Why?" led into a couple discussions, all of which stem from some fear. In no particular order they are:
Do we look like beggars? / How can we not look like beggars?
which leads to --> What is "good" busking?
What is the purpose of art? Is busking art? Is our busking art?
Of the many purposes of art, which are worthwhile? / Which do we fulfill?
What can theatre do in terms of making the world a better place?
How can we do that with our theatre?
Should we be busking? How can we develop a process or "great idea" to make our busk exceptional?
Should we busk in Central America?
What is busking's relationship to less privileged or "developing" nations? How does our act translate in Spanish? Are our stilts to heavy for us to comfortably travel with?
Do we think too much?
Hey look, a cockroach! There are lots of them in New Orleans. I think if I were to live here, I would have to get used to them and take one as a pet.
We answered the first three questions (and their subquestions) pretty well, but the last three still haunt us.
The theatre question I think resulted in the most unique philosophy - that I would promote an idea of theatre as a community endeavour... that beyond its entertainment value, theatre helps communities discuss difficult issues. More new theatre should be made. Playwrights should write plays for their communities. People from the community should do the gritty work in rehearsal about it, really getting to know the subject, and the whole community should come out and be participants as audience members. And this philosophy should scale well... Movies should be made the same way, just for a larger community- the U.S., the world. I'm not saying all theatre should be made this way, but I'm hypothesizing that this is the context within which theatre evolved, and the reason for its being in contemporary society.
We know that this trip is just for us, but we're still haunted by a need to do something fulfilling and rewarding and "exceeds expectations". Maybe we'll mellow out as we get more into it.
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4 comments:
What a wonderfully growing experience this has been for you. Most people live their entire lives without thinking about questions like those - granted, most people are not buskers, but I think you can translate "busking" into "anything you feel passionate about" and make the concept universal.
I'm so inspired by you both. I love you!
You are enjoying contemplation, friendship, new environments, a sense of adventure and an increasing ability to communicate your experience to others. That seems worthwhile. Examining the nature of live performance and its relation to theatre is a worthy pursuit. To have the expectation of success, a busker probably needs to think of the entire experience not just the time in performance.
And I think expectations for beginners should be open ended. Ask yourself if you feel disappointed? Why? what did you expect? Why?
Keep. Trying.
Srsly. I bet it's gonna suck like 10 more times and then it's gonna start to get good occasionally, and only THEN are you in a position to make judgment calls about how worthy your show is, whether you're schmucks for doing it, etc. etc. You haven't even really tried until you know in your bones how it goes. After 10 or 15 tries, you're starting to be qualified to comment.
I'm finally learning Go, and a friend of mine (who doesn't play Go himself, but knows some people...) mentioned the old Go saw that it's important to lose your first 100 games as quickly as possible. I think the same principle is at work here. Until you run into all the different ways it's possible to lose, you can't win.
Performance is something you learn by doing. Busking is especially hard, which means you GOTTA keep doing it until you get a feel for it, because you'll never get very far by just thinking about it and talking about it. Keep it up! You're doing it already, and I'm probably not telling you anything you don't already know, but I just wanted to remind you that right now, you ain't got a thing to do but the show.
Like good ol' Sam Beckett says: "Fail again. Fail better."
And it's awesome, actually, that you're talking about the why. That's a conversation I wish I could listen to you guys have--I bet you have excellent things to say, and I ask myself that damn question every day...and wouldn't you know it, the answer keeps changing...
Your thought on theatre as a community endeavor reminded me of the conflict between our view of "Jack and the Biotech Beanstalk' and YTN's. Now I wonder why I expected different, as in "what was I thinking?" We were immersed in a farming community and talk about rBgh, pesticides, organic farming, giant agribusiness was in the culture. I thought to a naive audience, it would be like magic and thus just a funthing to use as a hook. But no. It must have seemed more like nonsense to Seattle urbanites. Different community, different culture.
Some things to try to catch attention - read the local papers; find the local sacred cows and make fun; find problems and make funny stories and a few heroic ones (all while adding to your juggling repertoire).
Finally, look up Dooney the clown in San Diego.
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