Re: RAT, The dramaturgy of...

[Wayne Liebman <wayneliebman@colonytheatre.org>]

At 07:27 PM 1/16/01 -0600, Elizabeth Ware wrote:

>I've also done "willfully obscure" shows where only a small percentage of 
>the audience left with good questions.  In these shows, the window into 
>the work was too tiny to let very many people in.  Those are the ones I 
>consider failures.
>It sounds as though we are all discussing this window, trying to decide:
>"How small is too small?"

I'd like to jump in here with an idea that's been helpful to me in 
understanding poetry. Robert Browning defined the ideal poet as the 
"maker-see," one who has the gift of making others see and experience what 
s/he has seen and experienced. I think it's similar for plays. The 
playwright/poet has a vision, an intuition, a felt sense of something s/he 
may not (some would say preferably not) completely understand. The idea is 
to explore this mystery and grope toward fashioning a form which contains 
its energy, making it available to others. I think that's the creative act; 
part of the equation is taking energy in, and part is passing energy on. 
Creation is a gift on both ends, and the gift must always move.

Wayne


_______________________________
Wayne Liebman, Literary Manager
Colony Theatre Company
wayneliebman@colonytheatre.org