Re: RAT, The dramaturgy of...

[Laura Winton <fluffysingler@prodigy.net>]

This feeds into one of my notions about theatre in general.  I have
participated in, call it what you will--Pagan, New Age, whatever--rituals in
which energy was raised--and it's a very powerful thing.  Looking at the
roots of theatre being in ritual and religion, I believe it was still sets
theatre apart from film and television--the electrical energy between humans
(even Christian religion acknowledges it--"when two or more are gathered . .
. ") creates sacred space, if you will, in a theatre the same way it does in
a church or any other kind of a ritual, if the participants are there and
fully present for the event.  To me, it's EXACTLY the electricity that makes
it . . .  well alive (let's switch over from Paganism to Dr. Frankenstein in
the middle of this thing!).

------Original Message------
From: Audie McCall <audiemccall@yahoo.com>
To: rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com
Sent: January 17, 2001 5:34:07 PM GMT
Subject: Re: RAT, The dramaturgy of...


I'm gonna climb out on the fruit-filled limb here and
suggest a metaphor for ALL art, not just theatre.

Think of it as electricity.  You can build up a lot of
static potential by scuffling across the carpet, but
until you touch the ear of your hapless victim, no
electrical current exists.

So, strictly speaking, Van Gogh created POTENTIAL art
with his paintings; it didn't ACTUALLY become art
until light hit those colored oil smearings and
bounced into someone else's eye.


--- Allison Narver <anarver@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Yeah but performance art is still about performance
> --
> which, to me, means an audience.
>
> --- Mary Ann McGivern <mmcgivern@stlnet.com> wrote:
> > Dickinson and Van Gogh illustrate the end of the
> > line of one form of
> > "fuck 'em" artistry. They both kept working,
> > following their vision,
> > with no audience. But they didn't do theater. It
> > seems to me that
> > playwrights give the audience a role (as well as
> the
> > director, actors,
> > dramaturg, stagehands, ticket clerks, pr staff,
> > board of directors).
> > Otherwise it's performance art.
> >
> > Mary Ann


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Laura Winton
fluffysingler@prodigy.net
http://pages.prodigy.net/fluffysingler