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Re: RAT Grad School
Hi,
Pet topic.
As a working actor and freelance director of experimental fringe
theatre (and one who neither believes in the necessity of nor ever took
part comfortably within the "hired" halls of academia - other than having
been born to drama/english professor parents) I find the entire set-up a
confidence game and a scam. And I'm really glad you brought it up.
Once upon a time, while directing my brand of theatre in a
second-sized city in the great northwest, I looked into the possiblity of
somehow suing the entire educational system as they were making my job
far more difficult than necessary by cranking out what I viewed to be
cookie-cutter actors at best. Especially the PATP program. The PATP
actors' auditions were wonderful. They had that down it seemed. Yet,
invariably, once cast, they would shut down completely at the idea of
taking a risk of any kind. I eventually quit casting PATP grads/students
all together. Only because one just doesn't have the time in fringe
theatre to re-teach an actor how to get back in touch with what has been
drained from them over a period of years. It saddened me greatly.
It didn't seem to matter how many times I tried to convince these
actors that whatever choice they made, no matter how "kooky, insane", or,
maybe, (dare I say it?), "dangerous", it was still perfectly "valid" and
certainly worthy of further investigation; that the point was to make a
choice, to take a risk, to trust. (you know, the basics of theatre) At
which point they would usually respond with stuttering half-choices at
best. And these are the <grad> students. I eventually figured out that
this behaviour was out of their utter fear of being "wrong". It was like
trying to pet a whipped puppy. Eventually, after weeks of work that could
have been spent actually delving into character, text, <anything>, they
would come 'round and see that, yes, they could trust me, and, yes, their
first instincts were (more often than not) "correct" (meaning valid, I
guess), and, no, nobody yelled at them for making "mistakes" or
humiliated them for taking a risk that the authorotative
director/teacher/professor/class/mommy/daddy/whatever
didn't understand and/or agree with. Follow up conversations after
various openings and runs confirmed for me the speculated horror that
these kids were being crushed by an oppresive system made up primarily of
self-serving ego maniacs who must puff themselves up like an inflatable
cactus (Thank you, Mr. Smoot) by smacking down original thoughts by their
students so as to fend off anybody thinking (especially the
administration) that the instructors were actually just faking what
little they "knew".
A long way of saying "those who can do, those who can't do it in front
of impressionable young minds and get paid for it as well".
If you want to make a living at directing for the stage, however, I
highly recommend you continue to buy into the system that will grease the
wheels of eventual employment in your field. And it looks to me by your
return address, that you picked a good teet at which to suckle. It's like
politics. If you want to be president. Study law. If you want to direct
on "major" stages and get paid a semi-living wage, cross the appropriate
palm with silver and don't shake no boats, baby. Dat boat goes to da
bottom.
Best of luck,
Jonathan Harris
On Fri, 19 Feb 1999 09:57:05 -0800 Caden Manson <caden@bigartgroup.com>
writes:
>Brads last message gave me an idea. I was wondering if everyone could
>chime in about their feelings on Grad schools. I'm a director and I
>happen do be in one now. I must say that I am miserable and will
>probably be leaving it very soon. ( I'll go into this later on in the
>chain)
>
>If you decide to respond to this message make sure that you announce
>who
>you are ( i.e. director, writer, designer, actor, or a combination) I
>think its important because MFA programs better serve different fields
>in the theatre.
>
>thanks
>*caden
>
>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>Caden Manson
>caden@bigartgroup.com
>http://www.bigartgroup.com
>
>bacchus_zine
>theatre | art | dance | performance | music | digital
>bacchus_zine@hotmail.com
>http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/2116
>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>big art | small world
>
>
>
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