November 20 – Day 64

I love Chekhov. I love Shakespeare. I love all these classic theatrical prophets but oh, I have been craving something new! One of the great aspects of this trip is the opportunity it has given me to really investigate my feelings about the art and discover what kind of work that really hits home. I think there is a discrepancy amongst actors that says if you want to be a true artist then you have to want to do the Greats. And no doubt, I know that we wouldn’t have any depth to our current ideas if it wasn’t for what came before, but my passion, what really gets me excited about the future, is the idea of contemporary theatre – it is the same feeling that propelled my interest in independent film. I want to work with new voices, whose independent thought is a reflection of the world we live in right now. It is not to say that the classics are no longer applicable – I mean this debate over new versus old forms is the very basis for Chekhov’s ‘The Seagull’, but to know within my own heart what work I want to be involved in is SOOOO liberating. There is something to be said for knowing, ‘Yes! This is it. This is what I am looking for.’ which makes the rest of the artistic process so much more enjoyable. Tonight I saw Martin Macdonah’s (that might be spelled wrong, these days I only know how to spell things in the Cyrillic alphabet) ‘Pillowman.’ It was disturbing and gruesome, and dealt with topics I would prefer to avoid thinking about like the abuse of children, torture and murder, but it was an interesting contrast to the classic works I have been seeing. I counted today and at this point I have seen over 25 plays and only a handful could be considered contemporary works – in fact I would go as far to say that this was the only ‘true’ contemporary piece that I have seen. There have been many contemporary adaptations of classics but at this point I really, really want to watch things written by people who are still alive. It might not seem like that big of a deal but I want to know that there is a future for contemporary American dramatic theatre, that it will continue to exist and hopefully have a resurgence outside of the commercial American musical. Today our acting professors share with us their thoughts about cultural impediments they find in international theatre, particularly in that of American theatre. Their insights were terribly disheartening. Without malice or pretension they equated our American dramatic theatre with the Russian musical - a comparison which was insulting as it is true. After twenty five plays in Russia I can say without a doubt that I have never seen anything even close to this caliber in the States. I would hope that Broadway might be closer but I am starting to realize the dominance of the commercial musical and how few new works are actually being created successfully in the US. Many of the award winning pieces which dominate the typical 20 year old theatre students’ repertoire are actually coming from Europe. London, for instance is a hotbed of contemporary theatre. I know I need to read more, and I know that great works do exist but I dread the idea of leaving this place and returning to America and a theatre community dominated by big budget musical extravaganzas that don’t foster the intimate personal experience that comes for seeing something truly relevant and truly of period from only ten feet away.