Wed Oct 07 08:18:43 1998
Subject: Re: theatre



> > that once you've sold the convention to the audience, they don't
> > *care* about the difference any more.
> 
> true. in Chinese opera, the stage is typically sparse.  one table 2
> chairs could be a mansion or a shack, a bedroom or a dinning room. 
> people go to see the artist perform, not the prop.


interesting aside:  the three main schools of performance in the 20th
century.. suggestive realism (Stanislavsky - 20s), total theatre
(Brecht - 40s), and transformational theatre (Grotowski - 70s), all
take deep inspiration from two sources:  Charlie Chaplin, and Noh
theatre.   know those, and you'll know what's on the cutting edge of
performance theory for the next hundred years.



> got you going, didn't I?  

yep.. hair-trigger rant.  ;-)   theatre is an erotic subject, in the
strict greek definition of the word:  "driven by the emotions and
passions".   you can't stay in it for any length of time without
developing radical opinions about it.



> this is the subject of your passion. you have live and think about it
> for a good portion of your life.  so, when do you think you'll be
> ready?  or, what criteria must be met before you feel you are ready
> for the plunge?


as soon as i can scrape together another $15 million or so.. ;-)

the place i have in mind is based on on a synthesis of principles 50
years before and after the cutting edge of today's entertainment
industry.   making it fly will mean un-educating and re-educating
almost everyone involved.   i'll have to invest a lot of time and
energy in building the fundamentals, and won't be able to release any
products until the preparations are done.   even if i start small,
it'll cost money to pay salaries for the setup period.

most companies take that as their first shortcut: paying crap wages,
but it's a direct contradiction to the way i want to run things.   the
fundamental principle is to spend money on things which will be
valuable over time, and the artists are the most valuable things
around.   if i make them fight for their survival, it costs me time..
time which they could have spent playing with all the stuff i want
them to learn.

the actual market i'm shooting for is serialized, short-feature movies,
delivered as MPEGs over the 'net.   the kind of content which was normal 
back at the beginning of the century.   people haven't gotten tired of 
the medium, it's just been abandoned because you can't sell enough 
advertising on them to get the kind of Big Profits demanded by the
powers that be.   there's still enough of a market to support a
comfortable, profitable business, though.