I used to be smart.

And then I became a Theater and Performance Studies major, and now it's all 'omg 9 hours a week in the costume shop, making a silk vest!' and 'look, i can hang a light! and no, gel is not what you put in your hair!' and 'yeah, i know what someone means when they say they want to stage something in the round or on a short thrust!'

On the other hand it also means that I have forgotten how to properly use terms like 'metaphysical' and 'allegorical' and other English-y stuff.

I find myself writing my papers with the same words over and over - 'to evoke a sense of awareness in the audience'. I've used the word 'awareness' like 10 times at least so far. I've realized that English majors and Theatre majors approach Theatre in very different ways. I often find it frustrating working with English majors because they are so textual and theoretical all they want to do is do tablework for 5 hours when really we need to be thinking of how to make the text theatrical rather than analyze it to death. It's all well and good thinking about Ruth's relationship with Teddy, but really so much can be conveyed using gesture and expression that sometimes words are irrelevant.

Did I just say that? Words are irrelevant? When did I become so invested in physicality? I used to be all WORDS WORDS WORDS TEXT TEXT TEXT. Why bother with design, the script should be strong enough to stand on its own, right?

I'm not sure at what point I switched over to the dark side.

I used to approach plays like an English major, and you know what, I think there is some merit to that. Because, after all, I still attend the University of Chicago, and what is our slogan other than 'that's all well and good in practice, but how does it work in theory?' Sure, I can understand how something should be staged, and think about stage picture and how design works cohesively into the production, but if I can't write a 10-page paper analyzing a monologue, what am I really worth here?

There's part of me that wants to become all Intellectual again so I don't feel stupid when conversing with English majors, and then there's part of me that's all like - you guys are wrong and do not live in the real world, we shouldn't be talking about plays for 10 hours, we should be staging them. Now.

+ posted by M @ 4:26 AM

Comments:

so thats where you are ! - alvin p

# posted by  Anonymous : Saturday, March 21, 2009 2:41:00 PM

 

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