My church is dominated by the athletically inclined. These people do not understand artistic people. They also don't understand that pulling off a quality play/skit/other dramatic endeavor involves more than it takes to throw together a volleyball game. ("That was always your problem, Jason, you were never serious about the craft!"--Alexander, Galaxy Quest) I guess in a way it is flattering that people who don't understand what you do think you can do anything and everything. But I mainly find it frustrating.
The following illustrates both the attitudes of the athletic types and (if we're being honest) my relative incompetence when it comes to dealing with them.
October: I suggest an ethnography as entertainment for the Valentine's Day banquet, which is the big youth group fundraiser. I try to explain what an ethnography is. "That sounds interesting!" say the senior leaders. They promptly forget what "ethnography" means.
November: I try to explain that I want the interviews recorded. They don't see any need for this. They say they will take good notes, since I can't be there for the interviews. Despite repeated inquiries on my part and promises on their part, I never see any of these notes.
December: I ask about the next round of interviews and am told they "don't have anything scheduled," but that they figure they can do them in January.
January: I say that we really don't have time to put together proper skits (by this time the show has morphed from an ethnography focusing on the parallels between marriage and one's relationship with Christ to a series of skits focusing on funny couple stories). The senior leaders say we can share the load, and each work on two or three groups. One of the senior leaders says, "Besides, I don't think we really even need to write anything. We can just improv it!" This leads me to wonder if he has been paying any attention to the general skill sets and memory spans of these particular teenagers. The phrase "just improv," to me, also suggests that he has no idea what good improv actually is.
February: I get out of town for that weekend, because I do not want to see everyone pull off a halfway decent job to rave reviews from the audience when I was hoping for ample preparation time, enthusiastic participation, and a quality performance. (Seemingly I have yet to internalize the athletic dominance point.)
With fond memories of Calvin theatrical collaborations,
Me
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2 comments:
Okay, despite the irritation I hold in common with you about shenanigans such as these, I do think there is something inherent about theatre (or at least about our culture's way of thinking about theatre) that encourages people to think and behave in this way. My intro to theatre students have taught me this lesson. And sometimes it works out great, and sometimes (read: mostly) you have a sloppy gloppy mess of 'artistic expression' that insidiously leaks into everyone else's in its path. I have noticed that some of my intro students often would get quite angry when we would start to introduce texts by folks like Stanislavski or Grotowski or Ann Bogart, because they felt like these authors were "telling them what to do" when it came to acting. Apparently, they thought you should 'just do it.' Amazing.
I agree- To some people, I believe theatre equals improv equals standing in a room saying whatever that comes to their head, all of which, we know, is untrue. To them, theatre- on all levels- is just winging it. Sad.
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