a poor player

Dunkirk, NY – As my days as an administrator dwindle down, I find myself sitting in my office with little to do. In order to fill up some of the time this afternoon, I tuned into the theatrical blogosphere to read the daily goings-on. Scott welcomes me back, which was nice, and then I read this and this and then this. I also viewed this. I’m sure there will be more to follow.

What can one make of all this? You experience a rush of feelings as you absorb the text and subtext: you feel the passion, you sift through the ideas, you sense the anger, you shiver at the sarcasm, you sigh at the accusations, and finally, you hang your head and wonder – what can one make of this?

I get the sense that things within the theatre world are falling apart, which, I hasten to add, is not necessarily a bad thing. Things naturally fall apart. And things can be repaired, but only to a point. At some point in time, all things become un-repairable and must be cast off and replaced. From my admittedly limited theatrical perch, based on what I read and have experienced, I believe we are going through a period of deep theatrical entropy, where things are falling apart at a pretty rapid pace.

An Entropy Primer

I mentioned in my last post that examining and questioning assumptions is the only true way to determine whether your approach to anything is correct or not. I also mentioned I have come to believe in the concept of social entropy, which is a social application of the physical principle of entropy as it operates within the second law of thermodynamics. The two issues come together because questioning assumptions is generally the path a person follows when creating something new, different and radical, and when something new and radical is created and challenges the status quo within a social structure, it decreases the level of entropy in an open system while consuming a great deal of energy.

I’m the farthest thing there is from a physicist (although I adore the pure though involved in physics), so if this doesn’t seem technically correct forgive me, As I have come to understand it, the simplest example of entropy in physics is ice melting. An ice cube in a freezer is an isolated system, and will maintain its structure so long as the system remains isolated. Once heat is introduced, however, opening up the system, the ice cube begins to experience more and more entropy (melting), until it is reduced to a chaotic state (water) and retains none of its former structure. Since no human structure or organization is a purely closed system, entropy plays a continual part in every human society.

The concept of social entropy draws from this physical principle. Here is its definition from Wikipedia:

“Social entropy is a macrosociological systems theory. Social Entropy is a measure of the natural decay within a social system. It can refer to the decomposition of social structure or of the disappearance of social distinctions. Much of the energy consumed by a social organization is spent to maintain its structure, counteracting social entropy, e.g., through legal institutions, education and even the promotion of television viewing. Anomie (or anarchy) is the maximum state of social entropy.

Social Entropy predicts that as creative intelligence becomes more powerful, society’s cohesion becomes weaker.”

There are a few theorists out there who advocate the concept (Krippendorff, University of Pennsylvania; K.D.Bailey, UCLA; the novelist Thomas Pynchon), but it seems to be a theory which either gets little attention or gets picked up by intellectual radicals. I’m intrigued by it, however, because it seems to mesh with a simple organic theory, all organisms come into existence, reach a mature level, corrode or disintegrate, and cease to be.

The natural inclination of most societies and organisms is to counteract entropy. People exercise, eat well, see their doctor, take drugs, etc. all in an attempt to counteract the natural entropy of the human body. When social organizations sense increasing entropy, they extend a great deal of energy in an attempt to counteract it.

Another way to conceive of entropy is to think about how new ideas move from being conceived as radical departures from the status quo to becoming institutionalized. In the world of business, one can think of new companies as “growth companies” which need visionary leaders, which eventually become “mature companies” which need managers (and hence need to counteract natural entropy so as to last as long as possible. I would venture to say that only Steve Jobs in the world of business has managed to be both visionary leader and manager at the same time). Here’s an interesting essay which talks about this idea in the context of philanthropy, and from which the above example was taken.

Theatrical Entropy

Now that you have a small background in entropy theory, I can return to my original question – what to make of all the squabblogging that’s been going on? I maintain that we are witnessing evidence of theatrical entropy. I want to pay special attention to two aspects of the definition above to support my theory.

The first is the notion that “anomie is the maximum state of entropy.” The definition of “anomie” (or “anarchy,” if you wish) is a “condition of disintegration of a society into individual components resulting from the absence of conventions, shared perceptions and goals. A social system describable as a mere aggregate.” It’s pretty clear from everything that’s been written over the issue of Iowa08 is that we are coming to a reduction in theatre circles to this state. Read every theatre blog out there, along with the comments, and you will soon come to the realization that what blogging does as an act is to reinforce and make clear the fact that currently in theatre we have an absence of conventions, shared perceptions and goals.

The second point I want to highlight relates to the last sentence in the definition above, which sits by itself. Certainly theatre artists are full of “creative intelligence,” but the theory states that as our intellectual power becomes stronger, our cohesion becomes weaker. If there is one thing that blogging has revealed, it’s that there is a lot of intellectual power out there. The sheer strength of the intellectual power, however, is contributing to further entropy within the theatre community and a further rush towards anomie. In time, if left unchecked, theatrical entropy will lead to such a chaotic state that the art form becomes meaningless and eventually cease to exist.

Of course, this concept is not limited to theatre. You can witness it everywhere; in politics, in “global warming,” in religion, in almost every significant social structure in western civilization. The looming question is this: do we continue to fight entropy as a society, or do we simply allow it to take its natural course?

There is a third way, and in a succeeding post I will try to articulate that third way as it relates to theatre. It has to do with creating innovative structures and organizations which can replenish the sense of shared perceptions and goals. But this involves a deep and penetrating questioning of all assumptions, so the best thing to do is to ask those questions, put them in the crucible, and see if they can withstand deep examination. I will ask these questions of myself, not of anyone else. All you need to do is come along for the ride if you wish. -twl