Random Things I'd Like to Write About But Probably Won't
Dunkirk NY – Here are some random things I’d like to write more about, but either don’t have the time to do justice, can’t think of how to formulate the essay, or I believe would bore people to death:
I’m in the midst of directing Romeo and Juliet. Apart from the difficulties involved with trying to get kids to hear and speak Shakespeare well, I wonder if they know anything at all about romance. Sure, it’s easy to take R&J and emphasize the passion and the lust, or really get into the “two warring camps” approach, but what about the romance in the play? The play has an undue amount of sonnets, and shouldn’t these go a long way towards suggesting to us how romantic the play is as well? Is romance no longer possible for undergraduates to play? Was it ever?
Two rather interesting quotes from ChelseaNow.com reporting on a meeting of indie theatre companies in NYC (h/t Leonard Jacobs):
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer told a crowd of more than 300 theater buffs, community advocates and elected officials gathered at the Players Club in Gramercy Park on Feb. 17 that he realizes the importance of a flourishing theater scene to New York City’s economy. Stringer said politicians in the past have viewed theater as an industry that would sustain itself and always remain in New York City. Tourists don’t come to the city to see its big buildings, he said. “They want to see our art and our talent and they also want to get a peek at us.”
When Melody Brooks of New Perspectives Theatre Company started up her company 17 years ago, there were roughly 100 small theaters in New York City. Now, she noted, there are 500. She called for those thinking of starting up a new theater to examine whether it would bring added value to the community or whether they could instead fulfill their mission by joining an existing company.
