I am being mocked, derided as being a patron of community theater. As if there is something wrong with community theater. Considering it's over my taunt that the big heads of the "Brain Trust" have probably never read Love's Labours Lost or Timon of Athens, I'd say that anyone who gets to see such seldom done plays in a community theater should count themselves as very lucky, indeed.
Nope, I'm not interested in bragging about having seen so and so and whatever star in whatever production. As if it's some kind of achievement to pay for a ticket and sit in an audience. All I will say is that if there were a community theater around here that did plays like that and a good range of modern plays that aren't played to death I'd volunteer as a stage hand or something so I could see all of them.
I will bet Mr. NYC sophisticate hasn't read one of the plays since the last time he was assigned one in school, and, knowing the altitude of his brow, he probably read the Cliff Notes then. He never had what it takes to make me feel condescended to and with every passing week, he's got only what risks making me feel smug.
Update: Snobbles is mocking me for never having seen a "world class performance" of one of the plays in question. "World class performance" is a term of advertising, it's not an artistic description that means anything. As I said, I'll leave the bragging about the great achievement of buying a ticket and sitting in a chair to the name dropping dope. He didn't deny having read the Cliff Notes or never having read even that much since he was assigned to in a class. He was too busy gloating over being an audience member. I guess I never considered that an achievement, though if he were playing I'd probably consider it an ordeal.
Update 2: Now he's accusing me of going to the most overplayed of musicals. Have I ever pointed out that Simels doesn't really think, he starts to rearrange his prejudices but that's too much work so he just leaves them where they've been since 1965.
He must forget that he's the one whose idea of a "Shakespearean" experience is West Side Story. As I recall we got into a big fight over Lennie's biggest hit, I think I said it had one good song, Something's Coming. Though I heard that Sondheim thinks the only decent song in it is the Jet's Song. I guess he doesn't remember I didn't like that grotesquely pretentious flop, Candide, either.
After reading about what a total disaster it was, I do have to admit I wish I could see just how horrible 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. really was. It sounds like all involved were taking too many drugs. But that's only morbid curiosity. I wonder how Simps would feel about his Lenny if his name had been Jones and he was from Iowa.
I'm sure somewhere here or maybe even at Eschaton in its brief and long past glory days I declared THAT I HATE MUSICALS. Like a few of the numbers from some of them but I'd never sit through a whole thing to hear Moon Face Starry Eyes. Not big on ballet, either. Not that big on theater with a minimum of ideas.
Update.... considering what he's saying maybe I should call these "upchucks". Now he's comparing reading a play to eating at McDonalds, something which, as a long time vegetarian, I have to admit that's something he's got the better of me over. The fast food, not the reading of plays, which I doubt he's ever done. Or maybe his low opinion of reading plays is merely the result of his total lack of intellectual effort and imagination. The dolt has no more imagination than an old Nancy comic.
Update whatever: Now he's saying "too stupid for words" Now, having told you what a pathological liar Simps is I will say that on those frequent occasions when he says "Words fail me," and he must say it at least ten times a week, that's probably the only experience he's ever had of telling the truth.
Community theater can have great actors, as good as professional performances. The difference is in the quality of the sets and the consistent quality of actors across the cast. Some of the best actors (using actors to mean both male and female) I have seen have been in community theater settings. Being professional means selling yourself all the time. The nonprofessional has put something other than selling themselves, an often egotistical activity, first. It could be family, other work, etc. Someone can be just as good but pursues acting as an avocation but not their vocation. The same applies to musicians. To disdain local theater or music is about snobbishness, not the quality of live performance.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with you about community theater, especially those theaters that manage to do seldom played and new work. Even if it's not the greatest play there is enormous artistic value in doing new work that hasn't been done before, both to the author and to the culture, at large.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you about the snobbery of those who disdain community theater and amateurs. Though I'm never opposed to artists of any kind being paid for working, assuming that they are artists and not just grinding out junk to the investment market. Unfortunately, the economics of theaters. music, painting, writing,.... being what they are, too much of that happens, too.
Simels is Eschaton's Yenta. He can't help himself. He had to run back to the blog and announce that I actually posted a comment here, because you know, they worry about me so much. They are a pack of drunken, drug addled losers that would literally die if that blog ever shut down. And one of them would lose his meal ticket if it closed, and I don't mean Atrios.
ReplyDelete