Truth and the Arts
As we’ve just all recently spent HOURS
watching purportedly good actors receive awards for their acting, I
thought I’d take some time to discuss the subject. Good acting should
represent the truth. Actors trained in the craft provide their audience
with truth, though what surrounds that acting can be another story, and
knowing my propensity to drift likely will be another story.
An actor’s job is to portray a “real”
character. The audience is complicit in the process as they offer the
actor “the willing suspension of disbelief.” These are the rules in
theatre, film, and art—whether an actor is playing a razor-wielding
barber, a reclusive hunchback, or the gay war veteran next door.
During the heyday of the Old Globe Theatre
(which was not called the “Old” Globe then…) men played all the
roles—male or female. You all saw Shakespeare in Love and know this, and
that Judi Dench has been around for at least 500 years. Dame Judi is my
favorite actor of all time. Whether she’s playing yet another Queen, or
Q, or a chain-smoking lesbian, she’s just the best. Feel free to comment
on your own favorites at this time, but only if you’re sitting in a
public place and promise to speak in a loud voice. Oh, I guess that’s
not funny anymore as the people surrounding you will imagine you’re on
the phone and not a schizophrenic like the old days.
Old Will Shakespeare (who was not known as
“Old” Will then either…) knew that someday Romeo and Juliet would
still be performed by all-boys schools around the world and probably had a
good laugh over it too. Here, we just have to eat downtown to see men
wearing dresses, though most host Karaoke. Did you know that Old Will was
married to an Avon Lady?
And what about CGI (Computer-Generated
Imagery)? As soon as Forrest Gump shook hands with JFK we should have
known we were headed for a future we couldn’t trust. We entered into a
world where, even if the acting was honest, we couldn’t trust the
setting. We saw Sir Ian acting his backside off as Gandolf, but perhaps
had little idea he was doing it in front of a solid blue screen. You want
dinosaurs chasing Barbara Bush into a bottomless chasm? (a personal
fantasy of mine…) No problem! We’ll have it for you by 5:00.
Then came Photoshop. All you need is a
computer for you and Zac Efron (the next Tab Hunter) to enjoy a shower
together. Let me show you Liza and me at Studio 54 sharing a bottle of
Percocet ’79, or the year I was honored by the Kennedy Center.
From acting, to photography, to my
nemesis—electronic music. Years ago, when I was young, even younger than
I am now, an acquaintance badgered me into dinner. I was greeted at the
door by him hiding his face with an album cover. (You remember
“albums,” don’t you???) Before I was even offered the requisite
glass of wine (from a box) served in an insulated plastic tumbler,
“Switched on Bach” was spinning on the turntable and blaring through
the neighborhood, courtesy of speakers big enough to question if my host
was trying to hide a shortcoming somewhere else. Now, gentle reader, you
should know that I had spent a sizable portion of my life up to that point
practicing those damned Bach Inventions 30 times a day— “hands
separately ten times a day, hands together ten times a day”—until I
could prove to my piano teacher that I knew them impeccably and could play
them like the wind.
Here I was choking down what I knew must
have been a pair of loafers smothered in wallpaper paste (or perhaps just
a little simple Squirrel Helper) while a man wearing imitation fabrics,
dyed with colors that didn’t exist in nature, trying to poison me with
imitation food, was subjecting me to imitation Bach as well!
So are we surrounded by dishonesty in art?
Are actors better at lying than telling the truth? Is someone a better
actor because they can act like they’re actually terrified by a monster
that won’t be added into the scene for months? Do we really hear violins
in the orchestra pit, or is that just another synthesizer? Is that really
Barbara Bush in a bikini?
Well, there aren’t answers to any of
these questions. This whole column is overtly rhetorical, but over the
next several weeks you have the chance to see many of the local crowd,
possibly lying through their false teeth, though on a budget.
Clear Space Productions presents, Sherlock
Holmes: The Early Years—a new musical starring the detective Angela
Lansbury could have been. March 13-16 at the Little Theatre of Cape
Henlopen High in Lewes. For tickets call 302-644-3810 or reserve online at
www. ClearSpaceProductions.org.
The Possum Point Players of Georgetown
present everyone’s favorite man-eating plant in Little Shop of Horrors
April 4-6, and 11-13 starring the area’s favorite leading man, David
Button, as Seymour and Mary Boucher as Audrey. Call 302-858-4560 for
tickets.
I always wanted to write a new musical
that’s half Little Shop of Horrors and half Best Little Whorehouse in
Texas and call it Best Little Shop of Whores. It would star a huge plant
in a brothel that doesn’t really care who it eats.
The Henlopen Theater Company presents the
Aquila Theatre’s production of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 on Sunday,
April 6 at 7 p.m. at the Cape Henolpen High School’s Little Theater.
Call 302-226-4103 for tickets.
Coastal Concerts presents the Moscow String
Quartet on March 15 performing works by Haydn and Shostakovich. The
renowned quartet appears at the Bethel United Methodist Church Hall, 4th
and Market St’s in Lewes. For tickets call 302-645-1539 or online at
www.CoastalConcerts.org.
If theatre and Haydn don’t do it for you,
visit one of our local art galleries! I’m dropping into the Kennedy
Gallery at 140 Rehoboth Avenue this week, just because I’ve walked by
several times, but never walked in. I like what I saw on their website
enough to be lured in (www.Kennedy GalleryRehoboth.com). There are easily
six other galleries in walking distance that deserve your attention as
well.
Stimulate the economy and spend a buck on
the arts. Oh, and keep your eyes and ears open for the truth. It can be a
rare commodity these days.
Doug Yetter is Artistic Director of the Clear Space Theatre Company.
Email him at dyetter@clearspaceproductions.org.
|
Back to Top of Page 