"The thing about theatre is that it’s a ghost. It’s over even as you experience it, and even if the show you’re watching is filmed for later broadcast somewhere, the experience of watching a stage show on television or a movie screen just isn’t the same. That monologue or joke or musical number you really loved disappears even as you’re watching it, a mirage that evaporates with every word spoken. When I was a college theatre student, one of my favorite directors, a middle-aged woman who had the kind of world-weary voice you want in all middle-aged female professors, would give this sly grin in our Intro to Theatre classes and say that the thing that set theatre apart was that it was ephemeral. Other art endures; performances—in the theatre, in concerts, in other fine arts—have to die in the instant by their very natures. This professor would offer a rueful chuckle when she said that word, ephemeral, and she always sounded a little sad about the whole thing. And after another decade of life, I think I get it: To be involved in the theatre is to be constantly haunted."
When going to the theater, our eyes are in hard focus of what is happening on stage. Naturally, this is the point of going to the theater. Obviously. But, have you ever taken the time to look at the theater itself? Yes, it might be a dump hole, but it could also be mind numbingly beautiful. French photographer Franck Bohbot has noticed ht beauty in some theaters and has brought it to my attention. Now, I will bring it to yours.
These are a series of symmetrical theater interiors that are probably more beautiful than you are. It’s almost like looking at a work of art or a optical illusion. Europe just understand what beauty is.
If you don’t appreciate the ensemble and you don’t respect the tech, I don’t care whether you’re an audience member or the lead actor, you can go fuck yourself because a production doesn’t rest on the shoulders of one person alone, everyone has to work together for it to go smoothly and for god’s sake, it isn’t about you, Carlotta, it’s about the show.
