Faux Fu

Monday, August 22, 2011

Not the Thing Itself!

One of the things I love about "theater" is that it can't be contained or "commodified!" I guess I mean, you can't reduce it to a video or a picture. Videos and pictures of a theatrical performance are notoriously flat, static and bad.

We've made some videos of our theater work, and frankly they seem dead. So in order to fully appreciate the work, you have to be there; in that room at that moment. It's a multi-dimensional phenomenon, sort of like life.

The other thing about our theatrical work in particular: we are always trying to resist explanations, labels and simple meanings. I guess this reflects our sort of grand "philosophy" or world view. The belief that life is ultimately mysterious.

So our work is sort of schizoid, abstract, puzzling, because that is how we perceive the world we live in. And the work and our perceptions of the world are also fleeting and evanescent. So you perform a piece, it is a focal point of energy for a short time, and then it dissolves, disappears. And any record of it is only partial and paltry, and "not the thing itself!"

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