Traveling & Film

While the posts here have been a bit sporadic, I will warn that the trend will continue for the next few weeks as I continue doing some traveling.

The last few days were spent in LA (mostly Santa Monica, but close enough).... Between checking out Hollywood (and watching stars go to the Nancy Drew premiere at Grohman's), Universal Studios, and wondering into a shooting for MONK, it was interesting to reflect on how the film and theatre industry compares. On one hand there is quite a bit of crossover - some stars, some personnel (Iatse), some construction materials, and even some effects and processes make the jump, yet there is a large divide. Though the technological side of film and television is exciting with what they can do, I am also concerned about how theatre is progressively becoming more like TV. There is a line that theatre must not cross, or the theatricality will be lost and even the most interactive film, or filming process will not be able to compensate. Plus there is a different culture, and perhaps value system that separates film and theatre. And while I fully endorse making theatre more accessible, and want to bring up younger generations in our tradition, making theatre more cinematographic to accomplish this might actually lead to a further demise of our traditional history. Nevertheless, theatrical tradition is always growing and adapting to society and culture, and there have many times in the centuries past where spectacle were important parts of the theatrical tradition - showing that while contemplation never hurts, perhaps the trend isn't as bad as it first appears.