File puptcrit/puptcrit.0903, message 304


Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 09:52:28 -0700
From: Steven Barr <lapuppet-AT-gmail.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] theatre of Wrestling


I can't let this thread go on too long without adding my 5-cents.
Disclaimer-- I was a collegiate wrestler and have been doing cultural art
for almost 30 years.I know what Andrew is impressed by with the WWA and such
sports-- the spectacle and the nature of escapist theatre, the shear effort
to put on a good show-- to allow for a release, a catharsis.... by any means
necessary.
     But the question must be raised "to whom are you communicating and what
is the message". I always liked Puppetry Art because it usually stayed on
the fence between LOW-BROW and HIGH-BROW art (de l'art (pronounced lard)  ou
du cochon (pig)? is a popular French question in this regard. It could
travel through a grotesque Punch and Judy moment and finish with an
exquisite Bruce Schwartz Doll puppet piece that defines beauty and
transcendence as nothing before.
     But this HYPED FALSE PLAY THEATRE (WWA type Wrestling) is playing on
some dangerous turf. It presents itself as Real yet it is (75%?) staged or
predetermined-- more so even than what they call Reality shows. So a big
part of it is that it is a hoax clothed in sport. Part of its allure is the
shear conscious DENIAL of this fact by its spectators. Whipping people into
a frenzie with self-destructive acts is not much of a noble endeavor, no
matter how much effort you put into it. Kind of like admiring the Jihadists
because of their shear committment to their cause in spite of the bad side
effects.
     The germans used this kind of Theatre in their presentations of their
main man from about 1935 until his disappearance in 1945. Huge audiences
swooned for him. As they have been doing, more recently, in France for Jean
Marie LePen, and presently, in Isreal for A. Lieberman.
It is a kind of sensationalist emotional theatre-- these politically staged
events-- that bypassed the questions,
-- What is the message and to whom are we doing this for-?
      Doesn't the mention of the WWA in the same sentence as Puppetry Arts
disturb any one but me?   I did like Celebrity Death Match, which I would
think had much more in common with anything PUPPETIC than the WWA.
-Steven Ritz-Barr

Classics in Miniature, inc,  www.classicsinminiature.com
LA puppet, a non-profit,  www.lapuppet.com
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