Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2003 09:10:18 -0700 (PDT) From: "daniel lang.levitsky" <glitz_yidl-AT-yahoo.com> Subject: PUPT: on the capitalism thread... it seems to me that there's another missing piece or two here... one is the assumption that building puppets and performing *requires* a substantial amount of money. of course finding food, shelter, &c in a capitalistic society means gathering a certain amount of cash. but you only need money to do puppetry if your aim is to perform in commerical spaces (and, yes, the various avant-/experimental/etc venues are commerical; a different flavor than broadway, and one i like a lot more, but commercial nonetheless) and use a certain set of construction techniques. found materials cost nothing; street corners and subway cars are full of 'audiences'... if we don't start out with an assumption that our work has a necessary 'bottom line' of expense, we can have a very different relationship to the 'bottom line' of income it may or may not bring in. and a second is the effect that living under capitalism has on our work itself. no matter how much we aim to separate our decisions about our work from financial considerations, we are still constrained by the economic structure we live in. how many of us do solo shows? how many of us do shows that can fit in one suitcase? how many of us have never revisited material from an earlier show? how much time do we spend thinking about gigs rather than rigging, writing grants rather than scripts? i absolutely agree with john bell that looking at the traditions in which puppetry was genuinely not a commercial proposition is key... and developing spaces, structures, etc for performance that relate to those modes is important and interesting as an alternative to all the various flavors of commercial theater, avant- and derriere- alike. and i also think that as we do so it's worth noting the ways in which even, for instance, the christian mission puppetry world is shaped by the economics of commercial performance. is a christian church going to book (and pay for) a show that quotes the less palatable parts of the gospels (for instance, the passages about rejecting the authority of your parents in favor of christian faith - which could convert some young folks, for sure...)? or the story of the divinely ordered genocidal slaughter of the amalekites? and if a church won't book it, will a missionary puppeteer create it? none of which is against being able to get food, shelter, etc from our work.... which everyone *should* be able to do, regardless of what that work is - and which everyone *can't ever* be able to do under capitalism. but to nod to the problems of assuming a bottom line, and assuming that we're somehow free from the system in whose grip we live. i guess that's more like 4 cents. oh well. daniel lang/levitsky meansofproductions nyc ====Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger. [Hermann Goering - Nuremburg, 1946] __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com --- Personal replies to: "daniel lang.levitsky" <glitz_yidl-AT-yahoo.com> --- List replies to: puptcrit-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- Admin commands to: majordomo-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- Archives at: http://lists.village.virginia.edu/~spoons
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