File spoon-archives/puptcrit.archive/puptcrit_2003/puptcrit.0308, message 138


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]

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