"You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist."
-FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
iDIOM THEATER: ARt/V Q&A
What made you decide to put on a summer show at iDiOM?
About a year ago, I was working on a draft of a new one-act script (The Awful Real Thing), a dark comedy about an insecure writer trapped in a Kafkaesque life-or-death situation. While I was writing The ART, I read Kent and Levi’s incendiary script for The Velociraptor, and thought it was a brilliant, disturbing and hilarious satire that attacked self-congratulatory, pretentious and antiquated traditions in theatre and art; it was a breath of fresh air and a really, really cool conceptSince my freshman year at Western Washington University, I’ve wanted to produce a show at iDiOM Theater, a theater with an emphasis on new works. Peter Brook talks about “deadly theatre,” theatre that has lost its liveliness; you can’t just do a Shakespeare or Strindberg play “just because” it’s laced in some subjective tradition. iDiOM Theater is a space that combats deadly theatre with new, relevant and innovative works: theatre thrives in the new.My gut told me The ART/The V. would pair nicely as two new one-acts based on their themes, subject matter, and darkly funny take on the integrity of arts in a unpredictable and increasingly insulated world. Our intent is to offer audiences an experience they are not going to get from a movie theater. No, we don’t have Tom Cruise or big explosions in our piece, but I’m sure there’s enough here to equally entertain and provoke thought after the show is over.
Why these shows? What made you write The ART, and what made you pick The V. to accompany it?
Theatre has been marginalized and taken over by Broadway adaptations, Disney and the global market. The ART/The V. is vicious satire and commentary on the irrelevance and triviality of our modern culture. Does art have any agency in the current society? As young artists, do people even care about what we have to say? These shows address these questions in a manner that is entertaining and shocking. I wrote The ART because I was pissed off that my work and my goals as an artist weren’t being taken seriously by my peers, my friends, my family and those who are “older and wiser.” I felt fairly combative and defensive and brought a lot of myself and those “irrational, callous” thoughts into the piece. I believe that The ART, though an ugly little parable, is a darkly humorous journey that will speak to not only artists but to ANYONE in their lives who hasn’t felt listened to about their passions and dreams. Again, The V. is a challenging and vulgar send-up of similar themes but is also steeped in the tradition of rebellious artists (the Dadaists and Surrealists) who broke rules and forms, rejecting current societal norms, and rejecting what was deemed best by those in power. That’s my interpretation of The V., at least… another reason why this is a brilliant script is that it’s open to MANY different interpretations.If you like to laugh and want to see some live entertainment that is completely different, you’ll love The ART/The V… or not…
What do you think someone who just saw the show is going to be feeling/thinking about when they leave the theater?
“I need a stiff drink.”
“I thought we were seeing a musical. Not this.”
“Why did I waste my time on that?”
“Who am I?”
“I need to call my aunt.”
About a year ago, I was working on a draft of a new one-act script (The Awful Real Thing), a dark comedy about an insecure writer trapped in a Kafkaesque life-or-death situation. While I was writing The ART, I read Kent and Levi’s incendiary script for The Velociraptor, and thought it was a brilliant, disturbing and hilarious satire that attacked self-congratulatory, pretentious and antiquated traditions in theatre and art; it was a breath of fresh air and a really, really cool conceptSince my freshman year at Western Washington University, I’ve wanted to produce a show at iDiOM Theater, a theater with an emphasis on new works. Peter Brook talks about “deadly theatre,” theatre that has lost its liveliness; you can’t just do a Shakespeare or Strindberg play “just because” it’s laced in some subjective tradition. iDiOM Theater is a space that combats deadly theatre with new, relevant and innovative works: theatre thrives in the new.My gut told me The ART/The V. would pair nicely as two new one-acts based on their themes, subject matter, and darkly funny take on the integrity of arts in a unpredictable and increasingly insulated world. Our intent is to offer audiences an experience they are not going to get from a movie theater. No, we don’t have Tom Cruise or big explosions in our piece, but I’m sure there’s enough here to equally entertain and provoke thought after the show is over.
Why these shows? What made you write The ART, and what made you pick The V. to accompany it?
Theatre has been marginalized and taken over by Broadway adaptations, Disney and the global market. The ART/The V. is vicious satire and commentary on the irrelevance and triviality of our modern culture. Does art have any agency in the current society? As young artists, do people even care about what we have to say? These shows address these questions in a manner that is entertaining and shocking. I wrote The ART because I was pissed off that my work and my goals as an artist weren’t being taken seriously by my peers, my friends, my family and those who are “older and wiser.” I felt fairly combative and defensive and brought a lot of myself and those “irrational, callous” thoughts into the piece. I believe that The ART, though an ugly little parable, is a darkly humorous journey that will speak to not only artists but to ANYONE in their lives who hasn’t felt listened to about their passions and dreams. Again, The V. is a challenging and vulgar send-up of similar themes but is also steeped in the tradition of rebellious artists (the Dadaists and Surrealists) who broke rules and forms, rejecting current societal norms, and rejecting what was deemed best by those in power. That’s my interpretation of The V., at least… another reason why this is a brilliant script is that it’s open to MANY different interpretations.If you like to laugh and want to see some live entertainment that is completely different, you’ll love The ART/The V… or not…
What do you think someone who just saw the show is going to be feeling/thinking about when they leave the theater?
“I need a stiff drink.”
“I thought we were seeing a musical. Not this.”
“Why did I waste my time on that?”
“Who am I?”
“I need to call my aunt.”