Comments on: Sarah Ruhl: Essays I Don’t Have Time To Write (Part 3)

By: On Boston « writing.performance

On Boston « writing.performance — Thu, 07 May 2009 03:39:00 +0000

[...] From Papertheatre.org, a fabulous site, comes this—it’s by Sarah Ruhl, from a longer essay she posted [...]

By: Nora Flood

Nora Flood — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 19:13:52 +0000

I felt compelled to say my piece here, as someone involved in Boston’s theater scene.

If “Boston is not a theater town,” as you say (which is debatable), it doesn’t have anything to do with leftover Puritan ethos. I have seen this reason used so many times to explain away anything that may or may not happen in New England, and it’s always an argument made by people who don’t actually live here.

Time was, Boston was a major tryout town for New York. Those days may have come and gone, but there’s still plenty of theater in Beantown. If there’s a lack of theater, it’s because it’s underfunded, because funding ends up pouring into big empty institutions like the City Center who mostly do touring shows of out-of-town productions. But there are still plenty of mid-sized and fringey companies doing their thing in Boston.

But a lingering hatred of theater and the arts stemming from Puritanism? You’ve got it wrong. You don’t walk down a Boston street feeling the lingering pulse of the pilgrims–that’s just a false idea of Boston, the way getting mugged every other block is a false idea of New York.

By: Alexandra Holtzman

Alexandra Holtzman — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:50:02 +0000

Sarah,
You discuss many topics, all of which I find very interesting and meaningful. I have come away reading this with some new ideas that I still need to mull over in my head. However, one thing I can write about now is about the first topic on this post. I found it extremely thought provoking. The line “Instead it would be an ossified strange thing, dangling half-way between live theater, a parade and an amusement park ride” was probably the most interesting thing I have read about theater lately. People are so concerned with making money and establishing something the integrity of a play and the author’s word are at risk. I would love to ask the studio head how he could possibly allow a show like Cats to run for so long. Honestly, I don’t really even like that musical. But besides that fact, these productions have become freak shows and it saddens me that people don’t see that. When I see a good show, I leave the theater feeling something I didn’t feel before the play. Or I am contemplating the message, what the author wanted me to hear. Why go to the theater to watch something and leave without ever questioning what it was you just invested time and money on? These “hungry ghosts” and know-it-alls don’t really understand the world in which we spend a lot of time and I feel truly sorry for them. They don’t know what they are missing.

By: Talking Point « The Next Stage

Talking Point « The Next Stage — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:02:02 +0000

[...] From Sarah Ruhl’s essay series on Device [...]

By: Lindsay Price

Lindsay Price — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 13:30:36 +0000

Is it wrong that I had a moment of glee when I clicked on Device this morning to see there was a new installment of Sarah Ruhl? Hmmm.

How sad to hear a 17 speak on the theatre as inaccessible. Theatre is everywhere at the high school level. High School is Theatre! And theatre is at it’s best sometimes in that high school production where the process (not the product) has changed lives, has grown skills, has forever made a thumb print on the mind of some introvert thoughts a swirling who am I teenager.

I am guilty as charged for asking the ‘what is the character’s journey’ question. But that’s usually in regards to student writers who didn’t even know a character could put one foot in front of the other. I love the image of sending characters to reform school.

Sometimes I read an article and look for something to glean, something to pluck out (it’s the worst skill I acquired in University English classes) This article I actually want to absorb. I’ll be back to read it again….