Thought for the Day

For whom do I make theatre? Why do I make theatre? Does it matter what people think? Do you do it just to have a few people's opinion.... or do you make it to take a risk, share a thought; a feeling; an experience; an idea?

Herb Gardner, an American playwright wrote this:

God help me. I love it. Because it's alive. And because the theatre is alive, exactly what is terrible is wonderful, the gamble, the odds. 


There is no ceiling on the night and no floor either; there is a chance each time the curtain goes up of glory and disaster, the actors and the audience will take each other somewhere, neither knows where for sure. 


Alive, one time only, that night. It's alive, has been alive for a few thousand years, and is alive tonight, this afternoon. 


An audience knows it's the last place they can be heard, they know the actors can hear them, they make a difference; it's not a movie projector and they are not at home with talking furniture, it's custom work. 
Why do playwrights, why do we outsiders and oddballs who so fear misunderstanding, use a medium where we are most likely to be understood?


Because when this most private of enterprises goes public, and is responded to, we are not alone.


Home is where you can tell your secrets.


In a theatre, the ones in the dark and the ones under the lights need each other. For a few hours all of us, the audience, the actors, the writer -- we are all a little more real together than we ever were apart.
That's the ticket, and that's what the ticket's for.