MixTape Intro

I'm overdue to write about Mixtape at Live Theatre Workshop Etcetera Series. This is a show performed by Theatre3, featuring Angela Horchem and Matt Walley. Let it be said that I am partial to the work of Angela and Matt. I have my reasons and they are good ones. I may tell you about them along the way, but for now I have a short list of random thoughts and ideas to express - some directly related to Mixtape, some a few degrees of separation away, and others that are probably temporary manifestations in my mind. I will get to Mixtape starting in my next post but I need these few preliminaries for starters. O.K. here goes... British Theatre wants to be all intellectually talky. ("Its all in the words, love."). Italian Theatre is all over-the-top dramatic, emoting and buffoonery. French Theatre wants to be all silent and profound. They are like "oooh, Ges -ture, Ges-ture!" Russian Theatre tries to be a walking soul. German Theatre is really politics. American Theatre wants to be a social cause. And the rest of the world is just masks and ritual and things like that. All true enough on some level. Right? I hhhhhaaaattttteee the performance space at Live Theatre Workshop! It's always cold. It's dingy. Claustrophobic. Painted life-sucking black. The psychic energy is shaky at best. They sell candy in the lobby. Clowns disturb me. How difficult is joy to manifest in theatre performance? It's difficult. Very difficult. What constitutes "Silence" in theatre performance? My mind is clearer already!