A very happy Sunday to you all. Today I’ve been reading a number of good things, two of which I care to share with you so that you can read them too.
Firstly, a novel that I know I’m very late in raving about and have pretty much missed the raving boat. But, what the hell, I’m going to rave a bit about it anyway; the literary canon was not made by people refusing to be late ravers.
So, the novel is Room by Emma Donoghue – look I’ve even included a link straight to Amazon so you can order it, or at least read a summary. I’m not going to say much about it, other than it really is one to read in one sitting. It’s an emotionally charged story that will alter your perspective, and is guaranteed to be one of the tensest reading experiences you’ll have in a long time. Read it, go on.
The second read I’d like to recommend to you today, and the reason I sat down to write this post in the first place, is another blog post. So how do we produce? is written by David Lan, artistic director of the wonderful theatre known as the Young Vic. It’s a wonderfully informative piece that rather than set a list of producing rules, opens up producing as a creative space. As well as this it shows Lan to be remarkably insightful about our society, and theatre within this society and the sorts of questions we need to be asking ourselves, or forcing ourselves to consider.
Lan asks us to question what it is that we value, and whether society’s relationships we echo in the theatre are those that we value and want to be portraying? Other brilliant and inspirational words are these: “we only produce shows we don’t know how to do. Every new show has to be a new adventure … do the crazy thing, come take a leap into the dark”.
Well, if you make theatre and you don’t follow those rules then all I can say is that you’re an idiot.
witnesstoexperience 