BOOM!: Making an Impact in Theatre

Five going on six years of pain, sweat, agony, endless training,  joy, desire, and heightened living. That is how long I have been involved in theatre. In all of that time, I have trained in acting and in three of those years, I have trained in technical theatre. I'm sure you understand it when I say this: Theatre is my life and it gives me life. A theatre is the only place that I can walk in and feel like I have walked into my home. The curtains are better than anything that I could hang in a window and life is more real than where I put my stuff and go to sleep. Then why is it that I feel that my generation isn't succeeding in this industry as we should? I don't think there are new shows coming out that are completely original or that show what life as a millennial is. Or, at least, I can't find very many. Which brings me to my point. How can we be impactful in any aspect of theatre if we aren't putting on new and original shows?

Of course there are exceptions such as Hamilton and Waitress which are new Broadway musicals that exhibit new forms of music that had previously not been used and employ ingenious uses of technical theatre and storytelling to impact the audience.

However, when I looked up what is playing on Broadway now, I found a lot of shows that are either recycled, adapted from books or movies, or have been playing for a while. They are good stories, but they have been told before. It is like re-watching a good classic film or rereading Harry Potter. They are excellent stories, but they no longer surprise or hold you like they once did. Even David Bowie's Off-Broadway show Lazarus for which he wrote new music for (cue fan-girling) is a continuation of a movie he was in in the 70's which was based on a book. I found Kinky Boots, The Book of Mormon, Chicago, Fiddler on the Roof, American Psycho, Matilda, The Phantom of the Opera, and...The Crucible by Author Miller.

Author Miller. Now there is a playwright who wrote for the now and The Crucible is a perfect example. To put this in context, I will have to briefly talk about history. After WWII, Americans became worried about communist and communism taking over America. A dude working in the government named McCarthy came along and started modern witch trials through McCarthyism. McCarthyism is defined by www.dictionary.com as "1. the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, especially of communist activity, in many instances unsupported by proof or based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence. 2. the practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism." When our Mr. Miller became a victim of this he wrote...

A show that showed audiences McCarthyism, how it works, and its aftermath. The wrote a show that reflected the now of his time in unapologetic fashion. I think that is what modern theatre is lacking: shows that show the now. As a blossoming playwright (I hope), it is my ambition and goal to bring this quality back to the stage. You can too. You can tell "now" stories though directing, acting, lighting, sets, sound, what ever your niche is.

I do not own any pictures or the videos. My research is from www.broadway.com, www.ushistory.org/us/53a.asp, and http://www.dictionary.com/browse/mccarthyism?s=t.