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The play’s the thing

I go AWOL far too often, but that’s what happens when I have to actually work for a living.  It really screws up my writing time.  But this is a topic that’s been pressing on me, waiting to get out, and I just haven’t done it.  So here I am, so let’s go.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a number of performances of Othello put on by students at my college.   Overall, it was brilliant.  Othello, Iago, Desdemona, Emilia, Cassio and Roderigo were played by incredibly strong actors.  The set was a gorgeous Art Deco splendor, the fight scenes were realistically choreographed, and when the cast was at the top of its game, it was clearly a professional production in every sense of the word.

But to quote William himself, “there’s the rub”–that phrase “when the cast was at the top of its game.”  Granted, they are students.  Granted this is an amateur production.  But many of the kids in the cast want to go pro.  But too many nights they phoned in their performances.  Why?  Sometimes I think it’s just that they got cocky.

I don’t want to pick on them.  They are my students, which means I care about them.  But I think my experience with the play can work as a microcosm vision of American society since I’ve returned.

There were nights when I thought, “Who do they think they are?  Do they think that because they are talented to the point of being gifted, because they are blessed with many gifts, that they are above the rest of the peons?  Are diligence and drudgery for the poor schmucks who perhaps aren’t as genetically lucky?”  Harsh, I know, but I was angry.

I truly believe that those who are gifted owe more back than other people.  I also quaintly believe that the theater is a sacred place, and those who work in the theater have a sacred responsibility to those who attend. Where this comes from, I don’t know, but I do know that when I’m working in a theater it’s always a sacred time.  It can be a crazy, insane, horrible time, as well, but at the end of the day, I’m there in service.

I know for sure that on more than one night, there were people in the audience who had never been to a Shakespeare play before.  Once or twice, I know there were people attending who had never been to a live play before.  Those who came on a great night had their lives changed.  They were exposed to something that they’d never experienced before, and hopefully, something was ignited in them, a desire to feel that feeling again, to attend the theater again.  This may sound like hyperbole, but I know it’s not.  I talk to people all of the time.  I had students tell me how exciting the experience was, how they want to try it again.

But what of the ones who were there on an “off” night?  I know of one at least who went home thinking “what’s all the fuss about?”  The responsibility for their less than stellar theater experience rests solidly on the shoulders on the actors.  And to quote Will again, “and therein hangs a tale”.

Responsibility.  It’s become one of my favorite words.  And it’s the one quality I see missing from American life since I’ve returned.  Few want to take responsibility and fewer yet it seems want to fulfill the responsibilities thrust upon them.  A number of actors had a responsibility to their audience that they chose to ignore.  They’d already won praise.  They were almost done with the run.  They were perhaps ready to graduate and move on to bigger and better things.  Maybe there were backstage tensions exploding onto the stage.  But at the end, I guess they thought, “Why bother doing the job right all the way through to the end?”

Part of me feels cruel having to say these things, but these things need to be said.

I also saw far too many instances of prima donna-ish behavior from both males and females.  When I saw that, all I could think is “honey, you have so not earned that!  You are not that great.”  Of course, we aren’t allowed to say things like that out loud anymore.  But when I see students, albeit talented students, treating “lesser lights” like lesser beings, that just boils my blood.

Meryl Streep doesn’t pull that.  Al Pacino doesn’t, either.

The teacher in me hopes this is a phase that will pass with a gentle dose of reality.  The harsh part of me hopes they get metaphorically slapped down a bit next time out of the gate.  Those graduating seniors are big big fish in what is a very small pond.  No matter how great they are, there are hundreds of really great kids graduating all over the country, and all of them are heading to NY, LA, Chicago and Boston to try to compete for the same handful of jobs.  Only the strong will survive, but that doesn’t mean the ruthless.  Good people make it to the top and nice guys don’t always finish last.