What have I figured out while I've been in Europe? It has been a long two months...but it is very difficult to believe that it has actually been TWO MONTHS. That is more than 8 karaokes missed. That is longer than I hold most jobs. That is longer than the amount of time to rehearse and open a play. TWO MONTHS. And, though I dedicated an extremely long and self-interested blog to it earlier, I still have not really decided for myself what I've learned...or gained...etc. Until recently, I hadn't been able to accumulate everything together. To form a coherent idea of it all. As a playwright, I like to take several themes and ideas, and put them in a blender, so that throughout the play, these ideas are mixed together and present in everything. And now, I've figured out, this is what I must do with this whole big "experience." So, to put into words exactly what it is I have learned....
1. How to drink. I have done plenty. PLENTY of drinking. At cafes by myself, at cafes with friends, in hostel rooms, at bars, outside, on the steps of Sacre Couer, EVERYWHERE. This is easily the top thing that I have done in Europe. Easily.
2. How to be more outgoing. When you don't have any friends, it gets lonely. You gotta make them. I now know how to say hi to someone I've never met before and possibly will only talk to for 5 minutes. It's no big deal. This is a huge realization.
3. How to make good theatre. I haven't seen any "theatre" since I've been here. But I've learned a lot. And what I've discovered is that there's plenty of room for the old, tried and true plays. There's plenty of room for reading a huge library of plays and finding the one that really rings true to you and producing that. But that's a bit too narrow for this large world. Instead, what I'm interested in is producing all sorts of new plays, good or bad, but just producing them. This is a project I will be starting when I get back to Seattle.
Now...how to put these all together? For the past month I have practically lived at the bar in the hostel. It's been an amazing experience and it is unlike any bar I've ever been to. My long term goal, which I am going to work on as if it is a short-term goal, is to start a bar in Seattle which would have space to produce these plays that I want to produce. I am confident that this will be the best drinking, friend-making, and culture-mixing place in Seattle. And I'm going to be honest. I'm no longer tied down to the idea of living legally whatsoever, so whatever steps are necessary, I might be taking them.
If anybody has any input or ideas or helpful hints on how I can make this happen...I would love to know. I know that my ideas are very idealistic, and in reality, there is a lot more effort I need to put into this...but this idea is incredibly exciting to me, and I wanted to share it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
I spent last night at the Stranger's "shitstorm," a gathering of theater folks who wanted to respond to Brendan Kiley's recent article on "Ten Things..." I came away from that with a bunch of different perspectives on how theater folks think theater is broken and want to "save" theaters.
One thing I took away from this is that a theater needs to have a cohesive artistic vision, know what the target audience is for that vision, and know how to attract those folks to that theater. A vision is helpful.
And the idea of starting a performance-space bar is not a bad one. I have many thoughts on this, and how it could maybe actually work. Let's talk when you get back. (And on the plus side, by the end of this year I will be a certified bartender with experience, so that's nice.)
What do you mean by living legally (or rather, not living legally)?
best,
Michelle
"If an idea is good, it's on the verge of being stupid."
-Michel Gondry
That quote gives me hope. Also, I don't believe idealism and realism are mutually exclusive. Just don't give up, and keep saying hello to people.
as michelle stated, i'm not sure what help i can provide you with, but if you'll illustrate whether this is visa related or not would help. visa-related, i don't know what you can do that wouldn't cause possible barriers in the future to you visiting europe. but your play/bar idea sounds really cool! keep it up!
http://www.bryantlakebowl.com/
check this out. it's in minneapolis. they serve great food, beer, there's bowling and theatre. they also have bands play shows in the theatre sometimes. it's awesome and I think the people there would be happy to answer questions you might have about opening a place.
Good luck Nate, it sound like a great idea! I hope that website can help ^_^
<3 nicole
Post a Comment