Perhaps it's just my nerves, worried, anxious for my actors and the one-act play competition coming up this Saturday, but I've been thinking about this contest, and how wrong it seems to me that we "compete" as producers of art.
I understand now why some schools opt not to compete in the One-Act Competition.
By pitting students, plays, schools against one another, are we not sending the wrong message to the students about art? Is art not worth anything on its own, but only "good" when it is successful competitively?
Whatever the outcome on Saturday, I am incredibly proud of these high school students. So many of them have grown so much through the course of these past months as we explored this abbreviated Shakespeare. Some have grown as performers, some in their own self-confidence, some in their appreciation of theatre in general and the Bard, specifically.
Wouldn't it be great, now, if we could put on two or three performances without the pressure of having to do better than another school in order to get the opportunity to keep going?
The whole idea of competition in art is incredibly flawed. Art is subjective, and what one judge likes may be just what another judge dreads to see on a high school stage.
This isn't sports where the winner is clearly the one with the most points ... the points being made in a fashion clearly determined ahead of time.
I vastly disagree with this system -- all of life, all of art is not competition -- but I understand the problems inherent with so many schools all wanting to show off their best attempts at producing "art" by way of theatre. It's too bad that it can't be done in a system similar to the "fringe festivals" -- put all the schools on stages in a downtown area -- let each school do multiple performances, and let the audience choose which shows it wants to see.
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We do perform for the community and for the school -- four performances in all -- but we do so after the competition. However, their focus and their energy is geared toward the competition.
I can see where doing the show for the school and the community BEFORE the competition might settle them down some for competition (something my kids could have used), but having something more to look forward to after a less-than-successful competition is good for them as well.
Stix, so how do you feel about things like the Oscars and the Tony awards? I heard a brief interview with some actor who'd been nominated for an Oscar today, and he said he was hoping it would happen. That seemed odd to me. Shouldn't you always strive to do your best work as an actor, and not be about wanting to be rewarded with a prize?
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