Research

So what is the next step?...Any great business, academic community, church, sport, website, and the like has put in a substantial amount of time either in the public class room or the private seeking facts about the dreams they seek to fulfill. At this point, I have spent a few years in academia studying theatre both as a student and as a teacher, yet I find myself lacking in the knowledge of what it takes to make a theater operational. I have a respectable understanding of the theoretical and artistic aspect of the theatre industry, but not that of what it takes to get audiences in the house, conversations in the streets, and a sustainable environment for an art form to thrive. I feel it is time for me to spend some quality time looking at local theatres, national theatres, and those over the seas. What shows are being done, what kind of art is being communicated, what stories are being told, how do other art forms communicate with theatre, how do these things relate to the Havenworth project? Perhaps it can be said that some artists spend too much time in the books, in the studio, in academia, and not enough time in the actual field, practicing the craft, developing one's art. I hope to develop my professional, practical experiences in theatrical field as I prepare to begin another journey in my life studying for an MFA in Lighting Design. Yet, how much can any one person practice professionally if a large majority of their life is spent in academia? The challenge is finding ways to combine the two and tie them together seamlessly so they appear as one great theatrical or artistic experience. So, here is to research within the realm of academia and to that of the research done on one's own time in private!