Tasty Television for the Theatrically Inclined…
We have Netflix. We hardly ever use it, but we pay our $7.95 a month and have it. Every now and again we discover something on it. Like the TED talks – which if you haven’t been watching you MUST – but in addition to the TED talks there’s something else you HAVE to watch…
A couple of weeks ago David and I discovered Slings & Arrows. We were late to the party – we missed it when it first aired between 2003-2006. This series is pretty much the perfect backstage series. Having just mainlined SMASH with Rissa – I know what I’m talking about. Where SMASH has pretty much NO truth nor depth to it (and please don’t think that I’m saying that’s a bad thing – SMASH is what it is, and it is a deliciously soap-like, cheesy, truly enjoyable confection of pseudo-theatre) – Slings & Arrows is the real deal! It is so freaking tasty!! Not only does it tap into my Shakespeare addiction but it gave me a near epiphanic moment today. Paul Gross delivered a quotation from Samuel Taylor Coleridge in S01E05 that summed it up perfectly:
“Drama is that willing suspension of disbelief for
the moment, which constitutes poetic faith.”
That’s it! Poetic Faith. Just typing the words makes me clench a little inside. Poetic Faith. I can walk into a theatre and I’m at church. The awe and wonder that strikes me when I’m in a theatre is as close to mainstream religion as I’ll probably ever get. I turn all crunchy-granola and near-spiritual when I’m in the theatre. When I’m onstage, I swear that I can feel the energy in the building left behind from audiences past. I feel the lights upon my face and an angels’ freaking chorus might as well be singing at my ear. The air is different, the sound is different. I am filled with the power of theatre.
Today, David and I went to Buddies in Bad Time Theatre – to view the space in which we’ll be workshopping the rock opera this summer. I stepped into the building – not even the theatre space, but just the building and I felt it. That little frisson of arousal along my spine. The venue is perfect. Industrial, with concrete, exposed brick and steel – ramps and staircases and those elementary school-type sinks in the bathrooms. You know the ones, kinda like this one here,
except the ones at Buddes are all industrial stainless. They are AWESOME!!!
If the production is mounted in Toronto first – I want to do it at Buddies – it’s ideal. My tummy is all butterfly-y just thinking of it. I walked out of the building this afternoon with goosebumps on my arms. GOOSEBUMPS!!! And it wasn’t from air-conditioning. I was actually TURNED ON being in the space. How great is that?? Praise freaking Thespis!!!