A culture of Nerds

Last week, when I served as the Chief of the Specialty Makeup Crew for Tandem Productions’ “Shrek, the Musical, Jr.” my crew partner and I often found ourselves racing from the makeup room to the stage wings once we heard the music for the song, “Let Your Freak Flag Fly;” this was our cue to prepare for a quick change in the wings.  On one of the nights that I wasn’t hurrying to the stage, I was able to stop and truly take in the song, a song that champions the inherent differences in people, promoting the individual’s right to be individual.  While the original intent of the song had a much more significant message, I couldn’t help but to think of a recurrent phenomenon I’ve been observing as of late:  We are a culture of nerds, and our freak flags are flying.

I certainly don’t mean to suggest that anyone should consider her/himself inferior to the “norm.” What I mean to suggest is that our culture has become more diversified, and superficially, that all manner of specific tastes are respected.  I see this more often in movies and music, where some fairly enthralling work is happening, albeit catering very much to specific tastes, which does seem to have some spillover into popular cultural vernacular.

But, I don’t feel as though I’m observing this general spillover on the stage, at least not as often as in the aforementioned media.  In the metacritical absurdist play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” playwright Tom Stoppard has the head of a theatre troupe quip, “Audiences know what to expect, and that is all that they are prepared to believe in.”  I hate to speak for many of us, but I would suggest that many theatregoers buy a ticket for a play with an anticipated outcome in mind, generally one of utter enjoyment (as defined by the individual), as opposed to surprise or acceptance of the unexpected.  As much as I would like to say that audiences are always adventurous with their entertainment dollars, not everyone will attend everything, particularly on the stage.

To be perfectly blunt, many don’t have the expendable income to get spend money on plays they don’t intend to enjoy.  Often, it would seem that certain demographics only go to shows that they not just expect to enjoy, but rather have some preternatural ability to “know” they will enjoy the production.  In some cases, audience members will have set their own expectations of a production so high that they will either love it - regardless of the quality of the production - or they will abjectly despise it, as it didn’t meet their inflated expectations.

To be even more perfectly blunt, I would suggest that this observation is something of a cry to both theatre artist and audience member simultaneously.  I recently read an article written by a contemporary playwright.  She suggested that modern playwriting academics should cater more to the “zombie” generation, translated as the younger generation(s).  She went on to suggest that solely revering the classics stifled progress in new work.  While I understood the intent, it feels very indicative of the type of cultural swing I feel happening: pandering to one demographic, and leaving out the others.  I would rebut that the classics do have their place, and everyone can learn something from the classics.  But, I would suggest that neither new nor classic should reign supreme on anyone’s stage.  No demographic should be left out.  Thus, it’s our job as theatre artists to “reach across the aisle” (as it were), and build bridges between the generations, or figure out ways to include all of them. Perhaps not in any singular production, but we should be able to cater to as many tastes as we can.

And, for the audience members, I know we all have our specific tastes, but we only learned to appreciate these specific tastes after a first taste of something new.  Honestly, who would have thought that Iron Man would replace Spider-Man as the iconic Marvel super-hero.  But, he did.  Only because we got a little taste, and allowed that taste to grow.  I guarantee you, this phenomenon is just waiting to explode onstage.  Look at the last three years of Tony winners for musicals: two of them championed people waving their “freak flags.”

So, in summary, tastes are not general anymore.  There is no one show that pleases everyone (well, maybe “Chicago”...).  And, we should all feel comfortable waving our “freak flags.”  But, on the stage, I for one, would like to see this diversity be more expansive.  And, I would challenge audience members to try out new things once in a while.  I’ve often lauded the Sheridan audience for being adventurous, so I would mainly urge you to continue to do so.  But, let’s not lose respect for the classics at the same time.  All are worth their moment in the spotlight.  The flags are waving!  We’ve just got to take the time to notice them.

I’ll see you at intermission!