Thinking Out Loud

Edward Albee said: "I write to know what I am thinking about."  Well, after reading yesterday's blog I still don't know what I am thinking about.  However, with 24 hours and a re-read, it sounds as if I was mounting a rationale for not doing a DVD of  "The Two and Only".  That really isn't the case.  I am trying to find the right package at the right time to film the show, somehow. 

The blog was supposed to be an essay on Art vs. Show Business and Theatre vs. Media.  Dave I guess it was directed at you only to the degree that your comment was the catalyst for the thought.  It was really not meant to be argumentative. 

I guess what I am trying to figure out, artistically, by writing out loud, is the point of view. As you guessed by now one of my hero's is Spalding Gray.  There was a great deal of thought that went into filming  "Swimming to Cambodia".  Here is the guy who created minimalist theatre, so how do you create a film of a guy sitting in a chair talking for an hour and a half.   How much do you give to the medium to make it flow as a film without ruining the stark simplicity? Somehow it works, but they did more than just put a camera in the audience and film his stage monologue.

This is where I am.  There is part of me that wants to retain the theatricality of the Two and Only and just put a camera in the audience and film it.  But I know that idea will not work, for most of the reasons that were on my mind yesterday. How much do I have to change it so that it becomes a film rather than a stage show filmed?  That answer has still not come to me.  I have had several friends, even a well known film director, weigh in; nothing feels exactly right yet.   I just have to keep thinking about it and waiting for the right idea.

In "Terrors of Pleasure" Spalding Gray bemoans the fact that he didn't get a film part.  He says, "Don't you think I would rather have done the film than do a monologue about it over and over?"  There is something appealing about doing the show on film and letting it reach more places than I can travel too.  But then, I don't get to be there and enjoy that moment, that audience and that Art. 

Jindra, Dave thanks for hanging in there. At least I will make three copies one for each of us.
As you were,
Jay