So this post got posted here and here and now everybody hates me, including a playwright I really admire. This is the reason I didn't write about theater on blogs for years and years and abstained from commenting on theater blogs. I was afraid of something like this happening. It's time to bring that rule back. I have a pretty nasty sense of humor, and often things get taken too seriously, so I really should have seen this coming. (Special thanks to 99 for being so awesome and getting my intent.)
I was only trying to be cheeky about a very real insecurity I have. The truth is that I do feel like a second class citizen in the theater for not having an MFA. That may or may not be imagined, or partially imagined, but it's how I feel. A lot of us feel that way. It wasn't my intention to insinuate that only rich and undeserving people go to Ivy League schools or MFA programs. My intention to point out that maybe it's not fair or wise to make that the only point of entry into the industry for playwrights.
I'm sorry for having offended those artists, but I'm not sorry for posting my own feelings on my own blog. I'm really struggling with class issues right now, and I get the sense that a lot of other folks are too. Because it's not just my frustration with being a playwright; it's my frustration with being an American in general.
I've just worked so hard, and to still be struggling feels bad. I've had to fight really hard for any little scrap of something, had to do things that were demeaning and even humiliating to me, and for what? Am I any better off now than I was then? What was the point? I might as well have stayed in Washington State. The point is, I'm really jealous of some of my friends in New York, and I'm trying not to be.
And, in terms of being a playwright, what do I expect to get? What is success in this industry? How do I compete against writers with amazing educations or writers who don't have to work day jobs? How do I measure my success in an industry that doesn't really exist?
A couple of weeks ago I reminded myself on this blog that we make (or should be making) theater for our communities because we love them and want to put on a show for them. I forgot that already! Ugh! I don't know why I get so caught up with these grody ideas about success and material things and competition.
I don't know. Blech! Feeling like you don't have a shot at life sucks. Feeling like the system is rigged sucks. I should just go cut hair like any other self-respecting sassy gay.
Hey... maybe then I could get a TV show! America, loves a sassy gay (as long as they're on television and not real.) Too bad for me the theater blogs don't.
I was born to be blue collar,
Tarhearted
I feel much the same as you do, Josh. I don't have anything against anyone with an MFA, but have felt the frustration of dealing with organizations that use that as a filtering system. (Although, if I had an MFA, I might feel like, "Hey, all those years of work and dollars of debt *earned* me my way through that filtering system, damn it.") I also have a hard time writing about anything online because of the geyser of misunderstanding and hurt feelings that often erupts.
I don't fit into the primary categories under discussion, though. I grew up in an enormously comfortable upper-middle class setting in North Carolina, but did not go to grad school. I chose, and repeatedly choose, to forego the advantages that an MFA can potentially offer, because I absolutely hate sitting in a classroom. Can't stand it. Never could. I had to take my 5-hour defensive driving class for my license recently, and it all came flooding back. I was so bored I felt like I was on fire.
Posted by: Mac | October 08, 2009 at 08:52 AM
Oh, Tarhearted, you break and make my heart at the same time. I love theatre, I love blogging, I love our community (such as it is), but sometimes it does seem like certain things aren't kosher to point out. Which is sad.
I have an MFA, a mountain of debt AND a day job and all of the same frustrations, especially when someone ten years younger than I am pops out of one of the three Gilded Programs, writes an objectively terrible play and gets gigs that I haven't been able to get. It feels like there's so little to be done about that. Focusing on making work for your peeps, whomever they are, is a good place to start.
As a black person, though, I can't fall back on being sassy or cutting hair (Barbershop and the career of Whoopi Goldberg aside). I guess I just have to be magical and show up just when the poor white boy needs some good advice, like Morgan Freeman. Ah, well. Nice work, if you can get it.
Posted by: 99 | October 08, 2009 at 03:38 PM
really josh? really?
you had the balls to say it, don't go fucking apologize.
Be bitter! Be angry! Be frustrated!
But most of all, imagine the possibilities of this:
ivyplussociety.org
They have an event coming up in New York. Contact me if you want to go. (Yes. I'm an Ivy Leaguer. And from a class point of view, it needs to be nationalized.)
Posted by: cesaro | October 08, 2009 at 05:03 PM
@Mac
That's the main reason I don't want to go to graduate school. I'm not very academically inclined. I went to art school for that very reason. Stick to theater and cut out all of the "humanities" and "sciences".
@99
Who knew people were so sensitive about their MFAs? I did NOT see that coming. Anyway, in terms of magical Negroes... you do dole out an awful lot of wisdom. To really perfect your craft though you'll want to become a prisoner with the soul of a poet or a hobo philosopher. You can do it! Keep reaching for that rainbow.
@Cesaro
No, no, no. I'm not apologizing for that. I'm still right. But 99 was quite right that allowed myself to be argued away from my original point, which was not to denigrate people with Ivy MFAs, but the people in power who only look to those writers to produce whilst ignoring the full spectrum or class, region, race, etc.
ivyplussociety seems awesome! When is the event?
Posted by: Josh | October 09, 2009 at 03:41 AM
I'd just like to add that I've been following this argument on all the blogs with great fascination because it finally EXPLAINS to me why I see so many plays from people with shiny resumes that are just DRECK. I mean, I'm just a beginner at this, if I can see it, how could anyone decide to produce and market this stuff? I didn't believe is was the same as Hollywood, 'noone knows anything'. It's been a complete mystery. So I am incredibly grateful to all of you bloggers from theater to finally know why. The "business as usual for competitive humans" is weirdly a more comforting explanation than the idea that noone at those theaters has any imagination or taste.
Posted by: Lucy | October 11, 2009 at 12:54 AM