Tarhearted.: GOD'S PLAYS, GREAT AND SMALL.

Okay, I'm back. I got a little blue thanks to Haiti, living in the stupidest country ever, Outrageous Fortune, etc. I'm happy to report that some good news and exciting projects have snapped me back to my usual chipper self. Among them are The Management's next show (which is a sci-fi dance party!), the West coast premiere of MilkMilkLemonade, and a few more that I can't even talk about yet for fear of jinxing them.

I'm so, so happy about these projects, plus planning a wedding, but I'm already exhausted. I'm going to be putting my Rejuvinique (TM) to good use!

(I don't know why the didn't do an artsy tie-in and call it the Eyes Without a Facemask.)

Anyway, so as not to miss out of the conversation on Why the American Theater is Dead, I wanted to write a quick questions on "great" plays and "small" plays, because I see them getting thrown around a lot. That is, the idea that there are few "great" plays these days, or the idea that plays have gotten "small."

What do people mean when they say "great?" Do they mean it in the Great American Play sense? Something canonical? How many plays on that level do people think are written? Also, how come that canon never includes comedies? And "small." I like small plays. I like plays about families, about love affairs, about personal achievements and disappointments. Is Raisin in the Sun a "small" play? Does that make it not great? Are small plays not great?

I get the feeling some people among us want freaking Mother Courage or Angels in America or Ruined every single time they come to theater. Don't get me wrong... those are incredible plays. That said, I can only stomach Ruined once, maybe twice. That shit is HEAVY. If we want people to come back to the theater, we ought not punch them in the gut every time. A theater with only "great" plays by this gloomy standard (my standards for "great" are looser), would be like a lifetime of only watching movies by Lars Von Trier. Depressing and dull.

When i walk over to my DVD shelf to pick out a movie, I pick an Angels in America once a year, maybe. Sometimes I'm in the mood to cry and reflect on the human condition. More often than not though I grab Reform School Girls, which i happen to think is both "small" and "great", thank you very much. It has Wendy O. Williams in it!