Nurture vs. Nature

Many people wonder weather or not they were raised to be who they are or if they were born that way. That question has been on the thoughts of many for a very long time. When I think about how I came to be I am forced to say that I was raised the way I am now.

For as long as long as I can remember stories have captivated me. My father told me stories as a young child before bed. I would read all day. I remember reading about Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Fin. I read about the journey of a ring and halfling fighting against each other for all of civilization proving that a single person can change the fate of the entire world.

 My mother is a musician and every night I would hear her play soulful stirring music. I learned how to play the viola at first. Then the Guitar. Then the drums. And now bagpipes. Music has always been a big part of my life.

My grandfather was an engineer and would lecture me in physics, math. and sciences. He designed the Lunar Lander, The Mars Rover and the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. I was interested in all of them and wanted to embrace them all. 

Then I discovered theater, the art of story telling, and loving it. I was told that I could be anything I wanted to be and at that time I was was too old to want to be Batman, being a part of theater was the next option. I fell in love with the phantom serenading the beautiful Christine Daae'. I fell in love Richmond defeating King Richard the III. My family was supportive and pushed me under the stage lights, it was soon made clear that I was not suited for for the stage at all. I then hid behind the lights and told stories from a far. 

High school had started and the future was on my mind. I could not become and artist and forget what my grandfather had taught me. I could not become an engineer and forget what my the artistry my mother had taught me. I could not forget the stories that my father had given me. It seemed that they all wanted me to become a technician and that they had all been planning it for a long time. I was raised to be in theatre by my family I was not born that way.

A Technician Manifesto

When I say that we technicians demand perfection I want you to completely understand what that means. We have sleepless days and nights. We do not rest until we deliver our product.
Our product is simple, We are story tellers, entertainers, and artists; we provide the world in which stories are to. We demand perfection. We will not compromise our integrity, our artistic vision will not falter. We provide craftsmanship. What you see on stage is EXACTLY what you are supposed to see.

This is our manifesto. Within these words is our credo and what we stand for. Within these words is artistry, dedication, and commitment to the artistic vision. Within these words we explain our sleepless nights and our long days. Within these words we explain why.

Why we torture ourselves with the pursuit of perfection is simple. A good story requires nothing less and that is what we provide. We can go any anywhere in the world and produce a smile. That is the goal we strive to meet.

When people ask us if we regret not being in the light. We look up from our work and say truth that is found in all technicians. Our work speaks volumes. Each moment is a page in a book and each show is scene in a script.

Our voice is speaks as loud as the actors on the stage. As William Shakespeare wrote, "a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more" we feel that holds true for the stage as well. The voice on the stage, in the stage, is heard for an hour, nothing more. Within these words, is the voice contained by the world on the stage that people see.

The Evolution of Theatrical Lighting

Story telling is ancient part of human culture and education. At first it was just words told to another. Then there was a specific place where these stories were told. As always human tried to ramp up the scale of the story telling into an experience that fully encompassed the audience. That is when controlling the lighting first came into being.

In the first theatres stories were acted out during the day in the sunlight, ancient performing spaces and amphitheaters were designed to allow for the best natural lighting. Later people discovered the pleasure of hearing their stories regardless of the weather and the first theaters were invented. To account with that theater would use lots and lots of candles and reflectors.

Later, lighting evolved to the usage of a network of gas lines leading to locations over the theater. In retrospect this was a bad idea because fires in crowed theaters became a common thing. Now due to the gaslight age of theater there are strict fire codes for theaters across the world.

The electric light changed EVERYTHING not only did building design change but so did design and the technologies. There was a split between technologies, the set up and managing of the systems, and design, the specific look for every scene in a play. To change the color of the light different colored films.

Now, the lighting technology is slowly evolving to LED's. They do not quite possess the color control we demand but they are getting better every month.  The evolution of lighting has gone quite far from just building orientation to today, a multi-million dollar industry driven by a need of perfection.

The Choreography of Wayne McGregor

Traditionally dance is an ancient art and has been controlled by a set of standards for centuries.  Wayne McGregor tears that notion apart with his new and interesting and admittedly unconventional approach to choreography. This new style of his is clearly successful because Wayne is one of the most successful choreographers around today, has appeared on TED talks, and his company teaches all over the world.

But what exactly makes his craft an international success?

Quite simply he stands out and creates arts in a new and unconventional way. His methods and style hasn't been seen before. People enjoy that. To the public eye unorthodox and bizarre exploits, when put on a stage, are considered entertaining. Due to his wide spread popularity companies will pay a lot of money for him to choreograph a piece for them.

But what exactly makes his craft interesting?

What makes his work interesting is not the interesting final look. That look is what makes him successful. It is his process of choreography that stands out and makes him an interesting artist. His dancers are tools used to fill space. They are funny shapes on an empty plane covered in layers of E.M. radiation. That is how Wayne looks at dance. To him they are not dancers on an empty stage with lights on.
That thought makes him interesting.

How did class impact my life?

In the past week my ArtS.T.E.M. class discussed questions, violence, uniting topics in science art and the humanties. We made a project and created collaborative pictures. How did that impact me though? How did thought about the real definition of violence impact me personally?

Quite simply I was forced to apply new definitions to things I thought I previously understood. For example, I always thought of birth as the creation of life and the advancement of a species. Now, it is lumped together with other violent things such as hard core punk shows and Tarantino films.  Another example that stands out is my high school experience. I went to many punk shows.

At first punk seemed like a group of generally friendly people who liked to rough house and didn't like the man. Now after consideration I consider punk violent but not in a physical sense. It is violent because there is such a high contrast between the punk life(live fast and die soon) and my other joy of theatre(mainly Shakespeare, musicals, and opera).  When I think about both of those things together in one life during high I have no clue how I survived the panic of one world and the boredom of the other world.

My project was a slam poem about my entrance and finally exit from the punk world with allusions to the epic poem Devine Comedy. That in by it self really made me think hard about how I got to where I am today. Along with that it helped me deal with the post traumatic stress I have due to attending an average american high school for 4 years.