There are many Arts for which we should be grateful.
There's Linkletter, Clokey, Metrano, Carney, Ashe, Buchwald and C. Clarke to name a few, not to mention the less famous Arts who contribute just as much pleasure and meaning to the lives of those who know, love or even occasionally fear them.
But the greatest and most important of them all is the thing itself. Art.
And in the case of this long-winded rant, I'm talking about Theatre.
I am currently appearing in a play with the absolutely lovely Maura Tierney called Three Hotels, written by Jon Robin Baitz and directed by Robert Falls. It is being produced at the absolutely lovely Williamstown Theatre Festival, located in the absolutely lovely town of Williamstown, Massachusetts, a haven for the creative spirit, a healing balm for those who spend the lion's share of their time trying to matter in the garish narcissopolis of Los Angeles or the humectant crush of New York; a place where burgeoning young artists can, you know, burgeon. For a few weeks, young and (ahem) old alike can perform in classic or brand new plays, hang with their peers, forge new creative alliances, and drink copious amounts of boxed wine.
The festival's renown as a smart. fearless celebration of classic and contemporary theatre was cemented decades ago by an international roster of outstanding actors, directors, writers, designers and sponsors who believe in the importance of theatre in American culture. The Williamstown Theatre Festival is as legendary and essential to American theatre as The Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-Upon-Avon is to the English.
Three Hotels is, very generally, a play about corporate responsibility and the effect it has upon the individual. It is based on actual events, many of which are happening right now in parts of the world. Audiences meet a high-level marketing director for a baby formula company who has designed a program which takes advantage of the poverty and lack of education in many of the countries in which the formula is sold.
The man's knowing complicity becomes his undoing and his (and his loyal but conscience-stricken wife's) world is impacted in ways that, even for one who believes that conscience is a Damoclesian sword hanging over the heads of the those who propagate the type of moral corruption epitomized by the character of "Kenneth Hoyle," rarely if ever hears about nowadays. We still assume that common sense or spiritual regulation will prevail, that those who have sinned will eventually admit to it, that karma -- instant or unhurried -- will catch up.
For the characters in Three Hotels, the lesson is brought home in a tragically personal way; callous cause yields fearful effect.
And it is the dramatized impact upon these individuals that's been so stunning to the WIlliamstown audiences. Because the play reminds them that unregulated, unscrupulous actions in the name of profit actually effect real people, a truth that gets no press in this corporate-driven culture.
At one point, "Kenneth Hoyle" realizes his own sociopathic tendencies, that he doesn't think that "people are actually real," allowing him to do awful things and follow any orders, regardless of the impact, as long as the results are profitable.
Any of this sounding familiar? Have there been any corporate entities acting with similar irresponsibility? Any ideologies which sound good on paper but which fail to deliver positive results to any of their intimidated and delusional followers except to the top-most tier?
The most egregious example would be the tactic wielded brilliantly by the Right Wing Media Machine, delivering fear-laced bromides and reconstituted factoids built from whole cloth. With almost textbook sociopathic expertise, the Right has gotten their followers to miss the essential reality of its various messages: they themselves will be negatively impacted by the very policies they support.
And for those not watching Fox News, the latest activities ascribed to Rupert Murdoch's company, News Corp, will come as no surprise. What is surprising is, to a degree, the crimes committed, both literal and existential, are possibly yielding to a justice rarely seen in the current American landscape. Culpability is being exposed, the effects of ruthless corporate greed are yielding to the finally aroused outrage of those who have had enough. That it took the hacking of a poor, dead teen's phone -the effect of corporate sociopathy on an innocent -- says all.
Soulless, predatory ideologies -- predicated on profit -- and their corporate outgrowths invariably fail because they never truly take the individual into consideration when the fantasy is first crafted. As a human views ants to be stepped upon without thought, so current Right Wing ideology (though, of course, there are plenty of equally culpable "Dems" who practice the same shit while proclaiming their lefty leanings) seemingly views the individual. How else to explain the mindless rejection of science, of environmental regulations, of public education initiatives, of affordable health care for all, of a rational dialogue and rational political representation?
Ultimately, Three Hotels isolates this unfortunate state of affairs, reminding us that an individual's life is fleeting and fragile, that it is important to remember that there is good and bad, right and wrong and that even if a person makes only one gesture in their life -- one that heals, that helps, that enlightens, that ineluctably links one person to the next -- it is the most important event in this world. Too often our eyes and hearts are forcibly pulled away from that realization by greed.
It is lucky for us that Jon Robin Baitz has written such a play; that The Williamstown Theatre festival has produced it; and that the character of "Kenneth Hoyle" is seen to suffer because, nowadays, the violent awakening of his humanity, even at such a high cost, is the only way, it seems, for people to remember that there are predators out there who prey upon the very truth about our lives, our own fleeting lives. And theirs, too.
And we have Art to thank for that.
Follow Steven Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheStevenWeber
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I can explain it very easy....
It's called healthy pessimism and you would be wise to practice those principles in all of your affairs..
As for "art..."
I'm all for all forms of art as long as we NEVER spend one cent of public money to support it.
Spending our tax money on "art" is literally in some cases like flushing cash down the toilet.
At best it provides prestigious multi million dollar facilities that host the work of an army of talentless quacks....
Who do I have to know to get aboard this government gravy train?
The pessimism you are invoking is, I'm afraid, not healthy. It is borne from a dissatisfaction with certain truths which puncture personal beliefs: believe that humans have no impact on their environment, believe that trickle down economics will lead to employment, believe that God hates gay people, believe what you want. But facts are facts, and if creativity isn't nurtured, exalted and widely encouraged you get people who wallow in fear an misunderstanding, incuriousness and cynicism. And Emmory, just your tone (insofar as tone is detectable through writing) seems to come from an embrace of desired beliefs rather than plain facts.
Always a pleasure, Steven... keep up the good work and break a leg...
And if I may take just a moment to rant: Even though I live in blue Austin, there is NO radio station on which we progressives can hear progressive talk shows. So, I've about had it up to my neck with the mantra that most of the media leans left. That's a crock. Rupie and his beloved minions have so infiltrated the nation's airwaves it makes the righties' argument/complaints almost laughable. If they weren't so scary.
It's not so much that the corporations are nasty. They aren't. Unlike my fellow liberals, I don't believe any corporate executives wake up every morning and say to themselves, "How can I screw over the most people for my benefit?"
No, it doesn't work like that. The real problem isn't that the corporations are immoral, it's that they're AMORAL; that is, instead of actively behaving badly, they simply behave without recourse to ethics at all.
Now such behavior has its place...however, the deadly part is that this lack of principles is combined with the corporation's dictum to "make increasing profits, at all costs." That isn't a bad goal by itself, but it isn't a good goal either, and the REAL problem is that Americans vote almost exclusively in favor of the corporation's goals...which means the people elected into office give so much money to the already-rich that nothing is left over for transportation, arts, science, medicine, etc.
And THAT's the problem. It's not the corporations, it's the voting public that worships so exclusively on the altar of money that they'll allow every violation of basic human rights and dignity possible so long as corporations are not prevented from making as much money as possible.
Does that make things any clearer, ma'am?
And (sadly) so correct. sigh.
I do love to read what you write.
Oh. And I just finished re-watching all seasons of "Wings" on DVD. Simply adore that series. As a retired senior (teacher), part of my health plan is to laugh. And laugh some more. "Wings" fills the prescription for that. grins.
Many thanks for that, too.
Great post, Steven! Wish I was in that neck of the woods, so I could catch what sounds like a wonderful play.
And, just to add, I've been catching up on all those 90's "The Outer Limits" episodes I didn't get to see, because I didn't have Showtime back then. Loved the 'Becka Paulson' episode with the great Catherine O'Hara, and the 8 by 10 Man/director!
You've done some great work with Stephen King's material ('The Shinning' mini-series was superb/ 'Rock 'n' Roll Heaven'), and I sometimes feel like we're in a real Stephen King plot these days.
Sadly, reality is always both stranger AND scarier, than fiction.
Have a wonderful time in Williamstown, both on stage and off. Sounds like a fantastic place to be!
Never quite as well as you just did.
Bravo!
Completely worth the two and a half hour drive from Boston (plus, we bought maple candy on the way!)
And it's working.
If it helps, I was hoping to meet the stars after, but they never emerged. My suspicion is that they were sharing a bottle of merlot and then taking naps, since that was exactly what I'd have been doing if I were them. Alas, my copies of Studio 60 and ER remain very much unautographed.