The Prick, the Thistle, and the Wardrube.

There is an artistic community in Fayetteville, and there is no better symbol of it than the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra.  Begun in the living room of the Grimes family on Skye Drive, Harlan Deno and his band of merry violins began an orchestra that with the aid of old school fortunes has developed into a stellar musical performing group.  Luckily there is a well established lineage in orchestra music.  I have been lucky to have studied it.  At different times there have been other notable artistic venues in Fayetteville.  There is the Cape Fear Regional Theater begun by Bo Thorp and Lee Yopp.  There is Sweet Tea and Shakespeare, and there is the Gilbert Theater.  I have but one thing to say about theater in general.  It is a lost art.  Why is it a lost art?  It is a lost art, because you shouldn't parody your soul.  Instead you should understand and nurture your soul.  American theater today is nothing more than a drag show, even if it doesn't want to be.  Even if the shows are straight the ill effects of homosexuality taint the soul of theater.  That is because you shouldn't parody your own soul.  Do we really want to see Billy Bigalo in drag?  No.  Is "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" a viable Broadway show?  Yes, but it understands itself.  If you don't understand heterosexuality and you misplay it, it is insipid.  America's sexuality today is insipid, because everyone is confused.  We are too busy questioning our genitalia rather than following our innate passions.  If you can't play the play straight, then it doesn't make sense.  The cruise industry is a major player in the corruption of American theater.  In one particular show the female production singer belts, "I am the Man of La Mancha."  No she isn't, and it doesn't make sense for her to sing that.  Just like anything is jazz, anything goes in theater.  That is so far from the truth.  The soul of theater is sexuality, and to it must be adhered.  I have seen so many shows in Fayetteville which brazenly disregard this precept.  I have seen reputable Broadway shows unknowingly brought down by callus and selfish homosexuality.  Theatre in its purest sense doesn't go both ways.  It can go the way of Hedwig, and when it does it can be successful.  You can't make a drag show of everything, especially Carousel.  It happens often.  I was reading about T.S. Elliot, and it was no surprise that while writing his series of children's books he disliked sexuality in general.  He felt children should not have to grow up.  His work reflects that sentiment, and to me it is insipid watching adults dress up in animal costumes and make believe.  Why would anyone pay to see this?  Why would anyone pay to watch two adult men actors talk on stage?  I mean talk in the most boring, monotone, meaningless manner imaginable in the sake of acting and theater.  "Trumbo" was a resounding failure, and no one in Fayetteville will say it.  Instead they sell season tickets, so that the quality of the production is shielded from harm.  If the show is no good it doesn't matter.  All ready it is bought and paid for.  "Trumbo" was the most insulting play ever I have seen, because the essence of acting was absent.  It seems America is loosing touch with the craft of acting.  It is not a surprise.  Without sexuality, passion, and emotion talk is cheap and boring.  Certainly we should not pay $30.00 to hear two people talk on stage about nothing much.  We were patrons of a recent show in Fayetteville, and it bore no resemblance to anything theatrical.  There were no sets.  There were no props.  There was no lighting.  Most of all there was no acting.  They didn't know how to act, and above all they didn't know what acting was.  It was a mockery of theater, and yet the people clapped.  They clapped because their "people" were in the show.  That is not good enough.  I watched this void of sexuality, its androgynous limp-wristed attempt at theater and was stymied.  Adults dressed as animals saying words with no meaning.  Talk about self-indulgent.  Theater deserves more than this, and now that theater has become jazz it is time to take a moment to review the vehicle which theater is.  It is not mindless, sexless, fairy tales hiding from reality.  It is human reality in this world, not Narnia.  Please Mr. Elliot, go back to your ivory tower and jump off.