ethos and expectations

babette and lumier - tahoma drama clubs

last weekend i attended a junior high musical production of Beauty and the Beast. then i came home, flopped onto the couch, and fell asleep to The Best of Masterpiece Theatre, hailed by those begging public television executives as some of the highest quality programming anywhere. the former cost $5.00; the latter nothing but a few sleepy minutes.

naturally all this got me thinking about the standards of modern performance art. personally i enjoyed the junior high musical a bit more than the late night telethon fund-raising thing.

obviously the inexperienced and underfunded performance of a gang of junior high kids is not fit to compete seriously with "the finest classic and contemporary writers interpreted by the world's foremost actors." you can't expect much from junior high kids. why do we expect such a lot from Helen Mirren?

because she's the world's finest actress, of course. or so say the members of the Helen Mirren Appreciation Society. as for me, i've never seen Prime Suspect. i call myself no judge of Mirren's acting ability. but her name does spring far more readily to mind than Shelby Whatsherface whom i know did a very fine job of being Belle on saturday.

the cast of the latest oscar winning film and the tahoma junior high drama club both count as actors. i can link to Mirren's appreciation society website just as easily as i can borrow photographs from the tahoma drama club.

the fact that one of my sister's friends played a man in a red hat in this play makes it closer to me than any of those oscar winners. ethos can be big and pervading and general, like the fact that i know Helen Mirren's name. or it can be small and quaint and winding, like that guy i knew in high school who writes screenplays. given that it isn't what you know but who, i think the smaller kind counts for more. even if i never do talk to that guy i knew in high school who writes screenplays. does he still write screenplays anymore or does he just complain about the state of american drama?