Understanding the Relevance of Theater in Performing Arts

It’s important for me to look at theater as a field. Yes, a part of that is the industry, which can be very exciting. There’s so much more to explore. Theater doesn’t simply involve a kind of making of a show for a particular audience in a particular theater. It can mean many things. This is an essential element to teach in any performing arts education, even in online performing arts education.

“It happens in small communities, in large communities. It happens with professionally trained individuals, also within community members. It happens in spaces that are, again, about the texts, others that are physical. It takes on all these forms. In many ways, the exploration of theater is an ongoing thing that will keep changing, growing, and developing,” says Ruben Polendo.

You must see theater as a field, for those in theater or who have an interest in theater. The exciting thing is that you have an agency to navigate that field as a theater artist. Regardless, we all navigate the field differently.

“Theater has this odd reputation, which I want to dispel. I want to just push that away. That reputation is one in which people imagine being for this rarefied few. That you go there and everyone’s wearing a tuxedo. They’re watching whatever is playing with opera glasses. It’s just the most alienating, foreign not-for-us scene out there,” states Harvey Young.

That’s not the case at all. Theater, from its roots, has been about people coming together to watch performances. It began as street festivals, street fairs. Think of your favorites as an outdoor concert where people gather, and the community is there. People are expressing their delight, their pleasure. That’s the kind of energy that theater strives to capture. To put into a building and invite people.

That’s the core, base, the root. If you think about what theater gives you, the theater provides that chance to be a fly on the wall. It gives you a chance to spy, to listen, to encounter the stories, the experience, the lives of people who are not your own. It’s a bit voyeuristic. That’s part of the pleasure of it too.

It’s like you are getting access to stories and experiences you haven’t seen before. In some cases, if it’s musical theater, you’re watching not only those “fly-on-the-wall experiences.” You’re also encountering true virtuosity. You’re watching Lin-Manuel Miranda freestyle in certain moments. For example, In Love Supreme.

Theater creates proximity. You’re in the same room as the actors. You’re breathing the same air, and you’re in the seeing moment. It’s not like TV. It’s not like the movie theater; you are there. Your interaction, physicality, and coughing can change the spirit, dynamic, and mood of what’s taking place. That’s why people love theater so much. It feels different when you are there.

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