On Small Moments

Or: Why I love studying with Steven Dietz

The following is an exerpt from a message to our class from Steven Dietz:

GOAL:
We are seeking to transcend the “actual” and find the “theatrical”. This does not mean false or fake or even non-realistic. It means that each contribution (Space, Action, Language) requires the “Theatrical Gesture” -- the quality of REFINEMENT and RESONANCE which captures an “essence”; which literally forces us to watch. This is hard. This is necessary. This is why we train.

People don’t – in the real world - actually live in Tom Lynch’s sets, or walk around surrounded by Peter Maradudin’s lights, or talk like characters in an Adam Rapp or Suzan Lori-Parks play. These artists bring the “Theatrical Gesture” to each moment, each image, each sentence. With audacity and specificity they transcend the ordinary; push us beyond our daily lives. And when a series of “small moments” are fashioned into a living narrative presented in a defined space (or spaces) in real-time: we call that a play. And so, in making Small Moments ...

STRATEGY:
Work SMALL. Work with an aggressive, even obsessive PRECISION. Make ONE SINGULAR MOMENT: one Space, one Action, one shard of Language. Do LESS — but do it FULLY.

You are not making “scenes” - you are not making “stories” - if you attempt to do so, with this exercise, you’ll more than likely end up with “skits”. The world has enough skits.

The great challenge to us all is that the Mundane and the Actual are very insidious. They will sneak into your art and take your work hostage. They will threaten to turn “Space / Action / Language” into ... “Furniture / Behavior / Conversation”. The world has enough furniture and behavior and conversation. Be on guard. Wield your theatrical sense of audacity and specificity. Remember the van Gogh quote: “Exaggerate the essential; leave the obvious vague.”

For example: if you decide that your Space is an “apartment” and your Action is “sewing” and your Language is “It’s so late. I wonder when Amy will finally get home?” ... your small moment is probably going to be general and literal and lacking the Theatrical Gesture.

If, instead, your Space is “a small weathered footstool” and your Action is “threading a tiny needle” and your Language is “The year is done, Amy. Come home.” ... you are on the way towards something which has a little more resonance, prompts questions, “opens out” instead of “folding in” and answering itself. Is it a scene? - a play? - a story? - no: it’s just a moment that requires us to watch.

Furthermore: general choices beget more general choices. Each collaborator who makes a “soft” or “literal” choice inevitably locks his/her fellow collaborators into a series of soft, literal, general choices. The Actual and the Ordinary are like weeds -- they will overtake the Theatrical instantly, every single time, if you give them a chance. Fight this. Help each other.