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Matthew Freeman is a Brooklyn based playwright with a BFA from Emerson College. His plays include THE DEATH OF KING ARTHUR, REASONS FOR MOVING, THE GREAT ESCAPE, THE AMERICANS, THE WHITE SWALLOW, AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR, THE MOST WONDERFUL LOVE, WHEN IS A CLOCK, GLEE CLUB, THAT OLD SOFT SHOE and BRANDYWINE DISTILLERY FIRE. He served as Assistant Producer and Senior Writer for the live webcast from Times Square on New Year's Eve 2010-2012. As a freelance writer, he has contributed to Gamespy, Premiere, Complex Magazine, Maxim Online, and MTV Magazine. His plays have been published by Playscripts, Inc., New York Theatre Experience, and Samuel French.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Parabasis asks...

...his friend, under the name "Zack," why he doesn't attend the theatre in Boston.

Summation: Ticket prices aren't as big a factor as not knowing what is happening. Also, basically, he doesn't like live performers as much as he likes the movies.

Grim? A bit.

1 comment:

Jamespeak said...

Pete and I talked about this a lot a few years ago, and came to the conclusion that there's no quality control in theatre. Seeing a flyer for a production of (say) "The Glass Menagerie" doesn't give you any indication of the possible hell you can be getting yourself into when you show up to the theatre (i.e., "What? Wait. Oh, crap! They're performing it as an ABSTRACT DANCE PIECE! GAAAAAH!").

Having gone to a number of shows where I knew nothing about the company or production in advance, and being burned as an audience member more than a few times, I'm not unsympathetic to Isaac's friend's prejudices.

Josh, it's interesting you bring up stand-up, because there's a HUGE divide between amateur and professional stand-up (I've gone to many amateur open-mics, and I've seen both Dane Cook and Eddie Izzard live, trust me). There's a similar divide in some cases with theatre, although to be fair, the divide isn't nearly as wide (I pretty much know when I'm being dragged to an open-mic stand-up show I'll be experiencing a special type of hell. At least with theatre there's a chance it'll be good).