There is Greatness Between Us, But Not Possessed By Us

 In Ancient Tibet master Lord Atisha was sitting with his disciple Dromtun Je.

Dromtun Je: Many ppl in Tibet are doing a wide variety of high practices, yet very few people are making any great spiritual achievements. Why?

Lord Atisha: All qualities -great or small- come from the teacher. In Tibet, you look at your teacher as normal. How can you get any great achievements out of that?

I was thinking about this conversation in regard to collaboration. Everybody wants to create the next ANGELS IN AMERICA or HAMILTON or STREETCAR DESIRE. But theatre is collaborative and great art comes from the actual spark of collaboration. In the era of MFA theatremakers, ppl look at collaborators as normal or -even worse- as servants. How can you create any great art out of that? If you treat your director or writer or actors like they are mechanical parts you move around for your ego...how can inspiration bleed into the living work? 

ANGELS IN AMERICA took several years and it was an intensive friendship/partnership/relationship between Oscar Eustis and Tony Kushner. HAMILTON took several years and it was an intensive relationship between Lin Manuel Miranda and director Thomas Kail. Tennessee Williams greatest work involved an intense and sustained relationship with Elia Kazan. For August Wilson it was a long-term relationship with Lloyd Richard that produced his finest work. And yet the avg director treats writers like short-term rungs on a ladder. I see so many brilliant directors who pour out of these fancy schools who are looking for the great play to direct...and so few directors willing to put in the time. 

There is a reason why there hasn't been a sustained POC collaboration between a black director and black writer since Wilson and Richards...and it has nothing to do with white theatre. If a black writer gets hot...they don't have to commit the time to forming a relationship. And if a black director gets hot they get a thousand jobs in which they hop around directing RAISIN, and MA RAINEY, and a sprinkling of new work...but no real roots are formed. The 'gig' mentality of snatching up all the opportunities at once prevents deep sustained relationships and actually kills great art. Other artists become instruments, devices, levers to manipulate before moving on. The muse fades, and then you're just cranking out theatre. Great directing becomes just efficient blocking to not waste time. Great writing loses its poetry and becomes linear and falls into Law&Order plotting. Great acting becomes mechanical (cry..now!! Okay...stop...now). 

There won't be another August Wilson-Lloyd Richards link to greatness until POC artists start talking to each other...and not just for the immediate job. Due to the collaborative nature of theatre, great art actually comes out of community and trust and empathy. I don't know any MFA programs teaching these hidden principles to great theatre. I see directors coming out of school knowing Grotowsky method and Anne Bogart's viewpoints, but few know how to see greatness in the writers, the actor, the designers. Ego and education takes hold and it becomes an exercise in displaying cleverness facilitated by shrewd administrative qualities. 

That is not to say there aren't brilliant artists out there. America is overflowing with brilliant and well-educated directors, writers, and actors. And yet, they see themselves as normal. They see their potential collaborators as normal. They see the process of creation as utilitarian. They see community as ticket sources. How can anything great come out of this mindset? We are squandering our brilliance on being clever gig'ers and politickers. And the art suffers.