Use For It?

Jenn's grandma lives on the sea. Three sides of her house face salt-water in a Maine bay. The fourth side is a dirt road through the woods back to the main road in between Bath and Booth Bay Harbor. It's quiet, no street lights, no bustle. During the day boats passing by, birds and some small animals. Up the way a little by there's a small cabin the family stays at when visiting.

At night it is dark. When the moon is behind the clouds there is almost no light. One night Jenn and I walked up to the cabin, but there were no flashlights. We were walking through the pitch black forest at night and it took me back. It's been a long time since I'd been in the woods at night.

For many folks, it is a terrifying experience. The noises, the dark, the unknown--grips them in a completely irrational way. We are not, as much as we like to think we are, motivated by rational thought. People just don't behave rationally. Often people are motivated by fear. And the unknown is terrifying for many.

Most artists don't spend much time in the woods anymore. If we do we have all kinds of gadgets to power our way through the night. Long ago we figured out ways to deaden our fears. 

We don't have much use for dark woods anymore.

Last night as we were getting Tony Jr. ready to go to bed, I told him it was almost time to go into his room and go to bed. He looked at me straight faced and sure. More articulate than he usually is, he replied. "No dad. The Ghosts will get me." He wasn't scared. He just knew that would happen. He was sure of it. It reminded me of a conversation I had with a longtime critic in a pre-opening night lobby about a show we had seen. "I gotta be honest," he told me in a very grownup, critical, tone, "as soon as I see a "ghost" onstage, you've lost me."

We don't have much use for ghosts anymore.

Looking through the lists of seasons at theatres of most sizes, a couple of things become clear. The easiest way to get hired or produced at a place that can pay anything approaching a living wage is to know the right people. Having a grad degree from the right handful of colleges helps. Being able to go out for drinks on a regular basis helps. Being able to afford to work as an assistant until you have the right resume credits really helps.

We don't have much use for merit anymore.

What do we have use for? I don't know. I'd kinda rather believe that the woods will get ya, or that ghosts are walking around than admit that being a meritocracy is a far more fictitious idea. As I look through season announcements, I'm waiting for someone to prove me wrong.