Can a negative example be instructive? I'll throw myself on the sword, by showing you a letter I mailed today that very likely will have the opposite effect from the one I want. There is something that has been called 'The Will To Fail.' That was the title of one of the first of the modern 'self-help' books, published in the 1940s. Choosing to not get along with people is probably, most of the time, a manifestation of the will to fail.
Earlier on this journal I wrote an entry about seeing a revival of a twenty year old music comedy stageplay COLORED MUSEUM which I greatly enjoyed on Opening Night at a little theater in Los Angeles called Company of Angels. Before and since I've indulged fantasies of returning to little theater partly in conjunction with writing a play.
It seemed to my perhaps jaundiced view up close, that Company of Angels was adrift, as if in love with mediocrity and feeling close to the theater without actually producing anything themselves. The play I saw was written and rehearsed far, far away from that theater. Now, through bad management, that play is in performance to near empty houses and the theater's telephone announcement tells lies about it being held over to satisfy demand from excellent reviews. I doubt that theater is in fact reviewed anymore.
So, I set out to make some whopping great weeping enemies via a sort of tough love. I know in advance it won't work, but an evil genie made me mad so I first tried to send an email, and when the email address I had was declared by AOL to be too long, I added to what I'd written and mailed it as a letter today. Can't wait to see what happens when I go to that theater again to buy a ticket. (They don't sell tickets, they write down your name and then lose their list of names.)
There are hundreds of little theaters in Los Angeles. That one however is only 4 miles away without my having to get on the freeway. So, I might forgive its sins if in return I can have an impact re efficiency, and resolve to produce something of their own. The guys I saw at thetheater need to toughen up, spend some time in the Army or serve in the Peace Corps or build a highway or SOMETHING.
In other words, yes, one can learn to get along with people, but, one can also, and simultaneously, deliberately risk alienating people to bring about a desired result.
Anyway, here's how NOT to get along with people:
March 15, 2005
Company of Angels;
The guy painting your wall today looks to me
subcontracted. Once again I'm disillusioned.
My fantasy was that all those dedicated thespians
painted and set-built as well as wrote their own
plays, and cast from your "Company," as well as
painted your menu on your two modest walls.
I've photographed your theater; it's cute. It seduced
me, setting off thoughts of what I'd still like to do.
Years ago I was at American Theater Arts, east of Vine,
on Hollywood Blvd. The theater building had been a mortuary.
Two stages were built. The theater had a 'Angel.' It is now
long gone. Well, they DID send two plays to Broadway
after shaping them. One was a vehicle for Jessica and Hume, and the other was a drama about Donner Pass. I had nothing to do with either. I taught there and I acted there (to good reviews). I directed two one-acts, Before Breakfast by E. O'Neill, and An adapted version of part of Vieux Carre, by Tennessee Williams. The double bill was sold out every night for months, and every night the waiting list was longer than the capacitry of the house. When you get it right, and rehearse for real, lightning can strike. I acted and directed in college. I had phenomenal success with Ibsen's The Masterbuilder, with Richard Jordan in the lead. (Real name Robert Jordan.) His last movie, his last acting performance, was in Ted Turner's Gettysburg. That production of Masterbuilder was held over into exam period and got the drama club out of debt for the first time in its history. (Now there's an actual theater, from money given by a Mister Loeb.)
I've been rereading LA little theater reviews after a very long
absence from doing that. I see going concerns get
$35 per ticket. Your tickets, says thatwriting on the
wall, are $10. What gives? So I was shocked that 'Museum'
cost $15 per ticket. Maybe I misunderstood you and the
tickets, which I never did receive (no tickets!?) cost $30
each, and I misunderstood. The sulky gorilla who admitted me, and my wife, on opening night, had no record of my having paid, three days earlier. Very, very upsetting, actually humiliating. since he was so dubious and sly with his insinuations.
Last time I looked your mail slot had still not been fixed.
The theater is in breakdown? or is it just content to be a
way station of the pony express? Temporary, a stage-for-rent?
How much do you charge to rent your theater? I might have a play.
Who's the main Honcho? You have a top 'Angel'?
Is there a consortium, or one eccentric, go-it-aloner who acts
as if organization is only for the petty minded?
I'm getting pissed. Maybe picketing is called for? <g>. Or pamphleteering?
Barry
This is a test.
A good rule of thumb might be to always sleep on a letter, or a post, before sending. Compelled to live dangerously, I mailed it already.
Barry
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