The Value of Theatre: Paul R Jones.

Why do we Americans always have to put a 'value' or price tag on everything. I suppose it is an unfortunate necessity in this day and age with a generation who want life to be an Ipod. Theatre is not easy. It demands mental and emotional commitments that require much from participants on stage and in the audience. It also requires, as Thornton Wilder so aptly stated: "a willing suspension of disbelief". The "willing" is the key and, perhaps, the most difficult.

    Theatre has and will always BE for me. It is life itself. The coming together and sharing what it is to be human. For well over 2,500 years, theatre has brought people from all walks of life together to share, to experience, to escape, to laugh, to cry, to feel joy, to feel dispair, to debate, to argue, to mean, to understand, to accept, to reject, to transcend, to BE. We, or at least I, value theatre because it IS. I cannot live without theatre by either doing as a creator or sharing as part of the audience. That was my mission for over thirty five years in educational theatre and continues today in my new life as an actor and director. The frustration with the former opened the door to my incredible new life in theatre.

    I think the only way to create "value" in theatre for a new generation is by them experiencing great theatre. Getting people to go to the theatre cannot be taught or required if there is to be real meaning and 'value'. But how to do that? In areas where great theatre is limited or difficult to get to get to and there is no inspirational mentor to point the way and share that love, I have no idea. However, here in southern Oregon all these aspects come into focus with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and it's incredible and successful educational and outreach programs. The 'value' here is in the experiences and the "doing" thus creating life long love for theatre.

 

Enough rambling,

Paul R. Jones