The Philly Fringe Festival was last month, and with it came the mixed feelings they give me every year. Mixed because in our fringe festival, like most fringe festivals, absolutely anyone can put up a show. And to me that is both the best and worst thing about the entire proposition.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the theater you see at a fringe festival is bad. Far from it. Some of the most daring, original and extreme pieces will be seen under the banner of 'fringe'. But because, as I said, anyone can produce a show...ANYONE can produce a show. Including people who have absolutely no business doing so.
Before you get in a tiff, I want to make it clear I include myself in that second group. I see myself as a serviceable actor and a very amateur attempted playwright. Having said that, I think I have enough self-awareness to know I shouldn't try and self produce a piece of my own creation. Not yet. What the Fringe festival brings forth is a lot of people who aren't quite so self-aware.
The problem, as I see it, is that when you're the end-all be-all in the creative process, you have no way to know if what you're doing is objectively good art. (If any art can be seen as 'objectively' good or bad.) If you're involved in a creative collaboration with other artists, however, it becomes much more likely that the work you're doing will be better received by a wider audience. At least I suspect that to be the case.
And maybe that's not even a problem. Maybe self-producing is a way of finding out what works with the audience directly. Perhaps it's even a more direct route to get an answer. An audience or a critic will tend to be much more likely to give you direct criticism than a friend or family member. The critics in Philadelphia, if nothing else, are not afraid of hurting feelings.
I started thinking about this, believe it or not, after having a conversation with a friend of mine about Michael Jackson, Tom Cruise and George Lucas. A strange triad, I know, but they have one thing in common. Each of those artists, in the later parts of their careers, seem to have lost connection with the collaboration aspect of art or life. By life I'm talking more about Tom and Michael. Without getting into too many specifics, I suspect that their personal lives lacked a lot of people that told them 'no'. When you're that big of a star, as a musician or actor, how many people in your inner circle are going to suggest that one of your ideas might not be a good one? 'What's that Michael, you want to buy a chimpanzee? Why...of course...that's an excellent idea!" I imagine, by accident or design, those gentlemen tend to attract a lot of yes-men.
George Lucas has the same problem, but in relation to his career. If you're a nerd like me then you know that the first three Star Wars films were infinitely better than the last three. Why? Well, my guess is that he lacked people that would tell him no. Lucas had massive success and was disgustingly wealthy from the success of the first three films. Who, after that, is going to say "Excuse me, Mr. Lucas, maybe we should get some other writers to punch up some of this dialogue?" Not many.
But that's what I want. I want a group of people to help me with my work. I want them to be honest, brutally honest if necessary, and tell me when my art is speaking to them and when it's horrible and trite. I want them to experience it, rip it to shreds and hand it back to me so I can make it better and stronger. I want to find out whether or not my work is worth being presented before it goes in front of an audience.
That, I think, is why I won't be self-producing any time soon.
