Theater As One Of The Original Story Tellers
Story telling as a tradition has existed for as long as mankind as roamed the planet earth. Starting with cave drawings, and evolving to an oral tradition, we as a species always seem to enjoy a good story. The only thing better than hearing a good story I suppose would be telling one. It would only make sense, that as our technology evolves, that we find different ways to tell those same stories. Either on the Broadway stage or the silver screen we continue to be fascinated and entertained by a good story. That’s not to say of course, the movies and plays are the only ways to tell stories.
There are of course books, television, shows and radio as well. Although, I must admit that as an industry, the business of story telling via the radio waves has all but disappeared. Except perhaps for a few specialty channels on Sirius or XM, the golden age of radio story telling is long past. That’s fine with me, as movies, theater, television, and books have got most of the bases covered for me. While I do enjoy seeing live theater, I must admit to probably only seeing a dozen or so productions in my life. That would include quite a range of live theater though. Everything from Shakespear, to Phantom Of The Opera, to Josephs Technicolor Dreamcoat to Cats, to Mama Mia to 60’s rock and roll shows. There all great fun, but just a little expensive to do every day. Not to mention, I usually have to travel a few hours to see them.
Television on the other hand is a very accessible story telling medium, and one that has several advantages over theater. First of all it has time. I mean, a television show can play for years, and that’s a lot of story telling. Not to mention character development, plot twists, comedic setups, and generally more entertainment. The theater stage I think is a lot more personal, but has a tough go, when competing against television.
I must admit to liking books and scripts as my personal favorite. They just take so much time to consume. There’s no doubt, that by utilizing my own vivid and twisted imagination they can do a lot more with a story. But sometimes, I just don’t have the team for all that reading. Unfortunately life is busy. Movies are great for getting the story across and in an entertaining way. But, that’s a story for another day.
