The question I will be addressing in this blog is "Why, in a world where we value new technology, in a world where we can watch TV and movies on handheld devices, would someone go to the theatre? Why keep doing it?" Simply put I think that people still go to the theatre and watch shows because it is a completely different experience then watching the TV or a movie.
These three things are all very different concepts that have different aspects and purposes in society. On TV you can watch shows that range from a half an hour to an hour, and now even five minute shows in between the longer ones. When you watch movies they range from a little over an hour to six hours spread over three disks. The similar thing between these two mediums of entertainment is that they're not "live", you, the viewer, are staring at a screen as people you don't know act out a story for you. This is not "candid" (with the exception of the rising popularity of reality television shows) the director can stop and re shoot a scene as many times as he/she wants to until he/she thinks it is perfect.
One the other hand Theatre is a whole other form of entertainment in and of it-self. When watching a show being performed on stage it is a one-hundred percent different experience. You see the actors, you are part of the show, it's more "real". When watching a play it is as if you really are glimpsing into a different time and place and spying on those who live there. When an actor cries on stage you can physically see their tears fall, for me theatre is much more believable and entrancing then TV or movies are.
Also there's something special about theatre that TV and movies don't have and that is the audience. Yes, some TV shows are "filmed in front of a live audience" but that doesn't mean when they mess up they have to improv their way through it, they still get to stop shooting and re shoot the scene. I my-self am an actress and have been since I was a little kid, and nothing is more exhilarating then going on stage and seeing all the faces in the audience looking at you and your fellow actors and actresses just waiting to be let into the World you're about to show them. When someone messes up on stage there's no stopping and restarting you just have to keep going. Sometimes its these little slip ups that makes each show unique and an experience unlike any other.
TV and movies have their pros; you can watch them over and over, you can pause, rewind, even stop and take a break. You can't do these things in Theatre. Although TV, movies, and theatre all serve the some purpose, to entertain, they are almost so different they're incomparable. But, it's these differences that makes each one of then special in their own right and makes it so that all three can exist without one becoming a "lost" art form.
