We are consumers of entertainment, but have forgotten how to create our own.  I come home every day and want to watch television.  There isn't much to watch that I find entertaining so I've been renting DVD's of television series.  I want to keep a log of my reactions to entertainment with the hope that I will be able to tap into something creative in myself and maybe even create something of my own.

Last Saturday my mother, sister Sue and daughter and I went to the Barrow Street theater to see "Tribes."  I loved the feeling of being so close to the actors. We sat in the first row in the small theater practically on stage with them, on the same level. I almost held my breath when they brushed by us.  Will we break their concentration?  Should I avoid eye contact?  Do they notice me?  Are they effected by my laughing, crying?  The audience and I are acting with them.  We're more than an audience; we are spectators.  A spectator watches and observes, approves, disapproves.  A spectator has vested something in the performance.  I want the actors to win.  I cheer them on.  I laugh even when I don't understand the joke.  I cry because I am sincerely moved, shaken.  Theater is an interaction.  The television has no smell, no touch.  What did Carlos say about why he doesn't like theater and prefers film?  For the reasons why I prefer theater...I can't remember the word he used...live theater isn't abstract enough?

Live theater demands a little more...unfortunately that usually means more money...it should mean more give and take.  I want to write the words. Or speak them to give them life.  I want to write a sentence that sings.