"Good Theatre is like good sex... very messy."
Such were the words of Charles C. "Chris" Hampton, my Principles of Directing
teacher at San Francisco State University. A fellow directing student at
S.F. State once told me that he would rather see "an interesting failure
than a boring success." These quotes have stuck with me throughout my many
years in the theatre.
Upon returning to the director's chair after
a long absence, I decided that I wanted to direct plays with "ummph" (another
Chris Hampton term.) It is with this in mind that I form the Rustix Theatre
Company. The name Rustix comes from "the rustics" in Midsummer Night's
Dream, and means "crude and unrefined." No matter how successful this
theatrical venture becomes, I would hope that the productions always maintain
a certain crudeness, thus keeping an audience always on the edge. In the
movie Tootsie, Bill Murray's character said something to the effect
of "I don't want a packed house on Broadway on opening night. I want 10
people who have just come out of the worst rainstorm in the history of
New York City. These are people who are here, on the world, at this moment."
With that in mind, I don't want people to watch the Rustix and say, "hey,
that was really great." I want them to leave the theatre shaking their
heads, as if they have just seen a train wreck, wondering to themselves
"What the hell was that?"
Ggreg Snyder
October 21, 1999 |
