Trying to tie these threads together:
I started with the realization that Revels is the theatrical representation of some community. The represented community is a pastiche of historically and culturally rooted organic ommunities, idealized, polished, abstracted and presented on stage. The representation is compelling.
Isn't that in itself valuable? The representation of an ideal of community, of community as deal, of community as creative force or at least creative context? By presenting that as the ideal, we help move it towards reality.
Besides which, the Revels troupe does form a community during the production. As does any theater troupe; that's part of the joy of theater, is that it's a collective endeavor. So the representation of the ideal of community is also a presentation of a real community. The real presented community can of course be wildly dysfunctional (ah, the legends of the theater). But at its best, the inner reality reflects and deepens the presented reality.
// posted by R Durham @
11:07 
