Among the immeasurable traits of our species, no idea is more human than the concept of
identity, and no medium has served as a better outlet for expressing
that identity than art. From the hands stenciled on cave walls in Argentina to modern day film
and television, art remains an institution that will carry on, hopefully, ad infinitum.
More fascinating still is the phenomena of trends that have formed within art throughout the centuries following its formalization: the Neoclassicism of the eighteenth century, Surrealism in the 1920s, and Postmodernism following the Second World War. Each movement is characterized by its own traits, like melting clocks or the introduction of domestic issues to the American stage, but has this generation found its historical distinction that will catapult it from the stage to page?
The art form in question here is primarily theatre. Across the country, and perhaps even the world, students of the Theatre in their history courses are taught the big names and ideas that have transcended the ages, but the question on the tip of everyone’s tongue is “What will we call our movement? Who will we be to the students ages from now?”
It’s a particularly valid question in an age where electronic communication has made the transmission and digestion of information an almost instantaneous process. As such, the cultural boundaries between styles have begun to crumble and the world is rapidly becoming a more
More fascinating still is the phenomena of trends that have formed within art throughout the centuries following its formalization: the Neoclassicism of the eighteenth century, Surrealism in the 1920s, and Postmodernism following the Second World War. Each movement is characterized by its own traits, like melting clocks or the introduction of domestic issues to the American stage, but has this generation found its historical distinction that will catapult it from the stage to page?
The art form in question here is primarily theatre. Across the country, and perhaps even the world, students of the Theatre in their history courses are taught the big names and ideas that have transcended the ages, but the question on the tip of everyone’s tongue is “What will we call our movement? Who will we be to the students ages from now?”
It’s a particularly valid question in an age where electronic communication has made the transmission and digestion of information an almost instantaneous process. As such, the cultural boundaries between styles have begun to crumble and the world is rapidly becoming a more
integrated place to live. The process is still gaining momentum, so it’s possible that its
identifying traits may have yet to take shape.
At the moment it appears the world of artistry is in a state of “do-your-own-thing-ism”, which is exactly what its name implies. As the arts are on the rise in American universities, there has been a mass influx of young artists graduating with no particular prescription for form in an atmosphere that’s open to try just about anything. For theatre artists, this means that the already slim job market is losing opportunities fast, which drives the young artists to become entrepreneurs, forming their own experimental theatre groups in found spaces with their colleagues.
You might could even consider it a rebirth of the Independent Theatre movement of the late nineteenth century. With Broadway full to the brim with musicals and Disney adaptations as well as an intensely competitive theatre scene, it’s no wonder new artists turn to “new play” houses or even each other for support instead of the starstruck conglomerate that has become the American Theatre.
In time and with careful nurturing, today’s young artistic community has the potential to blossom into a full-blown artistic movement every bit as powerful as the counter-culture movement in the sixties or the romanticism that contested the rationalization of nature. What makes this generation unique, however, is that it is self-aware it’s evolving into something spectacular. So. What will the history books read?
At the moment it appears the world of artistry is in a state of “do-your-own-thing-ism”, which is exactly what its name implies. As the arts are on the rise in American universities, there has been a mass influx of young artists graduating with no particular prescription for form in an atmosphere that’s open to try just about anything. For theatre artists, this means that the already slim job market is losing opportunities fast, which drives the young artists to become entrepreneurs, forming their own experimental theatre groups in found spaces with their colleagues.
You might could even consider it a rebirth of the Independent Theatre movement of the late nineteenth century. With Broadway full to the brim with musicals and Disney adaptations as well as an intensely competitive theatre scene, it’s no wonder new artists turn to “new play” houses or even each other for support instead of the starstruck conglomerate that has become the American Theatre.
In time and with careful nurturing, today’s young artistic community has the potential to blossom into a full-blown artistic movement every bit as powerful as the counter-culture movement in the sixties or the romanticism that contested the rationalization of nature. What makes this generation unique, however, is that it is self-aware it’s evolving into something spectacular. So. What will the history books read?
