On the Search for the Cross-Section

I originally started this as a comment but then it started to grow into something larger, so here goes:

I have heard this "audiences and casts as diverse as my daily commute" thought from Q before, and it is one that I have often thought about.

On my commute (when I use public transport, as I usually prefer to walk or bike as I need more sunshine and control over my own destiny than the typical office drone) I do NOT feel like there is a commonality of experience. I feel that most commuters are attempting to put up an impermeable force-field (be it with a paper, a book, headphones, or snoozing) and NOT to relate to each other. Of course we don't have subway performances or begging in DC, so those artists or those panhandlers might change the temperature in a car by connecting people together as witnesses, but generally, strangers are not connecting. Nor are they putting out signals that they WANT to connect. It seems to me that people want to preserve their anonymity - I know that I do.

In my life experience, humans seem to be predominantly self-segregating, seeking people with similar backgrounds and similar perspectives on life. Blue collars at one bar, rich frat boys at another, artists in one place, attorneys at another, etc. Add age, race, income, religion, music tastes etc. into the mix. I have lived abroad a few times in my life, and Americans always stuck together, as did the foreigners in general.

Churches - where you might think that a bunch of really different people could get together to worship a common god - self-segregate within denominations, too, along economic and race lines (possibly by age as well). And all those different types of people heading to all those different churches all over town feel that they are participating in something valuable and rewarding.

It's not that individuals have anything against any other group necessarily, it's that, for humans, like attracts like. Or safety in numbers. Or whatever. It's more relaxing to be around people where there is a kind of shorthand, and that shorthand can be most quickly developed through common experience.

So here's the question I pose:

Why does the theatre NEED to be a place where different types of people come together? Why is that IMPORTANT to the art form, and more importantly, to the EVOLUTION of the form? What makes you think that the theatre should do what hardly anything else other than public transport does? How can you make a piece of theatre that appeals to all those different types of people? How does this desire fit with the advice of R. Foreman, as Quincy posted yesterday?

It seems that there are two ideas at play here:
1) diversity of all kinds in the audience
2) a sense of community and connection across these diverse groups

First, I agree with Foreman. I think you have to narrow your focus and tell your story for one or two people whom you know intimately because I believe that it is through SPECIFICITY that we find the universal. How can you guess what the white granny, the Latino businessman, and the black teenage girl want to see and what will speak to them? How can you make art for a broad spectrum without generality? How can we possibly guess what moves a complete and utter stranger to laughter, to tears, to rage? I think all you can do is think about yourself (this moment makes me laugh), and your three people (my mom's heart would break in this moment), and you just hope that it communicates more broadly.

Secondly, how do we create a community through performance? Yes, I'm excited to experiment with the lights-up-in-the-house (but I want to be clear that the houselights should not interfere with the design of the stage lighting - so long as the audience can never "disappear" as long as there are actors on stage). But I think that Q's bringing up something that needs greater discussion and invention: what creates a community of theatrical witnesses? We know how that has happened in the US after a tragedy (even tiny, private tragedies). But how does theatre create that community, however transient and fleeting that community is?

I'm curious to see where this discussion goes. I know Q has some philosophies about how to attract different audiences (including some pretty pinko ones, but she can't help her lefty leanings) and I definitely want to start the brainstorm on how to create our community of witnesses/ spectators.