パフォーミングアーツの重要性
Alright, so this will be a part two of us talking about triptych.
Yeah, you said that you had something you wanted to add.
Yes, so speaking about that kind of made me think about performing arts in general and sort of
why, actually I don't really have a why. I have a certain relationship with performing arts
having danced pretty much since I was a kid and have been kind of exposed to
the world of performing arts in general. But I want to hear like, I feel like that's a very
specific lens that I'm going at. And I think for many people, and I think including you,
you don't really have a like, how often do you go to see live performance of anything?
Okay, yeah. Not very often, right? I have this, I do probably have a little more experience than
maybe, you know, somebody who just like, never goes, right? But I don't know, once a year might
be kind of generous. So it's probably more like, once every several years.
Right, right. Yeah. And I think that's quite common. Like, I mean, it's not everyone's cup
of tea. But I think it's not everyone's cup of tea most of the time, because they haven't had
a lot of exposures to public, sorry, performing arts in general. Yeah, I'd say there's a separation
between people having gone to see it at the beginning. And there's also like a,
maybe not a barrier, but if you're not aware of, say, what's happening at the theater,
or you're not accustomed to like checking out what's happening at these like event spaces,
then it's, it's just not one of the things that you'll be going to, right? So yeah, right.
Yeah. And also, there's, there's a sort of affordability questions, because it's a lot
cheaper to go see a movie than go see a performance like this one. I was gifted a ticket, but
it was still 5000 yen, you know, yeah, pretty, like much more expensive than going to a movie
or sitting at home watching Netflix. Right? Right. Yeah, it's about it's about double or
triple going to a movie. And it's infinitely more expensive than just staying home, I guess.
So, right. And, and I don't, like, I can easily see how people will not find that worth their
money. And it's true, because the thing with performing arts is that even if you are pretty
well accustomed in the world, I would say I, at least for ballet, I usually have a pretty decent
idea of what I'm getting myself into. And even then, sometimes I go see a show and pay good
money for it and be like, yeah, that was all right. It was like, not the greatest show I've seen.
But like, okay, I at least supported the dancers, something like that. Right?
Right. Yes. Yep. Like if meh experience was your first couple of experiences, you don't really feel
like and like, it's not something I want to spend my weekend doing. You know, that's a good point.
I can definitely see that it's it's not, it's a it's a pretty expensive
hobby leisure choices of all the things you could choose at this day and age.
We do have a lot of, you know, distraction choices, shall we say, some of them, I would
judge being better than others. But, you know, yeah, yeah. But like, I kind of kept repeating
myself in a previous episode, there's definitely something about live performance, whether that's
music or theater or dance, something about it where you have to be there to really enjoy
the performance. There's really no real way of sort of secondhand experience that's equivalent.
I can, you know, you can read a review of a performance and kind of understand how it was
like, but it would be so, so, so far removed from the actual experience. Right? Yeah. And with like,
yeah, it's not there's a lot of sort of energy exchange that happens between the audience
that's sharing the same room and the performer. And these are kind of maybe like the theater
etiquette type of thing that might be another barrier for people to go for the first time,
because they feel like they don't know the rules or they know they're not welcome or something like
that. And it's part of, yeah, part of it is definitely sort of like on the performance
芸術とパフォーマンスの価値
side, right? Like on the performing industry side of things where like they make it inaccessible.
But it is true, like these things cost, you know, these productions involve a lot of humans,
like, even though like Triptych, the people who were on stage were maybe six or seven people.
There were a whole bunch of people behind the scene for tech, for lighting, for stage management,
for and those people who are like not on there at the time, like costume choreographers,
people who do rehearsals, so like rehearsal directors, and a whole list of people, right?
And, and to run this, and to recover the revenue in, you know, three nights that they were performing
three or four nights, it you need to charge a certain amount of money to do that. Right. And,
and then you're talking about like the theater staff, like ushers, the ticket people, the people
who were like just doing the theater cleaning janitors at the theater. Yeah. All of these
people need to be paid. And like, once I sort of understood that I started finding these ticket
prices to be not expensive, but like, it just costs what it costs. Yeah. And sort of that's now
that I have a bit of adult money, right? I feel like I can. And I have also, I have also acquired
some kind of like a sensor of like what I enjoy and what I enjoy less of. So sure. Yeah. Like my,
my targeting is usually pretty satisfactory. Like I rarely go to a performance and be like,
that was a complete waste of my time. Right. Okay. All right. I have had that before. But now I kind
of can gauge what I'm getting myself into from the trailer from the website and things like that.
Yeah. And that does help me pick a good one. But again, I think this is just like a part of
my privilege in, you know, being familiar with it since I was young. And also, I don't discredit
the four years that I lived in New York as an undergrad, where I had a bunch of free access to
a lot of these live performances, by having my school ID basically be like,
yeah, free theater, free performance, free Broadway, a lot of things.
I love school access to things, right? This is something that, you know, I think there should
be more of. But also, yeah, it's a particular time. But again, like, you know, like my school
was expensive. So like, it was good that it came with these perks. But like, yeah, better at that
point. These are things that helped me sort of develop my sensor into what I think I enjoy
and whatnot. Yeah. So there's definitely that kind of like education aspect to it.
新しい体験への挑戦
But I don't know, like, as a sort of like a less avid of a live performance viewer,
what do you what would help you to kind of like, get your feet wet in this kind of thing?
That's a good question. In my case, I don't know how other people experience this, but I would say
I am kind of aware of like, say, you know, advertisements around, you know, theater or
art or other other things that are popping up. And I go, oh, you know, I could, I can see the
part of me that would be interested, right, in experiencing that are going to that or, you know,
what do I think the barrier is? I think sometimes the barrier is just there are already things that
I do. Right, which is then you know, what what is the thing that would draw me to the theater
instead of the other stuff? That's probably the maybe the challenge point. I used to also
you already have this one thing, you know, for sure you will enjoy, right?
And then your time, and other resources are at competition with that and a new,
potentially unknown experience, right? And that is something that I've definitely, I floated between
different types of experience here where, you know, I, for a long time, probably while being
in Japan was like, I'll just do anything, right? If something is going to be like,
I'll just do anything, right? If somebody invites me to it, I'll go check it out. If
if I see something, and I, you know, I can make the time for it, I'll go check this thing out.
演劇と観客の関わり
And I don't think I did that as much as I know other people did that. Well, you know,
and like, I think it just depends on how much effort people have put towards trying the new
experience. And sometimes that being like, a real challenge for, for us, for each human
trying to like pick what to do. So I would say if I had some like really good,
if I had a recommendation from someone, like if you get like you, if you had said,
you know what, you should really go and watch Triptych, right? And like, and like, you know,
I was like, okay, you know, what's the timing, something like that. I probably would have like
went out of my way to at least attempt right to go to that. Yeah, maybe because I don't have as
full of a, I think this will be good sense. And so if I get a suggestion from somebody that I trust,
like, has taste, maybe not the same taste I have, which is a difference, right? But like,
then I would direct myself towards that option. Right? So okay, okay. So So,
yeah, I think maybe as a sort of, I'm not a performer of the industry anymore. But as like
an audience of this industry, I can go sort of evangelize people by inviting people into coming
to shows with me. Okay, okay, that's good to know. But I do think I agree. Hold on, are we giving you
the evangel like, like, an evangelist title for like, convincing people going to theater shows?
The thing is, in attention economy that we live in? Yeah, there are, like you said,
bunch of different ways you can do with your time. Yeah, like, yeah, exactly. One of my favorite
Japanese slang as of late is jikan otokasu. It's like melting your time. Yeah, I was like,
oh my god. Oh, like, it combines the notion of passiveness. And like, you know, my own action
taking this in like the perfect way because I am tokashiteru. I'm actively melting the time. So
that's my doing. But the verb melt feels kind of like a passive action. Like it just happens,
you know? Yeah, okay. And this captures how I waste my time scrolling on internet perfectly.
This is the melting of time thing, right? So okay. All right. All right. All right. All right.
So I mean, God knows, I probably waste and melt so many bloody hours than I care to admit
on doing something else. And at least I feel like there's very few things nowadays, you know,
between job and other things. There are very few things that you have a full body attention
paying moment. Yeah, that's true. The modern life, which is why I like going to ballet class,
or I like going to work out because at least during that time, all I can think about is just that
activity. And there's very few things in the world right now that lets me do that. And I think
theatre experience can be one of those things where if once you're in a theatre, you will turn
off your phone and you will focus on what's going on stage, you're fully engaged, your ears, your
eyes, everything. So like, I think, in that sense, it's like, this is something I think we all crave.
But we don't really know often, yeah, how to access that kind of like, right, full body experience.
And instead, we're sort of like, you know, she can't bust it, or the customer, right? So it's
just like, yeah. So like, this is how I can sell theatre experience to people who don't already
regularly go to theatre as a way to like, kind of, hey, do you want to try something new? Yeah,
do you want to stop melting your time and go do something more like full bodied and like,
right, right, right. Okay. Yeah, yeah.
I think I guess kind of same goes for museum visits to like, be but that I think it's like,
it requires a little bit more practice than theatre because I find, you know, when there's
like music and something in front of your eyes moving, that's a lot more engaging than like
staring at a painting that doesn't move, or speak. Right. Yeah. I mean, some people prefer
that. So you know, like, I have no problems with that either. Like I like going to museums. But
芸術体験への誘い
it's, I think it's like a maybe like a additional practice required to feel fully engaged in kind
of like a gallery space. Yeah, you have to take, I think it's a little bit more accessible.
Live music, I think is a little bit more accessible in that way. Yeah. And
yeah. Yeah, but I agree. Like, I think it's a
once you like, have gone handful of times with this friends of yours who you trust to have a
taste, maybe not your taste, right, then you become less nervous about going to another show.
Like once you know, like you've been to several and you're like, okay, I know how it generally
works. Yeah. For the chemists, technically, I still am. Then like, you have the catalyst,
which is you in that case, right? It's the one coming over and like saying, Hey, this is what
I want, or not what I want. This is what you can see and enjoy. And in order to do that,
you should go see this thing. And by hearing that from somebody that you sort of trust you,
okay, right, like my, my level of being uncertain about going to this thing has now decreased,
right? So like, it's easier for me to go and make the plans and, and look into it and start to like,
actually have the experience. And then as you have the experience, it also gets easier,
right? It's just like, Oh, now I can start. Yeah.
And much like how you want to follow your favorite YouTuber, or your favorite musicians,
like you start, oh, I like what this theater curates, or I like this performance company.
And like, you kind of start you have ways and pointers to follow from then on. So yeah, okay.
Yeah, I can, I'll try and invite you to something if I see something. Yeah, please do. I was a
little bit nervous to invite people to classical ballet performance, just because it is, it is on
a pricier side of performing arts. But, like, and also, like, I have no, like, I don't expect,
I guess, a lot of people who are non dancers, non ballet enthusiast, to enjoy because it's a very
formatted art. And I don't know, like, at this point, I've been doing it for too long. I don't
know how inaccessible it is. Sure. I mean, for me, I mean, I would probably just tell you, right,
if I really didn't get anything out of it. But I, yeah, I've had enough time with like the arts
in like other ways, and a little bit and sort of the live performing arts that usually I find
myself being like, I can, I can sit with this and like, see the experiences. And I might not get the
same understanding. I can be sure that you will enjoy, like the physical aspects of it. Like,
sure. Yeah. Right, right, right. This, this definitely is one thing I'll get right off the
bat. Right. And then when it comes to I mean, when you described, right, the anxiety of like,
that traps nature and like the human experience to me that, that I can, I can feel and relate to,
right. So this that anything with like an emotional sense. Yeah, you might like contemporary art or
contemporary dance performance better than sort of like your Swan Lake and you're not cracker.
Maybe. Yeah, maybe. Hmm. All right. Well, I'll have to if you see any and you recommend them,
then yeah, I mean, this one triptych, like I only got to know like the day by chance. Yeah,
you had you had a surprise invitation, right? So but yeah, yeah, yeah. Like other things.
I'll be on the lookout for. Nice. Cool. All right. Well, maybe we can let our listeners
know too, if, if there's something that, you know, pops up again. Yeah, talk about that. So
all right. Well, everybody enjoy thinking about art. So yeah, it's gauge. It's an Aki. So you
know, let's let's think. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. All right. Why? That's it for the show today.
Thanks for listening and find us on X at Ego de Science. That is E I G O D E S C I E N C. See you
next time.
