Does an audience's taste limit...?

[Valerie Senyk]

This is a cool question and I think if we all dig deep the answer is
yes.
My greatest influences in the theatre have come from The Japanese Noh
Theatre, W.B. Yeats, Pronko and Grotowski. The first three see theatre
as a feast for the senses - all of them - and that's the premise I start
with in writing or directing a play. However, my work is not known to
draw large audiences, because I don't think art is art unless it
includes discovery. I always try to push the envelope spiritually,
intellectually, sensually =put things together that you wouldn't dream
of working together, and so on. I may end up as one of those theatre
artists with a small cult following if I'm not careful. Yet I want my
work to be as universal as possible. But tastes DO demand that one
fulfill certain expectations -Western expectations -of what theatre is,
and when you don't fulfill those, and don't work to make people LIKE
your theatre, you are relegated to the fringes. That's okay. I don't
have great ambitions. I'm not after fame. I only want to do my work with
my own integrity.
        As I teach theatre in a university theatre program, this is what I try
to pass on to my students - the idea of one's own integrity. But it's an
uphill battle. And probably will be for some time to come, while the god
of Money rules (along with the god El Nino).
        sTILL, WHILE i TRY TO CREATE THEATRE THAT PUSHES THE ENVELOPE, IS A
FEAST ETC, i AM CONSCIOUS TO GIVE THE AUDIENCE A LITTLE SOMETHING HERE
AND THERE TTHAT THEY RECOGNIZE, THAT ALLOWS THEM TO ENTER THE WORLD i'M
CREATING. THIS IS ONLY KINDNESS.
         Valerie Senyk