A Modest Proposal (J. Swift) (early 1990's)

My only concern in theatre (theater)

Is reality.

I say this (it makes you feel so...)
You say that

We are connected

I'm not interested in -
how this character walks
how this character sits
how this character shits

We are not characters, we are people
Playwrights write lines to
come out of
PEOPLE'S MOUTHS
Not character's mouthpieces

It is like a baseball game -

if your uniform isn't dirty,
have you played?

To reach truth in theatre (theater),
you must
get your uniform
Dirty.

There are people who streak tears
down their cheeks
And rub their sleeves
in black shoe polish
And you might think
that they were
Dirty.

But they're not
They're faking it.
They feel nothing
They enter the dressing room, jubilant
After a "performance" -

"You were on tonight Tony."

They hold each other up
With their praise,

They don't get dirty by falling.

Theatre (theater) should be as real as you
Feel when you smack your head on the door of
Your
Car and you curse all you know

The anger lingers for quite some time
Till it leave you simply pissed.

And I am describing how a comedy should
Leave you.
A drama should remind you of
When your best friend
shot himself

Or when your mother died while
Choking on meat that she'd cooked
for you

Or when your first pet, a guinea pig
named "Cranmore"
coughs up a few green pellets
And dies while you watch as listening to
the Top 40 with Casey Kasem

It should be death staring you in the face
It is usually actors winking at you and
Thinking about everything but
the situation at hand

I hate it.