CAST LIST:

ROBERT: An older actor

JOHN: A younger actor

A: A voice, male or female

CHRIS: Male, age unimportant

LOTTE: Female, age unimportant

JOSIE: A younger female than Lotte

NOTES:

Life and the Theatre was inspired by Lee Hall's Children of the Rain and compiled from fictional material and random interviews conducted in the streets of New York.

“Psyche Rock” is track #2 of Messe Pour Le Temps Present by Pierre Henry and Michel Colombier.

Dialogue sequences in italics are excerpts from A Life in the Theater, a play by David Mamet.

A slash (/) suggests a point of overlap between that line and an actor's next line.

Life and the Theatre

1. SOUND: APPLAUSE AND LAUGHTER.

2. ROBERT: ...You're very good, John. Have I told you that lately? You are becoming a very fine actor. The flaws of youth are the perquisite of the young. It is a perquisite of the young to possess the flaws of youth.

3. JOHN: It's fitting, yes...

4. ROBERT: Ah, don't mock me, John. You shouldn't mock me. It's too easy. It's not good for you, no. And that is a lesson which we have to learn. (PAUSE.) Which you have to learn.

5. JOHN: And what is that?

6. ROBERT: That it is a hurtful fault, John, to confuse sincerity with weakness. (PAUSE.) And I must tell you something.

7. JOHN: Yes.

8. ROBERT: About the Theatre — and this is a wondrous thing about the Theatre — and John, one of the ways in which it's most like life...

9. JOHN: And what is that?

Pause.

10. ROBERT: Simply this. That in the Theatre (as in life — and the theatre is, of course, a part of life...No?) ...Do you see what I'm saying? I'm saying, as in a grocery store, that you cannot separate the time one spends...that is, it's all part of one's life. (PAUSE.) In addition to the fact that what's happening on stage is life...of a sort...I mean, it's part of your life. (PAUSE.) Which is one reason I'm so gratified (if I may presume, and I recognize that it may be a presumption) to see you...to see the young of the Theatre...(And it's not unlike one's children)...following in the footpaths of...following in the footsteps of...those who have gone before. (PAUSE.) Do you see what I am saying? I would like to think you did. Do you, John? (PAUSE.) Well...well. Goodnight, John.

Pause.

11. JOHN: Goodnight.

12. SOUND: APPLAUSE AND CHEERS FROM AN AUDIENCE. FADES TO:

13. MUSIC: THEME: “PSYCHE ROCK,¹” FADES INTO:

14. A: What is theatre?

15. CHRIS: Simple. It's magic.

16. LOTTE: Life.

17. JOSIE: I double that...Life says it best.

18. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

19. A: Can you share a good memory?

20. JOSIE: In relation to the theatre?

21. A: Yes. We're only talking about theatre.

22. LOTTE: About life.

23. CHRIS: And magic. Theatre is magic. Why does nobody say that?

24. LOTTE: Life is magic.

25. A: How about a magical memory?

26. JOSIE: I have one, I have one. It was of that play I saw...I think it was this past winter...Take Me Out. It was a fantastic play.

27. CHRIS: What's so special about that play?

28. JOSIE: Hmm...I can really say that it was...electric. It was like...They spoke of things, deep things and serious things, and brought people to life, and brought situations to life. And it was just wonderful.

29. CHRIS: Magic. /Mmm.

30. LOTTE: For me, the best memory I have is from before I even got into theatre. I was raised on musical theatre, like...listening to a lot of records, and I don't even like musical theatre now. But it was a great introduction, I think. But most theatre that I've been to since I got into it has been a disappointment/yeah and...When I compare it to my dreams as a child about what theatre could be, you know.

31. CHRIS: Yeah, there's so much crap out there. /For me, the best memory I have is probably writing and producing...when I produced my first stage play and musical The Borstal Boy

32. LOTTE: The what boy?

33. CHRIS: Borstal. It's a prison.

34. JOSIE: The Borstal Boy.

35. CHRIS: It's a sort of prison for young boys. I directed it. The best memory I have...when finally putting things together and seeing that it's about everything I wanna do. ‘Cause it's about...it's gonna involve music, it's gonna involve acting, it's gonna involve people who're coming in to see it, not just there to see it.

36. JOSIE: It's project-oriented.

37. CHRIS: Not group-oriented. Not in my case, anyway.

38. A: How about the worst memory?

39. CHRIS: Huh, also my first production of...(LAUGHTER)

40. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

41. A: Tell me of a bad experience you had in connection with theatre.

42. JOSIE: I'm...this isn't the worst experience, but I would never recommend seeing a theatre performance when you're jet-lagged. (LAUGHTER) I went to London with my brother, and we went to see Waiting for Godot/yeah, and it was our first...we hadn't slept since before the flight...

43. LOTTE: Jet lag?/(LAUGHTER) Oh no!

44. JOSIE: It was a good play but...both of us were like doing a head bob, you know...It was hard.

45. CHRIS: Almost like seeing Arcadia without intermission.

46. JOSIE: (LAUGHTER) Right. And there's also this play I saw. It was Off Off Broadway, and I remember shaking my head thinking...what?

47. LOTTE: One bad experience I had was when a friend of mine was doing a play, and I remember sitting through the performance really trying to figure out something positive to say about the play. And struggling, you know...really struggling.

48. CHRIS: I have this running joke which is like: when we start commenting on how good the lighting is, you know the play is horrible. (LAUGHTER)

49. SOUND: APPLAUSE.

50. ROBERT: Ephemeris, ephemeris. (PAUSE.) “An actor's life for me.”

51. SOUND: APPLAUSE AND CHEERS FROM AN AUDIENCE.

52. ROBERT: You've been so kind...thank you, you've really been so kind. You know, and I speak, I am sure, not for myself alone, but on behalf of all of us...all of us here, when I say that these...these moments make it all...they make it all worthwhile.

53. SOUND: APPLAUSE AND CHEERS FROM AN AUDIENCE. FADES INTO:

54. A: What do you think of stage actors?

55. LOTTE: I think they're different. In college, I used to think that they were over-the-top and pretentious, but then I realized that they were wonderful onstage but just putting on a show in their personal lives.

56. CHRIS: I have the highest respect for those stage actors who are truly able to create memorable magic onstage.

57. JOSIE: Paul Newman was wonderful in Our Town.

58. LOTTE: Paul Newman, I'd like to see him in anything, (LAUGHTER) but...is he incredible onstage?

59. JOSIE: He was phenomenal.

60. LOTTE: Glad to hear it, because...well, that's the thing now...a lot of Hollywood movie stars whom we revere so much, we then want to see them onstage, we wanna see them live, and unfortunately, theatre is such a different medium that their talent doesn't always translate.

61. CHRIS: Yeah, and right now the lines are blurred between theatre and film. Most artists tend to do both.

62. LOTTE: And it's not always an advisable choice. I mean, when I think of Ashley Judd in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, how terrible she was.

63. CHRIS: She was a disaster onstage.

64. JOSIE: Not every movie actor is bad onstage; I mean, think about Marlon Brando.

65. CHRIS: Marian Seldes...huh…

66. JOSIE: John Malkovich is brilliant onstage.

67. CHRIS: Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in The Producers. I mean...I remember, they were cracking each other up. And at this point, they had done the play for like...what...six months?

68. LOTTE: I think that stage actors, the good ones, are...are just regular people honing their craft and...and they're contemplative, and they're trying to find some sort of truth, you know...the good ones, because the bad ones are just obnoxious.(LAUGHTER)

69. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

70. A: What do you think of playwrights?

71. CHRIS: Hmm...playwrights. It's an odd, pitiful lot. (LAUGHTER)

72. LOTTE: Playwrights can be extremely pretentious, and playwriting can be a very self-serving art form.

73. JOSIE: But they work hard, though. They work so hard.

74. LOTTE: Playwrights often seem to write about things that are interesting to them, and there's the feeling of guilt if you don't find it interesting as well. I think a lot of...I think, right now, there's a huge amount of social-issue plays. Writing about life as a homosexual man, writing about life as an African-American woman...you know what I mean, and huh...not that I don't find that interesting and that the population shouldn't find that interesting, but I find there's such a glut of it that I feel that a lot of playwrights are redundant, you know...

75. CHRIS: What do you mean by redundant?

76. LOTTE: I mean...I think there are trendsetters like...

77. JOSIE: August Wilson.

78. LOTTE: Exactly. Trendsetters like August Wilson, who set a bar for writing that way.

79. CHRIS: How about Miguel Piñero?

80. LOTTE: Again, Miguel Piñero. People who write with...with authenticity and then there are instances when authenticity is lost. When dozens upon dozens of playwrights try to copy the work of, let's say, Wilson or Piñero. I think of a writer like Tony Kushner who tends to pick on a topic and beat the hell out of it. Even Tom Stoppard, whom I just adore, sometimes will do that. I mean, he will just repeat his theories or ideas over and over and over in his plays and huh...Clearly, it's beyond just a form of entertainment for these kinds of writers.

81. JOSIE: I have a comment on Tony Kushner, actually. I've seen most of his work.

82. CHRIS: When you were jet-lagged? (LAUGHTER)

83. JOSIE: (LAUGHTER) No, not when I was jet-lagged. I think Tony Kushner takes real risks. For example, take Angels in America. When this play was first produced, I was blown away by what was at that point a significant risk. And he was willing to write these rambling monologues and take the risk that his actors would be able to do something with them and engage the audience. Which is a considerable risk when you're writing political...you know...speeches.

85. A: Can you name three playwrights that you think will make it through the next century?

86. CHRIS: Playwrights from the twentieth century who are gonna be around in the twenty-second century?

87. A: Can you name three?

88. CHRIS: Harold Pinter, for good reasons.

89. LOTTE: Stoppard, Albee...I would also say Sam Shepard.

90. JOSIE: For me, it's David Mamet. Hands down, David Mamet.

91. CHRIS: I thought of David Mamet also, but for bad reasons.

92. JOSIE: No. He is brilliant; I mean...there's a rhythm to him. And I've actually read some of his books that were not about theatre, and they had the most influence on my life. One is called Writing in Restaurants. And he talks about honesty. Like when you're a kid and you're playing baseball, and you hit third base because everybody says it's first base and everybody agrees that it's third base — and I realize it probably doesn't make any sense — but it's a manhole cover. But we argue over it because we all agree that it is that thing, that third base, and to violate that is fundamentally lying. And the reason why good theatre works is because it's very honest. So, yeah, Mamet comes to mind, but for me, it's for all the good reasons.

93. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

94. A: Do you have a favorite play?

95. CHRIS: That's such an unfair question. How can you narrow down your choices to just one answer?

96. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

97. A: Do you have a favorite play?

98. LOTTE: Yes. Amadeus by Peter Shaffer.

99. A: What is it about that play?

100. LOTTE: I just love the complexity of the characters. Salieri, who is one of the protagonists but also the adversary and the villain. I find him terribly sympathetic and, in a way, it raises questions about myself, but also makes me identify with him. Salieri's questions have to do with genius and the recognition of your own ability and the struggle that you have in realizing that you're good enough to do something well, but you're also good enough to realize when someone does it better — like for instance Mozart — and also good enough to realize that you will never be that good. And I find that tragic...tragic and brilliant. Salieri's hatred for Mozart is very...very sympathetic, actually.

101. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

102. A: What is drama?

103. CHRIS: Drama? Drama is action.

104. LOTTE: Anything dramatic is, hmm...high emotion, desperate needs, hmm...

105. JOSIE: It's a fundamental conflict that needs resolution by one means or another.

106. A: And all conflicts need resolution?

107. JOSIE: I think so, yeah. But it doesn't necessarily have to be resolved onstage.

108. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

109. LOTTE: Drama in real life is life changing. You know, when your husband is cheating on you, when you find out your child is doing drugs. It's something where you say, “After this moment, things will never be the same.” In an ideal world, not only does that happen in the world of the play, but it happens with the audience as well. With a brilliant, brilliant play, which accomplishes all that a play can do, the audience should leave the theatre changed as much as the characters in the play.

110. SOUND: APPLAUSE AND CHEERS FROM AN AUDIENCE.

111. ROBERT: I thought the bedroom scene tonight was brilliant.

112. JOHN: Did you?

113. ROBERT: Yes, I did. (PAUSE.) Didn't you think it went well? (PAUSE.) Well, I think it went brilliantly.

114. JOHN: Thank you.

115. ROBERT: I wouldn't tell you if it wasn't so.

Pause.

116. JOHN: Thank you.

117. ROBERT: Not at all. I wouldn't say it if it weren't so.

118. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

119. A: What do you think of intermissions?

120. LOTTE: I think they stop the action. I understand the technical need for it, when you have to change the set or...but it's a device that theatregoers are used to, and that should just go away. Unless you have a six-hour Angels in America, and then you need to have one. (LAUGHTER)

121. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

122. CHRIS: I consider an intermission to be an extra act. So if you're gonna have an intermission in your play, it has to be there because you want the audience to have fifteen to twenty minutes to digest and mull over what just happened in act one. If there's no time needed to digest it, then take it out.

123. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

124. JOSIE: I think intermissions are really needed, because there's only so long you can hold it, and I wish they had more ladies' rooms. (LAUGHTER) We have to recognize the fundamental element of the differences between the sexes, and it's longer for a woman to process. I mean...it takes longer for women to process certain things than men. We have to accept this. (LAUGHTER)

125. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

126. A: In England they sell ice cream at intermission. Do you think American theatres should, too?

127. CHRIS: No. Because some people are lactose intolerant. (LAUGHTER)

128. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

129. A: Who wrote In the Solitude of the Cotton Fields?

130. CHRIS: Fatty Arbuckle. (LAUGHTER) No. I don't know.

131. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

132. JOSIE: The Solitude of the Cotton Fields? I have no idea.

133. A: What do you think this play is about?

134. CHRIS: Huh...it's some...it's some agrarian work of extraordinary magnitude. (LAUGHTER) I don't know.

135. A: Who wrote The Skriker?

136. LOTTE: I don't wanna be in this interview anymore. (LAUGHTER) I feel stupid.

137. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

138. A: What's a curtain-raiser?

139. LOTTE: Is it the same as a curtain-dropper or stopper?

140. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

141. CHRIS: A curtain-raiser as I understand it is, when they have standing ovations, they have to raise the curtains again and again.

142. A: You think we should get them back?

143. CHRIS: The curtain-raiser? Well, I read about plays getting fourteen standing ovations. I mean...you know, don't get me wrong. (LAUGHTER) I don't have a clue what these curtains are, to be honest. (LAUGHTER)

144. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

145. JOSIE: I think a curtain-raiser is an opening scene, what actually propels the curtain up. An introduction to the main play.

146. A: Should we get them back?

147. JOSIE: Yeah. I always think that circling back to older ideas and playing them through again makes sense.

148. LOTTE: (LAUGHTER) I don't wanna be in this interview anymore. A curtain stopper or dropper? I feel really stupid.(LAUGHTER)

149. SOUND: APPLAUSE AND CHEERS FROM AN AUDIENCE.

150. JOHN: The show went well tonight.

151. ROBERT: I think it did.

152. JOHN: They were very bright.

153. Robert: Yes. They were.

154. JOHN: It was...

Pause.

155. ROBERT: What?

156. JOHN: An intelligent house. Didn't you feel?

157. ROBERT: I did.

158. JOHN: They were very attentive

.

159. ROBERT: Yes. (PAUSE.) They were acute.

160. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

161. A: What is funny?

162. CHRIS: If dying is easy, then comedy. It's really hard because you have to be able to time that.

163. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

164. A: What is the funniest play you ever saw?

165. CHRIS: The funniest? Huh...Boy, I haven't seen a lot of funny plays...but...oh, yes...the funniest play I ever saw — where I laughed so hard the gum flew out of my mouth and onto my lap — was Virtual Reality by Alan Arkin, in New York City. The play was beautiful. There are two people who meet in a warehouse. And the one guy was preparing the other guy for this assignment, but he was only giving him the information on a need-to-know basis, and he wanted him to get prepared for the mission they were gonna do by pretending to unload from a truck which was gonna show up, things that were gonna be unloaded. When they opened the crates that were not there and discovered things, they had to unload things that were in the crate, and the other actor had to play along while wondering what he was doing and...and by the end of the play, they ended up on top of a mountain freezing to death in the snow. They both died. (LAUGHTER) The one guy shot himself in the head with a fake gun and died onstage...(LAUGHTER) I laughed so hard that the gum flew out of my mouth through the entire play. (LAUGHTER)

166. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

167. JOSIE: For me, the funniest play was Noises Off. It was hysterical. It was outrageous. Packed with physical comedy...I've never read the play. I actually should read it to see what it says. Because, I mean...I couldn't stop laughing at that thing.

168. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

169. A: What do you think of Shakespeare?

170. CHRIS: I mean...he is the greatest playwright in any language that ever lived. He's the greatest English-speaking playwright, and from what I understand, people are willing to learn English just so that they are able to read Shakespeare in English. Because I don't know how translatable it is. It's hard enough to read in English.

171. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

172. LOTTE: I think Shakespeare should be cut. Any time it's produced. I don't think anyone should ever do Kenneth Branagh's one thousand hours of Hamlet. I think Shakespeare, in his work, there's so much for cutting. He didn't edit it well enough. I think he is a brilliant storyteller, though. I think he has a wonderful mastery of the language, but I think his comedies are all the same in formula, and huh...I think it requires an insane amount of work for a director to make Shakespeare's plays really approachable for an audience.

173. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

174. A: What do you think of Shakespeare?

175. JOSIE: I adore him. Hmm...What I find remarkable that even now that it's pushing four hundred years, he's still relevant.

176. CHRIS: I don't know whether the time was right or if he was a titanic genius...I mean, it all came together. I don't even know if it's possible that just one person could have written all that stuff. In my mind there's enough reason to speculate.

177. JOSIE: No way. The work is too consistent. It's written by the same person.

178. CHRIS: I don't know. It's not because he wasn't educated as a playwright, because that's not necessary, but it's just so...

179. JOSIE: It's all Shakespeare's. There's no doubt in my mind.

180. CHRIS: I mean, think of the workload...It's so...massive. I find it hard to believe that one person...

181. JOSIE: I can't believe you're even speculating about this.

182. CHRIS: That is so amazing that one person wrote it. I mean Shakespeare.

183. A: What is your favorite Shakespeare play?

184. JOSIE: The one with Rosamund...hmm...not Much Ado About Nothing...hmm...The Old Fair? What's that one?

185. SOUND: APPLAUSE.

186. JOHN: An intelligent house. Didn't you feel?

187. ROBERT: I did.

188. JOHN: They were very attentive.

189. ROBERT: ...Perhaps they saw the show tonight (PAUSE.) on another level. Another, what? Another...plane, eh? On another level of meaning. Do you know what I mean?

190. JOHN: I'm not sure I do.

191. ROBERT: A plane of meaning.

Pause.

192. JOHN: A plane.

193. ROBERT: Yes. I feel perhaps they saw a better show than the one we rehearsed.

194. JOHN: Mmm.

195. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

196. A: What's the most beautiful theatre you've ever been in?

197. CHRIS: The Lydia Mendelssohn Theater at the University of Michigan. A gorgeous theatre. About six hundred seats with a small balcony. There's an exquisitely carved pit, a small proscenium. It's not lavish and gold and fake gilded. It's just beautiful woodwork, dark woodwork with brass trim, red curtains. It's my dream theatre.

198. JOSIE: Radio City in New York is a beautiful theatre. It's a completely different style from most of the others. It's more Art Deco, and the others are more classical and a little older. When they're lovingly restored though, I appreciate it. I sort of see theatres like these as houses of worship almost. Yeah, like shrines. They're like shrines.

199. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

200. A: How much are you willing to pay for a ticket to a theatre performance?

201. JOSIE: Well, for a really good show, I can pay around seventy-five to a hundred dollars, and that's for one to two shows a year. I would love to be able to see more if I could get cheaper seats. I also realize that cheaper seats are often not so great, but going is better than not going, so...

202. CHRIS: I am willing to pay...I am willing to pay forty-five to fifty dollars, unless it hasn't gone up yet. If it is something so extraordinary that I must see it at all costs, I'd pay what I had to. I would go see a stage revival of Simon Gray's Butley if it had one of my favorite actors...like if it had Richard E. Grant as Butley. I'd pay any amount of money to see that.

203. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

204. A: What would be a good idea or a good theme to explore in a play?

205. CHRIS: A good idea would be for someone to read and digest and completely understand The Theatre and Its Double by Antonin Artaud. And to put on a play using the precepts of that book. (LAUGHTER) I'd pay a hundred dollars to see that play.

206. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

207. A: What would be a good theme for a play?

208. JOSIE: You know, it's funny, but there're themes that were done in the fifties that I think need to come back a little bit. Like for instance the theme of political suppression. Sort of a political environment because I don't feel there's a place for us to comment adequately right now, and I think the theatre is a really good platform for that because we can bring day-to-day life into a larger context.

209. SOUND: APPLAUSE.

210. ROBERT: You have a job to do. You do it by your lights, you bring your expertise to bear, your sense of rightness...fellow feelings...etiquette...professional procedure...there are tools one brings to bear...procedure.

211. JOHN: No, it's quite inspiring.

212. ROBERT: Thank you. (PAUSE.) The mugging is what gets me, eh?

213. JOHN: Mmm.

214. ROBERT: Stilted diction and the pregnant pauses I can live with.

215. JOHN: Yes.

216. ROBERT: ...But the mugging...

217. JOHN: Yes.

218. ROBERT: It rots my heart to look at it.

219. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

220. A: What about the future of theatre? Do you have any thoughts?

221. JOSIE: I think the more turbulent the political times, if we are brave...theatre will have a better life than some other artistic forms of expression. Right now we don't have...I mean outside of Broadway and your Disneyfication, you still can have a small play produced in this town. And the really happening is not happening on Broadway, and people know it.

222. LOTTE: I do think...The only way theatre is gonna survive is if theatre artists try to utilize what makes theatre different from other art forms, which is essentially that it is live. They have to also recognize that the fourth wall has to be completely destroyed. I think the only way for people to be willing to spend the money that it takes to buy a ticket to a theatre performance, and for the theatre to continue to be relevant, is for theatre to be completely different from film, and to make it easier and cheaper to attend.

223. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

224. CHRIS: If theatre is gonna make it beyond a Broadway knock-off around America — and I can only speak for America, not Europe — but if it makes it beyond Broadway and the bus-and-truck tour where they take Broadway on the road, I hope that's not where the theatre is going, but I hope that we can create a need...we need to reconnect with people. And...it doesn't look good. I don't think theatre is dead, because if it's dead, then produce the body, you know...

225. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

226. LOTTE: I also think that when something has outlived its usefulness, then it will disappear. But for theatre...I don't think it has. I think it's something that's always gonna be there.

227. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

228. JOSIE: But something quite dangerous is happening. I mean...like everything else, theatre now is being folded into the corporate conglomerate. Like for instance the Disneyfication of Broadway. I think it has reduced the choices and it has turned what should be an art form into a sort of...it has turned what should be an art form into a theme park.

229. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

230. A: What do you think of the idea of Jerry Springer — The Opera?

231. CHRIS: It's probably an asinine miasma of dreck that I wouldn't go see for free. (LAUGHTER)

232. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

233. JOSIE: I like the idea that somebody is trying to modernize theatre and opera and things like that, but why would you want to use that subject? I mean, if these writers are wanting to comment on American culture, this is a way of dealing with it. It's just...that's one of the most shameful parts of our society. It's still a cultural phenomenon, but I don't particularly want to see it.

234. SOUND: AUDIENCE SETTLING IN THE HOUSE. FADES INTO:

235. ROBERT: We must not be afraid to grow. We must support each other, John. This is the wondrous thing about the theatre, this potential.

236. JOHN: Mmmm.

237. ROBERT: Our history goes back as far as Man's. Our aspirations in the Theatre are much the same as man's...We are society...What have we to fear, John, from phenomena? (PAUSE.) We are explorers of the soul.

238. SOUND: APPLAUSE AND CHEERS FROM AN AUDIENCE.

239. LOTTE: I think it's also an indication of what Broadway does best, which is selling to the masses. Are people gonna be interested in seeing Jerry Springer — The Opera? If I were optimistic about people I would say no, but I have to be honest, I'm not sure...Plus if they have a big finale then I think the show will run on Broadway forever. (LAUGHTER)

240. MUSIC: THEME. FADES INTO:

241. JOSIE: The social commentary will have to be really well handled and very delicately because...Off Broadway, I think it could work, but on Broadway...you still have to understand who is buying the tickets, and it's not New Yorkers.

242. CHRIS: I think people from the sectors where Jerry Springer got his audience would want to see it. I wouldn't see it, but I think a lot of people would.

243. SOUND: APPLAUSE AND CHEERS FROM AN AUDIENCE. CONTINUES THROUGHOUT.

244. LOTTE: Thank you.

245. JOSIE: Thank you.

246. CHRIS: Thank you, very much. THANK YOU!

247. SOUND: APPLAUSE AND CHEERS FROM AN AUDIENCE. FADES OUT.

THE END