My deep thoughts from the seat on the last row next to the bathroom:
I'm on the plane on the way home, and reflecting back on the whole experience. Regardless of my varied opinion of the pieces, I just feel incredibly lucky to have experienced all of this. And I do think it has had a lasting effect on me.
I wanted to respond to what Morgan had said in our last meeting before the shows on Sunday about the French craving this kind of theater that Americans don't crave in the same way, but I didn't quite have my feelings articulated. But I think I have summed it up in my mind, and in doing so have summed up what I am taking away from this experience.
I want to produce theater commercially, so I watched the festival both as a theatergoer and also from this career perspective. I went into it thinking that maybe it could show me some new kinds of theater that aren't yet on the mass market that I could look for in the future: a new innovation or idea. But I think my lesson was bigger that that. Les-subs taught me that even though in my chosen career, much of what I do will be market-driven (which I enjoy), and what I choose to produce will be determined largely by its potential commercial success, I can approach this in two ways. I can either just bring people what they want, which is what I had planned to do in the highest-quality way possible, or I can take an even bigger risk and bring people what they don't know that they want. It helped me to realize that a good producer makes his or her job revolve around knowing what resonates with people and why. If this is present, even though it's an art and not a science, the market should follow. And that is how great new theater finds a loud voice, and how producers of my generation can hopefully halt the seemingly endless parade of jukebox musicals on Broadway.
I think it's the most enjoyable lesson I've ever learned!