Theatre Rocks!

I've been thinking a lot about theatre recently, for a couple of reasons. The first, that I'm working on an illustration inspired, quite visibly by theatre. The second reason, that I'm working on an application, where one of the requirements is to have an 'interest' in theatre. I found myself in Starbucks getting really aggitated by the fact I was trying to prove my love for theatre. Anyone who knows me, will know that theatre is my first and enduring love. Anyway, I remembered the dissertation I wrote for my MA. Here's me introducing my argument: 'Is Theatre Art the ultimate and most supreme art form.'

"Theatre is an art that has the potential to extend beyond the conventions and restrictions of the artist who works on canvas or the sculptor who builds his art. It offers so much room for creative expression to its practitioners and escapism to its devotees, that no other art can match. Theatre can create a vortex of enchanting power that through time artists such as Picasso, Dali and David Hockney have all been seduced by. The art world has regularly succumbed to the theatre’s creative potential, suggesting to me that the theatre offers something to the artist that no other art does. Perhaps it is the appeal of the theatre as a blank canvas for their ambitious and exploratory creations that entices these artists. The theatre, however, is no ordinary canvas, it is one that seduces its master with the thought of seeing its characters and worlds brought to life, in flesh and blood.
I propose to examine The Ballets Russes, arguably theatrical performances that most embodied all the qualities of an ultimate art form. I will introduce Richard Wagner’s theory of Gesamtkunstwerk....."

Petrucci, C (2006)