Anger: an Ingredient for Art

Someone I respect recently said to me that people who want to create theatre – or art in general – have to be angry about something. I never really thought about anger being the driving force behind my creative process. In fact, I initially dismissed this idea as reductive and even insulting in the way that it stereotyped “artists”. However, upon further reflection, I realized that I am, in fact, quite an angry person, deeply dissatisfied with the way things are.

"I realized that I am, in fact, quite an angry person, deeply dissatisfied with the way things are."

So, the next question in my mind is: what makes theatre a helpful outlet for this anger? Is it a helpful outlet? Speaking from experience, stage managers usually have too many things to do to even think about their own emotions. It is not their job to be emotional; if it was, they would be on stage. If anything, sometimes theatre can be more of a source of anger than an outlet! Stage managers work countless hours to keep a production on track, do what they can to make everyone involved happy, and ensure that the director’s vision is respected and maintained. At the end of the night, everyone goes home, or to a bar, while the stage manager puts away the chairs and tables that he/she set up before anyone even arrived, turns the lights off, locks up the space, and goes to type up a report about what happened in the day. Involved as they are in the creation of a show, they are usually only witnesses – caring observers – watching from behind a glass window in a sound proof room.

This probably sounds pretty depressing. Why would any creative person want such a job? Well, there can be something profoundly gratifying about the final result. One show that I recently worked on made me feel extreme degrees of both resentment and satisfaction. I went from actually doubting that this career path is even worth it (something I thought was impossible for me to ever think) to realizing how amazing it really can be. True, I do not want to calculate how much I got paid (or rather, should have gotten paid) for the hours I invested, but that is beside the point. When I got to see audiences respond to the show, and leave the theatre feeling somehow inspired, everything I had done up to that point immediately became worthwhile.

Anyway, I suppose a kind of energy conversion happened at some point. Frustration, annoyance, doubt, regret, all kind of rolled up together and somehow turned into a sold-out show that people loved, which obviously made us all very happy. It is true that the sweet can only exist with a bit of sourness. So, to go back to the original question, what does theatre do for angry people? Basically, it allows us to use the sourness and make some sour candy for everyone to enjoy!

…and now, I need to go get something sweet…