death and the ad

Went to see Death and the Maiden last night at the community theater in my neighborhood. It was a good play, worth reading if you can't make it to a performance.

In one scene--a husband and wife talking--the characters echoed each other's lines, indicating their agreement by repeating what their partner said. This, for me, is the essential difference between stage-speech and the everyday kind. With my mathematical training, I appreciate the symmetry it creates. But it feels artifical because it's not at all how we usually talk to each other. In conversation, we have a habit of repeating each other's thoughts in our own words, changing the syntax to assert ownership. We used to joke in grad school about the person who didn't believe something until he'd said it himself. He was hardly alone in that.

Elise Bryant, in a course on Creative Organizing at the National Labor College, called me on my own tendency to rewrite what I was hearing when taking notes on a group discussion. I used to pretend that it was a sign of understanding, to be able restate a person's main point. But Elise made me admit it really meant that I thought I could say it better. If you get the chance to learn from her, take it.

By the way, community theater is heartbreaking. The space is so intimate. The players put so much of themselves on the stage that, even when they flub a line, the performance is enjoyable. And yet, most of the seats are empty. [This is why, for example, I saw Two Gentlemen of Verona four times.] Any ideas for increasing attendance? This is partly a selfish question, as I am so happy to have a theater I can walk to that I'd hate to see it close.