A somewhat overlooked industry/art/craft

[cobaltblue]

Theater.  Right now, I can't see it being a factor in the late necronomy attempting to suck the last bits of life force from us, but I think that at some point little troupes of performers/writers will be sought after, for diversions and fun, as well as for edification of present-day matters at hand and the recording of historical moments along the way.  I sort of hope there might be at some point "sacred drama priests" out there holding inspiring events that may have ritualized elements in them.  (FYI, I think one example of a hidden sacred ritual play is Thornton Wilder's slice of [occult] Americana, Our Town.  A subversive play that most don't even know is right there in front of our faces -  )

It's a multidisciplinary craft, and I speak as a playwright.  To me a craft combines certain technical rules with art, so that it is not exactly an art or a practical application of science.  Playwriting, shipwriting, macrame, various types of metal/pottery artisanry.  Astrology if it's done well.  These are all crafts.

Theater troupes probably need to start with simple conversations and discovering where interesting and absorbing and entertaining conflicts might lie.  (No one goes to see "The Play About the Village of the Happy, Shiny People.")  Perhaps there could even be interactive murder-mystery sorts of plays like "Dark Eco-CIDE: Murder at the Intentional Community of the Damned!"  (Just made that up, b/c I'm in an antic mood.)

Guess I'm trying to think a little creatively, since a lot of my talents are word/spirit based.  Though I'm becoming more interested in alll crafts about handiwork - slowly but surely. 

But looking for something fun, fulfilling, and Lucrative too!

[boiler_92]

I may be wrong about this, but historically, by and large, the arts have not been a lucrative place to make a living, and I expect the post-doom world will be no different. 

[cobaltblue]

I would agree.  I'm saying right now, at the end of vEmpire, it's hard to turn a profit at most things, save for the Christmas shows and certain popular entertainments.

I'm wondering if wandering minstrel shows might not make a come back--not necessarily the blackfaced ones, but more like the Medieval troubadours and the like.  It might be kind of fun to convert some of the empty big-box stores littering the landscape into theaters for the locals!  Among other things.

[pamela]

cobaltblue, my daughter works and teaches costume design at a university, I can say without hesitation, that she would absolutely agree with you and traveling shows and the eventual need for theater PP.

[boiler_92]

To clarify my previous statement, I didn't mean to imply that there wouldn't be a need for this, only that it's practitioners will be lucky to eek out an existence doing it.  Much like a garage band "touring" in the van they converted to run on cooking oil stolen from restaurants does now.  (and yes, I know of at least one such band)

[Friendo]

I agree that belonging to a troupe of performers might be viable. Festivities around planting and harvesting will become more important and winter doldrums will be more severe, warlords will want spectacles and any literate people still alive will appreciate the good stuff.

[urbanfarmer]

I agree that belonging to a troupe of performers might be viable. Festivities around planting and harvesting will become more important and winter doldrums will be more severe, warlords will want spectacles and any literate people still alive will appreciate the good stuff.

[/b]

Warlords will poke you at gunpoint out onto the stage and shoot bullets at your first as you dance. They will find that amusing. And then back in the debtor's prison you go!  You guys sure have a rosy view of the future. 

[cobaltblue]

Hmm...  You sound really angry!    (sad trombone sound.)

There some sort of payoff in going negative?  Not sure you have much to offer in the way of a positive vision there, dude.  Do you want to live like you're in a Cormac McCarthy novel?  Were such a thing to happen, theater would most likely be furthest from my mind, grant you.  But I don't feel that giving energy to the MZB scenarios will make for a life worth living.  In which case, I'll be amongst the first to check out, I imagine--unless I can find some place to hide until all the foo-faws have their piddly violent say.

There's more possibilities than just zero-sum vEmpiry-on-steroids.  But, hey, good luck with that.  Let us know how that works out for ya.

[urbanfarmer]

You missed the wink at the end Cobalt. I think wandering troops of merry minstrels would be swell, I just don't think we are going to end up living in a Shakespeare play. And I certainly do not think there is an industry to be made there, i.e., one that would actually garnish income. I repeatedly told my students that I fully expected them all to learn how to play a musical instrument for entertainment post-crash, because they will not have their computers and games to keep them entertained. I can imagine some kind of bunker entertainment, but not much beyond that. That being said, I sincerely apologize for raining on your merry band. 

[cobaltblue]

Well, "industry" might be a stretch.  And I have a feeling people will have to wear multiple hats to bring in nourishment and sustenance.   But it could serve a few purposes.  (Though I do feel it would be best to exempt certain arenas of life from having to turn a profit, such as preventive care and All-My-Relations-Spiritual-Community-Activism, and perhaps sacred storytelling/drama would be thrown into the mix.)

I'm really hoping that we will move out of extractive-economic ('necronomic" if you will) structures to something more fulfilling and closer to what the word economy was originally intended to mean.  Personally, I want to be a laborer when necessary, a healer, a teacher, a bard, a cook, a gardener, a student of craftsy works, a shaman, a sex-priest ( ), a mediator, and perhaps other things as well that I've not been exposed to/thought of, as well as an all-around theater artist.

That being said, there will be lots of other opportunities for new/old livelihoods for whatever economic arrangements are locally emergent depending on where we live.  Your concerns may have validity in some places, though.  Particularly locales afflicted by reaction and reflex. 

[Friendo]

I agree that belonging to a troupe of performers might be viable. Festivities around planting and harvesting will become more important and winter doldrums will be more severe, warlords will want spectacles and any literate people still alive will appreciate the good stuff.

Warlords will poke you at gunpoint out onto the stage and shoot bullets at your first as you dance. They will find that amusing. And then back in the debtor's prison you go!  You guys sure have a rosy view of the future. 

Bullets will be valuable and they will have real enemies closing in. FWIW, Shakespeare's England was like a giant open-air Ann Rule story 24/7, not a fluffy Ren Faire at all. Even today, the drug barons like to have songs composed about their feats of wonder (narcocorridos) and the murder ballad is one of the more lasting American song genres.

Seriously, at the northern latitudes anyway, the winters will be long and dark.

[urbanfarmer]

Personally, I want to be a laborer when necessary, a healer, a teacher, a bard, a cook, a gardener, a student of craftsy works, a shaman, a sex-priest ( ), a mediator, and perhaps other things as well that I've not been exposed to/thought of, as well as an all-around theater artist.

I couldn't agree more and as such have been training myself for many of those roles. I truly hope there will be a time and place where those skills will be valued, but at the age of 55, I am starting to feel like I will just be the old granny smiling at the performers. 

[urbanfarmer]

Bullets will be valuable and they will have real enemies closing in. FWIW, Shakespeare's England was like a giant open-air Ann Rule story 24/7, not a fluffy Ren Faire at all. Even today, the drug barons like to have songs composed about their feats of wonder (narcocorridos) and the murder ballad is one of the more lasting American song genres.

Seriously, at the northern latitudes anyway, the winters will be long and dark.

Agreed!  Although I was referring to Shakespeare's plays, not his England.    I was thinking of As You Like It:

    "All the world's a stage
    And all the men and women merely players;
    They have their exits and their entrances,
    And one man in his time plays many parts,
    His acts being seven ages."

[kmaine2]

I may be wrong about this, but historically, by and large, the arts have not been a lucrative place to make a living, and I expect the post-doom world will be no different. 

Well, I agree on one level...but I would rather be a starving artist practicing my craft than an MBA with a with a lynch mob on my tail.