Art in an Unpredictable World the Book

¶ … Art in an Unpredictable World

The book And Then You Act: Making Art in an Unpredictable World, by Anne Bogart, is a collection of eight essays on art, theatre and the collaborative creative process that the artists who work in this medium apply to their craft. The book links each essay to the importance of action during times of difficulty, whether personal or political. Thus, the book's message is both educational and inspirational.

Bogart starts each chapter of this fantastic book with advice or insight towards a "bolder" form of art, which she illustrates with the metaphor "making music more intense." Through this metaphor, she provides the reader with a clear sense of what powerful art must mean. Bogart's bold art must thus consider the following themes: context, articulation, intention, attention, magnetism, attitude, content and time. She especially stresses the need for powerful art after the September 11 attacks, and the need for creativity that such dramatic events bring to a society that has shared such an experience on such a large scale. In other words, Bogart stresses that art can help our catharsis as a nation post the attacks.

In her first few chapters, Bogart establishes the book definitively, as more of a guide rather than a persuasive medium. Chapter 1, for example, relates her form of art to the audience, namely, what theatre means to say, and specifically what effective theatre must mean. She states that meaningful theatre not only has something to say, but also a technique with which it can say it effectively, and passion as a third component of the triad. She further describes that context gives art different meaning. To illustrate this important aspect, she gives an example of a production of "Hair" in war-torn Sarajevo, and demonstrates how this particular musical helped a city survive very hard times.

Bogart also links context with articulation, which she illustrates by stating, "one of the most radical things you can do in this culture of the inexact is to finish a sentence." Bogart believes this because in the United States, the government tends to view us as consumers rather than citizens. Articulation, thus, becomes critical to finding one's voice, but not without "intention." This concept is defined simply as being conscious of what you are doing. The "who, what, when, where, why and how" questions are vital to finding one's intention when performing an action, the most important of which is "why create," to which the response should always be "to feed the spirit," in the author's opinion.

The next focus is on attention, another vital part to art creation and once again, linked closely with previous and following elements of creation. Attention, Bogart states, is conscious and cannot be faked. For a director, attention is of the utmost importance, for he or she must be not only attentive to the actor, but must take account the audience's attentiveness and foster its imagination. In order to do so, magnetism must be present, which is composed of seven ingredients: empathy, entertainment or humor, ritual, participation, spectacle, education and alchemy. All these elements are vital to making theatre "magnetic" for the audience. The last few chapters cover attitude, content and time, and in these last chapters, Bogart once again gives brief advice. Chapter seven is again divided into subchapters in which Bogart once again attempts to provide personal answers to her quandaries, while leaving the reader to form his or her own opinion.