Word: bettering
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...argument is tenuously developed to a frustrating conclusion: “The job of the dramatist is to get, and that of the actors and directors to keep, the asses in the seats. Period. This is what pays the rent.... The purpose of theatre is not to instruct, to better, to expiate. It is to entertain.” Mamet’s perspective on drama is simply reductive. To say writers such as Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, and Edward Albee are worthwhile simply because they put “asses in seats” is to grossly undermine...
...lamentable that Mamet’s actual writing doesn’t do a better job of motivating his arguments, because he does occasionally make truly insightful observations. In a chapter titled “Hunting Instincts” he compares the theatrical experience to that of a hunt, insofar as the audience experiences a primal drive to follow the plot along. He uses this metaphor to account for the suspension of disbelief: “We suspend the rational process of intellectualization, which is to say, of the comparison of phenomenon to idea, which is a process too slow...
...Heights,” and then over the course of the eight-year process getting “Heights” to Broadway, I learned how to write. It’s a lot of discarded songs and ideas, and a lot of making good songs better and throwing out bad songs. But I had the luxury of excellent collaborators and producers who believed in our show for what it was and not what it wasn?...
...shouldn’t pay for pennies. If he is expected to make a commitment to his city, then his city has to show its commitment to him and pony up some serious dough. It’s hard to believe that the Cavaliers, who keep arming themselves with better and better players to get a championship, including four-time NBA Finals champion Shaquille O’Neal, won’t be willing to spend significant amounts of money on him. But if it comes down to a good deal with Cleveland, and a slightly better deal with another...
...Blackbird Through the Dark” as a track from the new album in which that thread shows through. He attributes the album’s redemptive focus to current events, expressing his feeling that “this is really the moment where we can make things better...