Hot on the heels of our discussions over what great political candidates stand-up comics would make (triggered by a post by John Rogers)…
…Mike Nichols suggests the story-telling skills of film and theatre are desperately needed in politics, too:
In directing a play or a movie– whether a farce or a tragedy — the problem to solve is really the same….The audience says silently – so, now, why have you called us together? And you have to have an answer. The first thing I think you have to do is make clear that they are in good hands, they mustn’t worry, we know what we are doing. The next question the audience asks is: why are you telling me this? And you have to have a good answer for that one. One answer is: because it’s funny…. If that is not the answer in the theatre there is another: because it is your life.
I wonder lately whether our politicians don’t have roughly the same requirements of them.
Now, with all due deference to the directors of the world, playwrights and screenwriters do just as much or more to answer those questions. But our emerging Performance Party is going to have a big tent; directors are welcome to join…
