Permanent Collection
By Thomas Gibbons
Directed by Terry Averill
With Kelly Armstrong, Jane Burns, Bill Deck, Chris Haley, Chris Poverman, Sue Struve
Choir Members: Aubrey Baden, Jim Ballard, Dashonna Bullock, John Parham, Ericka Platt, Karen Wallace, Sharnae Wallace
August 3-12, 2007



Director's Notes

What is art? Who decides what is good art? Does the skin color of the artist, the art collector or the art critic have any effect on the way he or she sees art? How he or she defines beauty? Who determines what is the greatest art...what should be seen, and what discarded? Can we assume that the greatest impressionists and early modern artists are truly the best? Or is it out education that tells us how to see, and in so doing, prejudices us against art of other cultures and societies? Are we truly colorblind when we look at art? Are we "racist" when we place European/western art on the tallest pedestal and relegate African art to the basement?

These are the questions and issues Permanent Collection paints for the audience. The play seeks to throw light on the assumptions we have about art, and about the way our society, not just the greatest 19th and 20th century modern artists, see the world. It is up to each one of us in the audience to add our perspective to that of the 'experts'...to paint our vision into the picture that his production presents...add our knowledge and experience to that of the playwright, the characters, and the 'art'. This play is about the responsibility we all share as a community, the responsibility to listen and ask questions, to seek truths with the help of our fellow artists. For in fact we are all artists. Remember is is not what we see, but how we see...we need to learn to see ourselves as a multi-colored collage that encompasses all truths rather than as isolated, fearful or angry individuals who follow personal/egotistical goals and ideal at the expense of others. Art is more than the sum of its parts. Once each of us paints our beliefs and our experience into the picture, once we add our voices to the symphony that surrouns us, we create true art. This productions is richer and more true because your are watching and listening, adding your vision to mine.

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