November 21, 2009
UTNE READER

Media Diet: Richard Foreman

(Page 2 of 2)

March/April 1996
By Joshua Glenn, Utne Reader 
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Which authors or playwrights have had the most influence on you?

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When I was young and just starting out in theater, I was very influenced by Bertolt Brecht and Gertrude Stein, but now that I've found my own voice I have absolutely no interest in either of them. Probably my greatest influence in recent years has been the psychologist Jacques Lacan: He's the most efficient thinker I've encountered insofar as making one realize just how fragmented and impenetrable a human being really is.
Which current trends in the media most trouble you?
The fact that it exists at all. In my opinion, the media is the handmaiden of advertising, which is the greatest horrible evil in the world. I suppose that if a thing is awful enough it could produce a change in the mind-set from which other beautiful flowers might grow. . . . But I also hate the media because it brings out the worst in me: I watch it, and when I'm doing that I'm not doing what I should be doing; I become weak, uncreative, and unenergized.
What are the sources of your best and most original ideas?
Forgetting everything I know. Hitting my head against a wall and accepting that the wall is impenetrable, and glorifying that. When I'm making art that wall might be discovering that something I'm doing seems embarrassing, stupid, or completely clichéd; however, hidden in that stumbling block is usually the seed of something really new.
Where do you find inspiration?
Reading, particularly in psychology, philosophy, or mystical literature. I'm always looking for strategies in those disciplines for changing one's consciousness, and whenever I find something I immediately try it as a way to generate texts, which then become my plays. Making the mind a blank is a great spiritual technique, of course. Stupidity is the great inspiration.
What is your most creative space?
My couch.
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