The Corporation
I forget who called us that first
I think it was a critic
It’s usually a critic
But who knows
Maybe it wasn’t
We were doing Blithe Spirit
In 2006
And Tennessee, the Artistic
Director
Sees it in the paper
But like I said
Maybe it had been said before
But anyway, the point is
They say ‘The Orpheus Theater,
That Artistic Corporation’
And it was like they stabbed all
of us in the heart
We weren’t a corporation
We weren’t a business
I mean, we were
But we weren’t just that
Hell, our parents worked at
corporations
Well, mine didn’t
There weren’t corporations back
then
The way there are now
Back then, there were just
businesses
And business wasn’t a dirty word
But in 2006
When you say corporation
You’re talking a heartless,
soulless drone
Of a thing
So I say ‘Tennessee, what are we
going to do about this?’
Because I’m a senior member
Of the acting company
At this point
I’ve been with the theater
For over twenty years
And I’m not a corporate anything
But Tennesse just sort of shrugs
it off
And says ‘People are going to say
What they want to say’
Like he doesn’t care
That that’s what people think of
us
That we’re all about the money
The greed
The fucking business, you know?
I mean, goddammit, kid
Your father built the place
With cardboard
And bad luck
And now we’re talked about
The way they talk about GE
Haliburton was a corporation
Enron was a corporation
We are a THEATER
My father went to work everyday
At a big building in the city
And every night he came home
A little more drained
And a little more drunk
Until one day
He just didn’t come home
He sent a zombie home instead
Who died two years later of a
heart attack
A theater doesn’t do that to
people
…Except…
We were
We were starting to
If I’m being honest
We were starting to become…that
So the name…fit
I guess…it fit
But I didn’t admit it
I still won’t admit it
Because I keep hoping it’ll change
I keep hoping if I hope
It’ll actually change something
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