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Hello, everyone.
大家好，
As he said, my name is Margaret Hall.
正如大家看到的，我叫玛格丽特·霍尔。
I'm a musical theater historian, writer and teacher, and I'm here to talk to you about how we talk about art.
我是一名音乐剧历史学家、作家以及老师。
Theater is, at its core, a collaborative art form.
今天我来跟大家谈谈如何谈论艺术。
It's a way for human beings to communicate with one another.
戏剧的核心是一种合作的艺术形式，这是人类彼此沟通的一种方式。
Why then do we struggle to communicate about the art form itself?
那为什么我们难以讨论艺术形式本身呢？
There is one massive foundation-shifting question that many people working in the American theater avoid,
在美国戏剧领域，有一个极其重要的问题被许多人回避。
and that question is: How do we approach aging art?
那就是：我们该如何看待老化的艺术形式？
The American musical is a relatively young art form.
美国音乐剧是一个相对年轻的艺术形式，
If we use 1866's "The Black Crook" as our marker, then the art form is only 156 years old.
如果我们以 1866 年的《黑鸦》为起点，那么这种艺术形式仅有 156 年的历史。
Now that feels like a very old age to us because no human being is going to reach that age naturally.
这对我们来说感觉已经很久了，因为没有人类能够自然地活到这个年龄。
But if you compare the American musical to the forms of theater that reached precedence before it, it is a baby.
但是，如果你将美国音乐剧与之前的戏剧形式进行比较，它就是一个婴儿。
To us, it feels like the American musical has always been, since no one in this room and none of our parents and most likely any of our grandparents were alive in 1866 to see it begin.
对我们来说，美国音乐剧似乎一直存在，因为在场的各位，包括我们的父母，甚至我们的祖父母，没有人能够在 1866 年看到它的开始。
Five generations is approximately the length of time it takes for a tradition to feel ancient to a child.
对于一个孩子来说，经过五代人的传承才会形成一个古老的传统。
Think about that cure someone in your circle has for the common cold or that recipe your grandmother guards like a precious jewel.
想想你所认识的人中有没有人有治疗感冒的秘方？或者你祖母如同珍宝一样的食谱。
Now chances are that cure is more placebo than it is effect, and your grandmother's secret recipe may have come from a cookbook her grandmother owned way back in the day.
很有可能那个秘方更多的是心理暗示而不是真正有效，而你祖母的秘密食谱可能来自于她的祖母在很久以前就拥有的食谱。
But by the time it reaches us, it's taken on a different, constant feeling.
但是当它传承到我们这一代时，它变成了一种不同的、持续的感觉。
You're never going to meet the person who originated the tradition, and so it becomes a part of the fabric of your reality, something that you base your knowledge of who you and the people around you are.
我们永远不会见到创造这个传统的人，所以它成为了你现实的一部分，是你对自己和周围的人的认知的基础。
And in the case of the American theater, you will never meet the artist.
同样的，在美国戏剧行业，你永远不会遇到这个艺术家。
Generations apply to art, just as they do artists.
就像艺术家一样，艺术也具有代际性。
25 years is the average dividing line between the eras as tastes change and we use art to ask different questions.
随着时代的变迁和我们用艺术提出不同的问题，平均每 25 年就会形成一个新的艺术时代。
The American musical is currently in its sixth artistic generation, which means we just passed the ancient marker.
现在，美国音乐剧已经进入第六个艺术时代，这意味着我们刚刚经过了“古老”的标志。
That is a milestone in and of itself.
这本身就是一个里程碑。
Think of it like we've gone from being a teenage art form to a young adult.
想象一下，我们已经从一种少年艺术形式过渡到了一种成年艺术形式。
Now, that transition may seem small on paper, but as anyone who has ever gone back to their high school after their first semester of college can tell you, that gulf is wider than you think.
这个转变在纸面上现在可能看起来很小，但是任何曾经在大学第一学期后回到高中的人，都可以告诉你，这个鸿沟比你想象的要大。
We've grown. We're different. We've learned.
我们成长了，变得不同了，我们学到了很多东西。
We're still the same person, of course, but our hearts and minds are open to things we didn't even know existed.
当然，我们还是同一个人，但我们的心灵和头脑对以前不曾了解的事物敞开了心扉。
The American musical is growing up, and it is time for us to address the growing pains.
美国音乐剧在成长，现在是我们要应对成长中的疼痛的时候了。
For many of us, our instinct is to bury the phases of life that we cringe to look back on.
对于我们很多人来说，本能反应让我们不愿回忆那些想掩盖的生活阶段。
And just like a Hot Topic T-shirt stashed in the back of a closet, we like to pretend it never existed.
就像是一件被藏在衣橱角落里的过气的土味潮牌，我们愿意假装它从未存在过。
I'm here to tell you that as satisfying as that may feel in the moment, ignoring it is not the answer.
我来告诉你们，虽然忽视问题在当下会让我们感到满足，但逃避并不是解决之道。
You can donate the shirt.
你可以捐赠那件衣服，
You can repurpose it into a cleaning rag.
也可以把它改成清洁抹布，
You can even light it on fire and dance around the embers if you so choose.
甚至可以烧了它，围着火堆跳舞。
But you cannot make the shirt never have existed.
但你无法让那件衣服从未存在过。
