The risk-taker’s perils

NOW, whoa! Hold it, Angela Sousa! [Letters, May 7] Calling Robert Wilson a fraud is not only insulting a serious artist, but it is uninformed. Groundbreaking artists take risks, don’t they? They’re called names because many people don’t like change.

What may be difficult for some viewers is the lack of dramatic conflict in his scripts because the plays are mostly visual, what the French call “living pictures.”

Wilson creates his own rhythm, often a slow-paced one, as his unconscious creates vivid and poignant images.

Even so, “The Black Rider” is full of surprises. One image after another hits you. In the last scene (all in white), the audience was so moved that it gave him a standing ovation.

I played in one of Robert Wilson’s plays, “Golden Windows” (based on his life), at the Brooklyn Academy and have observed his work at close range. Wilson is an artist. So-called frauds either imitate others or pretend to be what they are not. Wilson does neither.

GABY RODGERS

Los Angeles

Rodgers is an actress and director.