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Literary Arts - Articles |
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By
Che’Rae Adams
Blog Entry #5-What Direction is American
Theatre Headed?
“The American theatre movement is nearing
disaster.”
“Without an adequate sense of tradition or a
sense of social responsibility, it is in danger
of becoming a movement whose only purpose is
self-perpetuation. This idealistic movement
begun some generations ago has been unable to
achieve a living wage for its actors, a
livelihood for its playwrights; it demands that
its designers accept 12 to 15 productions a year
just to make ends meet, and forgoes its
responsibility to train directors while
permitting, under the heading of financial
survival, the average income of its audiences to
climb higher and higher, until this once bastion
of social ideals and aesthetic concerns has
become the plaything of the upper-middle-class
and the very wealthy. How did this happen?”
Richard Nelson wrote these words 25 years ago as
the opening to an essay about the state of
American theatre and I’m not sure much has
changed. Most American theatre artists in are
out of work, and that was before the recession!
It is still nearly impossible to make a living
in the theatre, so artists subsidize their
income with work in television and film. Those
that can’t get work there, have the infamous
“day job” which they pray will be flexible
enough so they can go on auditions when they
need to.
American Theatre Magazine recently asked 25
theatre artists “What do you imagine might
happen in the American theatre over the course
of the next quarter-century?”
Mike Daisy, monologist and playwright, had this
to say:
“I look forward to the great work of the next
quarter-century as a time of crisis and renewal.
I hope we begin to take back institutions for
artists, in cities and towns we don't hear from
today. I hope that we will discover together a
new theatre of the living moment, beyond the
thumb of film and television. I hope we are
making art that is like life itself:
unrepeatable, illuminating and unforgettable.”
This is a far cry from his 2008 article “How
Theatre Failed America” which has subsequently
been adapted into a one man show and performed
in such venues as The Kirk Douglas Theatre,
Joe’s Pub, and The Woolly Mammoth Theatre. It is
nice to see that he has some hope for American
theatre after all.
Sarah Benson, artistic director, of Soho Rep, in
New York City had this to say:
“What will emerge is a more culturally connected
and art-driven model that stems from the work,
rather than simply sustaining self-perpetuating
institutions. The most exciting work will be
exuberant, uncompromising and handmade. It will
be intimate, whether made for tiny or vast
spaces, and yet large in scope. And it will
utilize the strange theatrical principle of
alchemy, by taking rough materials and using
them as they are—to turn out something
remarkable.”
Go Sarah! Remember when you and your friends all
got together and created intelligent,
passionate, heartfelt new work that was inspired
by how you felt about the world and your place
in it? That is where the future of American
Theatre is headed! No more cookie cutter theatre
where all of the regional theatres are doing the
same thing over and over again without much
original thought. New work is almost always a
comment on the present time and we all need to
grow the balls to write about it.
What would your new play be about?
(Che’Rae Adams is a freelance director and the
Producing Artistic Director of the Los Angeles
Writers Center. Log onto
www.cheraeadams.com
for more information or you can contact her at
cheraeadams@sbcglobal.net)
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