Hamilton Rocks the Cradle

In case you thought that the theatre's relevance in the public discourse has a limited reach - check out HAMILTON's  latest act of "political theatre."  Lin- Manuel Miranda and Brandon Victor Dixon join the ranks of Mark Blitzstein, Orson Welles and John Houseman whose 1937 Federal Theatre Project musical, THE CRADLE WILL ROCK, was shut down by the WPA out of fear that it would insight unrest because of its highly charged pro-labor subject matter.  In one of the theatre world's greatest and most courageous moments, Houseman, Welles, Blitzsetin and the cast walked twenty blocks  from the Maxine Elliot Theatre to the Venice Theatre and performed the show from seats in the audience.
Click here to listen to the riveting story told by John Houseman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LDb0fn4Uek

Brandon Victor Dixon's speech from the stage of The Richard Rodgers Theatre just over a week after the divisive election of Donald Trump and Mike Pence has created a firestorm on social media with calls by the President-elect for the cast to apologize stating that the theatre must always be a "safe and special place" and that the cast was "very rude."

As a theatre educator, I constantly preach to my students to use their artistic voices to make our world a better place. I encourage them to use theatre as a means for social and political change.  Art is not safe - it is dangerous in the best sense of the word. Even Shakespeare said that the players are the "abstract and brief chronicles of the time."  Playwrights from Arthur Miller, Athol Fugard, to Vaclav Havel have heroically given voice to social and political injustice. Indeed, Lin-Manuel Miranda is among these heroes.

We are in a time of grave dissent but also we are in a time of essential discourse.  Perhaps it is most accurate to say that the theatre in America must continue to be a "safe and special place" where diversity is celebrated, ideas are openly discussed, and the power of art can continue to call people to think, question, and challenge injustice by giving voice to the voiceless.