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.

On Doing OUR TOWN and Other Standard Fare

     

     I just finished directing OUR TOWN by Thornton Wilder. I will admit to having  been mildly embarrassed when people asked me what my fall production was going to be. One of my greatest fears is being unoriginal. So for a high school drama teacher to be doing OUR TOWN is about as unoriginal and predictable as it comes. I felt the same way last spring when I directed GUYS AND DOLLS. Standard high school fare.  I could almost feel the collective eye roll.  Nothing edgy about either of these choices.

     As I get older, I find that I am more self- conscious about being out of touch. Nothing original about that fear either. I am now part of the “older generation.” The gap is the gap no matter to which “older generation” one belongs. Just a different set of things separate us from decade to decade.

     But here’s the funny thing…when I polled the parents of my cast, asking them how many had ever seen OUR TOWN about three hands went up. They’d all heard of it. But truth be known, the majority had never seen a production of it.  Frankly, the same held true with GUYS AND DOLLS. Everyone knew “Luck Be a Lady,” but few knew the story and even fewer knew of its Damon Runyon origins.

     This has been an eye opener for me because, I now realize that the gap is not only with teenagers, but there is what I would call a culture gap with the parents.

So here’s my latest epiphany – OUR TOWN is a new play to my entire educational theatre audience.  As a theatre educator, I am beginning to realize that my responsibility is to expose students and their parents to the great works of art in order for them to appreciate good writing and to give them the opportunity to experience the transcendent power of theatre.

I no longer apologize for doing “standard fare” but instead consider it a privilege to delve in to a well -written script or  a great musical score.  OUR TOWN is not a museum piece. It is as relevant today as it was in 1939 and arguable more so.

     In rehearsal, my students have discovered the profound meaning in Wilder’s simplest turn of phrase.  Wilder’s insight into humanity is not nostalgia because in the twenty-first century, not one of us remembers what life was like in 1901. But somewhere in our collective conscience – in our very souls – we yearn to “look at one another”  as if we really saw each other as Emily says in Act III; to “pay attention to the birds”  as Editor Webb points out in Act I;  to think about what it really means to be appreciate life  “every, every moment.”

     OUR TOWN reminds us of our mortality but in so doing, inspires us to live every day to the fullest. And it does it without preaching, sermonizing or teaching. The play does it through good storytelling with characters who live out their ordinary lives in Grover’s Corners without pretense, expectation of fame or greatness, and appreciation for the simple pleasures of the earth.

     Working on standard fare when the play is great, inspires me because I feel like I have a chance to open my students’ eyes to why the theatre is so enriching.

The more sophisticated they become at theatre -going, the more skilled and discerning they become at recognizing what makes a production great or why a production may have missed its mark.  By sorting through the various elements of mise en scene, students are better able to articulate the difference between a good play and a lousy production and vice versa.

     By engaging my students in what I call a process of integrity, the product ultimately has integrity. It begins with the material and for young people, introducing them to the great plays will never betray them nor the audience. In fact it can help them to become better actors, designers, directors, and playwrights themselves.   I always say it takes just as much work to mount a production of a lousy play as it does a great one – so why settle for mediocrity?  If OUR TOWN is standard fare, at least it was worth the effort and another generation was exposed to this great play.