Obama's Influence on Theater

Here are two interesting articles for you:
Obama goes to Broadway
Critics' reactions to the gesture

If you hadn't heard, President Barack Obama fulfilled another campaign promise by taking Michelle to see a Broadway show. Honestly, when I first heard about this promise, I thought he meant one of the big Disney-esque musicals filled with glitz and glam. It never even crossed my mind that they would see August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone.

First of all, August Wilson was a genius and one of the leading examples of American Lit in an increasingly shallow pool of authors to draw from. You probably already know my recently discovered love for this man. Author of the Century Cycle (a series of ten plays about African American culture and identity in the 20th Century), he is the *only* playwright to complete a cycle of plays that long and ambitious. Not even Eugene O'Neill finished his attempted cycle. Wilson is also the first African American to have a Broadway theater named after him. On top of all that, this particular production is ground-breaking because it's directed by the white Bartlett Sher (of recent South Pacific fame and artistic director of the Intiman Playhouse in Seattle). Wilson insisted on having black directors for his plays, as he layed out in the aptly named "I Want a Black Director."

So what does this have to do with Obama?

He's not just President -- he's a power celebrity. People are in love with him. And just like any other celebrity, people want to do what he does, hear what he hears, see what he sees. If you doubt this, I dare you to browse through iTunes' celebrity playlists without clicking on one person. America's obsession with Broadway musicals will have to make room for other plays now -- plays you could anthologize and say "this is American."

The pop culture knowledge of what "American theater" is expanded a little bit thanks to Obama.
Sure, some critics are complaining that he's only enforced the ideas of regional theater and that he should've gone to see a show in DC. But that's not the point. For America, Broadway is still the be-all, end-all of theater. But now our President acknowledged that there's more to it than Sondheim. This is a step in the right direction. The Obamas' date both evidences our shortcomings as a Broadway-obsessed theater culture and works against that condition. It's a symbol.

And maybe we're making too much out of this date. But hey, until Obama appoints someone to fill the anticipated cabinet-level position on the Arts, this is all we have to talk about in the theater community. No official announcements on creation of the position yet, but there has been talk. After all, the U.S. is one of the few 'major' countries in the world without a high-ranking government minister of the Arts. We can only hope that this date (which shows Obama's knowledge of and love for the Arts) is a prelude to more national support for the theater.

Our Mission

"We are living through an extraordinary era in British theatre. The stage and the gallery are edging closer to each other."

~ Lyn Gardner, in her review of Punchdrunk's Tunnel 228

This millennium is teetering on the verge of something. We are not quite a global society, and neither are we quite ready to take the plunge. The Digital Age is upon us and as artists, we are still trying to reconcile ourselves with that. What does theater have to offer modern America? Are we doomed to supply only glittering Broadway lights and community troupes that offer up uninspired interpretations of classics? How can theater survive in a competition with film? How can performance art survive up against theater? How can any of them survive the internet?

We are indeed living through an extraordinary era of theater. Not just because, as Lyn Gardner observes, the performer and spectator are moving closer together. This is an extraordinary era because we practice a schizophrenic art. We don't know what we have to offer today's America, we keep chugging along doing the same thing theater has always done.

As practitioners, we can't disregard the questions about what theater is. But it's time to ask new questions. Why does America need performative art? What can the art do for America? How are society and performance intertwined? In what ways is the art changing already that we haven't noticed? How can we incite change in the art? What other forms are performative and ought to be explored? What questions can we not even fathom to ask yet?

This community is not here to 'prove' any thesis about theatrical events. We are here to ask questions, cross-pollinate with each other, and share inspiring moments from the theater we practice and see. This is a blog for explorers.