CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, November 30, 2016

What Can Theatre Do? A Post-Election Colloquy

AMERICAN THEATRE: "Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are," Brecht once wrote. We asked a wide cross section of the nation's playwrights and artistic directors—those who write plays and those who program them—how they are planning or intending to respond to the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency as theatre artists and leaders, and what they think theatre can do to shape and direct the national conversation.

1 comment:

Kimberly McSweeney said...

Hearing all of these reactions to the election and current state in America gives me hope and reassurance that things will get better. With people actively fighting and working against the hatred in the country – especially in such a unified and I outspoken manner – I can’t imagine hate winning. But like many people have been saying, hate is out there, and it is definitely loud and apparent. This hatred is easy to relate to, or even just ignore, if one is in a certain race and social class. But the ones who are going to feel it and fall victim to it are the ones who definitely need to speak up and show these people to have empathy and begin to fight on their side, as opposed to against it. I have to say, I really like reading a white man’s perspective on the current state as it shows me, and other people, that there are people out there who can empathize and show compassion without experience.