Sunday, January 16, 2011
In Washington, Arena Stage Leaves the Light On for Playwrights
NYTimes.com: "WHEN Molly Smith began envisioning a third theater space here for Arena Stage, as part of the recent $135 million transformation that she led as artistic director, she grappled with how to distill her ideas into a clear form. Then one day she found herself staring at her hands. “I cupped them together, and there it was, that was our theater,” Ms. Smith recalled. “When you look inside two cupped hands, you have a cradle. That’s what I wanted: a small, enveloping cradle where we could nurture and stage newly birthed American plays.”
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2 comments:
It's great that a theater is taking such a risk in producing more new work. For the last year I have been lucky enough to work closely with Florida Stage, which which produces exclusively new and emerging work. In that time I came to love plays that have never been staged or read or published, almost always they had never been produced. Some of the best theatre I have seen has been new work. I feel that too often theaters produce what they know will make money and what's well known, forgetting that at one point all plays were new. While the classics are important, we won't be able to find new classics if we stay too focused on the old ones.
I agree with David and think it's awesome that they are are doing something new and exciting. It's very rare to see new works in theatre. Most producers get nervous they won't make money so they stick to classics or cheesy musicals. But new works are important because they represent what is going on now in this time period and how people feel today. I also think it's great that this theatre company is really trying to help playwrights. It must be really scary and nerve-wracking trying to make a career in playwrighting. I give them a lot of kudos. I know I would love to see some newer plays end up on Broadway.
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