Howard Sherman: There is an oft-repeated cry from certain corners of the creative community lamenting the lack of political theatre on our stages. Yet I seriously doubt that the Republican Theatre Festival is what they had in mind.
I say this not to criticize the festival, currently on in Philadelphia, but because the conventional wisdom is that theatre is almost exclusively a liberal art. Those who want more stage politics presumably seek more activism on the part of left-leaning artists, not right wing-rhetoric.
6 comments:
Art with a message - not like we haven't heard of that before. But at the same time, this is definitely the kind of message that we don't utilize theatre to anywhere near its full capacity for. This article immediately brought to mind the political satire group "The Capitol Steps" who, as they claim, "put the MOCK in Democracy." The shows they put on are constantly changing to fit the political scandals and issues of the times, and make points that are hard to forget through laughter and song. That this group was the first to pop into my head does, however, underscore the point made in this article that democratic themes and groups are a lot easier to incorporate into the liberal arts than conservative republican ones.
I'm friends on facebook and twitter with a couple of people in the Philly theater community involved in the Republican Theater Festival. There's a growing community of politcal satire there (see everything 1812 productions does) and I assumed the Republican Theater Festival was a joke. Then I read this and checked out the theater's website. The festival's mission statement reads like every festival of new works - they are trying to produce work that could be ignored, overlooked, or that might not have the opportunity to be produced elsewhere. But with one exception: the overlooked minority of dramatists were not LGBT, students, black / racially diverse, new playwrights, or women; rather the minority was conservative right-wing playwrights. It really struck me. Why was I surprised at the earnesty of this festival? Why have I never thought about it before? Probably because of what Howard Sherman says, I assumed theater was a liberal art. But it makes sense that it's not. Theater, or all art for that sense, among other things provides an outlook for public disgust and mistrust in the current sociopolitical climate. Why wouldn't there be plays with pro-life agendas? Or plays about how government is getting too big? What about play responding to the Occupy movement? These aren't radical ideas. Though I may disagree with them, they have the right be told and should be produced. Not only because it will create a political dialogue within the arts and challenge what people things but because there might be good stories to be told. But I agree with Sherman, the plays should be good. There is already a lot of crap being produced and supported in contemporary America theater. It doesn't need anymore, regardless of its political alignment. A good story is a good story. Sherman brings up the example of Other People's Money. One of my favorite plays, Glengarry Ross, a play IMO about two of my least favorite things business and sales. It doesn't glorify them but at the end Shelly, (the villian or protagonist depending on your view) gets whats coming - the status quo has been reinforced. Admittingly I the list of conservative plays on my bookshelf is short but perhaps that's because everyone assumed the industry to be liberal and continues to fund, produce, and uphold playwrights that fit this mold.
I agree with Matt- festivals like this fill a gap in the world of new plays that desperately needs to be told in order to inform their audiences. I think in an effort to do this, however, the festivals have to be very careful. The goal is to educate and give an informed argument, not to propagandize, which is what I fear is happening because of advertising Conservative Theater. As the author of this article point out, if you identify as a liberal, you would never ever go to a conservative theater festival- why would you, it seems uninteresting. But it is those people who should be going because they have more to learn about the argument to be had, and plays like this can help inform the argument. I'd be curious to see what happened if the Republican Theater Festival were to rebrand itself while still keeping the same sort of material.
I don't think it matters if the show is liberal or conservative. As was said the it matters whether it is good theatre or not and how successful the playwright was at conveying the message they wanted. Unfortunately I think humans hear and take away messages they want to hear and take away. So many of theatre goers find more liberal messages in them. I think this smears the line between what is liberal and what is conservative. Theatre mimics real life, both ideas are real and exist, so I think even in some of the most liberal plays you can find conservative ideas and even in conservative plays you can find liberal ideas. All people need to do is to look for different things and I think they will be amazed what they find.
I have been thinking a lot about roads as of late. Roads that lead us to certain places, but are ultimately divided. On the left is a liberal artist trying to stir the pot, on the right is the conservative artist trying to tell it "like it is" but both are two sides of the same road, leading to the same place. Art should not have a political agenda, and yet nearly all great pieces of art do. Art is for the people. Sherman speaks about how the audience that came to see Other Peoples Money was not the typical crowd -- isn't this what we want? I hear people say, and read articles about how theatre is dying. Maybe the only way to revive it is to open our minds to the other possibilities (That aren't so liberal).
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