HowlRound: It began with Churchill, as it so often does. Not Winston, of course—Caryl. We were discussing the politically layered script Top Girls in a playwriting class. There was a pause in the discussion, and my professor looked at the fluorescent lighting above his head. “Come to think of it, I don’t think there are many conservative playwrights at all,” he said. We all stopped for a second, considering this. Were there any theater artists we could think of who produced political work that read conservative?
7 comments:
To respond to the question raised, where are all the conservative playwrights and performances? They are out there - one just has to look. I'm not talking strictly about the theater with overtly conservative plays in their season - see the Christian-based mission statement of Sight & Sound Theatres - but rather how a play chooses to tell its story. Perhaps the right isn't expressed as loudly as more liberal political theater, this might be because so often the vision of political theater is unified in its form (think feminist interpretations of narrative or the unities of time and place exorcised by post-modernists.) What does a conservative theater look like? Perhaps its the embrace and worship of the well-made play or the boy meets girl musical. To produce conservative theater doesn't mean one needs to produce plays that are Pro-Life or Anti-Obamacare. Conservative theater may mean a conservative dramaturgy, an exploration of more traditional story telling and a conversation about what does it mean to double cast, toy with time and place, or diverge from the 3 act structure that has been so successful. Yes, conservatism on stage can mean more than a conservative dramaturgy. Artists have the rights to express themselves regardless of their political alignment. I would welcome a play glorifying free-market capitalism but it has to be done well. Theater is a live and electrifying experience. If there is no conductivity, I won't take your message seriously because the vehicle for your agenda was crap. This goes the same for theater on the left as well. If you can't hold an audience's interest and attention they won't care about what political or intellectual charge the piece. This may be why "liberal" playwrights are celebrated more than conservatives - liberal playwrights seek to push their political agenda not only on the audience but on the way the theater tells stories as well.
I have to agree with Matt, in that I think that conservative theatre does exist. It just might not be in the way that you can just read the title and know that it isnt, "In the room next door, or the Vibrator play". I think a conservative show could come in many forms, I mean the author of the article said it himself, "..the annual Nutcracker". I think that it is important for theatre to be comprised of as many different view points as possible, because those are the shows and the ideas that can make you think. We don't always have to agree with what is on stage, that is the point. Personally, I think that it would be interesting to see a show that could be outright 'labeled' conservative, just to see whether or not it could fall into the category of old school Rogers and Hammerstein-esque or maybe they are Pro-Life and Anti-Obamacare.
The question that this author asks reminds me of a question that my aunt posed to me over break. We were discussing the formula for college essays: applicant encounters a situation in which they must face diversity, is uncomfortable at first, learns to accept it, and finally is very happy that they did. My aunt suggested that this emphasis on diversity is discriminatory to those with conservative viewpoints who might disagree with it. It becomes very difficult to defend a conservative viewpoint in this conversation because acceptance and respect for differing ways of life is vital to the educational process, and to suggest that a lack of open-mindedness should be rewarded by an academic institution goes against the necessary core values of higher education. This incompatible conflict of interest also explains the lack of conservative political theatre. Liberal playwrights such as Brecht and Kushner examine sociopolitical issues through their plays pointing out the flaws in the present and making the audience believe in a change for the future. Fiscal politics aside, social conservative politics do not stand up to the type of scrutiny that playwriting requires. Not once in this essay does the author provide a picture of what politically conservative theatre might look like, and I am having trouble coming up with an example that would not be satirical in nature.
I think that I agree with Matt and Sonia, but only to a degree. Yes, I think that conservative theatre exists and that it may not be in the same vein as what we think of as strongly liberal theatre. However, I think there's a difference between traditional theatre and conservative theatre. The traditional theatre, like the annual production of The Nutcracker, or the boy-meets-girl musical, might have a conservative lean, but I wouldn't call it conservative theatre. I think what the author was getting at is that there aren't many modern conservative playwrights. The boy-meets-girl musical might have been written in the 50s. The Nutcracker has been around even longer. I'm not sure why there aren't many modern conservative playwrights, although if I had to guess, it's partly because of the right's political policies. I don't have any numbers to back this up, but I would assume that most members of the arts community are liberal-leaning, but I don't think that it's because the arts community is unwelcoming to differing viewpoints.
It's kind of the same as the dilemma that the right is facing now: they are losing support among young voters and minorities and most political writers are saying that the Republican party will need to make adjustments to the party platform and their image if they want to remain relevant. Maybe the arts community is just ahead of the curve.
@Cat It might not be a question of where are the conservative artists and playwrights. It may be who gets all the attention? The media is very conservative or at least right-inclined: if they are not reporting on something that offends them they are covering a story because it offends someone else. For example, is a play examining gender and sexuality like Terrence McNally's Corpus Christi going to make headlines? Yes, it does all the time. Is a play exploring patriarchy and sacrifice by staging a Passion Play about the last supper going to make headlines? Probably not. That's why I think there is a lot of conservative theater out there. It is theater that doesn't challenge or offend a particular agenda - safe theater. The kind of theater that most theaters cram into their seasons. It is theater that sells.
I never actually realized until reading this just how there are no conservative playwrights to my knowledge. But when answering the question on why a lot of theatre goers and people who work in the theatre are quite liberal and most likely to reject other views is because many people with conservative views have thoughts or support people who deny many people their rights which when told you can't have certain basic rights, you're most likely not going to respond rationally. Food for thought? I'd assume so.
What I have to say to this kid is, if you can't find any conservative theater out there and you are so concerned about it's existence then why don't you write some. You could have Summer Awakening where instead of getting an abortion at the end the lead women has the baby and starts a club that try's to ban guns. The reason that there are not very many conservative playwrights is because we are surrounded all of the time by conservative messages and ideals and theater is and has pretty much always been a response to that. If you want to talk and think about conservative views all you have to do is turn your television to Fox news and it's right there in front of you. But to get the real liberal message, to get something edgy and unique (because that is basically how this kid is defining liberal, by using examples like Spring Awakening and Kushner) you have to go to the theater. Why would I want more conservative values in my theater? That is the one place I can escape the whole thing!
Also I agree with everything Matt says.
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