Thursday, March 21, 2013
A bonanza of daring, across the boards
The Washington Post: Whether it’s an intensifying appetite for novelty, a newfound embrace of boldness — or maybe an increase in spinach consumption — something has gotten into the theater makers who are deciding what the rest of us will see on Washington’s stages next season.
In the river of announcements spewing from the front offices of theaters around town, a theme is emerging for the offerings of 2013-14, and it’s as robust and optimistic a stream as any I’ve encountered. In company after company, the emphasis is on broadening audiences’ horizons, presenting theatergoers with galleries of voices and projects they may not have heard or seen before.
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Being enrolled in a School of Drama that places such a strong emphasis on new works has given me a greater perspective on the potentials and pitfalls of staging unexplored material. With so much of the commercial theatre energy focused on making money by simply putting on stage what has already proven marketable on the screen, it is heartening to see the regional theatre scene counter-balancing that with more and more new work. Without the benefit of monstrous production budgets, smaller companies are re-learning that it is only by staging brilliant work that maybe they can compete with the glitz and star-power of Broadway and the touring circuit. I for one believe that audiences are not as dumb as the vast majority of trivial nonsense peddled by the popular entertainment industry would indicate. Regional theatres like Arena Stage and Studio Theatre will survive by continuing to provide an intellectual alternative to the empty sentimentalism pervading the rest of the culture. I wish them, and by proxy us, success in the coming season.
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