Political Theatre

The Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri, prides itself on producing “bold new plays,” under artistic director Cynthia Levin. The 2013-2014 season has been somewhat of a “dream” season for the Unicorn staff—“full of the best contemporary theater in America,” said Levin. As the literary assistant and dramaturg, I have the joy and privilege of digging into the scripts selected for the season. Not only are the plays new plays, many that are fresh out of New York, and world premieres, but also several of them have something else in common: war. While war is not new, the new season of plays in Kansas eloquently captures our era of endless war both open and covert.

When I read the list of speakers on the mayor’s panel, it was made of six women, including five artists and one critic. In terms of racial diversity, only one was African-American and another was from Iran. The rest were white speakers. Where was the Latina? Dallas is an astounding 42 percent Latino and the mayor is going to “Re-Imagine Art in Dallas” without including anyone to speak on our behalf?

Patricia Davis writes about The Freedom Theatre in Palestine, focusing on its controversial work with youth and its history, which includes the assassination of their founder.

Not only is the portrayal of disability by a non-disabled actor equivalent to blackface—what we in the disability community derisively call “cripping up” (pretending to have a disability)—universally accepted as a technical skill tucked away in an actor’s bag of tricks, it is always applauded and more often than not, rewarded. 16 percent of Academy Award winners have received the coveted statue for playing a character with a disability; just two of those winners were disabled actors. If you think this phenomenon exists only in Hollywood, consider the 2013-14 New York theater season.

Alice Stanley Jr. discusses her experience at a workshop of Ariel Luckey's solo performance Amnesia, and the talkback which followed.

A dialogue between Paula Vogel and Blanka Zizka regarding their play Don Juan Come Home from Iraq. 

As a former fellow-traveler, albeit on a somewhat smaller scale than the summiteers, all of this got me thinking: For the twenty two years of Theater of the First Amendment’s producing life as the resident professional company of George Mason University, how did we do?

Paul M. Davis illuminates the importance of artists and technologists collaborating in the civic sphere.

Jonathan Mandell looks at New Brooklyn Theatre's production of The Death of Bessie Smith, and the ways theatre sparks political change.

When the history of intercultural theatre is written, we will always remember the directors that created these works (i.e., Brecht, Barba, Taymor, Ninagawa, Ong), but few can recall the choreographers, dramaturgs, performers, and designers that collaborated with them to make these productions possible.

As an African American woman playwright from a poor, working class, racist, country town in East Texas, I learned early in life that I am part of a community of people whose voices have been silenced, whose image has been exaggerated and misrepresented, and whose legacy has been erased and exploited. White playwrights, male and female, need to understand that they are writing within a legacy of the people responsible for having done those things to people of color. Neither legacy is fair. They come with unshakable, palpable, and visible burdens.

Marcina Zaccaria writes about Elizabeth Hess' Dust to Dust, a one-woman show responding to the the violence toward woman during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia.

Lydia Stryk asks us to change the game and align the industry closer to the human right to make a living wage.

Utilizing the theatrical convention of the Jester, Daria Wilke explores the suppresion of homeosexuality in reflection of the jester’s inner freedom.

Nobokov’s thinking about absolute freedom included the notion that there could be no play without competition. It is critical to think about the lack of play induced by Putin’s “traditional Russian values.”

In this installation of PROPAGANDA: A Festival Celebrating Russian Voices, Lauren Keating addresses the Russian government passing the Anti-Propaganda Bill and the responses it has garnered.

Eco theater is not meant as a protest or an art installation at a climate change conference. It is a complete and independent artistic practice that happens to focus on ecological issues.

The 2013 convening is a time to think of defining who, what, and where Latina/o theatre is currenting in reflection of where it has come from and where it can go!

Jocelyn Prince, Connectivity Director at Woolly Mammoth, continues our series on Audience Engagement with a blog focusing on the intersection of connectivity and community organizing.