It was a no-brainer. American Theatre’s April issue, we knew, had a special mission—to call attention to the theme of theatrical activism, one of the four core values of our publisher, TCG. What better way to accomplish that goal than lead off with coverage of the most rampantly performative sociopolitical movement of recent years, Occupy Wall Street? Hit the streets and get the lowdown on the artsy elements of OWS, we urged our intrepid arts reporter Christopher Wallenberg. He did that and more, and the colorful and thought-provoking report that resulted appears (enlivened by New York photographer Erik McGregor’s pageant-like images) on page 26.
But by the time Wallenberg’s text fell into place, the activism theme his article heralded had multiplied and swarmed over the pages of the April issue like red ants at a picnic. Not only had Mike Daisey, one of Wallenberg’s most eloquent sources, checked in with a passionate introductory essay of his own on the topic at hand (page 10); a pair of reports on advocacy, spotlighting theatremakers who cultivate rewarding relationships with their congresspeople (one Democratic, the other Republican), had nestled into a feature slot on page 30. On the issue’s back page, an artist-politician you may never have met—Mayor Jón Gnarr of Reykjavík, Iceland—could be found espousing arts-centric convictions about the value of public service. The productions anticipated in the Front & Center section, it turned out, were peppered with activist concerns, from a theatre-for-youth play about environmental responsibility to a new take on an old Mamet. Even Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles playscript, with its affectionately drawn characters touched by political struggles past and present, got in on the act.
Activism, it seems, is April’s raison d’être—and the theme will spill over into our first double issue of the year, May/June, in which North Carolina educator Sharon Green investigates the nation’s theatrical response to a red-hot topic: teen bullying in schools, communities and cyberspace. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, the issue at hand offers alternative pleasures for those inclined to ruminate rather than demonstrate: Former AT associate editor Michele Pearce hangs out with horror master Stephen King and his team of musical all-stars at Alliance Theatre of Atlanta as Ghost Brothers of Darkland County takes shape; staff scribe Nicole Estvanik Taylor pursues the nuances of Will Eno’s singular writing style; another staffer, Diep Tran, crawls inside a dinosaur puppet at Los Angeles’s Natural History Museum (it’s an acting assignment); and there are new plays to relish at the Colorado New Play Summit, as well as strategic partnerships to contemplate via the innovative San Francisco company Crowded Fire.
This is an issue that calls theatre folk to action but also encourages reflection. Actions speak loudly, indeed, but not always more loudly than words.
