Bullying—the subject of “The Defenders,” educator Sharon Green’s in-depth report that leads off this issue—can bring up uncomfortable personal memories for many of us who grew up interested in the arts (page 26). Looking back on my own early childhood, I’m not sorry that I was an avid book-reader, that my parents provided me with piano lessons (even tap-dance lessons, for a time!), that my idea of fun was staging puppet shows in apple crates rather than playing team sports. But imagine how those inclinations branded me among my classmates at Aloha Elementary School in rural north Louisiana, where I was a shy, overweight, ungainly kid whose father (final nail in the coffin!) was the school principal. Bullying, in those years, was part of my daily routine, a kind of half-acknowledged social subtext that taught me, at too early an age, about cruelty and conformism and isolation.
I got through it, of course—I even learned to fight back when the time was right, and scored a few exhilarating retaliatory blows against my harassers. But not every kid is so resilient, and the advent of social media over the past decade has transformed a once-shrugged-off behavioral aberration into a headline issue with life-and-death implications. Green’s wide-ranging survey of plays and programs that deal with bullying demonstrates how American theatres, especially those for young audiences, are at the forefront of a vital national conversation.
This annual international issue also trains an appreciative eye on a nearby theatrical landscape that’s all too often terra incognita to U.S. theatre folk. Canada, as managing editor Nicole Estvanik Taylor points out in her introduction to our special section “Northern Lights: Canadian Theatre Now” (page 31), shares our continent and our northern border but, in theatrical terms, is more often than not artistically and creatively remote. Our cadre of writers, representing both sides of the border, aims to reduce that metaphorical distance and illuminate our commonalities.
In tandem with the special section comes the magazine’s annual illustrated roundup of summer theatre festivals worldwide (page 46), and a message, solicited by the International Theatre Institute, commemorating the 50th World Theatre Day. American actor John Malkovich’s official remarks are brief but eloquent (page 10)—and his themes are elaborated upon by three young theatremakers who submitted winning essays to TCG’s attendant essay contest, titled “Generation Without Borders.” The perspectives of Will Kiley, Amanda Quaid and Nina Yarbrough are infused with youthful energy and idealism. They’re must-reads.
Finally, this issue turns out to be rife with uninhibited, behind-the-scenes conversations. The ins and outs of adapting Chekhov is the topic du jour for playwrights Sarah Ruhl and Tracy Letts (page 56), both of whom have recently witnessed the debuts of their own “new versions” of Three Sisters. And the advent of a flavorful new musical called Hands on a Hardbody prompts a trio of artists—playwright Doug Wright, songwriter Amanda Green and Phish frontman Trey Anastasio—to share the intimacies of their long, rewarding collaboration on the show. Let’s talk.
