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Theater 34.2 (2004) vi, 1-3



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Up Front:

Eyeing the Future


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Figure 1
From An Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe, London, 1750. Illustration: Thomas Wright
[End Page vi]

Theater has always marked its editorial successions by reflecting on the nature of change—usually just on the editorial page. This time, in the spirit of new beginnings, we've chosen to observe our progression another way: by presenting three new plays by emerging theater artists. By theatrical standards they are young writers and directors: most are under forty. Each work is concerned with an idea or experience of transformation. The CiNE collective's antiwar masque Babylon Is Everywhere brings bitter wit to the current administration's spinning version of Regime Change. Russian playwright Vassily Sigarev defines brutality as coming-of-age in Plasticine. American author Sarah Ruhl applies her eloquent stage poetry to the Eurydice myth, evoking how time ineluctably delivers loss. Although their preoccupations vary—from the timeliness of America's disastrous imperial foreign-policy fantasies in Iraq, to the inhumanity of Russia's underworld, to Hades' more eternal subterranean realm—these very different young artists share an acute awareness of the power of transformation: a principle, as Aristotle observed, central to theater's nature and purpose.

Since it began in 1968, this publication has advocated progressive thought in the theater and in the world. Ren Frutkin began the first issue, launched in New Haven's late-1960s tumult, by expressing his hope that a cathartic dose of Greek tragedy (the issue's theme) could help America's "numbed minds and dismembered cities" climb out of "moral catatonia." Readers knew that a satirist was taking the wheel when Joel Schechter prefaced his first issue in 1978 with an open letter to CIA director Stansfeld [End Page 1] Turner, threatening—not a little optimistically—a groundswell of antiauthoritarian drama around the globe. Thirteen years later, as the country woke up from Reaganism's calamities, Erika Munk affirmed the place of "the most social, direct, and worldly art" at "a spectacular moment of change."

The magazine's current transition also coincides with a national reinvention, but the present outlook is far less hopeful. American theater has yet to reorient itself to a climate of record deficits, resurgent and unapologetic military colonialism, and Code Orange alerts. At the time of this writing, foreign artists—including Canadian actors—were routinely being denied U.S. visas for alleged security reasons, while foundations were trying to bring their philanthropic giving into conformity with the perceived intentions of the so-called Patriot Act.

Globalism and technology have also had serious implications for American theater and its institutions. Audiences dwindle as people find themselves hardwired to other forms, and in any case too many plays and productions merely mimic television or film. Most theater can't even boast of its essential live qualities anymore: even if a production doesn't integrate multimedia components, its soundtracks and lighting design are probably computerized. (How can audiences be persuaded of the value of live performance when it's increasingly mechanized?)

It's easy to imagine Plato giving his approval as dissenters find themselves shunted to the corporate republic's outskirts. But serious theater artists can't forget that Plato didn't want to banish poets from his ideal state because art was useless—quite the contrary, he saw a threat in its potency, its power to alter perception.

With these resilient possibilities in mind, Theater affirms and strengthens our commitment to publishing new voices and presenting international perspectives. Great [End Page 2] work still graces the world's stages, though the theater world doesn't have a geographical center. Artists increasingly mount their projects all over the world; without a cohesive, single community to observe and respond to, critics and criticism have to adapt by becoming more intrepid. The magazine plans regular sections reporting on theater in specific regions, as well as plays, interviews, and criticism from abroad. Theater will also continue to publish new writing by and about American artists who challenge parochial thought with new ideas, along...

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