Attempting a Modern Marinetti: The Controversial "Call for Manifestos"

Attempting a Modern Marinetti:

The Controversial "Call for Manifestos"

In spring 2002, Michele Volansky, then dramaturg for the Philadelphia Theatre Company and past president of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), received an email that issued a unique challenge: "Come on. Get involved in the call for manifestos. This can be part of your presidential legacy. Hell, it won't cost you much, and think of the fun you'll have" (qtd. in Volansky, Theatre Manifestos). The author of the imploring email was Michael Bigelow Dixon, Literary Director / Associate Artist of the Guthrie Theater. Respected throughout the professional theatre community as "a great mind in the American theatre and in the creation of new work," Dixon is known to many as the former Literary Manager at Actors Theatre of Louisville during the final fifteen years of former Producing Director Jon Jory's reign (Volansky, Theatre Manifestos). Indeed, Dixon helped revitalize the Humana Festival in its last years before Jory's departure, exploring new forms of playwriting and performance at the festival such as the telephone plays and short plays performed in cars (for three audience members at a time).

Dixon's proposal for a manifesto contest received positive responses from his colleagues at the Guthrie and at Playlabs, a play-development workshop at the Playwrights' Center (also in Minneapolis) as well as other sponsors from whom he sought financial support. In addition to Volansky and the LMDA, the Guthrie, and the Playwrights' Center, Dixon received sponsorship from Anna Deveare Smith's Institute for Art and Civic Dialogue, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Vanderbilt University Theatre. The idea of a manifesto competition, however, surprised and confused many who wondered why these established institutions would be asking for manifestos when such works usually were the product of anti-establishment movements or perspectives. Indeed, the manifesto contest of 2003 served as a unique experiment, resulting in a surprising conclusion concerning the competition's unintended significance. By analyzing the winning manifestos and discussing the intentions and processes involved in the competition, it is possible to evaluate the event's contribution to the canon of contemporary American theatre and to explore how the winning manifestos symbolize current concerns in dramaturgy.

The Purpose and Goals of the Competition

We need a manifesto to bring passionate undercurrents to the surface.

—Polly Carl, "Creating the Swell" (32)

While touring the Philadelphia Art Museum, Dixon found himself in a room filled with futurist art, enjoying the annotations that described the goals of the futurist movement. Remembering F. T. Marinetti's famous Futurist Manifesto, the idea of work connected to "an energy and an idea" inspired Dixon. After viewing the futurists' work, Dixon wondered if it were possible for American theatre to be stimulated to produce a similar burst of energy; the problem, of course, was how to encourage American theatre artists to participate in creating such a movement. Given Dixon's long history at Actors Theatre of Louisville, working with a vast number of playwrights within an established process for new play development, he was well aware of the difficulties and flaws involved in traditional play discovery methods. Therefore, he used the manifesto competition to discover alternative methods for the development of new work, knowing full well that the resulting manifestos might dismiss or disown the established practices and organizations that currently supported playwrights and their endeavors. In other words, how receptive would the institutions of American theatre be to a manifesto that proposed a different method for encouraging and developing new work? ¹

In order to gauge potential interest, Dixon shared his idea with two trusted friends, Jon Jory and Polly Carl, Producing Artistic Director of the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, a group with which Dixon is also affiliated as a member of the board of directors. ² Carl immediately pledged her support (as well as that of the Playwrights' Center) and offered to help publicize and manage the event. Exhibiting her support for the "Call for Theatre Manifestos" and...