A Note from the Editor

Although theatre, by its very nature, is both interdisciplinary and collaborative, we tend to practice in relative isolation. If this issue is bound by any thread, it is one which verifies the creative benefits of connectedness—to our students, our colleagues and our community. Certainly the idea of connectedness, the value of more productive relationships with actors and audiences, the rewards of breaking and crossing boundaries are, in and of themselves, not radical concepts. We speak daily of their theoretical value. But practice entails the clearing of any number of hurdles that for many of us cripple or negate entirely our effort to reach across lines drawn deeply in the dirt.

John Schmor considers the particular challenges of devising theatre. In its demands for intense collaboration both between faculty colleagues and between faculty and students, devising, while exceedingly attractive as an idea, may seem impossible in practice, given the constraints of the more traditional models of production often practiced in academic theatre. In exploring his own efforts and the ensuing productions, Schmor helps navigate these sometimes muddy, sometimes raging waters. This article is a welcome introduction to devising within the academe, which will be further explored in next year's special issue.

Moving outside their own departments, Wendy Arons, Cynthia Gendrich and Angela Hattery consider the much touted but often unpursued road of interdisciplinary collaboration. Focusing on her contributions to an interdisciplinary conference, Arons considers how theatre finds its place in an environment where power structures based on academic disciplines consistently leaves the arts in the dust. Arons also considers the choices we make as theatre artists working in such an environment: How do we ensure that the position of theatre is secure by accommodating the demands of others? How do we not compromise in the face of such assurance? How do we serve the future of such ventures by breeding awareness of the value of our "play"?

Working both in production and in the classroom, Gendrich and Hattery present an effective model not only for crossing disciplinary borders, but also for crossing the boundaries that separate our tower from the community in which it resides. Their article argues not only that theatre can serve other ventures and areas of study, but also that the theatrical experience itself can be enhanced by its incorporation of the ways and means of other disciplines. Chronicling their production of Shepard's Lie of the Mind, informed by extensive sociological study of Intimate Partner Violence, and their service learning course combining theatre and sociology, Gendrich and Hattery not only position theatre as a vital tool for building bridges between otherwise isolated populations, but also provide the blueprints to do it.

Coming to the building of bridges from another direction, Janna Goodwin reconsiders our relationship with our audience, particularly within the confines of the post-show discussion. Accurately acknowledging both the general malaise in this arena and the dearth of available guidance, Goodwin also aligns herself with non-traditionally theatrical methodologies to enhance the theatrical experience; she argues in her article for the value of a communication research method known as Coordinated Management of Meaning to help us reconsider what we ask, how we ask and what we do with the answers we hear in the construction of meaningful and activating post-show conversation.

The final two articles in this issue consider the breeding of awareness of culture and race through theatre's oldest tool - the actor speaking to the audience. The focus of these two pieces is the impact of the speaker and the nature of the speech. Annette Wannamaker teaches Beah Richards' one-woman play, "A Black Woman Speaks." Her students read the text and study the text but Wannamaker argues that it is its performance in the classroom which truly challenges her students to step across deep divisions as whiteness becomes visible as a race and its reconstruction becomes a site for activism against racism.

Angela Pao also considers the impact of racism and theatre's history of encouraging cultural isolation through its use...