The Politics of Inspiration: American Theatre in Flux

dialogue Ruth Mayleas Ruth Mayleas was Director of the Theatre Program at The National Endowment for the Arts, 1966-78, and was the original Director of the Dance Program there. She has also served as Director of the U.S. Center of the International Theatre Institute and Director, National Theatre Service [ANTA]. Jay Novick Jay Novick is a theatre critic for The Village Voice. His book Beyond Broadway : The Quest for Permanent Theatres is a study of the resident professional theatre movement. He is Professor of Literature at the State University of New York College at Purchase. Joseph Zeigler Since 1969, Joseph Wesley Zeigler has been a consultant to arts Institutions, government agencies, universities, and communities in planning, research, marketing, communications, and funding . He spent the 1960s in regional theatre, was executive director of Theatre Communications Group, and is the author of Regional Theatre: The Revolutionary Stage. 64 THE POLITICS OF INSPIRATION American Theatre in Flux The shape of American theatre in the last two decades has continued to suggest changing profiles: In its goals, funding, artistic leadership, composition of audiences, and growth patterns. Today's discouraging economic environment, coupled with the uncertainty of new artistic and economic politics under Reagan, have put a kind of holding pattern on the arts as we begin this new decade. In some parts of the country theatres are flourishing; In others theatres are devising strategies to get through this season; in still others theatres are forced to shut down. We asked Ruth Mayleas, Joseph Zeigler, and Jay Novick, three individuals with experience in diverse areas of theatre, to air their views on the current artistic and financial crisis of American theatre. The dialogue was moderated by Bonnie Marranca and Gautam Dasgupta in December 1980. JAY NOVICK: I wonder if there really is a crisis. My sense, considering the shape the country is in-now there's a crisis for you-is that theatre is in amazingly good shape. It's at least as reasonable to ask why they're not closing their doors left and right, why the country is not full of ghost theatre buildings, considering what's happening to the economy and the morale of the country. RUTH MAYLEAS: I think when we talk about a crisis we have to make clear whether we're talking about purely financial things or aesthetic considerations . Also "crisis" becomes an alarmist word. It seems to me the financial issue is one and the aesthetic is another; they are related but they're not the same. JOSEPH ZEIGLER: I think it's essential that we talk about both, rather than limiting ourselves to one or the other. We three have been at it long enough and are old enough to have lived through the basic changes that have happened in this country in theatre since the Second World War. I can 65 remember In the sixties working In theatres around the country and feeling strongly that theatre was not part of something that was going on In terms of its place In the community and its positior, etc. We were all working to make sure theatre got Included in those things that were represented by symphonies and art museums. I think we did it. I think theatres are part of that whole crowd and they have matured awfully fast to that point and maybe that In itself brings a crisis. JN: Victories never fulfill expectations, do they? But the crisis that comes when you won is better than the crisis that comes when you lost. Ask any Democrat. RM: Then your problems really begin. Now what? How do you build that better world? JN: I think two answers of how you build that better world are beginning to emerge. I tapped my mailbox this morning and there was about the dozenth release saying now for the holiday season our theatre presents its famous production of A Christmas Carol. There's a tendency to say, "Oh that old one again," but it's an Indication in that theatres have found a quiet and unpretentious way of Integrating themselves In at least one corner of ordinary life. RM: The Christmas Carol has become the Nutcracker of the...