Historical Moments

editorial HistoricalMoments it came as somewhat of a surprise to us to see that when the individual pieces were arranged for this issue of PAJ how clearly the subject of History came together as a common thread, unwittingly linking them. Bruce Wilshire's reflections on education and the university take as their broader reach the philosophical implications of life lived outside a sense of cultural history, and historian Charles L. Mee, Jr. addresses the very issue of writing and perceiving history. In more specific contexts Rustom Bharucha chronicles the transformations of a Western play which must confront other historical conditions when it is staged in an alien, Eastern culture with its own different voice and values, dramatic and otherwise. Performance artists Freya Klier and Stephan Krawczyk act as witnesses to those who will erase and rewrite history, in the continual struggle of the two Germanys. Jean-Luc Godard holds on to the memory of Western culture by reconstituting Lear. The Lapine/ Sondheim musical Into the Woods looks at personal history through the genre of the fairy tale. But, is history really alive on our stages, and in the discourse of theatre artists , students, educators, administrators, audiences? Traditionally, one way a culture learns to examine its history as a people is through its art and the rigorous public debate of cultural, political, and aesthetic questions that art provokes. Now, in the contemporary culture of art as a leisure-time activity, important issues are easily glossed. Politics is simply a matter of performance styles, and once again theatre is in the streets. 5 As we draw close to a presidential election, the very act of reshaping the continent of desire suggests the precariousness of living on the edge of a new era. We are at a very precise historical moment: a change of actor in the role of leader. Perhaps it is no coincidence that many of the issues in the campaign bear an uncanny resemblance to important issues in theatre. Among the most significant of them is the notion of "representation," to which Jesse Jackson gives new definition as "the other." (And in another recent example, so did the student body at Gallaudet College for the deaf who refused to seat an "average" president, forcing instead the appointment of a hearing-impaired one.) Who can deny that audience identification is the strongest impulse in social interaction? Aristotle very early on linked spectacle and empathy as the fullness of being. There are other campaign issues about which we in the theatre have been instigating our own heated debate. One of them is interculturalism: what is its relationship to imperialism? to Orientalism? to multinationalism? to tourism? Then there is the epidemic of homelessness at all levels of society , the most graphic case being those who live in city streets and in train stations. There is, however, another kind of homelessness in the condition of artists and intellectuals within the diminishing public culture in America. The economy is the loudest voice in the chorus of domestic affairs: there is a real crisis in the retreat of funding sources for the arts, the lack of affordable housing and performance space, and the move of artists and would-be artists away from major art centers, in search of more hospitable living conditions. Not to be overlooked is the importance of retraining workers caught in the outmoded system of theatrical production. One place to start is the re-evaluation of theatre education in relation to research and practice. The point is that issues and crises cannot be divided up into special interest groups that only affect some of the people some of the time. They have a pervasive way of eventually cutting through all professions and communities . That is what defines the mood of cultural life in an historical moment . It would certainly be a surprise if this fall part of the presidential debates were given over to a discussion of cultural policy in relation to global, political strategy. Either television audiences would be treated to their first mime play, or this historic occasion would show that our government might just be giving up improvisation for the well-crafted script. The Editors 6 ...