DramaLit Blog 1.0: BU School of Theatre

Ever since our discussion on the trials of regional theatres, I’ve been thinking a lot about what kind of theatre should be produced in regional theatres, and on broadway, and why? Before I came to BU, I was a part of the subscription audience for Seattle theatres such as ACT and Intiman (before it closed), and I saw some fairly amazing work there. Intiman definitely had trouble in it’s last years with filling their seasons with reinvented classics that just didn’t hit home for audiences. These two theatres, although dependent on ticket sales, have done a rather admirable job, in my opinion, of drawing a diverse audience in. I’ve seen Streetcar there, as well as Ruined by Lynn Nottage, and new plays in their premieres, but still the majority of the audience I was usually surrounded by were upper middle class over 50 white couples. And although most of the time the work this company was doing was of high quality, doing these new, off the cannon works weren’t drawing big enough audiences for the theatre. What’s to be done?

Last year I went to see Stick Fly at the Wimberley, and not only was it one of the best pieces of theatre I have seen in a long time, it was written by a relatively young black woman, and for the first time in my life, I felt like the minority of the audience. It was amazing. I’ve been tracking the NY Times coverage of Lydia’s broadway debut, and I found this article today which comments on the novelty of finding three African American women producing plays on broadway in one season. The rarity of this didn’t surprise me, as I have long seen broadway as a commerical, economy driven theatre scene, which doesn’t accurately represent the American people. The article also commented on the regional theatre movement, and shared experiences that both Lydia and Katori Hall went through when producing their plays at regional theatres. Lydia personally commented on how when regional theatres would produce her plays, she would have to take over marketing the plays to black audiences, because the marketing department wasn’t interested in appealing to new audiences who might not bring in the same money.

I guess where I’m going with this is, yes, it is fantastic, that two black female playwrights made it to broadway this year, and yes, it would be awesome if regional theatres and broadway would represent a more diverse community of theatregoers. All I know, is that when I saw Stick Fly for the first time, I was the minority, and it was refreshing. Lydia’s play drew a great new audience to a regional theatre, but it also opened my eyes to a theatre experience I had never had before. I didn’t feel excluded, or like an outsider, as with black plays for black people which generally leave me walking away feeling guilty. I felt represented, and educated. To me, Stick Fly is more of a universally human play that appeals to a wide range of audiences. Call me white and ignorant, but I can’t help feeling that we don’t need more plays catered to a specific audience, what we need is more universal theatre, that can appeal to people from all kinds of different backgrounds. I think the reason that most of these regional theatres are being accused of being misrepresentative is that they keep catering to one audience, as opposed to choosing theatre they think needs to be performed, not for the money but because it is artistically interesting and fulfilling to produce. I don’t think we need more plays for white people, I think we need more universal theatre, that can look at all of us who are so worried about offending each other and getting our people onto the stage, laugh at them, cry with them, and come away feeling educated, surprised, and touched. I don’t have to have the life experiences of anyone on that stage to be moved. And I’d rather learn about something I haven’t experienced that watch the same stories people still seem to think are what needs to be said today.

I put the link to the article below in case anyone wanted to check it out.

NY Times Article