| Theater is the art by which human beings make human action worth watching
by Jason Loewith on 6/03/2008 11:40:00 AM
"People need theater" is the brave - and to my mind, absolutely true - opening to Paul Woodruff's new book, The Necessity of Theater. I've yet to read it, but much in the New York Times review of the book is worthy of note on this blog.
Woodruff's primary claim, though hardly new (hell, it dates back to Aristotle), is that theater, by promoting empathy, provides the essential underpinning of community. In fact, he says that theater is necessary "to secure our bare, naked cultural survival." It's an argument that my colleagues and I make frequently to inspire our constituencies and to shame our public servants, like Governor Rod Blagojevich, for whom arts funding is a nice luxury when the rest of the budget is balanced.
But I digress. In the past week, I've been reminded forcefully of Woodruff's claims at two magical, mystical theater events that made me part of my community in transcendent ways.
The first was David Cromer's absolutely astonishing production of Our Town. I'll confess that I thought Chris Jones had lost his mind when I read his over-the-top review of the show a few weeks back. But after witnessing Cromer's driven, passionate, unsentimental, brutal and wholly engaging production last week, I realize he was absolutely right.
I knew from all I'd heard that there was an extraordinary "surprise" in the play's third act waiting for me, and though it was indeed extraordinary (I won't tell you what it was - you must go see it), the act's opening was just as thrilling. In what is mostly a bare-bones production, staged environmentally in and around the eaudience, the third act opens in the cemetery of Grover's Corners. Cromer's masterstroke here is to suddenly triple the size of his cast, and surround the audience with these "dead" figures, gazing dumbly towards eternity. When we returned from the second intermission to find these mute refugees from their ordinary lives, we were all struck dumb ourselves... it was the most eloquent, simplest setting I've ever experienced.
I could go on, but the point of the post is that here was a piece of theater that satisfied both my mind and my heart at every moment, thereby enlarging the capacity of my soul to be part of my community. Sounds touchy-feely I know, but it's the truth. I'm in awe of Cromer's achievement; as he brutally intones the work's final words, we watch a "living" young man grieving in the cemetery. We are suddenly aware of those who have left us (they're surrounding us) and those who will follow, and of our ordinariness, and of the miracle of our lives. Wilder's play is first and foremost about community; Cromer's production makes sure you feel community in your bones.
Then last weekend, I celebrated the miracle of life at the wedding of Anish Jethmalani (a wonderful actor who was in Omnium Gatherum here a few years ago) and Michelle Tesdall (the immensely gifted costume designer who did that production). Most of the ceremony was from the Hindu tradition, and it was pure theater (as every wedding is, but to my western eyes this ceremony was exotic): from the costumes to the "props" (many sensory items like sandalwood and rice were blessed and used; Anish rode to the wedding on a gaily costumed horse) to the performers - including a wonderful Hindu "priest" whose chanting filled the fall for over an hour...
Of course, a wedding is specifically designed to celebrate "community" in all its senses: the union of two individuals is consecrated by the gathering of community. And this community, featuring family members of various religious traditions, friends, theater practitioners, and others, was diverse and glorious and united by the performance they witnessed.
I'll be thinking about both these events for a long time, but mostly I'm glad to know that, despite the wondrous miracles of the internet age, simple theater is what's essential to our cultural survival.
(My thanks to Gary Houston for passing along the NYT review of Woodruff's book)Labels: Chicago Tribune, community, David Cromer
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