BLOG: What Is Theatre For?

Looking Back and Looking Forward A little over a year ago, my first News and Notes column showed up on Minnesota Playlist. For me, this all started off while I was in a bar and ran into Playlist head honcho Alan, who had also clearly been drinking. As with all decisions reached while under the influence, I woke up the next morning thinking, "What the hell did I just get myself into?", and I've been here ever since. Big changes are coming here at MN Playlist. It's going to become a damn sexy site, if I may say so. I can't quite explain all of the details of the update, since every time Alan has shown the preview to me, we've been drinking. Alcohol appears to be a fundamental part of our relationship, and I'm starting to suspect that it's not healthy. But, I do know that Playlist is going to become a much slicker site, more navigable, more visually appealing, and with the ability to handle video, bigger pictures, and all the other shiny bells and whistles the kids on the internet are into these days. Alan has been working through the night to assemble a new rogues' gallery of writers to produce even more content on the magazine side of things. We even had a writers' meeting. And, yes, there were drinks served. But in a town where theater reporting is rapidly disappearing, and where one of the two major newspapers looks like it might be in trouble you should be glad to know that someone around here is working to keep the lights on. You have a chance to invest in the light-keeping, and I'd highly recommend taking on that investment. Before things go all wibbly-wobbly around here, I just wanted to take the time to thank all of you who have been reading for your time and attention. I have fun writing this column, and I hope you have fun reading it. Now, on with the show! It's the Latest Model Through his blog at the Western States Art Federation, arts and nonprofit consultant (and former director of the California Arts Council) Barry Hessenius has been arranging an event he calls "Dinner-vention". The idea is to invite young thinkers in the world of nonprofit art to get together for a formal dinner and present their ideas on a given topic. This year's topic is "Broken Models", and the invitees have already submitted their position papers on the topic. It's a fascinating read, and there is far too much there for me to unpack in this little column, but after reading through it myself, I picked up on common theme: the idea that all nonprofit arts organizations need to be socially-involved entities working for some kind of social change or improvement. We've been struggling for a long time in the arts world to explain to people why arts are important so that they will cough up a few dimes to help pay for it. At its heart, that is really what this Creative Placemaking mania is all about. So what's the new model for arts organizations that's going to take us into a bright and shining future? Damned if I know. But if you know and you live in Minneapolis, then you'd probably better attend one of the city's events "to identify strategies for the next 10 years of arts, culture and the creative economy development.". (Side note: this event is apparently part of the Creative City Roadmap, and the invite directs us to the Creative Minneapolis website, a Wordpress page with absolutely no information in it whatsoever. I would like to give the city the next step in its strategy: make a website that actually does something) We Thought We'd Change the World... So, we're all about changing the world through art now. Sign me up. Let's write a play that ends global warming! Except, not everyone is on the social change bandwagon. Some people would rather ride the art-for-art's-sake float in the parade instead. In the most recent edition of American Theatre Magazine, playwright Richard Nelson ask the question, "What Is a Play For?", and the answer he comes up with is very far from the Creative Placemaking model. Personally, I agree with Tom Stoppard: "I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon." Of course, this is a man who also said, "Theatre is a series of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster," so take Mr. Stoppard's opinions on the efficacy of theatre with a grain of salt. Of course, the people of Belarus Free Theatre would disagree with all of this, but they're in the unique situation of knowing exactly what they're working for and who they're working against. …But I Guess We'll Settle For China In the meantime, while we're worrying and arguing over what theatre should and shouldn't do and how it should and shouldn't be paid for, China continues to casually extract and absorb it. The United Kinggdom is donating £1.5 million to translate all of Shakespeare's plays into Mandarin. Of course, this is a tiny pittance compared to the $320 million facility China is building to develop a touring musical theater market. As it turns out, Western theater is changing the world, just maybe not our particular part of it. Are You A Good Actor or A Bad Actor? I guess you'd better read this article to find out. How else will you know?