Most New Yorkers know about the Public Theatre, but many have lost sight of its purpose as imagined originally by Joe Papp in the late 1950s. Papp's notion was simple. Live theatre, especially Shakespearian live theatre, should be available to the widest possible audience, one that is composed of many poor people and many people of color. Furthermore, that theatre should be as passionate and complex and chaotic as the world in which it is produced. Casts should be filled with diverse actors and such a theatre should challenge the public and push them to see things anew and to re-imagine creative possibilities for a different world. It should be all those things, but above it must educate and it must be free.
So we learned in a film about Mr. Papp that was presented at Lincoln Center on Monday evening. The film entitled "Joe Papp in 5 Acts" is slated to be shown on PBS's American Masters Series. But the thing that gripped me is this idea that any democratic society is entitled to a public theatre in the same way that we are entitled to free schools, free libraries and free parks. Theatre, especially when it is strong and insistently passionate, is part of our birthright as a free society. We need it to make us better and to tell the story of our struggles to create a more compassionate and more just society.
Papp was an unapologetic communist and sometimes it seems that what we need in our artistic impressarios is a person like Papp who demanded excellence and an uncompromising commitment to inclusion and justice. People who are visionary and even angry and who want to put all that pent-up emotion on the stage are our best bet for a more democratic and inclusive theatre. And ultimately for a theatre that explores those commitments we hold most dear.
Papp especially loved Shakespeare and to this day we have the remarkable Shakespeare in the Park productions that are such a huge part of his influence. But the fact that these productions are usually Shakespeare plays was critical for Papp. He wanted to bring the most beautiful language to a public debased by an overexposure to crude and ugly words. He sought to elevate the taste of the public and, as we have said, to challenge people to want something higher and more challenging than they might have asked for on their own. He strived to create a theatre that fostered human growth and whatever else he accomplished, it was his free Central Park plays that remain his most enduring democratic legacy.
Free education, free libraries, and free parks are only as good as how they are used and what aim they are used for. Similarly, we must think of Public Theater in this same vein. While, I celebrate the open and public access to free theater in Central Park, I think that it is our responsibility to demand a theater that is participative, transparent, and inclusive. I look towards Augusto Boal's Theater of the Oppressed as an example of a theatrical process that transform individuals, communities and legislation. It is important to celebrate the accomplishments of Joe Papp and our continual free access to theater, but how can we honor his legacy and continue to further Public Theater?
ReplyDeleteWonderful comment. I, too, want to be part of theatre that is more participatory, along the lines of Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed. So how can do it? Give it a try some evening at Los Potrillos?
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