FAS Discussion Question 7

 I want to place you in the director’s seat! Rather than give a prediction about where theater is headed in the future, I want you to tell me where (in your opinion) should theater be headed?! 

     Knowing everything you know about past and contemporary theater styles and trends, where (if you were director) would your theater be headed? I want you to delve into the future, while considering current trends and outcomes from the past (successful and/or unsuccessful). Use the past to guide your direction, but don’t get stuck there!  Have an objective, create a landscape/blueprint of a theater that you would like to merge beyond the past and present into the future. What would your theater look like? What would you incorporate from the past, what would you maintain from the contemporary and how would you change to meet the demands of the future? Would you incorporate the newest technology, music, social justice issues, trends? Consider musicals like Hamilton, conceived and composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda who incorporates Rap and/or Hip Hop music to move the narrative along. This is a play based on American history and the life of Alexander Hamilton. In the past, this would have been considered unheard of. Look at set designs from Frankenstein, that premiered in London, and/or Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle directed by Cirque Dul Soleil’s Robert Lapage at the Met. In recent news, two Pulitzer Prize winners finally made their debut on Broadway this past year. What makes this out of the ordinary? Lynn Nottage and Paula Vogel are both women. Within this post, I have included an article about the plight of women writing for the stage. I recommend you peruse the article and see how you might address this plight in your theater. Perhaps, in your opinion, this isn’t terribly important. That is, diversity of voices and/or complex subject matters being explored on stage. However, perhaps, in your opinion, a variety of voices on stage does matter. Should only one perspective and paradigm be considered when developing and/or exploring plays for the theater or should a variety of diverse voices be included? Is theater a place for social justice issues to be examined and explored?, Should Eco-Drama plays about the environment, such as Sila by Canadian playwright Chantal Bilodeau be given a platform? Make a decision, where do you stand? Don’t be sedentary; be active. At least that is what I am asking you to do in this week’s discussion. 

 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/22/theater/lynn-nottage-paula-vogel-broadway.htm