The Trouble in Hungary
I have just finished reading your articles about the situation in Hungary (Nov. ’11) through tears. Both pieces, by Jim O’Quinn and Robert Avila, are beautifully penned and right on the mark. It has been difficult to watch colleagues, friends and family suffer in the wake of the sweeping “reforms” in Hungary. The fact that these articles exist to shed light on the situation there—when the major daily papers in the U.S. will not touch this story—is an incredible testament to your publication. What an act of solidarity these articles are!
Barbara Lanciers
New York City
Wright and Wrong
According to Christopher Johnston’s article “The Arts District Difference” (Oct. ’11), “A ‘temporary’ metal shed housed the Dallas Theater Center for 20 years before the Rem Koolhaas-designed Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre in the new Dallas Center for the Performing Arts opened in October ’09.” While this makes for exciting prose about the Dallas Arts District’s meteoric rise to power, it is patently false. In fact, DTC’s resident facility for 50 years was the Kalita Humphreys Theater in the Uptown district of Dallas, one of only three surviving theatre buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. And, frankly, there’s no comparison between Wright’s gorgeous nature-inspired building, nestled in the trees next to Turtle Creek, and the cold, uninviting architecture of Rem Koolhaas’s “Borg ship” design of the Wyly Theatre. Money may often fund good art, but it doesn’t guarantee it.
Robert Neblett
Dallas, Tex.
Editor’s note: The “temporary” metal shed to which Christopher Johnston refers is the Arts District Theater, which opening in 1984 and served as a second venue for DTC through 2005, when it was demolished. The article should have acknowledged that the Wright-designed Kalita Humphreys Theater continued to serve as DTC’s primary venue through the end of the 2008-09 season.
Remembering Laurents
Re: David Saint’s fond tribute to Arthur Laurents (Sept. ’11): I got to know Arthur when The Spitfire Grill was presented at the George Street Playhouse and Playwrights Horizons, under David’s direction. Arthur became an informal and very generous mentor to Fred Alley and me as we wrote and rewrote the musical. I vividly recall one performance at Playwrights when no less than Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince, Sheldon Harnick and Graciela Daniele were in the audience, and all most effusive in their praise. Arthur, David and I were walking down 42nd Street after the show when David and I remarked on our disappointment in a couple of mediocre newspaper reviews. Arthur said, “That doesn’t matter. What’s important is that you’ve won the respect and admiration of your peers.” I replied, “It’s hard for me to think of Sondheim et al as my peers.” Arthur snapped back, “Well, you’ve got to, because they are.” I confess I still don’t think of those people as my peers—but I think often of Arthur as an irascible and enthusiastic mentor with a passion for good theatre wherever he found it.
James Valcq, managing director
Third Avenue Playhouse
Sturgeon Bay, Wisc.
Diversity Redux
Re: Your thematic focus on diversity (Oct. ’11): At one point the idea of color-blind casting was progressive because of its attempt to incorporate black actors into a largely exclusively white American theatre. Today, color-blind casting promotes a tragic inability to address race as well as a desire to ignore the effects of race and racism that linger still today.
By imposing race neutrality, color-blind casting implies a cultural hegemony that subtly denies actors of color access to their own cultural memory and reference. I believe it is a missed opportunity to cast black actors in roles written for white actors without developing a creative sensibility of what it means to have black people and black culture within the world of the play. If the American theatre truly seeks to be more representative of America’s non-white population, we must first nurture and produce works by non-white playwrights.
Equally important, while incorporating non-white actors into classic works by white playwrights, we must be prepared to incorporate race and culture within the examination of these plays. In this way, we invite new communities to take ownership in building a theatre that reflects the complexities of our truly multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-national world.
Justin Emeka, director and professor of theatre and African
American Studies, Oberlin College
Oberlin, Ohio
Corrections: In the credits for the Oct. ’11 issue’s multiple-photo cover, an actor’s name was misspelled: Ariel Shafir (not Arief) appeared in Romeo and Juliet at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. In a photo accompanying “Handling the Hot Moments” in the same issue, Christie Lee Gibson (not Gibbons) was pictured in a production of The Blue Room.
