What Does Theater Mean to You?
Posted by Sylvia Ewing on 1/09/2008I’m newly fascinated by the different ways people define what theater means to them. Last month I saw a wonderful play at the National Theatre in London. For me, theater became a chance to look into an unexplored intellectual debate between British West Indians and Africans in Kwame Kwei-Armah’s play Statement of Regret. It was also a chance to learn more about a respected venue. The house manager proudly gave me an overview of the National’s three spaces. Her perspective on theater was rooted in place.
I later had a very different conversation with a woman at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Perhaps it was influenced by the fact that she was at an event celebrating fashion in Black London, but she looked me in the eye and said that her favorite American playwright is…Tyler Perry, of Diary of a Mad Black Woman fame. “He’s brilliant. Quite interesting,” she said, with such a lovely accent that I didn’t bother telling her about August Wilson or Chicago’s own Lydia Diamond.
More recently, I facilitated a community discussion for Alderman Manny Flores and my friends at the Center for Neighborhood Technology. It concerned land use and development in Wicker Park. High on the residents’ list for a quality neighborhood was a theater; right up there with more parks, parking and one guy’s scheme to make the El quieter.
Over the next few days, theater for me equals David Sedaris. He’s sharing new work in the Steppenwolf Upstairs Theatre for 8 sold-out shows. I like to think that his book Indefinite Leave to Remain, due out in June, will have a little bit of Chicago in it. After all, this is a place where we take our theater seriously, and we have a growing reputation as a town with an honest, passionate audience. The audience at a performance like this is a creative partner for a writer or director. I look forward to David’s shows, and to The PocketBook Monologues which follow on January 14.
As we launch Traffic, I wonder if I can copy another type of theater I saw in Paris: year-round people-at sidewalk cafes. Look for me after a matinee at one of the neighborhood bistros. I hope a down coat and libations will keep me warm as I watch the promenade here–the Paris on the prairie.