Author: Anderson, Robert J. Jr.; Baumol, Hilda; Maltezou, Sonia P.; and Wuthnow, Robert

Publication Year: 1977

Media Type: Report

Summary:

During two of its meetings with Mathtech, the Advisory Group expressed a strong interest in having individual input from professionals in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors of professional theatre into Phase I of the study.

Abstract:

During two of its meetings with Mathtech, the Advisory Group expressed a strong interest in having individual input from professionals in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors of professional theatre into Phase I of the study. As a result, Advisory Panel Chairman Harold Prince invited approximately thirty theatre persons from around the country to participate in round table discussions to share their perceptions of the needs of professional theatre. Two discussions were held in New York and two in Los Angeles. Each was scheduled to last three hours. Although the time was short between receipt of the letters of invitation and the dates of the meetings, the following twenty-two invitees were able to participate:

• October 18, 1977: New York City: Richard Barr, John Bos, Michael Feingold, Bernard Gersten, David LeVine, Stephen Schwarz, Douglas Turner Ward, Thomas Fichandler.
  
  
• October 18, 1977: New York City: Emanuel Azenberg, Earle Gister, Stuart Ostrow, Jane Alexander.
  
  
• October 20, 1977: Alvin Epstein, Robert Goldsby, Mako Iwamatsu, Dan Sullivan, Marl Young.
  
  
• October 20, 1977: Arthur Ballet, Pat Don Aroma, Stanley Eichelbaum, Jorge Huarte, W. Duncan Ross.

Each round table discussion was moderated by Advisory Group member Robert W. Crawford and each was attended by Robert J. Anderson and Sonia P. Maltezou of Mathtech. In addition, Harold Horowitz of The National Endowment for the Arts participated in part of the afternoon discussion on October 18th in New York. Each round table discussion was transcribed in full by a court stenographer. Complete, unedited versions of the discussions are available at the National Endowment for the Arts.

To give structure to the discussions and to provide opportunity for response to similar questions, the following format was followed in each of the four meetings. Participants discussed first what they perceived to be the present role of professional theatre in American society today - what is is, not what it should be. This was followed by ideas and discussions of what each participant perceived should be the role of professional theatre in America. In turn, this was followed by discussion of needs to be implemented in order to attain what should be. The fourth area of discussions turned to perceptions of where funding might or should come from in order to implement the perceived needs.

Finally, each participant was asked, based on the discussion already held, to stress what he or she perceived to be the most important needs of and for theatre in the immediate future. Every effort was made throughout all discussions to identify particular needs of the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors of the professional theatre and to identify where needs overlapped or were actually or potentially cooperative in nature. So as not to load the discussions, the moderator posed as few detailed or specific questions as possible, doing so only when necessary to provide sharper focus through clarification of points being made.

Initially, it had been planned to prepare a precis of the discussions, including a somewhat limited number of direct quotes extracted from the transcripts. Because of the wealth of material and the serious response to our appeal for in-depth comment from varied professional points of view, the original plan was discarded. The following much fuller excerpts are presented after minimal editing by the moderator. Much valuable material about the perceptions of what theatre is today, is included in conversations dealing with what theatre should be. If such sections of the discussions were taken out of context, their particular pertinence might well be diminished, if not lost. Each round table has its own dynamic. Each dynamic proved to be an integral part of the statements of perceptions. To divorce these statements from the dynamic of the whole, by extracting them out of context, would be unfair to the participants.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Creative Economies