Theater, Hope, and democracy interview

Flashcards covering Oscar's discussion on non-profit theater, the Public Theater's social lens inspired by Shakespeare, and key playwrights who brought diverse voices to the center of culture.

What is the main legal distinction of developing work in the nonprofit theater sector compared to the commercial sector?

By law, the job is not to turn work into something that makes money, but to make a contribution to the community as a whole.

How does Oscar determine which writers and projects to select and nurture?

By picking writers with a distinctive, indefinable voice who do not sound like anyone else and have a unique approach to the work.

What does the Public Theater mean by 'public work with a small p'?

Work that tries to understand individual or familial relationships in the context of a broader social view.

Who serves as the Public Theater's model for public work, and what was produced for the first thirteen years of its existence?

Shakespeare served as the model, and his work was all the theater produced for its first thirteen years.

Why does Oscar consider Shakespeare the primary model for placing personal experience in a social context?

Because in Shakespeare's plays, private relationships always involve parents, families, the prince, and the state.

What is the Public Theater's specific charge regarding stage representation?

To try to make the theater stage as representative as possible of New York City, of America, and to some extent of the world.

According to the transcript, what did Eugene O'Neill accomplish for the Irish community through his theater work?

He announced that the Irish belonged at the center of Anglo American culture.

How did Clifford Odets broaden representation in American theater?

He showed that the experience of Jews growing up in tenements in The Bronx could stand in for all of America.

What line from Arthur Miller's work is cited as an example of Jewish experience and non-Anglo Saxon dialect?

"Attention must be paid"

What function did Wilson's great cycle serve in the history of theater?

It broadened who gets to speak for America.

How does the theater literally realize the metaphors 'put the spotlight on' and 'stand center stage'?

By literally putting underrepresented people center stage and putting the spotlight on them to give them the chance to speak.