One Public

I have a special interest in oral histories and anthropology, and have tailored my theatre writing around those interests. Big questions that arise: How does a cultural institution serve its community?  How does The Public reflect the mores and mythologies of twenty-first century America?  Is it possible for America to have a national theatre? So, while this book looks at one specific theatre, my hope is that it shines a light on state of American theatre more broadly, as the industry faces down the excesses of late capitalism.

The book explores the American economic contradiction that normalizes the dialectic of “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” with massive wealth inequality.  In many ways, The Public is America’s national theatre and its constant grappling with its socialist ethos within an increasingly elitist and financially driven art form, has been fascinating for me to track and come to terms with. 

At a more structural level, I came to this research because Oskar Eustis was a professor of mine at Brown University, before he became the artistic director of The Public.  On a sabbatical, as I was working on a performance studies book, he allowed me to be a scholar in residence at The Public and use the theatre as a place I could hang my hat for a few months.  We determined that beginning an oral history archive for the company might be a good way to spend my time when I wasn’t working on my book.  He basically opened up his rolodex for me, and I started recording interviews with some of the greatest artists in American theatre.  Very quickly, I realized that I needed to write the book. By the time the first edition was published, I had spent six years interviewing incredible people and taking in a lot of theatre.  It was, to say the least, a joyous process.