Explorations

Joan:…I stood on the bank a long time. But I knew it was my only way of getting here so at last I put one foot in the river. It was very cold but so far that was all. When you’ve just stepped in you can’t really tell what’s going to happen. The water just laps round your ankles in any case…

-Far Away, Churchill

I keep thinking about my New York experience in relation to my digital story and my research question. The above quote from Far Away helps to explain my current situation, ‘When you’ve just stepped in you can’t really tell what’s going to happen’.  This is exactly what I thought while wondering the streets of New York City after each of my interviews.  Who knows where any of this information is going? What’s going to happen to it all? Yet, this same thought crosses my mind even now as I pour over my interviews in digital format. The only difference is now I find myself wondering around downtown Fredericksburg. I keep wondering where I’m going to find the narrative, the story within all my information.  There are so many different bits of information; funny quotes, inspiring stories, and odd ends that I’d like to include within my digital story

For me, the question of ‘Why Theatre’ has changed and evolved a number of times over the course of this process. And while the wording has changed, the intent of the question-trying to figure out why theatre matters-is still at the very heart of my work. What is it about the theatre that makes it important to society? Anything?

I keep coming back to my interview with Robert Zukerman, Director of theatre funding for the New York State Council on the Arts; he handles grants for non-profit theatre in New York State. About half way through our 2ish hour interview he said:

 The public perception of the arts, by and large, is not an overwhelmingly positive one, in this country. We’re still fighting against over 250 or 300 years of Puritanism and… right wing distrust… of intellectuals, of art, and it hurts, its hurts my agency. …We are always being asked to make the case for the economic impact of the arts, and for someone who’s been involved, you know, I find it, I’m getting exceedingly frustrated by that. Because I know what its meant to me, and I know the importance of the arts in terms of everything one does, and how it enriches one’s life…but I’m constantly running up against people who question the importance of the arts.

The struggle of defining the importance of the arts, or theatre, is not one isolated to myself, or students within our class. Working professionals in numerous arenas of the arts struggle to make this case on a daily basis. For Robert, in part it means working with legislation to gain funding to support the arts. What I’ve quickly realized is that the ability to articulate the importance of the arts is vital to their very existence; without a clear, well substantiated argument the arts will very well lose their footing. It is something our society consistently witnesses, the cutting of arts, theatre, music, dance, ect.,  programs  from within our schools. Part of me wants to complain: my Dad who works in investment banking never has to justify or explain why his work is important and valuable to society. Largely because his work carries such a (perceived) importance: money, but also because the impact is outlined so clearly. We don’t have numbers or some type of measuring stick to grade and show the importance of the arts in simple terms, but we need, we must communicate the value. I feel like I’m getting my feet wet with it.