Why theater is essential to democracy
-
0:02 - 0:05Theater matters because democracy matters.
-
0:06 - 0:10Theater is the essential
art form of democracy, -
0:10 - 0:14and we know this because
they were born in the same city. -
0:14 - 0:16In the late 6th century BC,
-
0:16 - 0:18the idea of Western democracy was born.
-
0:18 - 0:20It was, of course,
-
0:20 - 0:22a very partial and flawed democracy,
-
0:22 - 0:27but the idea that power should stem
from the consent of the governed, -
0:27 - 0:31that power should flow
from below to above, -
0:31 - 0:32not the other way around,
-
0:32 - 0:34was born in that decade.
-
0:34 - 0:39And in that same decade, somebody --
legend has it, somebody named Thespis -- -
0:39 - 0:41invented the idea of dialogue.
-
0:41 - 0:43What does that mean, to invent dialogue?
-
0:43 - 0:46Well, we know that
the Festival of Dionysus gathered -
0:46 - 0:47the entire citizenry of Athens
-
0:47 - 0:49on the side of the Acropolis,
-
0:49 - 0:52and they would listen to music,
they would watch dancing, -
0:52 - 0:56and they would have stories told
as part of the Festival of Dionysus. -
0:56 - 0:59And storytelling is much like
what's happening right now: -
0:59 - 1:01I'm standing up here,
-
1:01 - 1:03the unitary authority,
-
1:03 - 1:04and I am talking to you.
-
1:04 - 1:08And you are sitting back,
and you are receiving what I have to say. -
1:08 - 1:11And you may disagree with it,
you may think I'm an insufferable fool, -
1:11 - 1:13you may be bored to death,
-
1:13 - 1:16but that dialogue is mostly
taking place inside your own head. -
1:17 - 1:21But what happens if,
instead of me talking to you -- -
1:21 - 1:23and Thespis thought of this --
-
1:23 - 1:25I just shift 90 degrees to the left,
-
1:25 - 1:28and I talk to another person
onstage with me? -
1:29 - 1:31Everything changes,
-
1:31 - 1:35because at that moment,
I'm not the possessor of truth; -
1:35 - 1:38I'm a guy with an opinion.
-
1:38 - 1:40And I'm talking to somebody else.
-
1:40 - 1:41And you know what?
-
1:41 - 1:44That other person has an opinion too,
-
1:44 - 1:47and it's drama, remember,
conflict -- they disagree with me. -
1:48 - 1:50There's a conflict between
two points of view. -
1:50 - 1:57And the thesis of that
is that the truth can only emerge -
1:57 - 1:59in the conflict
of different points of view. -
1:59 - 2:02It's not the possession of any one person.
-
2:02 - 2:06And if you believe in democracy,
you have to believe that. -
2:06 - 2:09If you don't believe that,
you're an autocrat -
2:09 - 2:10who is putting up with democracy.
-
2:11 - 2:13But that's the basic thesis of democracy,
-
2:13 - 2:16that the conflict of different
points of views leads to the truth. -
2:16 - 2:18What's the other thing that's happening?
-
2:18 - 2:21I'm not asking you to sit back
and listen to me. -
2:21 - 2:23I'm asking you to lean forward
-
2:23 - 2:26and imagine my point of view --
-
2:27 - 2:30what this looks like and feels like
to me as a character. -
2:30 - 2:33And then I'm asking you
to switch your mind -
2:33 - 2:36and imagine what it feels like
to the other person talking. -
2:37 - 2:40I'm asking you to exercise empathy.
-
2:41 - 2:45And the idea that truth comes
from the collision of different ideas -
2:45 - 2:47and the emotional muscle of empathy
-
2:47 - 2:51are the necessary tools
for democratic citizenship. -
2:52 - 2:54What else happens?
-
2:54 - 2:56The third thing really is you,
-
2:56 - 2:59is the community itself, is the audience.
-
2:59 - 3:03And you know from personal experience
that when you go to the movies, -
3:03 - 3:07you walk into a movie theater,
and if it's empty, you're delighted, -
3:07 - 3:09because nothing's going to be
between you and the movie. -
3:09 - 3:13You can spread out, put your legs
over the top of the stadium seats, -
3:13 - 3:14eat your popcorn and just enjoy it.
-
3:14 - 3:16But if you walk into a live theater
-
3:16 - 3:19and you see that the theater is half full,
-
3:19 - 3:20your heart sinks.
-
3:20 - 3:22You're disappointed immediately,
-
3:23 - 3:24because whether you knew it or not,
-
3:25 - 3:26you were coming to that theater
-
3:26 - 3:28to be part of an audience.
-
3:28 - 3:31You were coming to have
the collective experience -
3:31 - 3:35of laughing together, crying together,
holding your breath together -
3:35 - 3:37to see what's going to happen next.
-
3:37 - 3:41You may have walked into that theater
as an individual consumer, -
3:41 - 3:44but if the theater does its job,
-
3:44 - 3:47you've walked out with a sense
of yourself as part of a whole, -
3:47 - 3:49as part of a community.
-
3:50 - 3:54That's built into the DNA of my art form.
-
3:55 - 3:59Twenty-five hundred years later,
Joe Papp decided -
3:59 - 4:03that the culture should belong to
everybody in the United States of America, -
4:03 - 4:07and that it was his job
to try to deliver on that promise. -
4:07 - 4:10He created Free Shakespeare in the Park.
-
4:10 - 4:13And Free Shakespeare in the Park
is based on a very simple idea, -
4:13 - 4:18the idea that the best theater,
the best art that we can produce, -
4:18 - 4:20should go to everybody
and belong to everybody, -
4:20 - 4:22and to this day,
-
4:22 - 4:25every summer night in Central Park,
-
4:25 - 4:272,000 people are lining up
-
4:27 - 4:31to see the best theater
we can provide for free. -
4:31 - 4:34It's not a commercial transaction.
-
4:34 - 4:38In 1967, 13 years
after he figured that out, -
4:38 - 4:40he figured out something else,
-
4:40 - 4:43which is that the democratic
circle was not complete -
4:43 - 4:47by just giving the people the classics.
-
4:47 - 4:50We had to actually let the people
create their own classics -
4:50 - 4:52and take the stage.
-
4:52 - 4:54And so in 1967,
-
4:54 - 4:57Joe opened the Public Theater
downtown on Astor Place, -
4:57 - 5:01and the first show he ever produced
was the world premiere of "Hair." -
5:01 - 5:04That's the first thing he ever did
that wasn't Shakespeare. -
5:04 - 5:08Clive Barnes in The Times said
that it was as if Mr. Papp took a broom -
5:08 - 5:11and swept up all the refuse
from the East Village streets -
5:11 - 5:13onto the stage at the Public.
-
5:13 - 5:14(Laughter)
-
5:14 - 5:16He didn't mean it complimentarily,
-
5:16 - 5:20but Joe put it up in the lobby,
he was so proud of it. -
5:20 - 5:21(Laughter) (Applause)
-
5:21 - 5:25And what the Public Theater did over
the next years with amazing shows like -
5:26 - 5:29"For Colored Girls Who Have Considered
Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf," -
5:29 - 5:32"A Chorus Line,"
-
5:32 - 5:36and -- here's the most extraordinary
example I can think of: -
5:36 - 5:41Larry Kramer's savage cry of rage
about the AIDS crisis, -
5:41 - 5:43"The Normal Heart."
-
5:43 - 5:47Because when Joe produced
that play in 1985, -
5:47 - 5:50there was more information about AIDS
-
5:50 - 5:53in Frank Rich's review
in the New York Times -
5:53 - 5:57than the New York Times had published
in the previous four years. -
5:57 - 6:01Larry was actually changing
the dialogue about AIDS -
6:01 - 6:02through writing this play,
-
6:03 - 6:04and Joe was by producing it.
-
6:04 - 6:08I was blessed to commission and work
on Tony Kushner's "Angels in America," -
6:08 - 6:12and when doing that play
and along with "Normal Heart," -
6:12 - 6:15we could see that the culture
was actually shifting, -
6:15 - 6:17and it wasn't caused by the theater,
-
6:18 - 6:20but the theater was doing its part
-
6:20 - 6:24to change what it meant to be gay
in the United States. -
6:24 - 6:26And I'm incredibly proud of that.
-
6:27 - 6:28(Applause)
-
6:29 - 6:33When I took over Joe's old job
at the Public in 2005, -
6:33 - 6:37I realized one of the problems we had
was a victim of our own success, -
6:37 - 6:42which is: Shakespeare in the Park
had been founded as a program for access, -
6:42 - 6:46and it was now the hardest ticket
to get in New York City. -
6:46 - 6:50People slept out for two nights
to get those tickets. -
6:50 - 6:51What was that doing?
-
6:51 - 6:53That was eliminating
98 percent of the population -
6:53 - 6:55from even considering going to it.
-
6:55 - 6:58So we refounded the mobile unit
-
6:58 - 7:01and took Shakespeare to prisons,
to homeless shelters, -
7:01 - 7:03to community centers in all five boroughs
-
7:03 - 7:06and even in New Jersey
and Westchester County. -
7:06 - 7:10And that program proved something to us
that we knew intuitively: -
7:10 - 7:15people's need for theater
is as powerful as their desire for food -
7:15 - 7:16or for drink.
-
7:17 - 7:19It's been an extraordinary success,
and we've continued it. -
7:19 - 7:23And then there was yet another barrier
that we realized we weren't crossing, -
7:23 - 7:25which is a barrier of participation.
-
7:25 - 7:27And the idea, we said, is:
-
7:27 - 7:31How can we turn theater
from being a commodity, an object, -
7:31 - 7:34back into what it really is --
-
7:34 - 7:36a set of relationships among people?
-
7:36 - 7:39And under the guidance
of the amazing Lear deBessonet, -
7:39 - 7:41we started the Public Works program,
-
7:41 - 7:43which now every summer produces
-
7:43 - 7:46these immense Shakespearean
musical pageants, -
7:46 - 7:48where Tony Award-winning
actors and musicians -
7:49 - 7:52are side by side with nannies
and domestic workers -
7:52 - 7:56and military veterans
and recently incarcerated prisoners, -
7:56 - 7:58amateurs and professionals,
-
7:58 - 8:00performing together on the same stage.
-
8:00 - 8:02And it's not just a great social program,
-
8:02 - 8:04it's the best art that we do.
-
8:05 - 8:09And the thesis of it is
that artistry is not something -
8:09 - 8:11that is the possession of a few.
-
8:11 - 8:14Artistry is inherent
in being a human being. -
8:14 - 8:18Some of us just get to spend
a lot more of our lives practicing it. -
8:19 - 8:20And then occasionally --
-
8:20 - 8:22(Applause)
-
8:22 - 8:24you get a miracle like "Hamilton,"
-
8:24 - 8:31Lin-Manuel's extraordinary retelling
of the foundational story of this country -
8:31 - 8:35through the eyes of the only Founding
Father who was a bastard immigrant orphan -
8:35 - 8:37from the West Indies.
-
8:37 - 8:39And what Lin was doing
-
8:39 - 8:41is exactly what Shakespeare was doing.
-
8:42 - 8:46He was taking the voice of the people,
the language of the people, -
8:46 - 8:48elevating it into verse,
-
8:48 - 8:50and by doing so,
-
8:50 - 8:52ennobling the language
-
8:52 - 8:55and ennobling the people
who spoke the language. -
8:55 - 9:00And by casting that show entirely
with a cast of black and brown people, -
9:00 - 9:02what Lin was saying to us,
-
9:02 - 9:05he was reviving in us
-
9:05 - 9:08our greatest aspirations
for the United States, -
9:08 - 9:11our better angels of America,
-
9:11 - 9:13our sense of what this country could be,
-
9:13 - 9:17the inclusion that was at the heart
of the American Dream. -
9:17 - 9:22And it unleashed
a wave of patriotism in me -
9:22 - 9:23and in our audience,
-
9:23 - 9:27the appetite for which
is proving to be insatiable. -
9:28 - 9:31But there was another side to that,
and it's where I want to end, -
9:31 - 9:33and it's the last story
I want to talk about. -
9:33 - 9:36Some of you may have heard
that Vice President-elect Pence -
9:36 - 9:39came to see "Hamilton" in New York.
-
9:39 - 9:43And when he came in,
some of my fellow New Yorkers booed him. -
9:43 - 9:45And beautifully, he said,
-
9:45 - 9:47"That's what freedom sounds like."
-
9:48 - 9:49And at the end of the show,
-
9:49 - 9:52we read what I feel was a very
respectful statement from the stage, -
9:52 - 9:55and Vice President-elect Pence
listened to it, -
9:56 - 10:00but it sparked a certain amount
of outrage, a tweetstorm, -
10:00 - 10:03and also an internet boycott of "Hamilton"
-
10:03 - 10:07from outraged people who had felt
we had treated him with disrespect. -
10:08 - 10:12I looked at that boycott and I said,
we're getting something wrong here. -
10:12 - 10:15All of these people who have signed
this boycott petition, -
10:15 - 10:18they were never going to see
"Hamilton" anyway. -
10:18 - 10:21It was never going to come
to a city near them. -
10:21 - 10:23If it could come,
they couldn't afford a ticket, -
10:23 - 10:27and if they could afford a ticket,
they didn't have the connections -
10:27 - 10:28to get that ticket.
-
10:29 - 10:31They weren't boycotting us;
-
10:31 - 10:33we had boycotted them.
-
10:34 - 10:38And if you look at the red and blue
electoral map of the United States, -
10:39 - 10:40and if I were to tell you,
-
10:40 - 10:42"Oh, the blue is what designates
-
10:42 - 10:45all of the major nonprofit
cultural institutions," -
10:45 - 10:46I'd be telling you the truth.
-
10:46 - 10:48You'd believe me.
-
10:48 - 10:52We in the culture have done
exactly what the economy, -
10:52 - 10:56what the educational system,
what technology has done, -
10:56 - 11:00which is turn our back
on a large part of the country. -
11:00 - 11:03So this idea of inclusion,
it has to keep going. -
11:03 - 11:06Next fall, we are sending out on tour
-
11:06 - 11:11a production of Lynn Nottage's brilliant,
Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Sweat." -
11:11 - 11:16Years of research in Redding, Pennsylvania
led her to write this play -
11:16 - 11:19about the deindustrialization
of Pennsylvania: -
11:19 - 11:22what happened when steel left,
-
11:22 - 11:24the rage that was unleashed,
-
11:24 - 11:26the tensions that were unleashed,
-
11:26 - 11:28the racism that was unleashed
-
11:28 - 11:30by the loss of jobs.
-
11:30 - 11:33We're taking that play
and we're touring it -
11:33 - 11:36to rural counties in Pennsylvania,
-
11:36 - 11:38Ohio, Michigan,
-
11:38 - 11:40Minnesota and Wisconsin.
-
11:40 - 11:45We're partnering with community
organizations there to try and make sure -
11:45 - 11:49not only that we reach the people
that we're trying to reach, -
11:49 - 11:52but that we find ways
to listen to them back -
11:52 - 11:55and say, "The culture
is here for you, too." -
11:56 - 11:57Because --
-
11:57 - 12:00(Applause)
-
12:00 - 12:02we in the culture industry,
-
12:02 - 12:04we in the theater,
-
12:04 - 12:07have no right to say
that we don't know what our job is. -
12:08 - 12:10It's in the DNA of our art form.
-
12:10 - 12:14Our job "... is to hold up,
as 'twere, a mirror to nature; -
12:14 - 12:17to show scorn her image,
-
12:17 - 12:20to show virtue her appearance,
-
12:20 - 12:23and the very age its form and pressure."
-
12:23 - 12:28Our job is to try to hold up
a vision to America -
12:28 - 12:32that shows not only
who all of us are individually, -
12:32 - 12:36but that welds us back into
the commonality that we need to be, -
12:36 - 12:38the sense of unity,
-
12:38 - 12:40the sense of whole,
-
12:40 - 12:42the sense of who we are as a country.
-
12:42 - 12:45That's what the theater is supposed to do,
-
12:45 - 12:48and that's what we need to try to do
as well as we can. -
12:48 - 12:49Thank you very much.
-
12:49 - 12:54(Applause)
- Title:
- Why theater is essential to democracy
- Speaker:
- Oskar Eustis
- Description:
-
Truth comes from the collision of different ideas, and theater plays an essential role in showing us that truth, says legendary artistic director Oskar Eustis. In this powerful talk, Eustis outlines his plan to reach (and listen to) people in places across the US where the theater, like many other institutions, has turned its back -- like the deindustrialized Rust Belt. "Our job is to try to hold up a vision to America that shows not only who all of us are individually, but that welds us back into the commonality that we need to be," Eustis says. "That's what the theater is supposed to do."
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 13:10
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Why theater is essential to democracy | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Why theater is essential to democracy | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Why theater is essential to democracy | ||
Brian Greene approved English subtitles for Why theater is essential to democracy | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Why theater is essential to democracy | ||
Camille Martínez accepted English subtitles for Why theater is essential to democracy | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for Why theater is essential to democracy | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for Why theater is essential to democracy |