About the author: Mary? Campbell, beauty
Mary? Campbell, Associate Dean of new york University and Dean of Tisch Art College.
Translator: Yan Xin
A few months ago, the famous Greek-American actor Olympia? Dukakis holds an actor party at home every month to discuss the embarrassing situation of American actors. After a while, the group grew and many people took part: several very successful actors, a playwright, a theater owner who supported and encouraged young screenwriters, an art patron and me, and a representative of the college who trained contemporary artists. At a recent party, Ms. dukakis read the following statement in her powerful voice, which became the public declaration of our group.
"We can choose. We can choose this behavior: seek and understand the forming factors of this era, and find the corresponding expression. We can challenge old myths and seek to create new ones, or we can choose to remain marginalized and excluded from this dramatic process. Our focus is on American drama artists-actors, playwrights, directors, designers, and American audiences who want us to know about them and their times; In the face of drama, an art that requires a unique training process, it is those educators who work hard.
I hope our efforts can provide a new starting point and promote open dialogue. "
Olympia? Dukakis
You may ask, where is the dissatisfaction with this statement? At the same time, where did the voice of expectation echoed in this statement come from? What kind of responsibility does it make us educators who aim at cultivating the world's modern drama artists?
Real drama
First of all, please allow me to introduce the inner meaning of the play I am referring to. Last night, Professor He showed me the emblem of Shanghai Theatre Academy, which depicts four people, representing people who get together to create plays. Their unity symbolizes close cooperation. Actors who meet at dukakis's home know the importance of this intimate relationship. They understand that they are the people who transform the text language in the playwright's plays into living body language every night. Every pitch, every rhythm, every movement, every look and every silence in an actor's voice is like a palette, which opens a door for the playwright's imagination. In some cases, a successful creation presents us with a visual situation through props, costumes and lighting. We spectators, like quiet guests, sneak in quietly and then sit quietly and witness everything in front of us. We put aside the feelings of daily real life. On the contrary, we live in this virtual situation and feel the charm of drama. We are also enjoying the pleasure of emotional and intellectual communication with the gradually unfolding characters on the stage. A good director can visually integrate drama with actors, props, costumes, lighting design, lines (and playwrights, if they are still alive), so that a communication process can be established from the beginning of the drama performance. A good director can maintain the communication between the audience and the whole drama performance process. Of course, all the performers on the stage must communicate smoothly first.
According to my understanding, a successful creation should make me feel that the fate of the characters on the stage is my fate. You can feel this feeling. When you walk out of the theater, you will be sure that something important has happened.
Looking at the drama in the 20th century, we can mention some important events about drama: The McCarthy hearing in the 1950s was Arthur? Arthur miller's plays provide opportunities; The crucible exposed the hypocrisy in the cruel religious persecution in the witch trials in Salem, USA in the17th century. The recently revived Lorraine. The Raisins in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberg strongly shows the collective willpower of African-Americans in order to change their status during the civil rights movement. Tony? The first and second parts of Cucina's Angels in America (Parts1and 2) criticize social and political hypocrisy, because this hypocrisy opposes the measures taken by Reagan to curb the global spread of AIDS.
In my school, I often praise students' works. For example, there is a compulsory course assignment called Improvisation, and two performance graduate students created and performed a work called In the Continuum. This work, completed in the classroom of Tisch Art College, shows the confusion of two women-one is African-American and the other is African-American. Both of them are infected with HIV, and their respective cultural backgrounds make them deeply guilty. The recognition of film critics, the success of box office, the low cost of creation, the value of international cooperation, the welcome and recognition of international audiences, and the connection with a drama school, the cradle of its growth, all provide us with experiences that can be used for reference. This will be described in detail below.
Gradually, people seldom feel that there is anything important in the theater. The dissatisfaction expressed by actors and playwrights in Ms. dukakis's home is no different from my dissatisfaction as an audience. Works always give people a feeling of being finished in a hurry. Many of the works I read are ambiguous in explanation. Such works are loosely structured, as if the actors in a play are not performing in the same play. I asked myself what the problem was. Is it the playwright who has no time to write a good script? Most of these modern dramas are timid and lack ambition and aura. Even though the work itself may be interesting, it will present inconsistent situations. Is it because the director hasn't rehearsed long enough? Did you choose the wrong actor? Or was the director forced to choose a box office star who didn't know what he was doing on the stage?
The actors in our group will tell you what the problem is from their perspective. They feel like hired help. They have no voice in this creative process. They were instructed to walk around like props on the stage. Sometimes they can't even see the full text of the script clearly, but only see their own part of the play, which hinders their overall understanding. Even if they see the director's mistakes or improper clothes, they can't communicate with the person in charge. As a professional dramatist, at this time, the actors feel like a dissatisfied audience-powerless.
How did the American drama get to this point?
The reason for this fact is that the economic foundation supporting the operation of drama is cruel, and the cruel economic reality should be responsible for the present situation of drama. The economic situation is definitely related to the present situation. In the past 20 years, the cost of owning and maintaining theater assets has soared. At the same time, the federal government, state government and local government funds are decreasing, and theater has become a very expensive industry in the United States. Theaters reduce funds and avoid risks by simplifying and shortening the process of artistic creation. Rehearsal time has also been shortened. On and off Broadway, it is safer to repeat old plays than to arrange new ones. Inviting a small team has an advantage over a large lineup. So, are playwrights limited to creating small works? The current situation is that investors are reluctant to invest in new works by new writers or new works by new actors and directors. Even some local theatres, which have been the birthplace of innovative dramas and new actors for 50 years, have suffered the same economic impact as new york Theatre. Opportunities to discover young talents through innovation and re-creation of modern drama are also limited. Without the new voice, drama will lose the communication channel with the new generation of drama lovers.
The cruel economic reality makes theater operators afraid to take risks, which also has a negative impact on American theater audiences. Who will pay for such an adventure? Who wants to spend two or three hours going to the theater every night and be forced to pay a lot of tickets for it, but what they get may be a disappointing experience? How can teenagers in the old city afford such high fares? How can college students buy tickets with the income earned from two or three jobs?
In this economic environment, since 1962, "public theater" (also known as "new york Shakespeare Festival") began to perform Shakespeare's works for the public at the Delacorte Theatre in new york Central Park. Performing Shakespeare's works for free in Central Park is really a challenge. This free Shakespeare Theatre can attract all kinds of audiences, just like the passengers in new york subway cars at most nights. If the cost of going to the theater remains high, what will happen to young drama lovers? They may be distracted by more accessible electronic entertainment; So what about those loyal theater lovers who just can't afford tickets?
For many years, American artists have been eager for the government to subsidize theaters, dance troupes, museums, symphony orchestras and art training programs, so that they can avoid the burden of finding private funding or finding their own ways. However, from an international perspective, in some countries, there is a growing trend-cultural institutions or colleges are no longer 100% funded by the government, and private sponsorship has been introduced in the fields of art and culture. Let the current situation in the United States serve as a negative fable to warn these people that it is not a good thing to excessively promote privately funded cultural undertakings. Because private investment and market-oriented operation are not omnipotent.
In the past 20 years, economic factors have brought unpleasant effects, and political tendencies have brought more troubles to the public sphere. This tendency not only affects drama and institutions that train drama artists, but also affects the whole country. For the international community, political intervention is a dangerous omen, because the whole world originally needed the theater to give full play to its potential and be able to "face the power and tell the truth". Tell the truth to power is an American film released in 2000. )
Olympia? Dukakis declared in the manifesto: "We can choose". In fact, from the perspective of a long-term democratic system, we may have done this. However, whether for research institutions or individuals, the atmosphere of our artistic choice has changed. Reviewing the past forty years will help us to understand this change more deeply.
Forty years ago, our federal government legislated to describe art, thinking that art should be a kind of public welfare and a way to express what we think is valuable under the long-term democratic system. This description was institutionalized in the "National Art and Humanities Donation Act" established by 1965. These two donations provided institutional and private support for artists and scholars, and changed the cultural prospects of the United States. The unheard-of voice has finally sprouted, forming an unprecedented multi-culture in the American art field. The donation bill shows that supporting art and supporting vibrant democratic politics are two sides of the same coin, which are inseparable. Part of the bill reads as follows:
A high degree of civilization should not only concentrate its energy and interest on science and technology, but also extend it to all fields of human academic and cultural activities.
The other paragraph reads as follows:
Democracy requires citizens to have wisdom and foresight, so we must vigorously support education, aiming at making people master technology, rather than becoming slaves to technology without thinking.
After building a bridge between healthy democracy and the federal government that supports the arts, the bill clearly stipulates how to support the arts:
The artistic practice and research of humanities need constant dedication and investment. However, no government can produce great artists and scholars by order. Therefore, the federal government should not only help to establish and maintain an environment that encourages free thinking, imagination and investigation, but also provide support for the material conditions needed to cultivate such innovative talents.
The National Arts Foundation (NEA) and the National Humanities Foundation (NEH) should not only provide wisdom and foresight through their grants, but also provide material conditions for the work of artists and scholars.
Following the example of the federal government, state arts committees and governments in many cities across the country have realized that art should be regarded as public interest. With the increase of public institutions' investment in art and drama, private support has also increased, and local theaters have also developed and prospered. Art College of new york University, now Tisch Art College, was established in the same year of national donation. Although this college calls itself a "bold adventure", it is actually a free and enterprising art institution. In this way, the positivism and adventurous spirit in art are declared, which widely exists in the music, performing arts, dance and film art centers in the center of new york and the literary "landscapes" in the western suburbs, eastern suburbs and outer eastern suburbs of new york.
But Reagan was elected president of the United States on 1980, bringing conservative values. The movement was partly supported by organized Christian fundamentalists. During Reagan's administration, politics obeyed religion, released unusual cruel and fierce forces, and realized conservative values in every imaginable field of American people's life. Loyalty and faith become unquestionable. As far as loyalty is concerned, if a work of art violates religious beliefs, then this work has no chance. For fundamentalists, art is the object of their attack; As far as political rights are concerned, art is either silent or despised and questioned by the opposition. In the late 1980s, some conservative senators and congressmen named and attacked some artists supported by the state donation law, accusing their works of obscenity. Out of a strong sense of "justice" and anger, lawmakers forced artists and art colleges to sign a statement promising not to use public funds to support works considered obscene. The war in the field of culture has started. Almost overnight, conservatives gained the upper hand on "what kind of art should be funded with American taxpayers' money" and controlled public opinion. They use public opinion to shape art into a manifestation of sin and decadence, which is no longer a public interest, but a symbol of public shame. Consciously or unintentionally, many leaders, art colleges and artists have been tempered by this attack. Legislators at all levels of government suddenly cut sharply the political funding for the arts, and it has not been restored until today.
Moreover, the democratic process in the 1990s did not slow down the attack on art, advocating art was just a political slogan, and during the Democratic Party's presidency, it did not play much role in restoring the artistic glory they enjoyed when the donation bill was established.
At the beginning of 2 1 century, a conservative scheme was put forward, which was more cruel and controversial. A period of time after the "9. 1 1" incident, the state power expanded, the fundamentalist forces grew, and the country fell into the quagmire of war.
In particular, the following two pieces of legislation restrict the expression of Americans' free thoughts: one is the Patriot Movement Act, which was passed 45 days after the attack on the World Trade Center. This legislation enhanced the government's power to monitor its citizens; The second item is the further update of the Patriot Movement Law in early 2006. In both cases, government policy makers have made it clear to Congress and the public that any dissatisfaction and controversy will be regarded as a sign of disloyalty and treason.
Recently, a * * * and the party's former chairman of the National Art Foundation, John? John Frohnmayer, also a member of Bush's Spin Doctor, began to criticize this expanding political power. In June 2006, he gave a speech entitled "Cry from the Mine: Art, Freedom and Society" at Eugene-Oregon City Club. He warned that updating the Patriot Movement Act is not only an excuse for the current president to care about power politics, but also a way for him to promote totalitarianism. At the same time, when his signing campaign came into effect, it was also very troublesome. He emphasized that the President signed the Patriot Movement Act by "signing a statement", allowing the government authorities to advance or not to advance a bill according to the wishes of the President. As far as the Patriot Movement Act is concerned, as Flamel pointed out, the bill signed by the President can block information from the FBI to Congress, the public and the media. Lemaire observed that the president used the tool of signing statements as many as 750 times, which was rarely used by the president in the past. This is very dangerous, because it can make use of the administrative organ to override the court to amend legislation, deprive the court of its traditional power of supervision and checks and balances, and make legislators lose their independence from the administrative organ in the process of making laws.
Abuse of administrative power has become widespread. Like Norman, an expert in the US Congress? Horses and Thomas? Thomas Mann observed in the February issue of Diplomacy11/that * * and the Party Congress (at least before the mid-term election in 2006) finally basically gave up decisive supervision over foreign affairs. From the Homeland Security Law to the Patriot Movement Law, and then to the Iraq War, after the demonstration, investigation and challenge of this series of administrative resolutions failed, Congress decided to give up playing the role of "rule of law" envisaged by the early "Founding Fathers" of the United States. On the contrary, it has become a branch of administrative power. In addition, the American media also sold the power to criticize and challenge politics to the entertainment industry, and the health of American democracy made many people deeply worried.
It is conceivable that the rampant administrative power has also encountered the situation of deciding whether to fund scientific research applications. In April 2004, 60 world-class scientists (including Nobel Prize in Literature laureates, medical prize winners, retired senior managers of the federal government, university presidents and board chairmen) signed a letter of protest to the President to protest against the intervention of the authorities in the ideological field. As a former government official observed, decision-making is no longer based on rational thinking and analysis, but on party interests, not on the upcoming events themselves, but on what some dreamers hope to happen.
Flamel believes that the overflow of American administrative power can be seen from the field of art. Lemaire wrote, "When politicians are afraid to tell the truth, artists can do so", or is it like Genette? Jeanette Winterston wrote, "It (art) can awaken us to the truth of ourselves and life, which is often tightly suppressed by all kinds of emergencies that happen in real life 24 hours a day ... but we are duty-bound to discover the facts." If we believe that art really has that kind of power, what kind of responsibility should we take as drama educators?
So what is the relationship between our brief analysis of American drama and American democracy and this international drama art education conference? First of all, democracy itself is not enough to create a vibrant and independent atmosphere for drama. However, as pointed out above, politics and economy pose a threat to our democracy and Olympia? The idea chosen by dukakis and our team. The most important of these threats is the confusion between democracy and religion. This danger also exists in other parts of the world. The prevalence of fundamentalism has brought challenges to all places where opinions are expressed. Secondly, economically, more and more countries have stripped off government support for the arts, or at least reduced government support by increasing the proportion of private support. The private support system in the United States is an example of the drama's excessive dependence on the market, which is counterproductive, except for the final bottom line.
As advocated by this principal's forum, there are two aspects: the first is to explore whether it is possible to exchange ideas on drama training internationally and try to discover new vocabulary, rules and regulations in drama, so as to revitalize drama and attract new audiences. Secondly, this forum has also enabled universities around the world to reach an understanding. For professional dramas all over the world, these universities have become gardens for new people and new works in the past 20 years, and they are also the source of restarting inter-school exchanges. The question is how to play this role well.
The responsibility of drama educators
"Face the power and tell the truth" is Arthur? Arthur Miller, Lorraine? Lorraine Hans berry and Tony? What Kusner and others want to express in their works is a warning to us. Internationally, drama artists such as Kenyan ngugi Wa Tiongo, South African athol fugard and john kani, Czech Vaclav Havel and their collaborators have all created dramas that challenge reality and introduce differences and arguments into public space, which is undoubtedly a great adventure for their personal safety. As drama educators, if the drama we are engaged in can not only provide entertainment and employment, but also tell the truth to powerful people, awaken our consciousness of pursuing the truth, or expand our choices, then I think we need to take the following actions:
1) Identify teachers who are loyal to drama.
Those teachers who are hired to teach drama should have a positive understanding of the power of drama. Schools should look for teachers whose mission is drama education. For them, training drama artists is a firm commitment to drama culture, not just a job or a career path.
2) Actively explore talents
In most cultures in the world, colleges and universities are committed to discovering and recruiting talents. The United States has devoted a lot of energy to finding sports talents, and the same energy should be devoted to finding and identifying artistic talents. Educators should have a sense of moral responsibility, that is, they should go into cities and rural areas instead of wading around like in the past, and try their best to find and attract young people who have something to say and find bold voices, regardless of their economic status, race and cultural background. We can't expect these people to show up at our door by themselves. We have to go out and find the choreographer Bill? Bill T. Jones said "those hungry young artists" brought them to the campus and trained them. New york University has started an active talent search activity, cooperated closely with community organizations all over the country, and started talent training by using our middle school project.
3) Make universities a permanent front for freedom of speech.
Despite the chilling influence of the Patriot Movement Act, freedom of speech and the right to express dissatisfaction are still maintained on American campuses. Cuban playwright Eduardo? In a recent speech, Eduardo Machado emphasized that there seems to be a fear of conflict in contemporary drama, and he meant either conflict or drama. Opposition and argument are the key to maintain this conflict and make it exist.
4) Encourage adventure and try.
Educators need to use the relatively free environment on campus to encourage students to explore, experiment and make mistakes. Students should feel that they are "trying and failing", as Beckett said. If you fail again, it will be better after failure. "
5) Create a critical cultural atmosphere
In order to make this adventurous atmosphere work, we educators need to be always on guard against falling into that comfortable situation. It is easy to maintain the status quo, and challenging the status quo will make people uneasy. However, teachers and administrators still need to create a critical culture, allowing them to question educational assumptions in stages, and actively break this assumption and try new things.
6) Encourage professional cooperation.
This experimental atmosphere makes the education of art colleges mature and carry out non-profit cooperation, while for-profit cooperation is often risky and costly. Our drama project can be partly used as the research and development department of the cooperative theater. In the Art College of new york University, we consider cooperating with the Classic Stage Troupe, and we move the works formed by Tisch Art College to the theater, making them regular plays.
7) Reduce the ticket price
If the cooperation between the theater and the school can be carried out smoothly, it is possible to reduce the ticket price of non-profit dramas, because the production cost is obviously reduced, and the ticket price of dramas moved from schools to professional theaters can be lower. If the artistic value of this work is high, the audience will start to feel that this is an opportunity to see new works and new artists, and they will take the initiative to try it.
8) Strengthen interdisciplinary cooperation.
Sticking to discipline boundaries and retreating to professional fields are harmful to university education, and educators in drama colleges must strongly resist these phenomena. If drama seems to be falling apart, it may be partly because drama artists lack the spirit of cooperation in the process of training. Drama artists need to understand the working relationship between directors and actors, designers and directors, screenwriters, and even the whole creative process. At the Oscars? Under the guidance of Oskar Eustis, Tisch Art Institute set up a one-year course, and spent the whole third year preparing students' graduation works, which were jointly completed by five screenwriters and five directors. Therefore, the content of this course is the artistic and practical embodiment of drama cooperation. In the end, our plan introduced designers.
9) Attract our respective public organizations.
The key to cultivating young drama artists is to cultivate their public affinity, so colleges and universities should provide opportunities for the public to watch their works and let them have the opportunity to talk with actors, directors/screenwriters and drama artists. Through training, these artists gradually realize that their audience is an inseparable whole in their career.
10) to build an international drama community.
We must contact an international artists' association to explore new drama terms, so as to ensure that our students have the ability to cross cultural boundaries, thus providing our teachers with opportunities to learn new terms and understand new educational methods.
When we finish the meeting, if we not only establish a network, but also establish communication channels between different projects, then we have completed a very important step. Oliver, an alumnus of our school last week? Si Tong showed his film World Trade Center in the exhibition hall. When asked, he said that he was studying in the Art College of new york University, 1969 to 197 1, and then mentioned: "We are revolutionaries, and we have a mission." This is exactly the attitude that educators should adopt to treat art and cultivate artists-a sense of urgency and mission.
You may delay, but time will not.