Editor's Note

By Jim O'Quinn

Behind the titles of HBO’s Sex and the City, the skyline of Manhattan has changed. Bruce Springsteen’s bluesy laments about heroes, lost and living, climb the Billboard charts. As the first anniversary of 9/11 approaches, we are watching the tragedy move—tentatively, painfully—from the realm of hard news to that of cultural interpretation: The factual event of unfathomable proportions becomes, through the lens of song or fiction or canvas or poem, a mythic one that can be confronted and encompassed by the power of imagination.

The theatre has traditionally taken its time when responding to momentous public events. Its force lies not in the timely presentation of facts—not even when facts are world-alteringly dramatic—but in the exploration of the human complexities that facts alone may render dimensionless or obscure. In the case of 9/11, though, theatre artists have leapt swiftly into the breach, unable or unwilling (as the 11 forthright testimonials in “The View from Here,” page 24, reveal) to delay that essential human exploration till the facts are sorted out and the ruins are paved over.

There’s more in the September issue, however, than “aftermath anxiety.” Other thematic threads—those of constructive protest and artistic expansiveness—bolster the notion that theatre can play a key role in shaping cultural debate. Free speech is the issue that has engaged writer and performer Sarah Jones, the first artist to sue the Federal Communications Commission for violation of her First Amendment rights (see Martha Hostetter’s profile, page 40). Jones is one of an exciting array of hip-hop theatre artists (surveyed by Kim Euell, page 36) who have molded features of the musical genre into a theatre aesthetic that boldly addresses issues like war, urban violence, rampant commercialism and the exploitation of women.

In short, the theatrical forces represented in this issue are fully engaged in the world around them. Change—whether it comes in the form of a terrorist onslaught or a welcome new affirmation of the right to artistic expression—is part and parcel of the work they do. —Jim O'Quinn

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