Editor's Note

By Jim O'Quinn

If the opportunity arises for you to engage a passionate theatre artist in conversation about the motivation that drives his or her work, consider yourself lucky. Such "why I do what I do" discussions—like the ones that appear in this issue with Ten Thousand Things artistic director Michelle Hensley and acclaimed actor F. Murray Abraham—can be a source of illumination and insight, not to mention sheer fun. That's what our arts reporters Laura Butchy and Lori Ann Laster found interviewing Hensley and Abraham, respectively—and in the case of these particular artists, it so happens, I can add a qualifying note or two.

I'd heard Michelle Hensley talk eloquently at theatre gatherings about the outside-the-box agenda that she pursues with her much-talked-about Minneapolis-based company, but it wasn't until she and I sat down eye-to-eye in the TCG offices late last year that I began to understand the intense magnetism that Ten Thousand Things generates, by all reports, on artists, critics and audiences in that city. It's not that Hensley cultivates a powerhouse persona or makes outsized claims for TTT's work—she is, in fact, laid-back and unassuming, propelled, it seems, as much by quiet intelligence and no-nonsense practicality as by visionary ambitions. But the conviction and commitment that shine through Hensley's words when she talks about the company's accomplishments—you'll feel the contagious glow when our writer engages her in Q&A—makes a case that's utterly and indelibly convincing. Michelle Hensley is a believer, and she'll make one out of you.

By contrast, it's been nearly 20 years since I sat across from F. Murray Abraham talking about acting (that interview appeared in the Oct. '86 issue of American Theatre, just a year after Abraham became an instant celebrity by winning the Oscar for his Salieri in Amadeus). But I was reminded as I read this month's interview, about the challenges of his current undertakings at Theatre for a New Audience, of the actor's exuberance and candor and lack of pretense, still very much in evidence after all these years. Among many delightful thoughts Abraham shared with me was the observation that actors "have to be willing to risk falling on their asses—the only thing worth trying for is everything." Clearly that's a sentiment he's still putting to the test.

Why do artists do what they do? The best way to find out is by asking.