AT25: An Eye on the Future
Will Power, playwright and performer, Beacon, N.Y.
Three things I see. One is the willingness as a nation to look back to the past with a more critical and complex eye. I feel often we tread a bit too lightly when telling of, say, the civil rights era. We treat the period's figures as either wholly villainous or completely heroic and angelic. This has been a great opportunity lost. Riveting theatre, of course, must pulse with characters and storylines rich in the un-simplicity of chaos. I can see more theatre practitioners in the future unearthing the multitude of colors and contradictions that the past truly was.
Second, with our country fast approaching a time when no one ethnic group will dominate, I see a reality in which a regional theatre presenting a five-play season will only feature one show from a European-centered perspective. This will occur not out of any kind of affirmative action, reverse racism or "payback sucker!" mentality, but instead a natural, consensual outgrowth of what and who the United States will be.
And, lastly, in 25 years I see theatre attracting a much larger audience. This audience will be more diverse than it is today—diverse in every sense of the word. It will consist of the very old and very young, the rich and the poor, the middle class and the working class. The theatre in 25 years will serve as a place for one to celebrate one's own community's stories; at the same time, the theatre of tomorrow will act as a true bridge from one community to another, from one culture to the next. The digital age will continue to expand as we move into the future, but because of this expansion, human beings will feel an excited urge to renew the irreplaceable feeling of live, human interaction and connection. We as theatre artists must work to make this vision a reality—and we must be ready for the day that it comes.