Editor's Note

By Jim O'Quinn

Got your protective headgear handy? It'll be a useful prop as you wend your way through the pages of this issue. Cover subject Molly Smith whips out her personalized fluorescent yellow hard-hat—a pair of them, in fact, the better to share with simpatico reporter Celia Wren—as she leads American Theatre readers on a tour of her venerable D.C. theatre's glistening new facility, officially known as Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Then, another artistic director—James Houghton of New York City's Signature Theatre Company—offers the same head-shielding courtesy to interviewer Carol Rocamora, as the two of them trek through a sprawling West 42nd Street construction site that will house Signature (and its one-at-a-time roster of guest playwrights) beginning in 2012. And, not to be outdone, producer and preservationist Ray "The Towel" Shepardson, profiled by Christopher Johnston in our print edition, has practically lived in a hard-hat as he's directed restoration efforts for historic vaudeville and movie theatres in cities across the country.

So don your (metaphoric) hard-hat and join our intrepid reporters as they assess not only a pair of impressive new venues for theatre in America but the visionary leaders of the organizations housed there—leaders with firm commitments to their theatres' missions and, at the same time, a robust openness to new artistic possibilities. "Our mission has been a ballast," as Houghton puts it on the eve of Signature's high-profile 20th season, devoted to the ever-expanding oeuvre of Tony Kushner. "It's kept us honest, and it's shaping our present and future."

Smith, Houghton and Shepardson aren't the only theatre folk in the issue with missions on their minds. Consider the bold adventures of playwright Lisa Schlesinger and her cohorts as they organize and execute an on-the-border performance in the West Bank, with scores of parading puppets sounding the call for peace. Share in the education of staff reporter (and father of a precocious one-year-old) Rob Weinert-Kendt as he delves into a theatrical practice surprisingly common in Europe but little known in the States—making drama for babies. "We are about 25 years behind on this," posits Seattle Children's Theatre artistic director Linda Hartzell, one of several leaders in the field who are making it their mission to help U.S. theatre-for-youth practitioners catch up.

Finally, there are missions galore—and a stack of collectively crafted manifestos as well—on the minds of the 900-plus participants in TCG's recent National Conference in Chicago, as Weinert-Kendt reports in his blow-by-blow conference round-up. Whether you were there or not, you'll want to scrutinize this absorbing account of the American not-for-profit theatre's biggest confab ever. "As a model arts city and a laboratory of theatrical success, Chicago fairly dominated the conference," Weinert-Kendt surmises. Hard-hats, he might also have noted, were entirely optional. —Jim O'Quinn

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