Theater companies talk politics
By Judith Newmark
POST-DISPATCH THEATER CRITIC
Sunday, Aug. 13, 2006

Nine theater companies have teamed up to mount the first St. Louis Political
Theatre Festival, which will play at venues around town from now through the
elections in November.

Scott Miller, the artistic director of New Line Theatre, started the festival
ball rolling months ago. "Theater is a legitimate way to talk about politics,"
he said. "We want to get people to recognize that."

It is not a festival in any of the more familiar senses. The productions are
spread out geographically and over time; there's no festival ticket or discount.

All the productions will use the festival's red, white and blue logo, however.
The New Line Web site, www.newlinetheatre.com, also includes information on the
festival.

Miller said the real connection among the productions - which actually extend a
little past the elections - is content. All the plays deal with politics in one
way or another, he said.

In some cases, the connections are easy to see. That Uppity Theatre Company,
for example, has always stood for explicitly political viewpoints, particularly
in regard to civil rights for gay people, and presumably will continue to make
its case in "Coming Out Stories: An Interactive Event."

On the other hand, Moliere's "Tartuffe," the festival entry from Stray Dog
Theatre, has been staged countless times over the past 350-odd years, and
probably few people in any of those audiences thought they were seeing a
"political play."

However, Miller said, that reinforces the point, because it demonstrates the
fundamentally political nature of all theater. The author of a number of books
on American theater history, Miller observed that explicitly political theater
has a long history, from ancient Greece to Elizabethan England to the Great
Depression to the anti-Establishment plays of the late 1960s and '70s.

"The times of greatest tumult are also the times of the greatest theater," he
wrote, saying that "theater often tackles the biggest issues of our times, with
enormous power and better than any other art form."

The festival probably tends toward the "blue" end of the political spectrum but
in many respects is nonpartisan, he said.

"We want to get people to recognize what politics means to them. I at least
hope it makes them say, 'I really have to vote.'"


'MOments: I Am What You Are'
  Washington Avenue Players Project
  When: Thursday-Aug. 19
  Where: ArtLoft Theatre, 1529 Washington Avenue
  More info: 314-534-1111; www.thewapp.com

'American Buffalo'
NonProphet Theater Company
When: Thursday-Aug 27
Where: Wolfson Studio Theatre, Jewish Community Center, 2 Millstone
Campus Drive
More info: 314-752-5075; www.nptco.org

'Troilus and Cressida'
St. Louis Shakespeare
When: Sept. 1-10
Where: Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square
More info: 314-534-1111; www.stlshakespeare.org

'Touch the Names'
Soundstage Productions
When: Sept. 17
Where: The Heights, 8001 Dale Avenue
More info: 314-968-8070; www.soundstageproductions.net

'Tartuffe'
Stray Dog Theatre
When: Oct. 5-22
Where: The Little Theatre, 1 Mark Twain Circle
More info: 314-865-1995; www.straydogtheatre.org

'Bold Girls'
The Orange Girls
When: Oct. 6-22
Where: Anheuser-Busch Studio Theatre at the Center of Creative Arts,
524 Trinity Avenue
More info: 314-520-9557; www.orangegirls.org

'Coming Out Stories: An Interactive Event'
  That Uppity Theatre Company and Playback Workshop Theatre
  When: Oct. 11
  Where: TBA
  More info: 314-995-4600; www.uppityco.com

'Johnny Appleweed'
  New Line Theatre
  When: Oct. 12-Nov. 4
  Where: ArtLoft Theatre
  More info: 314-534-1111; www.newlinetheatre.com

'Girl Gone'
  NonProphet Theater Company
  When: Oct. 19-29
  Where: Wolfson Studio Theatre
  More info: 314-752-5075; www.nptco.org

'Sonnets for an Old Century'
  Off Center Theatre's Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble
  When: Dec. 7-17
  Where: TBA
  More info: 314-322-8850; www.slightlyoff.org