The Beautiful Process: Towards a Dramaturgy of Community

In his Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Mankind, Friedrich Schiller once wrote that humans, as higher animals, are capable "of a disinterested and unconditional appreciation of pure semblance." Essentially, one of the things that Schiller points to as the difference between humans and animals is a certain level of aesthetic appreciation.

To paraphrase Denis Dutton's 1990 address to the Russian Institute of Aesthetics, humanity reaches a higher form of being once it becomes more interested in the carved handle to a knife becomes more important than the knife itself and the cutting properties thereof. Indeed, we have only become truly human when were prefer a semblance of the material as opposed tot he gross material world itself.

And yet, particularly when one begins to think about the ramifications of this, one cannot help but begin to shy away from what this is saying. Theatre cannot simply be disinterested in the community around it! Unlike many arts, we not only exist within our surrounding communities but are fully reliant upon them! We must reject Schiller's (and Kant's) notion of disinterested watching and take an active interest in the effects our work have in our cities and towns.

This leads me to posit the idea of a beautiful process, by where our theatrical dramaturgy, our producing organizations, theatres, and thespians begin to actively and aggressively engage with the community in order to accomplish things that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also good in and of themselves.

A recent article in The Review talks about the relationship between the modern theatre and the dramaturg. It can be found here(page 8). I would submit that our theatres should enjoy a similar relationship to what Ms. Kaplan wants dramaturgs to have with their theatres. "I’m here because I have something you need and you have something I want. It’s an honest exchange."

Whether our communities know it or not, we have something they need. We have the transformative power of performance and the incandescent characters of the Western Dramatic tradition. We have stories that can never really die because they are far too ingrained in the collective psyche. On top of that, we tell our stories in a way that cannot be denied.

Let us throw open the doors, let us embrace those outside of them. It goes beyond simple marketing and selling tickets, it is the Beautiful Process of Community-based Dramaturgy.