Theater Ideas Newsletter
February 6 - 12, 2025
A little bit more stuff this week.
Universities continue to shut down MFA Theater programs, not to mention undergrad majors as well (for instance, my former employer, UNC Asheville, is shuttering Drama, Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Classics to their everlasting shame). This time, it’s a pretty famous program in Acting and Directing at Brown University. To my knowledge, the highly-regarded playwriting program seems to have been left alone.
Brown and Trinity Rep shutting down MFA in Acting and Directing.
Each program that shuts down will limit even further the number of opportunities for theater artists to get terminal degrees, which of course will lead to a shortage of professors at a later date.
Shamless Promotion: For those of you who want to develop as an artist, but don’t have the time, money, or opportunity to go back to school, might I recommend my book DIY Theater MFA.
What You Have to Do to Get an NEA Grant Now
My friend Michael Phillips at the Chicago Tribune discusses the changes of “emphasis” at the National Endowment for the Arts here. I agree with the reactions of Chicago arts leaders. At the same time, this is why I have argued against seeking government funding in Building a Sustainable Theater. As we saw when Congress eliminated the Federal Theatre Project during the anti-communism scare in 1939, the political winds change and suddenly your business model is on shaky ground. Frankly, politicians are craven and often not very bright, and kowtowing to them undermines your creative independence. Alan Jacobs, writing in The Hedgehog Review on a different but related topic, provides enlightening insights about relying on others to support your interests in his essay “What To Do When Management Won’t Take Your Side—Or Even When It Does: Persuasion is the only option.” BTW, The Hedgehog Review is an excellent publication.
A Dream about Story
Every once in a while, rarely, I have one of Those Dreams. These are dreams that have a very different form than my normal dreams, and usually communicatre something to me in a language very different from the way I think. In other words, these dreams (of which I have had a total of three in a decade) seem to come from someone other than me, and are not action oriented, although they can be narrative. And when I awaken, I always feel sort of peaceful.
Let me give you an example. About six or seven years ago, I had a dream in which this sentence came through: “The worst thing about life is that you can’t win; the best thing about it is that you can’t lose.” I’m still mulling that one.
Last night, I had another, although this was more literary in content. I was “shown” that there are only five stories in the world, and each was described to me. I remember feeling as if it was so simple, and yet explained everything. Of course, as with a lot of dreams, when you cross from the dream into awakening, I left three of the five story types behind. But here are the two I remember. The first is the “simplest” story, and was #1; the last was the most complex, and was #5.
#1. The Easy Win: This is a story (or a part of a story) in which the protagonist encounters a challnging situation and discovers they have everything they need to deal with it. The message of this story: the universe is on your side, you are loved, you’ve got this.
#5: The Ritual: this is the most complicated, and the most common story we tell. The Ritual story can have two outcomes: negative (tragedy) and positive (heroic). In the course of the Ritual, the main character goes through a series of challenges of increasing danger. Regardless of whether they “win” or “lose” the challenge, they emerge with greater understanding. The message: the universe, other people, and yourself if far more complicated than you give them credit for, and the ritual exists to deepen your awareness of this.
As with many dreams, this one seemed more profound at the time because it was accompanied by a sort of calm clarity–that peacefulness I mentioned. In the light of day, these insights seem to my intellectual mind as sort of simple. But in the dream, this wasn’t about the stories we tell ourselves in novels, plays, and films, but rather that these were somehow the meta-narratives of the universe that placed human experience within a narrative frame. Indeed, it was more than human experience, but included the stories of all living beings as well.
I don’t think this means looking at everything that happens and asking “what am I supposed to learn from this?,” as if it was an elaborate story problem that leads to a simple moral. I don’t think it is about learning, but rather about understanding, which is different in depth and may be something deeply felt but that is beyond words.
I wonder how this knowledge will change the way that I look at events.
I also really wish I could remember the other three stories!!!
I have plans for the next two Rooted Stage articles.
I hope you have a good week.
Scott