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Preface
This book has been on my mind for several years. It asks what is for me a basic vocational question: “Does theatre matter?” Some version of a mid-life crisis drove me to wonder why I am doing what I am doing. Does putting on plays matter? What does it accomplish, if anything? Is all the agony of collaboration and compromise worth the trouble? Is the instruction of young people in theatre a meaningful way to spend one’s life? Could it actually be harming young people or at least distracting them from more meaningful pursuits? Is theatre a worthy way of life—or is it just a habit?
I have always assumed that theatre was valuable, but before beginning this Dante-esque project, I had avoided deep reflection upon the matter. In this book, and in the years of reading and reflection that preceded its being written, I have tried—like my hero, Aristotle—to assume nothing but to reason through from first things. The questions and assertions you find here about all theatre practice, about dramatherapy, about theatre in prison, about an invisible substrate of theatre, reflect my own experience and intellectual formation.