WE NEED MANY BROADWAYS
FAGIN, BRYLLION
We Need Many Broadways It Is Folly to Depend on Gotham's Main Stem Alone By Bryllion Fagin This article continue* a discussion 'eunched by Representative Jakob K. Javils, April 12. in his piece...
...4 • « Tito's sweeping denunciation of both East and West will do him little good...
...The theater demands full-time concentration, complete absorption, and no one can pursue law or stenography or a college course by day and turn into a rounded, disciplined theater artist in the evening...
...Our theater has become unexciting and unimportant...
...launi h.ng the p,«-stY.t and larger pioject...
...nd ballet aie to constitute a part the culture of the American people we nod a theater centei in evei \ city...
...Morris B. Chapman...
...a c<untiy ' !50 million people to di po.nl upi n ten b)o< ks in one city Id: it-- th- :cal .sustenance It diama and <t\>i...
...The many measures piling up in the legislative hopper for a health program may defeat their purpose...
...Ever since the ancient Greeks blended poetry, music, and dance with the tragic and comic "fables" of then tiaditions, to create drama which is still a thing of wisdom and beauty, the theater, at its best, has reflected the experience of mankind...
...This can be achieved only if the profit motive is minimized and the people themselves are given the opportunity to help support it and to make di mands upon it...
...Congress has bestowed a charter upon ANTA but has failed to appropriate any funds for its support...
...In its short existence ANTA has established itself as the one agency which can stimulate and guide the growth of the American theater on all levels...
...It is fully fc...
...CONGRESSMAN JAVITS IS WISE in pointing to the existence and activities of the American National Theatre and Academy (ANTA...
...in his piece for Thr <\eir Ltader...
...Pen Points Southern spokesmen \rrap the flay of patriotism (iround flieir nncoHscioiiflbfe filibuster...
...Broadway for Every - r.Bn," which explained the nature oi the Bill Mr...
...Broadway, symbol of the professional theater, has almost completed the process of contraction...
...In the main, it has become feeble entertainment for the privileged classes...
...THIS IS PARTICULARLY unfortunate at a time when we need the direct, dynamic mode of expression which only the theater is capable of supplying...
...The American people have not ai < epted the situation without piotest...
...They have created little theaters, community theaters, and college and university theaters...
...Tlicy are prvpured to preserre their irtn) of hie by haranguing until they tire red...
...These deplorable conditions explain the appalling unemployment among actors, directors, designers, and stage hands, the discouragement of playwrights, and the almost total lack of novelty and experimentation...
...and prices of admission are beyond the means of most wage-earning Americans...
...the old ones—those that have not been converted into movie palaces—are small, antiquated, and poorly equipped to meet changing styles in modern playwriting and play mounting...
...Surely by now thoughtful Americans are aware of the present low state of cur theater...
...The need for a national theater is indisputable...
...in the end...
...He now teaches at Johns Hopkins University...
...It was common knowledge that the ousted government was afflicted with pernicious anemia...
...it is the professional theater which can function most effectively...
...rentals are exorbitant: costs of production are extremely high...
...Broadway must be deu rtrali/ed...
...Confirmed alcholics will doubtless sires* the admitted dangers of aniabuie, hailed as a remedy for alcholism...
...It has acted as a clearing house for all organizations, professional non-professional...
...It is estimated that there are 20,000 non-professional theatrical groups in the country...
...Opposition to its establishment comes mostly from persons who are somehow always in mortal fear of government interference with private enterprise...
...It has lent an ear to new playwrights...
...it has no income except the small sums that its member-groups and interested individuals contribute...
...The achievements of the FedeVal Theater—which was only a temporary relief measure—should encourage prospects fo...
...But the reflection our theatre offers today is only a dim and distorted image of minor experience...
...No new buildings to house productions have been constructed tor many years...
...Too many bills are often a headache...
...But...
...A plague on both houses only increases the cliunces of one's own infection...
...Javits' resolution calls for should act wisely, is there any reason why an honest and intelligently managed national theater might not be evolved...
...icfiire und blue in the jure...
...Establishment of such i enters -hould be the goal of a "national" theater...
...Paul Robeson's decision to cut short a concert tour to testify for the eleven American Communist leaders now on trial means little...
...They look upon the cure as infinitely worse than the disease...
...though many of them are doinn brave and beautiful things, they are limited by their very non-professional - ism...
...It is to be hyped that the wool national" will be lnterpnted as nationwide...
...Professionalism has its own limitations, but these can be eliminated by intelligence and integrity...
...It has little of significance to say and it -ays it...
...And if the eonferencjj-w+iieh Mr...
...Let us hope that the forces which have I locked this project heretofore, will not ; Cain succeed in defeating this latest attempt to give the American people a < ultural institution which most civilized nations (and some not so civilized) cherish with pride and joy...
...NO ONE WHO HAS WATCHED the decline of the American Theatre can fail to applaud Congressman Javits' article, "Broadway for Everybody" (The New Leader, April 2), and his efforts in Congress to provide for a national theater...
...Yet the results of Yaissezjuire are desperately eloar...
...Bryllion Fagin U well qualified to write on matters pertain:ng to the theater, having devoted many years to active participation in :heatrical matters...
...The cause of justice would be better served if the defendants themselves decided to sing...
...Competition for these antiquated houses is sharp...
...for the most part, badly...
...It comes as no surprise to learn that the recent coup executed "tvy the Syrian army was bloodless...
...Javits proposed in Congress for establishment of a national theater...
Vol. 32 • June 1949 • No. 24
