HOTREVIEW EDITORIAL/OP-ED
An Open Letter to James Nicola, Artistic Director of New York
Theatre Workshop
By Robert Simpson McLean
Dear Mr. Nicola:
This is a painful letter for me to write
since I have had a long association with New York Theatre Workshop.
I have been in constant attendance at your productions, urging
people to attend, and writing a laudatory review of More Stately
Mansions for The Eugene O'Neill Review for which
I am Drama Review Editor. For this event I was asked by the Dutch
Embassy to invite celebrated theater people living in New York
to attend a collation where they could meet Ivo von Hove and afterwards
attend the performance as his guests. Since I have such respect
for the NYTW I never enjoyed such a labor of love as that one.
I have worked for your theater for years as a volunteer usher
since I feel your theater is on the cutting edge of artistic quality
in New York, and is an institution we all can be proud of. Consequently,
when I learned of the cancellation of the acclaimed London performance
of My Name is Rachel Corrie I became deeply disappointed
and even depressed.
First, your action seems to nullify what
we expect and hope from theater, a hope and expectation that is
as old as Sophocles. The theater has always held a mirror up to
nature and shown us what we are really like. The last five years
of the current Washington administration have been difficult to
bear if you are sensitive to all the issues that make a civilized
society. In every issue progressive people are disappointed by
the nature and tenor of our government which seems to abridge
our liberties each passing day. Many playwrights, directors, and
actors have risen to the challenge and opposed the militaristic
and freedom-curbing climate of Washington by satire and many other
dramatic means. It is comforting to know that civic organizations,
religious groups like the National Council of Churches, and many
others have together tried to oppose our current oppressive political
atmosphere.
Second, you have set a bad example for
other theaters in not standing up for the artistic independence,
truthfulness, and sincerity of a free theater. You are not the
first one who has been threatened by some misguided groups who
seek to censor any medium which expresses a point of view with
which they disapprove. My own daughter in Boston who works as
a publicity agent for various businesses was told that she must
not take out advertisements for a Kosher catering service on Boston
Public Radio because Boston Public Radio allowed Palestinian representatives
to present their views on their station. If the firm she represented
refused to exclude the advertisements, then some of the irate
Jewish organizations would not hire the Kosher catering firm.
Some sensible neutral Jews urged my daughter to ignore the threats
and proceed as she had been doing, but the owner of the firm told
her that he could not afford any criticism, even from crazies,
and that she must boycott Boston Public Radio.
And so it is everywhere. The first ten
amendments of the Bill of Rights enjoy deep and broad support
among a vast segment of our country's population, so long as these
rights are reserved for their own views. People are less generous
to minorities whose views conflict with their own. Last summer
at my home in the Adirondacks, the opera singer Patrice Munsel
told me that after appearing in an anti-war rally during the Vietnam
war, she was never again invited to sing on commercial television
programs. I hope to help her get this story into print because
I do not believe it is generally known, and the bad record of
democracy's misdeeds should be meticulously documented, hopefully,
for our edification.
But what can the New York Theatre Workshop
do to redeem itself after canceling the widely anticipated story
of a heroic and unique young woman who can enlighten us and inspire
us to exert our humanity to make a better world? Certainly, the
NYTW could learn from her courageous example and redeem itself
by reversing its stand, and enthusiastically inviting the London
company to its theater at the earliest time. We desperately need
a voice like Rachel Corrie's to help us see more clearly during
these times corrupt with political menace and greed. We will all
forgive your action, and move Heaven and Earth to help you and
stand by your theater to defend you against whatever onslaughts
you fear. When an Irish patriot in Sean O'Casey's A Red Rose
for Me desires to walk in a prohibited protest march, a menacing
British officer warns him that the military is against him and
their swords will be out. He bravely replies: "Yes, but the saints
will be with us!"
There is nothing more that I can say to
help change your decision, but I do hope that you will see that
you have made a mistake and undo it. A man who can admit a lapse
of judgment and reverse it is a great example of human growth
and possibility. Please do not disappoint us but uphold the great
traditions of humanistic theater, listen to the great voices of
the stage, the voices of Ibsen, Shaw, and O'Casey, and, most important
of all, let us all try to walk with the saints.
Sincerely yours,
Dr. Robert Simpson McLean
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