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