RAT How Many Cups of Each (was Marx in Soho (in LA))

For me there is another issue besides balancing the artistic / audience concerns of a particular individual or company and that has to do with the value that a particular project/company has for the greater society. In my view theater has three key societal functions:

1. the value of learning the various processes of theater itself-- by which I mean learning the roleplay, group dynamic, scene building, public-business-handling skills that make theater a pretty fair microcosm of the life of our society -- is a valuable resource which can/should be integrated into various learning environments. (Don't waste roleplay on actors -- kids need it to navigate our spreading world! Directing is a perfect model for project management/conflict resolution in small businesses. Rapid decision analysis? Empathy? Theater processes can teach it.)

2. the ability of theater to influence, in small ways, the perception and attitudes of societal elites. Because of the social history/nature of theater, it is attended (almost exclusively) by people who actually make decisions that affect the daily lives of millions of people -- and, who see theater (like the Medici forms -- opera and ballet) as one of "their" social activities. If the kinds of stories we tell are the kinds of stories that these folks are interested in hearing, that gives us enormous leverage in passing (subtle?/covert?) messages about current social needs/problems. This is something we need to take seriously. A single phrase/situation in the middle of a yacht-club-comedy that "gets through" to a group of CEOs has potentially greater impact than all of the single focus counterculture agit-prop performances in existence. (Shaw understood this. And remember that Dickens' readers weren't the man-in-the-street. A.J. Gurney is the current master, IMHO.)

3. as a trial balloon for social issues and change. This is related to 2), in the sense that students pursuing higher education represent future leadership of the society, and are interested (whether they know it or not) in putting their own stamp on the world they will run. They are more interested in theater with "impact", so that issues like the environment, gender, technology, and global economics can be presented in "their" theater.

I tend to think that item 1) is the only theater function that really deserves public funding since it can actually be used by the public (and not just by the elite), and that items 2) and 3) can be adequately served by sources of corporate/foundation funding. Other theater uses, should, I believe, be privately funded or market driven.