What does it mean to create something “meaningful?”
I’ve asked myself this question more times than I can count. Some pieces I’ve made felt alive and urgent to me - but not always to anyone else. That gap can make you wonder: did I miss the point, or was my gut just leading me somewhere no one else could follow?
Pictured: The playbill for the March 21, 1936 production of “Triple-A Plowed Under” at the Biltmore Theatre, New York. Music Division. Library of Congress.
When I went to grad school, it was partly to answer a different version of the same question: how can I reach more people with my work? At first, I thought the answer was teaching—teachers are true superheroes in what they go through to reach their students. But then I found something I hadn’t expected: Documentary Theatre.
Until then, I was writing plays about women or women’s events from history. Then I discovered Hallie Flanagan, the Living Newspapers, and their mission and influence on this country. That discovery opened a portal—and sent me into many nights of joyful research.
Through it, I found I Am My Own Wife, The Laramie Project, Emily Mann, Anna Deavere Smith, Sarah Jones, and so many others. The forms vary: actors repeating transcripts word for word, one performer embodying every character, or an ensemble building whole communities on stage . But they share one thing: the power to break barriers. Between past and present. Between artist and audience.
Pictured: Flanagan on CBS Radio for the Federal Theatre of the Air, 1936. Courtesy, Wikipedia Commons
So, as summer ends and IVP prepares for a private reading of our new piece on Hallie Flanagan and the Living Newspaper, I feel sure this work matters. I just can’t tell you exactly why. What I can say is this: the artists from our recent workshop felt it too. Artists have to trust that meaning exists, even if they can’t yet articulate it - even if it isn’t fully showing up in the piece.
But here’s the thing: we cannot be the only ones reaching. Theatre only exists in the space between artist and audience. We need audiences just as much as they need us. Don’t wait for us to bring you into the room - help us create the room itself, the space where we can all gather.
Pictured: Scenes from “Triple-A Plowed Under.” “W.P.A. News theater Strikes Broadway,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) March 15, 1936. Library of Congress
In times when so much pulls us apart, imagine what we might create together. As we move into fundraising and begin seeking producing partners and venues, we’re reminded of the Federal Theatre Project itself—a producer of possibility that launched artists like Orson Welles, John Houseman, and Arthur Miller. Our hope is to find today’s partners who, like the early champions of the Federal Theatre Project, recognize the spark of a new work, and help it grow.
