Philip Carlson
The Actors Center Journal Vol. 2, No. 3, July 2010
Letter From The Editor
We are coming sharply into focus in the pages that follow on a fresh and practical concept of a National Theatre structure. We discuss what such an extraordinary possibility might actually be. How it could come about. How it would function. Who would populate it. These are beginning and very necessary steps. If that famous journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, I feel we have taken more than a few steps here. And a more potent, more artistically infused theatre seems a suitable tent pole for all that this Journal is about.
In this issue we are striving for cohesion of vision. It is not so much a question of what to include but what not to include. For the teacher interview, our original thought was to interview three generations of acting teachers and we had – and have – three extraordinary candidates. But it turns out that what they each have to say is of such vital interest and so germane to the kind of thinking we are hoping to air in this Journal that any insights which might have been gleaned from contrasting three generations of approach paled beside what was to be learned from three such dedicated and devoted minds. So in this issue we will speak with Franchelle Stewart Dorn who heads the acting program at the University of Texas at Austin. In future issues we will be talking to Jed Diamond from the University of Tennessee and Gerald Freedman at North Carolina School of the Arts. Oh, the places we’ll go.
Our Publisher Michael Miller has been in dialogue with I can’t keep track of how many great minds out there but he will be sharing thoughts from his dialogue with two of them—Jane Alexander and Ben Cameron—in this issue.
All of this talk is leading me— I hope not only me—to feel that we are discussing something more than just a fantasy here. A theatre of national consequence is a palpable idea which may only need time and space and thinking about in order to be brought about. You can’t have what you can’t describe. Which is sort of what my piece is about this time.
We are also introducing a playful, trouble-making page where we suggest possible dream companies for this dream theatre we are trying to coach into existence – and inviting you to do the same. What an irresistible challenge. When you envision the company, you are surely envisioning the four month seasons you would be dying to see. The variety of your perspectives and intuitive casting of the acting ensemble is what the game is all about and could lead us to a clearer understanding of what we collectively envision. Anyway, it’s fun. I had a ball drawing up my list. Even made a second one for the next issue.
I hope what follows is as rewarding for you to read as it was for us to gather together for you.
Philip Carlson