Sat, Mar. 6, 2010

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Constitution Center is a stage for timely theater

By Dianna Marder

Inquirer Staff Writer

You know a play is timely when the director consults newspapers, TV, radio, and the Internet constantly to see if the script needs updating.

Indeed, the Living News production at the National Constitution Center contains scenes on gay marriage, immigration rights, and gun laws that are, as they say, ripped from the headlines.

Living News, which begins its third year Monday, is an ever-changing museum exhibit designed with eighth- to 12th-grade school groups in mind; its $14 ticket price includes pre- and post-production curriculum materials.

The 25-minute play, followed by a half-hour discussion, is written by a team of theater professionals (including Barrymore Award-nominated playwright Larry Loebell), and is aimed at sparking conversation about ordinary individuals and their relationship to the U.S. Constitution.

The project takes its cues, as well as its name, from the Depression-era Living Newspaperproject, which was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s programs aimed at creating jobs and boosting public morale.

While the Public Works Adminstration built dams and bridges, and the Civilian Conservation Corps created hiking paths and camping cabins, the Living Newspaper was hiring writers, actors, dancers, set decorators, and lighting and sound designers for such shows as Arthur Arent’s One Third of a Nation, about the vast number of Americans left hungry and homeless in the wake of the crash of 1929. Triple-A Plowed Under, written in 1936 by a team of authors, dramatized the plight of Dust Bowl farmers and suggested that farmers and workers unionize. About a dozen plays made it to the stage in Living Newspaper’s 1935-39 lifespan, but interest in the project continues. The plays are archived at George Mason University in Virginia, and two months ago Jackalope Theatre in Chicago produced a homage to the project with its Living Newspapers Festival, featuring four new plays done in the New Deal style.

But in fact, Living Newspaper’s biting social commentary style was based on an even earlier model, the experimental theater of the Bolshevik Revolution and the epic theater style of Bertolt Brecht. Like its predecessors, Living Newspaper preached a one-sided liberal gospel that had critics crying “socialism!” and that proved to be its ultimate undoing.

The Constitution Center’s Living News, on the other hand, presents questions but leaves the answers up to the audience, says Nora Berger-Green, who, as theater programs producer, is the force behind this and other center presentations.

“The WPA project is an inspiration for ours,” she says, “but we’ve adjusted the concept.”

For one thing, paper was dropped from the title because news now comes from so many sources, she says. But there was a more important consideration.

“In general, theater asks questions, but tends to have a perspective on those questions. As a museum, it’s important for us to be nonpartisan. We want to encourage active participation but not tell people how to do that or what to think. Being balanced is our mission.”

Living News is staffed with artists already active in regional theater. Artistic director David Bradley has directed more than 20 plays at Malvern’s People’s Light & Theatre Company. Delanté G. Keys has acted with Curio Theatre, Allen’s Lane Theater, Interact, and Azuka Theatre companies; Felicia Leicht, with Plays & Players and Shakespeare in Clark Park. Stephanie Lauren is a former Walnut Street Theatre apprentice and appeared in Theatre Horizon’s Romeo and Juliet.

All scan the news daily for relevant material that might be integrated in post-play discussions.

That’s what happened in January after a 17-year-old observant Jew strapped on tefillin (small leather boxes attached to leather straps, worn for morning prayers) during a flight from New York to Kentucky, arousing suspicion among the flight crew and leading to an emergency landing in Philadelphia.

The current script addresses freedom of religion, gun control, gay rights, immigration, and privacy concerns, with a scene about school integration on ice for now.

Always, the student perspective is foremost. For example, the gay-marriage scene is written from the viewpoint of an adopted teenager with two dads – an idea that originated with students in Chris Taranta’s eighth-grade math class at Julia R. Masterman school.

Bradley and Loebell had visited the school last year seeking student input before deciding how to introduce the issue, Taranta said. “That gave the students ownership over a piece of the play. So it was not surprising gay marriage was a major topic of debate in post-performance discussion we attended.

“There were a couple of students who bucked the overwhelming majority and stated that they were against gay marriage for religious reasons,” he said. “One was a girl who rarely spoke in my class; it was delightful that she felt comfortable enough to take that risk and also that her comments were so well-received and dealt with respectfully by her classmates, almost all of whom disagreed with her.”

He added, “It was the kind of theater experience one wishes for one’s students.”