Transcripts

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CHRIS ROBERTS: I'm curious about what stereotypes of theater people offend you the most or are the most true.

GARLAND WRIGHT: The one that offends me the most is the one that indicates that we're self-obsessed, that we're completely out of touch with the world, and that basically all we want to do is sit around and gaze at our navels and show off. I find that a-- find that an abhorrent, offensive, and outrageous point of view. When--

CHRIS ROBERTS: Excuse me. Why do you think we do that?

GARLAND WRIGHT: I think we live in a world that has grown exponentially more complex in the last 50 years. It is no surprise that all of us are actually now aware that we're confused. I mean, that's a fairly significant step in human consciousness, that all of us are actually conflicted.

And I think when social chaos of that kind arises, as it has, I think it's quite easy to dismiss that which is, quote, "ephemeral" or, quote, "not concrete" and not, as I used the word before, utile or--

CHRIS ROBERTS: Too complex.

GARLAND WRIGHT: Hmm?

CHRIS ROBERTS: Too complex. Do we dismiss complexities in people?

GARLAND WRIGHT: Well, I think we're confused by them. And so to engage with them is to actually endanger oneself now. And I think it's-- we live in a time now where to risk that, to risk engagement with an idea is a very frightening thing. And that's what theater is.

And people come, and they want the theater to either substantiate their view of the world or to make them forget their view of the world when, in fact, what theater is, is a forum whereby ideas are put forth to engender a dialogue about those ideas. The theater doesn't want to convince you. It wants to elicit, are your beliefs deep enough to disagree?

And that conversation is less and less available to people, it seems, at this moment. So I think that's why a lot of people just begin to dismiss us or say, it's off the subject now. We can't deal with it. Who wants to deal with spirituality in a time like this? People are starving, they say. And I say-- I say, yes. And I'm here to help. I'm putting my food on the table.

CHRIS ROBERTS: In putting together a season for the Guthrie, is there anything that you'd like to share with us about what goes into it as far as you're concerned and what you're trying to do?

GARLAND WRIGHT: We begin our conversations asking the question, what is going on in the world? What's going on with the people in our audience? What's going on with us? And we try to find material that vibrates either by reflecting those concerns directly or by offering attention with those concerns, in other words, to speak in opposition to those concerns.

And then we go to this unbelievable storehouse of the world's great poetry and say, well, who's written about this? And who wrote about it most interestingly? And in what form does it vibrate the most? And we find usually two or three plays for a season in that way.

One begins to ask more pragmatic questions, like, is it too much British writing? Are there parts for my actors? If not, who doesn't have a part? And what plays would come to mind if you're thinking of this actor? And is it too serious? Does it need some leavening? Do we need to look at it? Is it too funny? Is it trivial?

CHRIS ROBERTS: When you came to the Guthrie, what were some of the challenges here that you didn't foresee and maybe some of the surprises that you experienced in terms of things that you thought you would hate, you actually liked about the work here and vice versa?

GARLAND WRIGHT: I was completely surprised by the audience. Artists who travel all over the country doing this kind of work are very used to audiences sitting stone-faced in front of it, not quite sure what to make of it, or at work like I do, I mean. And also, that there's a great preponderance of audiences all across the country, and particularly in New York, of people who just come. And they want it spoon-fed to them. They don't want to work.

So the first thing that I was really stunned by was this sort of intelligence, not only-- not only intelligence of the audience. But they had been reared in the action of the theater. And so they had-- they each had a relationship with the stage and with the-- overtime, with the company or with the organization. And they knew what they were here for.

And that made me very conscious of the fact that students no longer were coming to the Guthrie in any numbers. And the reason this had happened is that at the beginning of the theater's life, thousands upon thousands of students were brought in to the work. And I was talking to audience members when I arrived here first in 1980 who'd been coming to this theater for 20 years. And they first came when they were 11.

CHRIS ROBERTS: They grew up with it.

GARLAND WRIGHT: They grew up with it. And some of them-- it was the first theater they'd ever seen, was Hamlet. And I thought, well, of course that's going to make you a different theater goer.

So I know it became very important for me to get kids back in here, which has been a very high priority. And now there's over 50,000 a year who come. And maybe in 10 years, this organization will be able to, once again, reap the profits of that.

There are other things that shocked me that weren't necessarily positive. I continue to be shocked at the kind of prurience or feeling of prurience that one encounters in this day and age, that sex is still a highly phobic subject to put on the Guthrie stage for some reason. I can't quite tell why.

Because you go to any theater across town, and you can-- you see all kinds of stuff that doesn't have the same punch for spectators that, at the Guthrie, it seems to have. And I'm fascinated by that.

CHRIS ROBERTS: Maybe it's because it's a community theater supported by a lot of high rollers in town. And they say, we don't want experiments from you, Garland. We want classical theater. And you can challenge us a little bit, but don't go too far.

GARLAND WRIGHT: I don't think that-- I don't think that's who it is. [CHUCKLES] I don't. Yeah, there are a lot of those people you just described. But no, I think it's pervasive in that sexuality is a very bogus subject for the theater, apparently, and that it's simpler when it's in a really small, more private interchange, where we've all agreed-- where we've all agreed that this is experimental. And schoolchildren aren't going to see it. Or I don't know what the logic is of that.

CHRIS ROBERTS: Well, they--

GARLAND WRIGHT: I think it's the subject itself. I think it's social, and I think it's-- I was just surprised because traditionally, the theater has always-- I mean, sexuality is one of the central means of expression of human beings. Sexuality is one of the centers of conflict between human beings, and theater is all about conflict.

CHRIS ROBERTS: It's a strange location for such a vibrant theater in some respect when you're not taking into account the culture, the local culture that produced it. You're kind of isolated. It's almost like actors are coming here in exile to work on their craft, and then they may head somewhere else. Where is regional theater going? I guess is the fundamental question I want to ask you. Are you concerned about it?

GARLAND WRIGHT: Deeply. As I tried to imply earlier, I think one of the great things that the Guthrie represents is the beacon in the storm. And when I first came here, we made it our business in a happier time to endow the Guthrie's mission level, goals of having a resident acting company of playing in repertory and performing the classics.

And now, in these very troubled times, I'm absolutely convinced that if we didn't have-- if the community had not responded to that campaign, our theater would be in dire-- in dire situations, as many, many, many, many, countless theaters are across the country at this moment. And our government is turning its back on many populations and many programs in the fabric of our country's life, which require that the private sector rise to meet it in whatever way it can.

It is ill-equipped to do so, nor can it. But certainly, it's not just the arts. Everyone, hospitals, libraries, everyone, the sewers, will not benefit from what's happening at this moment. And the arts, which are organizations largely in survival mode by their very nature-- they're largely hand-to-mouth kinds of organizations that live on their box office, that live on the kindness of the community, in such an environment, are deeply, deeply threatened.