Eduardo Machado

Over at Parabasis (see bloglist), Isaac has published Eduardo Machado's impassioned speech at ART/NY a couple nights ago. George Hunka, who undoubtedly will respond more fully, has published his initial response that the speech is "much heat and little ligh" and after an initial reading, I see his point. It is a speech filled with angry questions and frustration. I guess there are times, though, when heat is more important than light. We need people to thrash around, to cause a stink, to shake things up within the theatre. We seem to have lost our sense of passion, and of fight -- the kind of passion that Harold Clurman had when night after night he exhorted the members of the Group Theatre to create a truly American theatre.

As I say, I've only read it through once, and quickly. I know that there are things in it that I disagree with, and I will probably quibble with him later. But they will be quibbles. My support will be for his willingness to get riled up.