American Scenic Design: And Freelance Professionalism (Theater in the Americas) - Softcover

PREFACE

Scholars of US-American theatre history have pointed to examples of racist ideology portrayed onstage and have critiqued them diligently. When discussing canonical artists, stories, and conventions, theatre and performance scholarship must acknowledge that it is upholding Anglo-Eurocentrism and that doing so contributes to the continued dominance of white voices in the American theatre. At the same time, it is important to acknowledge the ways in which the economic and educational systems of American theatre have enacted racist and sexist policy, and still do. In many cases discrimination hides behind rhetoric of quality, technique, relatability, or standards. These, too, are beginning to receive scholarly attention, but not nearly as much. 

American Scenic Design and Freelance Professionalism tells the story of the emergence of a new field, but also explains its exclusionary and discriminatory effects. This book emphasizes the effects of racism, sexism, and homophobia by giving excluded designers necessary attention in their own sections. In many cases, precisely due to discrimination, the archive is much smaller for excluded designers. Their lives took differing paths, which this book conceptualizes as counterpoints to the predominantly white, male, and elite story of scenic design professionalization. This counterpoint approach acknowledges that the actions of Aline Bernstein, Emeline Roche, Perry Watkins, and James Reynolds did not create the system within which they worked. They did not have the power to decide the terms of professionalization when it was being organized by their straight white male colleagues. Their actions were in response to a system that was not built for them, one that was hostile to their work and aspects of their humanity. This book details how such systems of status and exclusion were built, yet it also attends to counterpointing examples to show that exclusionary systems can be broken into, broken down, and broken apart. 

In order to change, American theatre must acknowledge that the banner of professionalization has been raised to protect the well-off and to justify exclusion. Examples throughout this book show that the creation of a new labor category benefits those who establish it, but it also empowers them to set the terms of professional membership. Solving the problems of exclusion means looking closely at exactly what professionals gain by claiming that term, and what educational institutions gain by teaching students “professional” standards. It requires questioning the “givens” of the field to make the field more equitable. Its terms of entry – union dues, apprenticeships, expensive education, a commitment to self-promotion and service – are exclusionary, and some must be completely reformed.

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