GUILD STATEMENTS - Longview News-Journal: ANGELS IN AMERICA
The decision by the Gregg County Commission to withdraw $50,000 from its support of the Texas Shakespeare Festival following a production of the play Angels in America at Kilgore College because the same individual heads both groups hits us - and, we hope, you - where we live.
This is not because we at The Dramatists Guild of America like or dislike the play, but because we dislike - intensely - the government telling the people of Kilgore - or anywhere - what they can and can’t see. By withholding funds, the Gregg County Commissioners create a chilling effect on every artist, telling them in effect, "You better not paint any painting, write any poem, mount any play, compose any music, or design any building that we don’t approve of, or we’ll shut you down." It’s not far in this repressive philosophy to the next step, which might include "or say anything we don’t approve of."
Freely-elected governments fund the arts not to espouse any specific dogma but (a) to enlighten the public by encouraging points of view different from the commercial mainstream and (b) to ensure free artistic self-expression—which includes free speech—in the community. The need for self-expression is as old as mankind. The right to self-expression is a relatively new concept and such a political hot potato that even today it is fiercely challenged in most countries of the world. As Americans, we owe much to those with the foresight to make it law 212 years ago.
Since its inception in 1919, The Dramatists Guild of America, which currently numbers more than 6,000 playwrights, composers and lyricists writing for the theater, has consistently recognized the need for and championed the right of artists to express themselves freely. What may be surprising is that we also recognize the need for and champion the right of the audience to express itself freely.
The administration of Kilgore College has admirably demonstrated its support for free expression, and its concern for the arts in your community, by courageously refusing to cancel the college’s production of Angels in America. As citizens of Kilgore, however, you have admirably demonstrated your concern for the arts in your community, both pro and con, as well. We wholeheartedly support your right to freely express your applause or your protest - in the latter case, by picketing, boycotting, demonstrating or just not going to the theater. We even support the right of the one imaginative gentleman who bought all the tickets for a single performance so no one could see the play. And we would certainly support a play which challenged the ideas in this one.
What we cannot - and do not - support is the attempt by any government - as small as Kilgore’s or as large as the People’s Republic of China’s - to influence what specific play, painting, music, television, or point of view its citizens are allowed to experience.
As it happens, Angels in America is a much-praised and -awarded play with much to say about the human condition. But the merit and subject matter are irrelevant. What is important is that you - we - not allow our government to tell us what we can and cannot see, whether it is the Soviet Union suppressing Doctor Zhivago, the Clinton administration’s attempt to censor the Internet, or the Gregg County Commission’s effort to prevent your seeing works of art it doesn’t agree with.
Betty Comden, author of
Peter Pan and
Singing In The RainLynn Ahrens, author of
Schoolhouse RockSheldon Harnick, author of
Fiddler On The RoofAlfred Uhry, author of
Driving Miss DaisyArthur Laurents, author of
West Side StoryDavid Shire, author of
Big: The MusicalThomas Meehan, author of
Annieand the
Council of The Dramatists Guild of America