This title was digitized by the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA).
About Art papers. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1981-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 1981)
I traiture in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but to con vey the correct taste in interior fur nishings in American homes at the beginning of the twentieth century. Although in her selection of portraits Mrs. Inman could not have known the identities of the Craggs and Vanbrugh personalities, she recog nized the suitability of these eigh teenth century portraits as furnishings in her new home. And when she chose the dining room as the ideal location for the portrait of Lord Teviot, the most prestigious personality repre sented in the collection, her decision actually parallels the practice adhered to in seventeenth and eighteenth cen tury English homes. In a type of eti quette book first published in 1675, an entire chapter was devoted to ex plaining the correct rooms for hang- Profile: Kent Stephens Anthony DeCurtis_ that and nothing but that. So it’s not a “I just think that alternative theater’s got to shit or get off the pot. I don’t see a dedication by any of the alternative theaters in town to culti vating new writers and new scripts. It just seems to be a grab bag of the classics and whatever we want to pull out this month. And I include myself in that.” Kent Stephens, founder and artistic director of the recently closed Imaginary Theater, describes the state of alternative theater in Atlanta in characteristically vivid terms. A seminal force in the Atlanta theater scene, first as director of the Trinity Players and since 1978 with the Imag inary Theater, Stephens sees hard days ahead for innovative theater in Atlanta. The Reagan budget cuts, the failure of local audiences to support theater, and the absence of a South ern theater heritage are all con tributing factors. But as the above remark suggests, Stephens insists that the theaters themselves must bear part of the responsibility for their current problems. The Imaginary’s primary contribu tion to Atlanta theater was its effort to define a middle ground between highly professional, highly commer cial groups like the Alliance Theatre and Theater of the Stars and com munity groups with acting and pro duction values rarely up to the level of their worthy aesthetic ambitions. Stephens’ productions of Shekinah, an evocative, mystical work drawing on Hasidic folk tales, done in col laboration with Atlanta composer Kevin Culver; Jim Peck’s Both Our Houses; Brecht’s The Seven Deadly Sins; the company-developed Wings; and Holy the Firm, adapted from the prose work by Annie Dillard, com bined the virtues of challenging sub jects, total-theater techniques, and polished presentation. The first-rate acting for which the Imaginary Theatre earned a reputation was rare ly more evident than in the perfor mances delivered by Stephens’ wife, Linda, in Wings, The Seven Deadly Sins, and Holy the Firm. These accomplishments rest on Stephens’ vision of alternative theater as a balance between an awareness of the general theatrical context in which you’re operating and doing what you’re best at doing: “If the Alliance can do The King and I better than I can, and obviously they can because they have the money for the sets and the money for the chorus, then why the hell should I do The King and P. If the Alliance can do Shakespeare bet ter than I can, then why should I do Shakespeare? But if I can do Shakespeare in a storefront operation more excitingly, with better acting—a very important point that a lot of peo ple miss: it doesn’t matter if the con cept’s great, if the acting stinks, it stinks— but if I’ve got the acting and I’ve got the concept, then I should do matter of just doing my own thing or just doing what the Alliance and the Academy are not going to be doing. That’s why I do total-theater works, because I’m good at that and I don’t feel that anybody in town really does do them as well, or can.” With essentially centrist aims and plays that fulfilled Stephens’ stated goals of conveying “positive spiritual messages”—and thereby not alien ating Atlanta audiences by roman ticizing the abyss—it’s difficult to understand why the Imaginary would go under after only two full seasons. CETA cuts and location pro blems—its shared space in the Nexus Complex on Ralph McGill Blvd was logistically problematic as well as unattractive to many Atlanta theater goers—tell only part of the story. A twenty-nine-year-old Atlanta native, Stephens does not have many good things to say about his hometown’s support of theatrical art. To his mind, theater here has failed to move for ward in any significant way for some time. “There have been periods of great productivity and periods of great destitution here, and I don’t see those cycles changing,” he says. “I thought the late sixties was a very pro ductive period in town, and then it all fell apart. I see that happening again and again. Atlanta audiences still haven’t learned how to patronize theater and Atlanta theaters still haven’t learned how to market to Atlanta audiences. Something is amiss on both sides of the track.” This double-edged problem on the local level is sharpened by the new federal administration’s clampdown on arts support, particularly funding for alternative art. Stephens does not downplay the impact these cutbacks will have, but points out that the loss of governmental support may also present certain important oppor tunities: “We’re seeing the negative effects already. Walter [Dallas of the Proposition Theatre] is closed for next year. I’m closed. The Academy’s moving again. I see the storefront theaters staying pretty much where they are, but those groups trying to fill a gap are gone. There’ll be more ‘commercial’ programming. It’s going to be a bad period for new play wrights, a bad period for experimen tal theater. But in a way all this is good. It’s driving the alternative peo ple back into the institutions. It’s go ing to bring some fresh blood and ideas into the institutions and it’s go ing to force the alternative people to realize that there’s a more subterra nean way of doing things than putting on a chicken costume and reciting Proust in a dark room with a red light.” In Stephens’ view, alternative artists must now create a more broad ly based, genuine audience for their work: “If we’re going to get the messages we’re sincere about across, ing portraits according to the identity of the sitter. The dining room was restricted to royalty. In a twentieth century American home, in the absence of a king or queen’s portrait, that of a Lord seems an appropriate substitute. Laurel Wemmet, a graduate stu dent in art history at Emory Universi ty, researched the Swan Coach House portraits while participating in the Georgia Governor’s Intern Program. Her article on the Swan Coach House Collection is the second of a series in Art Papers, examining collections in the Southeast. Linda Stephens in Imaginary Theater’s production of Holy the Firm, directed by Kent Stephens (photo: Charles Rafshoon). we’re going to have to find more popular ways of doing it. We’re going to have to incorporate experimental techniques into the work in ways that won’t make them seem self-indulgent and alienating. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.” A product of the Yale School of Drama and the Williamstown Sum mer Theater, Stephens strives to achieve a consistently high level of technical and production values in his work. He sees audiences as having certain basic expectations that must be met if they are to return to the theater on a regular basis: “My belief has always been that if the package is good the audience will come back, whether or not they liked the play. If the acting’s good and the technical values are sound, (considering the budget), the audience will come back. I don’t think you’re going to build an audience if you’re stuck in a rat-hole that looks like the Black Hole of Calcutta and you’re doing plays where people spit on people.” This emphasis on production values makes for a forceful directing style. Stephens describes his directing as “very intellectual; I very much deal with ideas. It’s very active, even oppressive. It’s very technical; I don’t consider myself intuitive at all. My concern is offering audiences one experience night after night. It’s like a movie. I go to a movie and I’m going to see an absolutely wonderful perfor mance every time I see it. In the theater, if you’re an intuitive director, the thing can vary a great deal from night to night.” Fortunately, the Imaginary Theater’s demise does not leave Stephens bereft of other projects. This month he’s directing Mornings at Seven for the Hippodrome Theater in Gainesville, Florida, one of the Southeast’s finest repertory com panies. In October he’ll stage The Notre Dame Game by Tom Cullen, former playwright-in-residence with Kelly’s Seed and Feed, at the Peachtree Playhouse. That produc tion will actually be the concluding play of last year’s Imaginary Theatre season which was abruptly shortened by the CETA cuts. He’ll do the Im aginary Theater’s annual food-raiser at Christmas. And, in addition to a possible project for the Center for Puppetry Arts, Stephens will direct Loose Ends, the fourth play on the main stage in the Alliance Theatre’s coming season. But Stephens’ primary activity in the coming year will be trying to define a way to perform his theatrical balancing act in a time of straitened circumstances and general disillusion ment in the arts: “I want to wake myself up to what’s out there and what the possibilities are of creating art, as opposed to just crass commer cialism, in that context. And still hav ing it sell, and still having it appre ciated. I’m interested in studying the art of compromise for a while and finding out just how we can continue to grow.” Anthony DeCurtis, who writes regularly about theater for Art Papers and also writes about rock music, is employed at the Engineering Experi ment Station at Georgia Tech. Art Papers September-October 1981
