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
