By Scott J. Parker
The recent cultural explosion, with its increased public interest in heritage tourism and the awareness across the nation of the might of the tourist dollar, has caused an increasing number of communities to focus attention on developing an increased number of vital regional dramas in the form of outdoor historical plays.
Eager audiences await the openings of new outdoor plays, and seasoned regulars like Viva El Paso! in El Paso, TX, Tecumseh! in Chillicothe, OH and The Lost Colony near Manteo, NC, find attendance growing steadily. Such popular outdoor drama giants as Unto These Hills, Cherokee, NC, "TEXAS" in Canyon, TX, and The Great Passion Play in Eureka Springs, AR, play to well over 100,000 patrons each season.
Across the nation more than 100 outdoor theatres are in production this summer: 45 produce outdoor historical dramas, 65 are Shakespeare festivals, and 11 theatres produce religious dramas. Five of these are new outdoor dramas in such places as New Mexico, Oregon, California and Utah. The tide is mounting for the outdoor drama field, and the eyes of the communities planning new theatres are turned to the Institute of Outdoor Drama, a public service agency of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
Established in 1963, the Institute is the only organization in the US providing national leadership in fostering artistic and managerial excellence and expansion of the outdoor drama movement through training, research and advisory programs, and serves as a national clearinghouse for its more than 100 constituent theatre companies across the nation.
The outdoor dramas, which employ thousands of college and professional performers each season, have been pioneers in non-profit theatrical arts development. Most have been produced by cooperative organizational efforts of local citizens, foundations, and government on a non-commercial basis. These dramas have been produced out of community desire to commemorate the past and rededicate the future through theatre. Commercialism has made financing possible, but it does not lead in community motivation.
As they reach for a tourist audience, which means survival and continued community support in areas where their plays could not otherwise exist on a long time basis, the outdoor drama workers know that their real success is not monetary. It rests with their ability to emotionally touch the audiences. They must do so to such a degree that the outdoor experience in theatre has meaning -- understanding, clarity -- what you will. If there is no empathy, there will be no audience next year.
These audiences are Americans extroverted enough to send men to the moon, and the plays written for them had better meet them on their own ground. These people want to see big problems met, not discussed.
Whether from the business community or the theatrical world, outdoor drama producers have worked with determination to hold on to a tradition of Epic Theatre. They have felt a kinship with the Greeks, with Shakespeare and Goethe, and with the sure knowledge that emotional understanding of the problems involved in the making of this nation means survival.
Scott Parker is the Director of the Institute of Outdoor Drama, an advisory and research agency of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.