And oral historians have no problem consulting these theater people about getting the oral histories heard through dramatic means. The naivete of asking theater people to perform the oral histories belonging to the people is mind-boggling. So I sense we have a lot to talk about. Art is whatever lowers barriers and creates real communication across impassable barriers. To use it to create passions to fight for an issue is not art , it is the opposite of it, because it is not lowering or transcending barriers.
Art is the only thing that can bridge or transcend or transform in real and lasting ways.
And that is what it is. Historically, the fact that art, since the Renaissance, has been linked with privilege and power, has contributed to the thinking that it has always been part of the privileged class. Art was, and is still, used by the privileged to bolster the barriers, to keep the elite protected. But in the process, they have really lost it, and what they are raving about is pretty tepid and old hat. So that is my position on EcoTheater as an art form that does back to the root.