The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-12-16
The Need for a
Workers Theatre
~ GEORGE SKI.AK
and
ALBERT MALTx


NeAAAAAlEs4 lNAxAAAAA
(Co- swthcr Of 'Peaoe ca Earth~)
The Broadway theatre OF today is
class theatre-a theatre existing
solely for the amusement of the So
called upper classes parlor theatre
dealing with parlor problems es-
cape theatre-a sterile theatre.
It's time we had another theatre
a workers theatre! It's time we had
a theatre which will reflect the fact
that we're living in certain type of
society. society gripped by the most
severe economic crisis that capitalism
has known.
1t Is the purpose Of The Theatre
Union to be such theatre. With It's
first production, Peace on Earth" 1t
has broken ground for the permanent
establishment of such theatre.
When one looks at the current thea
tire, one wonders how 1t Is possible
for an art to he so completely barren
Of any suggestion of the misery and
hunger, the exploitation and the
strusgle Of the millions OF workers In
this country. The answer is simple:
| The standard American theatre does
not exist for the workers. The mere
price of tickets ia a guarantee that
no worker receiving the N. r.. A. min
imum Is likely to attend the Broad
way theatre. And since workers do
not attend the theatre why should
writer's devote any time to the prob
lens and the lives of the workers.
A writer today who depends for his
living on the professional theatre
must write for his audience. And
since his audience is a bourgeois
audience, he must write bourgeois
| plays. With one or two exceptions
this always happens.
That Is why the American theatre
is a barren one. That Is why plays
about love are called art by bourgeois
critics and why plays about strikes
are called propaganda-why peace
on Earth" is called propaganda. And
as the class struggle deepens, this
theatre will become more and more a
theatre Of escape-it will tend to be-
long more and more to the small,
wealthy class-and the more It belongs
to this class the further its subject
matter will be removed from life and
| from the world Of real events.
This Is not SO in the Soviet Union.
We see there an interest In the art
of the theatre such as the world has
never known before. We see a theat-
rical center not in one city like New
York, but theatrical center in every
city, in every factory, in every village.
Whyr Because the Soviet theatre is
not q theatre of one privileged class
but the theatre of g whole country, OF
a whole people. And 1t Is vital
theatre because 1t belongs to those
who are building q new society and
not to those who are clinging to Q
dead one.
The future of the theatre in Amer
lea lies in the creation of a workers
theatre. It rests with workers clubs,
lnguage groups and agit-prop thea
tres. Where workers attend the thea
ire the plays will become vital be-
cause they will deal with the vital
struggles and lives of the workers
themselves. And 1t rests, In the grad
ual development Of professional thea
tres like the Theatre Union, whose
purpose is to produce plays about the
working class, written from the point
OF view Of the interests OF the work
ing class-where workers can attend
plays at prices they can afford and
where the theatre is not a form OF
Utilization but Is moving cultural
force, dramatic and alive. Until the
American theatre becomes identified
with such workers theatre. 1t viii
have no vital place in American cul-
ture.