Theatre

Theatre

In an age of cable television, of shop windows piled high with videotaped foreign movies which rent for a few dollars per day, it is difficult to convey a sense of how important theatre was, and often still is, to the ethnoculture and social life of immigrants.

Theatre provides a creative outlet for a community and its' peoples. While the ethnic press represents its community with the written word, theatre brings to life the values, ideas and issues of a community through the artistry of acting, writing, costume, and setting. While ethnic theatre represents the values and attitudes of a community, it also serves to instill and reinforce those morals in all members of the community, young and old.

Theatre, like the ethnic press and the "life histories" derived from oral testimony, enables us to hear the authentic voice of immigrants.

(Edited excerpt from Introduction in Polyphony (Ethnic Theatre), Fall/Winter 1983, Vol 5, No 2. Written by Robert F. Harney)

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