This is History!

There is definitely something to be said of the classics.  I think you’d be pretty hard pressed to find a professional theatre that hasn’t done something, especially if it’s a theatre with a long history.  There are tons of different approaches to classics, because there are so many classics that exist in the world of theatre.  But the general idea of classics is that you need them to balance out contemporary theatre.  I love contemporary theatre…but there’s absolutely nothing like a Shakespeare show or a good production of The Crucible or Our Town.  Names like Arthur Miller and Euripides are important, and should be known.

One of the wonderful things about the classics is that they span thousands of years.  Theatre was really cultivated and grew in ancient Greece.  This time period gave us Aristophanes and Sophocles, to name a few.  I think the Greeks are most famous for their tragedies, but we also got things like The Chorus, that are still known and utilized today.  And theatre just grew from there.  Of course, we have to give a major nod to Shakespeare, who revolutionized theatre as we know it.  I don’t think there’s a playwright more well known.  Romeo and Juliet is famous in all ways, and studied in theatre classes and schools.

After we look at the older classics, we have to move on to shows like Death of a Salesman and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf?  Arthur Miller is a common name to know, as is Thornton Wilder.  Our Town is practically a rite of passage.  A classic doesn’t have to be thousands of years old.  It doesn’t have to be hundreds of years old.  Some of these plays just date back decades…but I’d say they’re still classics.  We see them all the time.  They have earned their spot in the timelessness of theatre.

Classics can be presented in many different ways.  For example, I’ve seen Shakespeare shown in a million alternative forms, from Twelfth Night being set on an island to A Winter’s Tale costumes including fake tattoo sleeves.  I’ve also seen countless Shakespeare shows put on in more traditional ways.  I think a part of being a classic is that it can be put on in any way imaginable.  There’s certainly something to be said about traditional shows, and sometimes that’s the only way to do something, but there’s some wiggle room.  Greek Choruses can be done in multiple ways.

Classic plays are ridiculously important to theatre.  They’ve really shaped what modern theatre is.  I don’t think we’d have a lot of what we have today if it wasn’t for ancient Greek theatre and Shakespeare’s shows at the Globe.  What was once contemporary in their own time is what has brought us shows that people know, even people who aren’t regulars or super knowledgable when it comes to theatre.  We still have superstitions thanks to shows like Macbeth (the Scottish play!)  And the Greek Choruses were integral to lesser characters in theatre.

Something that’s sort of fun to remember is that there are plays that are currently contemporary, but are borderline classics.  I think about plays like Angels in America, that so many people know and have a deserving spot in the history of theatre.  In fifty years, in a hundred years, in more years than we can fathom, I think shows like that will be considered classic shows.  Shows like Angels in America have already made their mark in the world of theatre.

I really love to think about that sort of thing.  I think about some of my favorite plays, and they definitely include a lot of classics.  Antigone, a Greek tragedy by Sophocles dating from around the fifth century BC made a mark on me as an eleven year old and it still remains a play that is near and dear to my heart.  I have a tattoo from The Tempest, my favorite Shakespeare play.  I still think about a production of The Crucible I saw in high school.  And I truly believe there are a lot of shows on stage now, or will be on stage in the future, that will also earn the title of being a classic.

So why are these shows so important to theatre?  I think a lot of it is that they bring out a piece of us, as the audiences, as humans.  The shows that really withstand time are the shows that bring out who we are.  Shakespeare wrote in a way that spoke to people of his time, but also had an understanding of human nature.  We can still understand that today, because human nature will always be human nature.  Our Town teaches us about emotions, and love, and death…it’s set in a very different world than the one we know, but the takeaway is still the same.  The classics are the classics because whether it was thousands of years ago, or fifty years ago, they’re talking to us.

We need to continue producing the classics in order to keep moving forward with theatre.  I think it would be a terrible thing to forget where we came from.  Whether we’re looking as far back as the Greek tragedies, or just a few decades for an Arthur Miller show, there’s a base there that has paved the way for contemporary theatre…which is paving the way for theatre of the future.  We can never forget our roots…there’s no looking forward without them.