In his article “The Tangle Over ‘Twilight,’” journalist Sean Mitchell introduces several different directors’ definitions of theater. Lloyd Richards, for example, presents theater as “that connection that is made between the stage and an audience and between the audience and the artist” (qtd. in Mitchell). Tom Moore focuses more on theater’s artistic qualities: “it’s the way one shapes reality that makes theater,” he explains (qtd. in Mitchell). Oskar Eustis emphasizes that theater as an “art form,” albeit a “grubby, immediate art form” (qtd. in Mitchell). The Pulitzer Prize presents yet another definition of theater by assessing plays based on the theater houses in which they are shown rather than their content. It seems that theater has no one definition, a significant challenge for Mitchell’s article, which discusses on whether Anna Deavere Smith’s “Twilight: Los Angeles” constitutes theater. Mitchell concludes that Smith’s continually evolving work offers a new meta-definition of theater: Smith demonstrates that theater is “fundamentally a work in progress, taking place one night at a time” (Mitchell). By modeling this “radical idea,” Smith makes it possible—or perhaps even necessary—for theater to serve as art, mimesis and connection at once (Mitchell).
Aristotle’s definition of theater preempts and expands upon the individual definitions that Mitchell presents. Aristotle acknowledged and sought to understand the community created by theater by highlighting creativity-fostering “connections” between audiences and creatives and amongst playwrights and actors (Boyer [“Antigone”]). Aristotle also focused on the mimetic aspects of art forms like theater. When understood through a mimetic lens, he explained, theater encourages its audience to relate art and reality, impacting the way its audience and creators interact with their own realities (Boyer [“Antigone”]). Aristotle’s definition of theater as community-building and mimetic demonstrates its power to influence the real world.
Theater’s real-world impact is not always positive. For example, as Marlon Riggs demonstrates in his 1987 documentary “Ethnic Notions,” minstrelsy historically subverted theater’s mimetic qualities to create false stereotypes of Black people. Minstrelsy was a form of theater popularized by Thomas D. Rice in the late 1820s, wherein white actors wore blackface and performed as exaggerated stereotypes of Black people (Riggs 00:06:00).1 Minstrels “had no intention of presenting truth” in their performances, but the tropes they introduced nevertheless “permeated American culture” and continue to influence modern entertainment and advertising (0:07:55; 00:01:45; Lipsker). By demonstrating the devastating, ongoing impact of minstrel traditions, Riggs defines minstrelsy—and, by extension, theater—as a force that shapes culture and individual perspectives. That force certainly has far-reaching impact, as Aristotle suggests. However, Riggs builds on Aristotle’s definition with a warning: theater’s impact can be weaponized as a tool of discrimination.
In Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt emphasizes limits to Aristotle’s mimetic definition of theater by suggesting that theater is an ineffective means to administer real-world justice. For example, Adolf Eichmann’s trial for his Nazi crimes was intended to be a “show trial,” wherein “the audience […] was to be the world and the play the huge panorama of Jewish sufferings,” rather than a just judgement of Eichmann’s actions (Arendt 4, 8). Arendt’s presentation of Eichmann’s trial as theater suggests that theater mimetically reflects reality, as Aristotle suggests: although the trial was meant to be theatrical rather than just, its source in and impact on the real world remained. However, the trial’s “reality [fell] short of expectations and purposes,” failing to successfully educate “the world” about the Holocaust (8). It thus did not succeed as a play. It also failed to consider Eichmann as an individual person and therefore—to Arendt—failed to effect justice (5). Arendt’s assessment of the trial demonstrates that, although theater can offer insight on reality and shape individuals’ real-world perspectives, it cannot replace real legal proceedings to administer justice.
- Black actors were prevented from participating in minstrelsy until its stereotyped representation of them was concretely established. They then had to conform to its tropes by wearing blackface and exaggerating their features if they hoped to take advantage of minstrelsy as a “doorway” to other opportunities onstage (Riggs; Bory). ↩︎
