Today Donald Trump tweeted that “the Theater must always be a safe and special place” in response to a speech written by the cast and crew of Hamilton addressing vice president-elect Mike Pence. When I read this, I felt a cold anger seeping into me. Not because his words were wrong; no, he was entirely right. Theatre is a safe and special place. I was angry because he twisted that principle to mean that the cast and crew of Hamilton attacked Mike Pence.
Hamilton is a show comprised entirely of actors of color, many of whom must be fearing for their future right about now. In the speech, given by one of the actors, they addressed Mike Pence and shared their concerns about his policies: it began with, “We, sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir.”
And that is exactly what “the Theater” is for. Theatre is a place for people to express themselves, their opinions, their worries, their fears, their joys, and anything else that might need expressing. Theatre is a place for people to come together and share ideas. Theatre is not a safe and special place for individual people; theatre is a safe and special place for the ideas and emotions of many. A show doesn’t get to the stage without a cast who wants to perform it and an audience who wants to see it.
And if a cast is in a show in part because the show itself is revolutionary, and someone in power comes to see the show, they should not expect to be ignored, especially if that someone is Mike Pence, who has shown himself to be actively harmful to minorities. Theatre is a safe space for ideas, but no one should ever expect to go to the theatre and expect to come away without having been challenged in some way. For Mike Pence, the challenge was just more overt than usual.
Phoenix Aflame 