Visit to a Familiar Planet: Some Questions to Ask Before Season Selection

Abstract

Abstract: This Note from the Field uses the travel metaphor and inquiry format of Elinor Fuchs's well-known pedagogical essay, "EF's Visit to a Small Planet: Some Questions to Ask a Play," to pose questions about a related object of dramatic analysis: the familiar world in which you live. The questions posed in this Note invite readers to imagine their regional, institutional, and local world as a social text that is worth reading before (or alongside) selecting plays for a theatrical season. It is the interplay between familiar and distant planets that can yield, as so many socially engaged artists and educators have found, meaningful choices of plays for local audiences.