{"id":145,"date":"2019-12-04T09:21:10","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T09:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/?p=145"},"modified":"2022-11-23T20:09:55","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T20:09:55","slug":"american-theatre-now-an-interview-with-carlos-morton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/american-theatre-now-an-interview-with-carlos-morton\/","title":{"rendered":"American Theatre Now: Interview with Carlos Morton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Aikaterini Delikonstantinidou<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prolific throughout his career as playwright, which\nspans well over four decades, Carlos Morton draws material for his theatre work\nfrom his many travels across continents. His family\u2019s immigrant background and\nhis experience of living throughout the United States and Latin America inspired\nearly on a deep appreciation of different cultures that shines through his\nplays.      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the cultures that he pulled into his theatrical\norbit was the ancient Greek\u2014hence my initial encounter with his work. His play La\nMalinche <\/em>(1997) brings together the Mesoamerican figure of La Malinche and\nthe Greek Medea, and it was the first play by a U.S. Latino to tap into the\nso-called \u201cMedea\u2013Malinche\u2013Llorona paradigm,\u201d in which the three figures are\nexplicitly correlated. The striking thing about that work, besides the\nproductive transcultural negotiation it performs, is its idiosyncratic kind of\ntough compassion, extended to its controversial characters, at once victims and\nvictimizers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This same kind of compassion, for his characters\u2019 and\nfor our human failings, can be found lodged at the dramatic heart of all his\nplays, even when it takes on a more scoptic hue, as in his last play Trumpus\nCaesar <\/em>(2018), which thematizes the so-called \u201cTrump Phenomenon.\u201d Our\ndiscussion touched on the latter, but it also revolved around developments in\nthe American theatre landscape, his own work, the current state of affairs in\nU.S. theatre and, of course, the peculiar political and cultural moment in\nwhich the U.S. finds itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I met Carlos Morton at the School of English, in\nAristotle University of Thessaloniki, where he offered a series of creative\nwriting workshops to undergraduate students as a guest lecturer in early May. The\neminent historian Francisco Lomel\u00ed, Morton\u2019 friend and travel companion in his\nlatest travels, was also present during our interview. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Morton, your professional engagement in U.S. theatre began in the late 1970s, if I am not mistaken. Are there any particular changes in the theatrical landscape of the country since that time that you would isolate as most critical, or even transforming of its makeup? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, I think I can tell you that the theatre has become more diverse,\nnot just Black theatre but also Asian American and Latinx theatre\u2014which I\nteach; even the theatre of Native Americans; even the theatre of Middle\nEasterners that has just been established or exposed to new and divergent forms\nof theatre, and also of themes and of different ethnic groups. So, I would say,\nin the past forty years, there has been a great change.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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Poster of Morton\u2019s La Malinche<\/em>, presented at Arizona Theatre Company in 1997<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Are there any minorities, apart from ethnic minorities, that you feel are not getting the representation that they should in the theatre?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, not really. You have like gay, LBG communities . . . I mean,\nstarting off with Angels in America<\/em>, by Tony Kushner, there are plays\nabout AIDS, about transgender people. You have plays about everything.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Beth Malone and Andrew Garfield in Angels in America<\/em>. In the 2018 production of Kushner\u2019s classic, directed by Marianne Elliott, the plague that threatens the world is not AIDS but populist nationalism. Photo: Brinkhoff & M\u00f6genburg via The Vox<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Regarding the Latinx community in particular, do you think it is now easier for a theatre artist to carve a space for himself or herself within the theatre landscape of the country than it was forty years ago?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh yeah\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Video 1 <\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
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