David A. Smith, guest column: Theater's closure represents void in Waco's culture

by David A. Smith
Friday March 19, 2010

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to see my life acted out on a stage. A dramatic rendering of my foibles, failures, vanities and inconsistencies? No thanks. I know of few people who’d relish being the subject of such a display.

On the other hand, we as a society need to see such things because it does us good to be reminded of our potential failings and weaknesses before they erupt and cause trouble. If Macbeth could have seen “Macbeth” before pulling out the knife, I bet he’d have reconsidered.

All this addresses one of the most important elements of live theater and its potential within the cultural life of a community — and exactly what has made it a central element in society since the days of the ancient Greeks. It’s why the former head of the National Endowment for the Arts was fond of referring to the theater as the foundational civic art.

A relentlessly communal aspect is what live theater has to offer above and beyond all other forms of art: It unfolds live before us and is created then and there. All productions therefore are unique. More important, worthwhile plays, whether comedy or drama, offer valid, insightful commentary on the human condition. Not my condition or your condition, not the specific problems plaguing me or you, but what we all face due to the fact we’re all human. Live drama trains our sentiments (and, brother, do they need to be trained) with an immediacy that has the potential to exceed that of all other forms of art.

In the face of the determined multiculturalism of today, in which we spend all our time “celebrating” differences, yet with our iPods and all else sealing us off with shocking effectiveness even from those sitting across the table, anything that reminds us of our common humanity is in increasingly short supply. A sole focus on that which we believe makes us each unique can lead to corrosive selfishness and a damaging cultural isolation of the individual. One of the best arts for treating cultural isolation is the theater.

Now that the Hippodrome once again will close after its current season, we as a community need to reflect on this more fully. In general, Wacoans ought to be incensed. Not merely for the shuttering of a rather graceful historic landmark, which is bad enough, but by the notion that a beautiful venue for live performance has now disappeared from downtown, the heart of where our civic life is usually understood to take place. Worse, all this came amidst an incessant chorus of boosterism claiming downtown is on the way back.

A closed-down Hippodrome is not merely going to be a shameful sight, it’s going to be a symbol and reminder that we as a community can fall far short despite our insistence that we do take the arts seriously. A vibrant downtown is more than just hip apartment buildings and plans for trolley lines. It must involve the arts.

For arts, location and concentration are crucial. You need different venues in close proximity for the arts to flourish and reach their civic potential. Dallas seems to understand this at last, and the recent opening of the new theater and the new opera house in the cultural district — only yards away from the art museum, sculpture garden, symphony hall and new performing arts high school — is testament to a mature civic dedication to the arts from which Waco could take a few pointers.

For smaller cities like Waco, the sort of critical mass needed is something that must be purposefully cultivated. It can’t just be left to happen. And when places like the Hippodrome close, whether we know it or not, our efforts to vivify downtown are set way back.

Wiser people than I will have to come up with a plan to rescue the Hippodrome. I encourage Waco Civic Theater to get involved. Its presence downtown would contribute greatly.

One more thing: If we’re going to let it stand empty, let’s just bulldoze it. We would be better off having it gone and forgotten than having it stand as a nagging symbol for something to which we’d rather not draw attention.

David A. Smith, senior lecturer in American history at Baylor University, is author of “Money for Art: The Tangled Web of Art and Politics in American Democracy,” published in 2008.