The Long Revolution

Book excerpt: Zelda Fichandler is one of the founding visionaries of the theatre movement in America. From the creation of Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage in 1950 with her husband Thomas, through her later stewardship of the acting training programs at both at NYU and Julliard, Zelda spent over sixty years speaking, writing and observing the rise and impact of the art of theatre in the U.S. She has relentlessly questioned the very field that she, as much as anyone, created. Her essays and speeches capture both the play of her own dazzling mind, and the aspirations and contradictions of the theater she pioneered. This first-ever collection of Zelda Fichandler’s writings is edited by Todd London, who was personally chosen by Zelda to complete this book before she died.