EMERSON COLLEGE

HONORS PROGRAM

IMPOSSIBLE HEROES:
THE DISAPPEARING VOICE OF THE YOUNG AMERICAN DIRECTOR
An Honors Thesis/Project
submitted by
Srda Vasiljevic
to the Honors Program of Emerson College
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the degree of
Theatre Studies, B.A.
in
the School of Performing Arts

Emerson College
Boston, Massachusetts
Fall, 2013

Abstract
IMPOSSIBLE HEROES:
THE DISAPPEARING VOICE OF THE YOUNG AMERICAN DIRECTOR
by
Srda Vasiljevic
Emerson College
Fall, 2013

Advisor:

Yasser Munif

This thesis provides an examination of the stifling of

young directorial voices in the American commercial theatre
industry. Through an analysis of the socioeconomic status
of millennials in America, a growing need for MFA degrees
to land higher-level artistic positions, and lack of youth
representation on Broadway stages, a bleak picture is
painted of the current state of being for commercial
theatre directors in their twenties. By joining Michel
Foucault's theories of discipline and Georges Bataille's
notion of heterology with critical scrutiny by leading
American theatrical practitioners, a theoretical and
practical lens is placed on the problem in questionwhat is
leading to the disappearing voice of young American theatre
directors?

4
Buried in a heated dialogue about the changing face of
Islamic identity, playwright Ayad Akhtar subtly weaves a
glaring artistic manifesto into his 2013 Pulitzer Prize
winning drama, Disgraced.
The title... Well, first let me sayit's been
generations and generations of consumerism and
cynicism...And an art market that just feeds the
frenzy. But something's shifting. There's a movement
of young artists who are not buying into it anymore.
They're asking the questionhow to make art sacred
again. It's an impossibly heroic task they've set for
themselves. Which is why I'm calling it...Impossible
Heroes. (Akhtar 74)
The award-winning play, which made its move from Chicago's
American Theater Company to New York City's Lincoln Center,
is currently being considered for a run in the Broadway's
2013-14 season (Gans). Garnering national publicity for the
sheer power of the text and performances, Disgraced has
been lauded for its undeniable veracity, and The Hollywood
Reporter praised Akhtar, stating that the playwright
staked a claim as one of the boldest voices to appear on
the playwriting scene in recent years (Rooney, David
Rooney on the Record Year in New York Theater). With
accolades rolling in commending Akhtar for his playwriting
prowess, it seems unimaginable that a writer of his skill
level would include a direct nod to America's unstable
artistic climate for little reason. Rather, Akhtar
clandestinely drops pointed reference to a state of
revolution occurring deep within the arts community moments
before arguably one of the most vicious dialogue debates in
modern American theater. Although in the play, this

5
anecdote is shared by Isaac, a Jewish art gallery curator,
about the nature of the visual arts market, it
intrinsically punctures an artistic vein deeper than that.
Issac's mini-monologue dispenses a much needed
verbalization of a unspoken trend within the universal arts
industry, specifically in the commercial realm of American
performing arts, and more specifically on Broadway. The
trend is one of young artists being disenfranchised by
generations of capitalism, pessimism, and stunted economic
growth. More directly, young artists, such as theatre
directors, whose positions top a traditional hierarchy, are
at an even greater disadvantage as they are attempting to
enter elevated positions while simultaneously being
handicapped by their age and a growing acrimony in their
fields. Therefore, Akhtar's assertion holds incredible
weight for young theatre directors. With generations and
generations of consumerism and cynicism and an unsettling
trend of ageism, young American theatre directors are truly
fighting an impossible battle. With the current state of
the commercial theatre industry, it seems unimaginable that
a young director would be hired to helm a Broadway
production. Because of this, the voice of young American
theatre director is slowly being siphoned from our American
theatrical vernacular. Young American theatre directors are
fighting what seems to be an unwinnable war against
unchangeable provisions. Nonetheless, the question remains,
can young directors take the stage and reconfigure a

6
widening age disparity within the field? Is it possible for
a new generation of young theatrical directors to become
impossible heroes?
Although this daunting trend can be seen specifically
plaguing the arts workforce, it is not endemic to the
theater. Unfortunately, a growing trend within American
economics places young workers at an extreme disadvantage
within the American labor pool. According to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics as of September 24, 2013, 16.3% of
millennials, or people in the age range of 18 to 30, were
unemployed (Donegan). Similarly, a new study by the
National Conference on Citizenship, The Center for
Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement
at Tufts Universitys Tisch College of Citizenship and
Public Service, Harvard Universitys Institute of Politics,
and Mobilize.org found that only 62.9% of millennials are
currently working, and 31.2% of those are working in parttime jobs (Levine et al). These numbers paint the
discouraging picture that nearly four out of ten
millennials are out of work in America. Even more
disquieting is the fact that once millennials are hired, we
are earning less in the same positions than our parents
were twenty to thirty years prior. The Progressive Policy
Instituted reported in 2012 that the earnings for college
graduates have declined by roughly 15% or $10,000 since
2000 (Thompson). These statistics account for a bleak
outlook for the employment future of our generation.

7
However, there is one statistic on the rise for
millennials: stress. Between 1983 and 2009, stress levels
have shot up 18% for women and 24% for men, researchers at
Carnegie Mellon reported in 2012 (Henderson), and if this
crippling stress does not define the conditions to which
millennials are living in, the American Psychological
Association reported in 2012 that 52% of millennials
suffered uncontrollable anxiety and stress which kept them
from sleeping at night. These combined statistics make
millennials the most stressed-out generation in recent
history (Dahl). The millennial has been forcibly handed a
pandora's box filled to the brim with cultural and economic
calamities which we've been entrusted to solve, and if we
don't rectify the troubles we've inherited, the collapse of
America's teetering fiscal tower falls directly back onto
our generation.
The job climate is slowly dipping to nearly frigid
temperatures for millennials. Entering the hiring market as
an underpaid, overstressed, and unemployed job prospects we
seek relief in the hope that the generations before us will
understand the insurmountable burdens that we've been
tasked with. Unfortunately, for many young job seekers this
is the opposite of what they are experiencing. Multitudes
of young people are helplessly fighting an invisible battle
against ageism in the hiring process. Ageism in America
gained national notoriety in the early 2000's when many
older Americans reported an increase in ageism, defined as

8
stereotyping, prejudice, or discrimination based on an
individuals age, within the workplace. Since the early
2000's, thousands of lawsuits have been filed and won
against employers and corporations who have been alleged to
treat job prospects and employees differently due to their
age. In fact, in 2012, 54 year old office-coordinator,
Debra Moreno, won a $193,236 lawsuit against her employer
who reportedly told Moreno she sounded 'old on the phone'
and looked 'like a bag of bones' (Fastenberg). Many
websites and associations have been launched to provide a
support group for seniors experiencing ageism. One of these
associations, the Assisted Living Federation of America
(ALFA), lists on their website a description of ageism and
some tips to battle it. ALFA states, [Ageism and] societal
norms marginalize seniors, treat them with disrespect, make
them feel unwelcome and otherwise generalize as if they
were all the same (AFLA.org). Although ageism has come to
be understood by many as a discrimination against the
elderly, in truth, ageism is a discrimination of any age
group, including youth. The inclusion of youth as a
potentially discriminated party in ageism is often
forgotten in a national dialogue about age discrimination.
Even the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,
which provides legal and governmental aid to battle age
discrimination, holds that The Age Discrimination in
Employment Act (ADEA) only forbids age discrimination
against people who are age 40 or older. It does not protect

9
workers under the age of 40 (United States Equal
Employment Opportunity Association). Reverse ageism has
become more pervasive than previously expected with jobs
scare, and it seems a growing trend of youth discrimination
has taken a clammy grasp on the American job market.
In 2010, Lee Hecht Harrison, a career placement
agency, conducted a study which found that 70% of older
employees were dismissive of younger workers abilities
(ASAE). As a response to this study, Chip Espinoza, coauthor of the book Managing Millennials: Discover the Core
for Managing Today's Workforce, polled university juniors
and seniors working more than 20 hours a week to understand
their thoughts on reverse ageism. 64% of the students
reported that they felt that they were treated differently
at work because of their age. The students went on to
state that they felt as though they were talked down to,
underestimated, treated as if they were mentally
handicapped, given fewer projects, and called names
such as kiddo, tiger, etc. Additionally, more than 60% of
the students polled viewed their age to be the primary
reason for being denied advancement in their field
(Espinoza). Similarly, in 2009, a Wall Street Journal
article argued More young workers are at risk of layoffs
as employers grow wary of letting older employees go and
that many young employees in their twenties and thirties
felt targeted for layoffs in lieu of older employees with
families to support (Mattoli). With these worrisome trends

10
of reverse ageism happening within the workforce, being
hired as a millennial and breaking into that unstable
workforce is an uphill battle. By simply typing in the
words are millennials into a Google search browser, it's
simple to see some of the stereotypes associated with the
millennial generation as the two most popular searches
include are millennial lazy and are millennials
selfish, and following close behind is are millennials
the screwed generation. In September of 2013, a viral
video by comedian and YouTuber, Stephen Parkhurst, made its
way around the internet resonating specifically with
college-age students and garnering roughly three million
YouTube views. The video titled Millennials: We Suck and
We're Sorry poked fun at the stereotypes which have come
to be associated with our generation. In the video, a young
woman apologizes for the things millennials have been
accused of; We're self-centered. We're entitled. We're
narcissistic, lazy, and immature. The video takes a
sarcastic spin on the realties of our situation with one
twenty-something chiming in with We graduated into a
recession and 90% of the jobs created since 2009 are parttime, but let's be honest, we just don't like hard work
(Parkhurst). The comedic take on other generations'
understanding of millennials provides insight into many of
the battles we're facing daily in the American workforce.
Many older employers have come to generalize the millennial
generation as a generation which doesn't understand hard

11
work or self-sacrifice. Our eagerness for jobs and work is
seen as the expectation that success be handed to us,
rather than a legitimate desire for furthering our desired
career path. With unpaid internships becoming widely
prevalent across all industries, younger workers are also
being seen as free menial labor rather than accredited
employees. A study by the National Association of Colleges
and Employers reported that 50% of college grads in 2008
had held an internship, compared with 17% in 1992....Today,
an estimated one-third to one-half of the 1.5 million
internships in the U.S. are unpaid (Sanburn). Although in
recent months, multiple lawsuits have been filed and won
against large corporations who have unfairly treated unpaid
interns as modern slave labor, the trend towards
internships taking the place of entry-level jobs does not
seem to be changing. With pessimistic attitudes about the
work ethic of millennials, young workers feel that there's
no option other than to take on unpaid work. Author of the
book Intern Nation, Ross Perlin, explains
[College Graduates] are feeling they have no choice
but to take on unpaid internships. Its something that
you have to do three, four, five times potentially to
break into an industry or to get any kind of paying
work. It may even be something you do in your 30s or
40s. (Sanburn)
As illustrated, internships are providing some of the only
means for employment for young workers, and through this
trend, entry level jobs are being filled by either older
applicants or older interns who have gone through multiple
years of an internship program. Along these lines, it can

12
be argued that America's workforce, as a whole, is aging.
According to a report from the Georgetown University Center
on Education and the Workforce which analyzed over three
decades (1980-2012) of census data, researchers have found
that on average, young workers are now 30 years old when
they first earn a median-wage income of about $42,000, a
marker of financial independence, up from 26 years old in
1980 (Porter) meaning that the American workforce has
aged, on average, four years since 1980. No longer are
young professionals holding entry-level positions, but
rather, mid-career professionals are gunning for those same
jobs, leading to a nationwide widening age disparity.
Although millennials are the most unemployed
generation in over four decades, we were also named the
most educated generation in American history. According to
the Pew research center, over 40% of millennials in 2008
were in college, more than any other previous generation
(Jayson). With jobs becoming more and more scarce, higher
education continues to provide a more secure avenue towards
employment. For many students, however, a Bachelor's degree
isn't enough to place them in their desired job positions.
In the field of theatre direction, a Master's of Fine Arts
degree has become an almost necessary educational component
for a young director to be hired. Prior to 1960, however,
MFA programs in Theatre Direction were rare to come by, but
since that time graduate theater direction programs have
grown exponentially. In just the past ten years, the number

13
of graduate programs has increased from roughly thirty
programs to forty-six as of November 2012 ("Comprehensive
Listing of MFA Programs in Directing). In a 2002
interview, theater director, Hal Scott, stated, There was
a time when you could work your way up through the
ranks...I find students often apply to our graduate program
because theyve reached a plateau on their own and found
they couldnt get any further without credentials (Scott).
Many young directors are being forced into graduate
directing programs as a way to find paying jobs which can
utilize their theatrical skills. In the same interview,
director Jon Jory added, I think its pretty hard now for
anyone to take a chance on a 21-year-old who hasnt had
much experience. In that age gap, one of the only ways not
to be spending most of your time waiting tables is to
attend a graduate program (Jory). In addition to providing
a great amount of formal training, graduate programs have
also become a necessary step in order to survive in the
industry, but do these higher education programs limit the
artistic imagination?
By looking to Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish,
and more specifically his concept of docile bodies as a
central theoretical framework for analyzing how young
director's imaginations are being disciplined in a way to
increase docility, we can begin to hypothesize if these
higher education programs do more than just educate, and
rather, limit the expanses of the creative imagination, and

14
thus create a very specific workforce of stagnation and
obedience. As described by Foucault a body is docile that
may be subjected, used, transformed and improved (136).
Although Foucault describes the docile body in terms of a
soldier being prepped for war, there is an incredible
amount of connections that can be made about Foucault's
theory of docility which can be translated directly to the
docility and discipline of the young artist's imagination.
As Foucault states, The aim is to derive the maximum
advantages and to neutralize the inconveniences (thefts,
interruptions of work, disturbances, and 'cabals'), as the
forces of production become more concentrated; to protect
materials and tools to master the labour force (142). As
the commercial theatre industry continues to push forward,
we are requiring young directors to hold years of expertise
and highly specialized degrees in order to neutralize the
inconveniences; if a young director is sufficiently
trained and educated, it means that there is lower
possibility of failure, which in turn, means more profits
in the pockets of the producers hiring said director.
However, by continuing to discipline young directors by
requiring more rigorous training and higher-education
programs, the unstructured and essential youth drive is
lost. We become more focused on the skills and methods by
which we create work, rather than furthering the field by
breaking rules and attempting new and unconventional
methods of creating work. By holding ourselves to this very

15
specific standard, we discipline the young director's
imagination to the point of no return.By rearing young
directors to wean out any disruptions to this norm we are
creating a workforce which can create maximum advantages
economically, but in turn these disciplined artists have
become more concentrated and less innovative. Thus, by
providing the American commercial theatre industry with
trained, disciplined, docile bodied theater directors, we
have mitigated failure in economic and financial terms but
have not accounted for the side effects that has on the
orginative drives of gifted young directors. In addition,
our docility or our lack of imagination has limited what
economic success might look like; rather than seeking
innovation, we seek safety. Although works by disciplined
and highly trained directors come coupled with a certain
amount of expertise, or in Foucauldian's terms
discipline, does this discipline outweigh the advantages
of creating youth-driven exploratory and revolutionary
theater?
Foucault goes on to describe the docile body as The
body, required to be docile in its minutest operations,
opposes and shows the conditions of functioning proper to
an organism. Disciplinary power has as its correlative an
individuality that is not only analytical and 'cellular,'
but also natural and 'organic (156). The docility required
of theater has become a cellular part of our being. We have
found that in order to be successful artists in our fields,

16
we must follow the disciplined steps that are required in
order to have our voices heard. However, by following these
steps, we are innately silencing our unique voices as we
are forced to follow in line with those before us, and
through this the young director's voice is seemingly lost.
It can be argued that pure voice of a young director cannot
be disciplined or forced to follow in line with a docility,
because at the point that docility is required the
imagination becomes disciplined and structured, and the
unique and critical voice that can be brought into the
conversation by a young director becomes overshadowed by
the need for docility. It is in essence, a catch 22, in
order for a youthful voice to be innately young and new, it
cannot be disciplined by a hierarchical need for highly
specialized training and education. However, in this day in
age with jobs scarce and a plummeting economy befalling the
millennial generation, in order for the young artist to be
represented on a Broadway stage, it is seemingly impossible
for a young voice to be heard without extensive training or
higher-education programs, so we're caught in a battle
between docility and raw talent. This conflict has
presented itself in a variety of ways, and has led to an
aged aesthetic in the American commercial theater in which
the voices of young millennial directors are not
represented on the American stage. This discipline of the
creative imagination lessens the diversity of work and new
voices being presented to the American public, and thus,

17
the status-quo remains constant, and theatre fails to
cultivate a younger audience. Foucault argues that this
docility promotes a healthier, machine-like economy.
However, in the creative field of theatrical direction,
these calculated, machine-like, disciplinary measures are
stripping the young director of a unique voice, and thus
leading to the disappearance of the voice of the young
director in the American commercial theater.
Polly Carl, a leading theatrical practitioner and the
director and editor of the crowd-sourced online theatre
journal, HowlRound, recently wrote an online essay relating
Foucault's docility theories to her own personal questions
of the roles and responsibilities of American theatremakers. In Docile Bodies: Disciplining the Imagination,
Carl initiates her exploration, by arguing that prolific
playwright, August Wilson, who in 1980 received a Jerome
Fellowship from The Playwright's Center, would be unlikely
to receive the same fellowship today. She

insists that Mr.

Wilson's unorthodox educational path (leaving school at age

15 and focusing on poetry rather than playwriting) would
not serve as an adequate amount of discipline in order to
gain entry into the selective ranks of successful and
traditionally disciplined playwrights. Carl continues on to
pose the question of whether disciplining our creative
imagination somehow counterbalances the essential why
behind the work being created. Is the discipline we're
expected to conform to restricting theater artists from

18
asking too many questions about the why of your
profession and becoming myopic in the details of your
knowing? Carl's argument tears into the current fabric of
American theater making which values specialized, highlyeducated theater artists who are skilled in very specific
career paths, and as Carl investigates,Do our stories on
stage and the disciplines for producing them limit the
possibilities of what we might become? (Carl). In an
article I wrote for Carl's online journal, I examine the
trend in higher-education programs to focus on highlyspecialized degrees, rather than allowing for a more
comprehensive and fluid understanding of the art form.

As

a central argument, I address the necessity for

kaleidoscopic theatre training programs which allow for
artists to explore the spectrum of disciplines and creation
methods available stating, We need programs and
educational institutions that foster a students ability to
create in this experimental fashion and giving students
flexibility to explore so that they can develop their own
varied approaches to creating new work (Vasiljevic, BA in
Professional Make Believe). By championing programs which
target the creation impulse, rather than defining the
creation method, American theater can be pushed towards
radical limits of exploration and creation not currently
understood the argot of American theater.
The cultural and aesthetic ramifications of this
widening age gap and rampant disciplining of artistic drive

19
are slowly becoming more apparent. Not only are young
artists being left by the wayside due to slouching economic
trends, discipline of the creative imagination, and reverse
age discrimination, but because of this, our artistic
capitol is being drained of an integral youth voice.
Throughout history, we've seen artistic and cultural
movements which advocate for a much-needed representation
of minority groups in artistic environments. There is a
fundamental need for women's voices to be heard in music,
there is an undeniable obligation for gay men and lesbians
to be represented on national television, and there is
critical right for African American stories to be seen
onstage. With any minority group, there is a cultural and
intrinsic need for an artistic voice to be heard in order
for it to be representative of the culture as a whole, and
in this context, we can come to view the millennial
generation as an underrepresented minority in American
arts. In order to paint a definite and accurate picture of
our slice of American history, we need voices who can speak
from experience, voices who can further the conversation,
and voices who can add new dialogues to our cultural
vernacular. However, with more and more young artists being
disenfranchised by poor employment rates, we are seeing a
critical loss of specific youth-driven works in the
American arts industry. As a result of this lost generation
of artists, older and more established artists have taken
it upon themselves to represent the millennial generation

20
through writing or creating material they find to be
pertinent to that age group. Despite their best intentions
however, it is an impractical task to replicate the needs,
emotions, and culture of a generation without living
directly within that generation. For example, in 2008 a new
Broadway musical titled 13 which chronicled the lives of 13
year olds was directed by 51 year old director, Jeremy
Sans. The show failed to cultivate or resonate with its
intended audience and closed after less than three months
on Broadway. In the same way a 21 year old wouldn't be able
to tell the story of what it means to be a baby boomer, it
is counterintuitive for an older and more seasoned artist
to attempt to reflect the aesthetic and cultural cognition
of what it means to be a 23 year old in 2013. Through this
falsified diluting process, we're creating work which
doesn't resonate as strongly as it could with the
generation in question, because it is coming from an
illegitimate source. These pseudo-authentic works are being
fed to generations in the hopes that they will be the new,
hot, fresh thing that draws in a youth audience. These
forged representations, however, fail to speak to an
ingrained truth and authenticity only found within genuine
young voices. In an October 2013 Interview with Hunger TV,
20 year old pop star, Miley Cyrus, opened up about the
incongruous age dynamic in the entertainment industry. She
stated,
With magazines, with movies, its always weird when
things are targeted for young people yet theyre

21
driven by people that are like 40 years too old. It
cant be like this 70 year old Jewish man that doesnt
leave his desk all day, telling me what the clubs want
to hear. Im going out, I know what they want to hear.
I know when youre in a club, what makes everyone go
crazy and when the time is where everyones like
alright Im going go get a drink. I know when people
walk off the dance floor and I know whats driving it
so Ive got to be the one doing it because theyre
just not in on what 20 year olds are doing. (Cyrus)
The Wrecking Ball singer decided that the driving force
behind her fans' interest and commitment to her music was
an authentic youth voice being represented, and apparently,
Cyrus's devotion to pure youth seemed to have resonated
with her audiences. Her 2013 album, Bangerz, debuted at
number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 and had the bestselling debut week for a female artist in 2013 (Caulfield).
Similarly to Cyrus, 27 year-old writer, director, and
actress, Lena Dunham, has begun to make a splash in
American pop culture as a result of her HBO series, Girls.
The hour long comedy-drama series has been hailed by
critics as the most perceptive and witty voice of her
generation (Harris). New York Magazine columnist, Emily
Nussubaum, describes the show as a refreshing dose of
reality in an age-driven creative market. She describes the
appeal of the series, stating Girls was a bold defense
(and a searing critique) of the so-called Millennial
Generation by a person still in her twenties. The series'
innate modernity

packed a significant punch for audiences

and critics alike. Nussbaum goes on to expand on this

thought through the words of her younger colleague, Willa
Paskin, As [she] put it, the show felt, to her peers,

22
FUBU: 'for us by us' (Nussubaum). Although, this
appreciation of youth culture created by youth voices seems
to be a huge selling point for many producers, artists like
Dunham and Cyrus are unfortunately representative of the
incredibly small fraction of young voices currently
depicted in the American arts industry. By shifting our
focus to the American commercial theater industry, and more
specifically Broadway, we can begin to quantify the
disparaging lack of young voices represented on America's
largest stages.
In our traditional rehearsal room hierarchy, which
nearly all Broadway productions follow, the director is at
the top of the totem pole, just under the producers who do
the hiring for the production. By holding these peak
positions, theatrical directors are entrusted with many
seemingly impossible duties. Renowned director and critic,
Harold Clurman, once wrote in his book On Directing,
The director must be an organizer, a teacher, a
politician, a psychic detective, a lay analyst, a
technician, a creative being. Ideally, he should know
literature (drama), acting, the psychology of the
actor, the visual arts, music, history, and above all,
he must understand people. He must inspire confidence.
All of which means he must be a 'great lover.' (14)
With these lofty expectations set, it is obvious that a
director must be an individual with a profound passion,
culpability, knowledge, and understanding of theater.
However, is age a necessary factor in being a great
director?

23
In the past fourteen years of Broadway theater, there
has not been a single director under the age of 30
represented on a Broadway stage (Internet Broadway
Database). In fact, the two youngest directors represented
on Broadway were both 31 at the time of their Broadway
debut. In 2006, Leigh Silverman took the stage as
Broadway's youngest director at the age 31. Silverman
helmed the premiere production of Well, a new play by
playwright, Lisa Kron. Silverman's direction earned her the
title of one to watch by the New York Times (McElroy).
Since Well, Silverman has gone on to direct numerous OffBroadway productions, and two more Broadway productions,
the latter of which opens at the American Airlines Theatre
this Spring. Two years later, keeping the trend of 31 yearold directors alive, Thomas Kail, made his Broadway debut.
In 2008, Kail premiered the spanish hip-hop salsa musical,
In the Heights, and earned a Tony nomination for his
outstanding direction. Kail started working on the
production after a seeing a work-in-progress version by
another undergraduate named Lin-Manuel Miranda. For the
next seven years, Kail worked tirelessly on the production
until it finally made it's move to the Richard Rogers
Theatre in 2008 making him the youngest director working on
the Great White Way at that time. Kail noted, The
advantage of being young is that exceptions are very low.
[When In the Heights became a hit] it was if it had come
out of nowhere (Mandell).

24
In addition to Silverman and Kail, two other thirtysomething directors have made their mark on Broadway in
recent years. Sam Gold, a young actor-turned director, made
his first waves on Broadway with his 2012 production of
Seminar which featured a star-studded cast with the likes
of Alan Rickman, Lily Rabe, Hamish Linklater, Jerry
O'Connell and Hettienne Park. Gold's direction was praised
in the The Hollywood Reporter's review of the production,
with noted theater critic, David Rooney referring to Gold
as One of the most in-demand young New York stage
directors, his knack for finding laughs without pushing for
them is on fine display here with an ideal cast (Rooney,
Seminar: Theater Review). Since his Broadway debut, Gold
has gone on to direct multiple Broadway productions. A 2013
New York Daily News feature on New York's hottest theatre
directors, referred to Gold as one of the most promising
talents on the Broadway roster. The article hailed Gold's
2013 musical production of Fun Home as one of the best
productions of 2013. Critic Joe Dziemianowicz went on to
state that the show came together due to Gold's so-called
golden touch, and Gold's direction was praised for having
a so-real-it-hurts intimacy and honesty that characters
emerge as real people. He has directed a number of plays by
Annie Baker...During each of these I felt like I was
overhearing real conversations (Dziemianowicz). Similarly
to Gold, young director, Alex Timbers has been making a
huge splash on Broadway in recent years. Timbers made his

25
way onto the Broadway scene in 2010 with two productions,
The Pee-wee Herman Show, an adaption of the quirky 19930s
television series, and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, a
self-authored rock musical about historical figure, Andrew
Jackson, opening within two months of one another. Timbers
duel Pee-wee/Jackson bill premiered in 2010 when Timbers
was the ripe age of 32. Now, at age 35, Timbers has three
Broadway shows already under his belt, a Shakespeare in the
Park direction credit, a new Broadway musical, based on the
iconic film Rocky, opening in early 2014, and contract with
Universal Pictures to direct a new revolutionist film
adaption of Romeo & Juliet called Rosaline (Kit). Timbers'
greatest forte has been said to be his singular vision and
outspoken mission to integrate contemporary popular culture
elements into the theater (Kamens). Timbers innately
contemporary voice has proven to be one of his greatest
assets and has turned him into one of the most on-demand
directors working on Broadway today. In an interview with
Slant Magazine, Timbers opened up about his desire to reach
a different type of theater-goer, and how he's attempting
to do so by reflecting a younger, more readily accessible
comedic drive to his work. He related his production of
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson to this commitment to the
contemporary stating,
I wouldn't be the first person to say that the typical
sound on Broadway is not the sound you hear on the
radiothat's a decades-long struggle...There is a
certain humor in contemporary pop culture that is just
not reflected at all on the stage. So, if you are an
average person who doesn't frequent the theater and

26
exists in this world of America today, and you go to
see a comedy on Broadway, you are like, "This has no
relationship to my life." And so while the show is
definitely trying to look a little at the clothes and
the music that people are more interested in right
now, it is also looking at the way people enjoy
storytellingin short spurts with different angles,
with a dose of comedy as well as some sincerity as
well. (Timbers)
Evidenced by Timbers' critical and audience appeal, his
approach seems to be working. As Broadway houses attempt to
mitigate the disparity between average persons and
aristocratic theater-goers, Timbers has proven to be a star
child in the sense that his work speaks to both sides of
the equation without pandering to either. Specifically, his
work has a huge youth appeal drawing on many contemporary
themes. Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, painted the historic
and seemingly dry history-book character of Andrew Jackson
as a modern day emo rock star. Timbers' 2013 Shakespeare in
the Park production, Love Labour's Lost, was a musical
adaption of Shakespeare's classic play set at a college
reunion in the year 2013. The music for the show was
contemporary to say the list as it included an extended
gangster-rap section and full boy-band production number
which left the audience in tears. With his contemporary
aesthetic and flair for the weird, Timbers has become
Broadway's most sought-after young director. With young
powerhouse directors such as Silverman, Kail, Gold, and
Timbers, it would be expected that young directors are
becoming more of a staple of Broadway stages, however,
these directors represent the exceptions to the rulethe

27
extreme minorities. Young actors, singers, and writers,
such as Cyrus and Dunham, have proven the power of
embracing their youth identity and youth fans. However,
within the American theatre, this same energy seemingly
doesn't exist. With zero to no representation on Broadway
stages, young audience members have no opportunities to
find artists with which they connect. It is important to
note that as young as directors like Timbers and Gold are,
none are under the age of thirty. Of the shows currently
open on Broadway, there are zero productions by a director
in their twenties, and more shockingly, there are currently
zero productions by a director in his or her thirties.
While young thirty-something directors seem to be gaining
traction in the audience and critic's eyes, producers are
still hesitant to hire directors of that age group, and as
evidenced by the fourteen years of non-representation on
the Broadway stage, young directors within the millennial
age group are fighting what seems to be an impossible war.
To the assertion that millennial directors are not
being represented on the Broadway stage, many people would
argue that it's necessary to work your way up or
experience builds character, but the question remains, is
it possible for pure young talent to be to be found without
decades of experience or education under one's belt? In
2012, Forbes Magazine published a 30 Under 30 list
featuring the brightest and most successful young
innovators, artists, entrepreneurs, and thinkers. The list

28
featured fifteen separate categories each with thirty
persons of interest in said field, and of the one hundred
and fifty people documented on this list, zero were theater
directors. The lists featured actors, musicians, artists,
TV writers, TV directors, graphic designers, and stylists,
just to name a few, but nowhere in this list categorizing
the one hundred and fifty of the nation's greatest under
thirty cultural disruptors was a theater director present
(Howard & Noer).

This list only serves to further

elucidate the fact that the theater world differentiates

itself by being an exceptionally more difficult job climate
for millennials than most.
However, things were not always this way; twentysomethings used to have a voice on Broadway. Of course, the
majority of directors on Broadway have tended to fall on
the older side of the age spectrum, but as little as thirty
years ago, directors in their twenties and thirties were
commonplace on Broadway stages. In 1984, David Leveaux
directed a production of Eugene O'Neil's drama, A Moon for
the Misbegotten, at age 26. The production went on to earn
a Tony Nomination in that same year (Freedman). A few years
prior, 27 year old director Jack Hofsiss directed the first
production of The Elephant Man which went ran for almost
three years. That same production catapulted Hofsiss to the
Tony Awards where he became the youngest director to ever
win a Tony just a few short months after his 27th birthday
(Shewy 51). Going back further, director A.J. Antoon,

29
became one of the only directors to every be nominated for
two direction Tonys in one year with his productions of
That Championship Season and Much Ado About Nothing. Antoon
went on to win the Tony for Best Direction in 1973 for That
Championship Season, all while at the ripe age of 27
(Bennetts). In 1954, Joseph Papp founded The Public
Theater, which has since then moved fifty-four productions
to Broadway and garnered forty-two Tony Awards. In the
early decades of The Public Theater, Joseph Papp was known
for hiring many directors in their twenties to helm some of
The Public's largest and most successful productions (Turan
& Papp). And looking back as far as the 1930s, three young
idealists in their twenties, Harold Clurman, Lee Strasberg,
and Cheryl Crawford, established The Group Theatre which
went onto produce some of the most prolific names in
American theatre, such as Stella Adler, Elia Kazan,
Stanford Misner, and Frances Farmer (Clurman). The Group
Theatre is known today as having altered the course of
American theater forever (American Masters). These are
just a few examples of young theater artists in their
twenties which galvanized and revolutionized the American
theater, but why is it that young theater directors are
slowly disappearing from Broadway stages, and is there a
way to prevent our kind from a seemingly imminent
extinction?
Georges Bataille stated in his 1930 essay,
Heterology, The process of

appropriation is

30
characterized by a homogeneity (static equilibrium) (273).
Bataille believed that humans lived in a world of
homogeneity, and that each action in this homogeneous
society was appropriated or attached to a corresponding
appropriate reaction. This homogenous society was the norm.
In this society things happened as they were supposed to,
and each impulse held an equal appropriation. However,
polarized from this homogenous was the realm of the
heterogenous where chaos and disorder lurked. In Literary
Theory: An Anthology, editors Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan
analyze Bataille's essay stating, Bataille was also
interested in liminal experiences where a culture's
homogenous interior met, was repelled by, and expelled an
exterior that was heterogenous. Usually, that outside was
conceived as being a realm of madness, sexual excess, and
non-utilitarian and wasteful behavior (273). This exterior
heterogenous realm was full of elements that were outside
societal norms and seen as incredibly taboo. Bataille
believed that elements from this heterogenous society would
occasionally become apparent in a homogenous society
causing extreme attraction and reaction. Bataille stated,
Heterogeneous elements will provoke affective reactions of
varying intensity (276). He believed that these elements,
separate and different from a human's standard way of life,
would cause incredibly powerful reactions. He theorized
that these elements that lay outside of human's normal
homogenous realm, referred to as liberating impulses or

31
excretion, arouse the individual in varying ways. Bataille
goes on to describe the elements which he considered to be
a part of this heterogenous society. He states, This
consists of everything rejected by the homogeneous society
as waste or as superior transcendent value (Bataille 276).
Following in line with Bataille's critical analysis of
homogenous and heterogenous realms, it can be argued that
older theater artists are afraid to allow young voices into
the conversation for the fear that it may open up this
heterogenous realm in which chaos and disorder live
(Vasiljevic, Lusting for Lesbian Love Scenes).
By focusing on Bataille's theory, it can be said that
the American commercial theater industry is currently a
homogenous realm in which we are currently at a static
equilibrium. However, just outside of this static
equilibrium is the heterogeneous realm in which madness,
sexual-excess, and wasteful behavior are held. There is
reason to believe that the status-quo which currently
exists on Broadway exists because producers and older
theater practitioners are afraid of breaking out of their
homogeneous realm of comfort as it has the possibility of
unraveling the social structure of the American theatre
industry as a whole. Capitalism, and what it means to be
commercially viable, creates norms for economic success,
and fortunately for producers, but unfortunately for
artists, Broadway fits these norms exceedingly well.
Producers fear that without disciplined theater artists

32
creating economically sound works, the theater industry as
a whole could crumble. However, on the other hand, by
taking the chance to introduce young, yet possibly
heterogenous directorial voices to the conversation, could
push theater forward in a way it has not been catapulted
since The Group Theatre of the 1930s. The fear of chaos, in
addition to the need for highly specialized, educated
docile bodied theater artists is contributing to a
stagnation in the theater industry in which the theater
arts as a whole are plateauing in terms of expanding and
furthering the theatrical form. By introducing young
directorial voices into the picture, the American
commercial theatre industry could open itself up to a huge
change and push forward into the 21st century.
The burden to introduce younger voices to the American
theater cannot solely be placed on theater producers. It is
up for young artists to create work which pushes horizons
and changes the conversations, create propellant work which
is worthy enough to be presented on America's largest
stages. We must be the change we want to see, and we must
ope ourselves up to our mentors and colleagues who have
come before us. As one of America's greatest director's
once said, I feel a real responsibility [to young
directors]. Because I was allowed to direct in major places
in my twenties. People gave me a chance to run a theater
when I was twenty-eight years old. A big theater (Kahn
175). Michael Kahn, Broadway director, drama educator, and

33
Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, had
this to say in a 2006 interview with Jason Loewith. We, the
theatre community, are facing a insurmountable challenge.
We have allowed an extinguishing fiscal tide define the way
in we choose to create theater, and the people we choose to
make it alongside. As the American economy struggles to
resuscitate itself, the commercial theatre community has a
critical decision to make: do we continue along the
trajectory that we're currently on, creating safe works
with expected circumstances, or do we rise up and revolt
against a capitalistic economy which has allowed dollar
signs to be more important to artistic integrity? Broadway
used to be a standard of excellence in the American
theater, a breeding ground for the most prolific theater
artists to show their skills and push our penetrating art
form forward. Today, Broadway has become a completely
commercially-driven behemotha launching pad for movie
musicals and Hollywood stars. We've lost the ephemeral
nature of the theaterthat fleeting moment when performance
resonates viscerally with audience. As Ayad Akhtar so
eloquently stated, theater artists are actively asking the
question: how do we make art sacred again? The answer comes
in the form of revolutionit's time to change the way
theater is being made, and it's up to us to change it,
young and seasoned artists alike. The voices and questions
being raised in our community, like those of Polly Carl and
Michael Kahn, are rallying war cries for an unbelievable

34
battle we've been entrusted to win. The solution to our
woebegone troubles cannot be achieved with just youth or
just age, rather what is required is a combination of the
two, a seamless melding of two incredibly powerful halves
to create an unstoppable whole. Through discipline of
creativity, economic despair, fear of unknown, and deepseated suspension of the other, we have come to believe
that age is an indicator for greatness, that experience is
a tested component for success, and that artistic
excellence cannot be achieved by a generation plagued by
sins of our fathers. It's necessary, however, for
knowledgable artists to share their skills, and take leap
of faith with a new breed of generative artists, but it is
also up to us to accept our absence of experiential
knowledge, and look to those older than us to supplement
our creative understanding. It's time to understand our
given circumstances, raise the stakes, and choose our
actions. As Hallie Flanagan once said, The theatre, when
it's good, is always dangerous (15).

35
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