Art

I fell in love with art. Again. I remembered why we need it and what it's done and what it's endured (especially those who create it). I love it, because it is that important. Let's take a look at some major things that have happened in the last 100 years:

-Ziegfeld Follies glorified the American girl.
-Irving Berlin wrote music for Ziegfeld... and also wrote: This is the Army. (1942) A look at life in the army. It starred over 300 actual American soldiers. It was later made into a movie. (You should Netflix it :))
- Fanny Brice was made famous.
-Show Boat was written by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein III and produced by Ziegfeld. It was a book musical.
-Bertolt Brecht made his mark on the theatre.
-The House of Un-American Activities Committee caused major turmoil for famous actors. Many were blacklisted. The community of artists was tested.
-The Group Theatre happened (1931-1940). Founders included Lee Strasburg, Stella Adler and Elia Kazan. It was strongly influenced by the Moscow Art Theatre (Stanislavsky's group).
-Clifford Odets worked with TGT. He wrote Waiting for Lefty, Awake and Sing and The Golden Boy.
-FDR's Works Progress Administration set up the Federal Theatre Project. It did over 1200 productions of 830 plays between 1935-1939. It employed more than 1000 people. They also produced what became known as Voodoo Macbeth.
-Jo Mielziner was BRILLIANT. He reminds me to search for ways to do things beautifully. He designed for: Death of a Salesman, The King and I, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Gypsy to name just a very very few.
-Boris Aronson and Ming Cho Lee both happened and are WONDERFUL designers.
-Oklahoma!, often referred to as the first American musical, changed the look of the musical show. It was the first fully integrated cast for a book musical.
-Stephen Sondheim, Kander and Ebb, Comden and Green, Bob Fosse, Hal Prince and Joseph Papp all happened.
-Existentialism and Absurdist theatre took the stage. Eugene Ionesco and Samuel Beckett both came of this.
-The first Othello with a black actor (not a white actor in blackface) was staged (1943-1945) with a record breaking 296 performances. The stars were Paul Robeson and Uta Hagen. Go read about this. I will NOT be able to do it justice and it's a story you should know. It should break your heart and make you love art, too.
-Lorraine Hansberry was the first woman to win a New York Drama Critics Award. She wrote A Raisin in the Sun and was amazing.

Love art. If for no other reason than it speaks to the heart of all people, love art.