By Amrita Mangus, Allen Lee Hughes Dramaturgy Fellow
The Arena Stage Interns and Allen Lee Hughes Fellows experienced another “Pinch me, I’m dreaming” moment last Sunday when we conversed with Edward Albee over brunch.

Mr. Albee candidly shared his opinions about American Theatre and his thoughts about its future, stressing the importance of theatre that educates, affects, and engages its audience, while provoking critical thinking. Here are some of the reactions from the other Arena interns and fellows who participated in this amazing event:
It was absolutely wonderful to be able to sit and hear Edward Albee's quick witted wisdom on the nature of the theater world.
- Genna Davidson, Development Intern

One of the many lasting quotes in my mind from our meeting with Mr. Albee is "If you only give what you think audiences can handle, you'll never give."
I'm a major proponent of theatre that challenges people and really puts issues out there for discussion. I think that's one of the largest gifts we have as artists-to engage people in conversation that needs to happen in a way that doesn't make people quite as uncomfortable as other situations can be. In our role of serving as a reflection of society, the argument could be made that it is our duty to challenge viewers - this hallenge is summed up in Albee's argument that we should not place a limit on what we think an audience should see. Rather, it is our duty to present the things we most think audiences should be thinking about.
Again, in Albee's words, "Arts shouldn't be an escape--it should be an engagement." Unfortunately, I don't think we hit this target as often as we could/should in theatre today. Perhaps this is one of the fundamental changes that will be forced to occur with the current financial struggles we are facing - or perhaps we're just setting ourselves up to slide further away from this intention.
- Marissa LaRose, Production Intern
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