There’s an article over in England that says this:

The head of the Royal Shakespeare Company gave warning that contemporary theatre would not thrive unless it addressed the most challenging political and social issues of the day, with “big plays in big spaces”.

You are totally correct, Head-of-the-Royal-Shakespeare-Company. We’ve been thinking in that direction over here, too.

It had to happen. Years ago, when the arts money dried up, theaters went broke or had to shrink by orders of magnitude in order to survive. They stopped doing big, spectacular plays. Moon for the Misbegotten and other two-to-four-person scripts were all over the place.

That wincing, wounded strategy could only work for a little while. Quiet, small work can be great, but one will starve on a steady diet of small studio plays. We need spectacle.

So it’s no coincidence that the theater we’ve been most excited about lately has concerned people who’ve figured out how to make spectacles. This year’s Genius Award winner for organization, Strawberry Theater Workshop, does everything it can—including managing its debt—to pay big casts of actors and build complicated sets that aren’t modular and throwaway but tailored to their spaces.

In an interview with me a couple of months ago, STW director Greg Carter said, in effect: Pulling punches in the beginning of our career while we chase grants is stupid. Let’s show them what we can do and, if the world likes it, it’ll give us money.

Which is admirably gutsy—they’d rather flame out with big shows than limp along with anemic ones.

And then there’s Implied Violence, who are all about spectacle.

And the seven members of “Awesome” who have been fooling around with the rock show/theater show divide for a few years now.

It’s why we liked Dorky Park at On the Boards.

It’s why we’re excited by Motel #1 this weekend.

Spectacle: It’s the future.