Dan DaranciangTo listen to Henry Schvey talk about theater is to experience a true performance. The chair of the Performing Arts Department for 18 years, he talks about theater with the unashamed excitement of a scientist or a mathematician-as though he had just discovered it in a laboratory the previous evening and is now ready to unleash it upon humanity.
For Schvey, after all, theater is every bit as powerful and important as any scientist’s invention. When na‹ve Greeks began to transform ritual into what ultimately became ancient Western theater, they were unaware of themselves as historical figures. In today’s theater, the weight of the past bears down heavily on the present.
“Theater is a 2,500-year-old tradition of investigation,” he noted. “It’s important we don’t forget that.” Schvey, however, is not interested in cursory overviews of theatrical history for its own sake. Rather, he sees understanding the history of theater and its role in society as essential to preserving its delicate value, consistently under attack by people who wish to trivialize, if not emasculate it.
Enter the Performing Arts Department at Washington University. Unlike Broadway, the MUNY, or Division I football, the PAD has the ability to choose its works primarily for aesthetic rather than for commercial purposes. According to Schvey, this is not a minor distinction.
“I’m not interested in doing fluff,” he said. “We want to do theater that matters. Theater should affect people’s lives, and whatever we try to do, that is in the background.” The PAD’s 2005-2006 season seems to follow those guidelines. The first performance scheduled for the second week of October, to be directed by Jeffrey Matthews, is “Hair,” a musical set amidst the Vietnam War and the social protest movements of 1968. “Ipi Zombi,” scheduled for late January, to be directed by senior Pushkar Sharma, takes on superstitiously motivated lynching in modern day South Africa. Lastly is another musical, “Violet,” scheduled in April, to be directed by Annamaria Pileggi, is a story set in the racially charged American South of 1964. While some of the PAD’s previous musicals-“Guys and Dolls” and “Into the Woods”-are less known for their political commentary, Schvey promises that this year will be different. He anticipates “Hair” in particular, with an unpopular war as its subject, to have contemporary political significance. “There is a political strain” to this year’s season, he said. “Even ‘Much Ado [about Nothing],” the Shakespearian comedy he will direct in late February. “It’s one of the first feminist texts.”
Though a large part of the PAD’s success comes with the plays it chooses-the committee will start planning next year’s plays in one week-it never hurts to have great productions. Despite casts filled with busy underclassmen with demanding schedules, Schvey is pleased with this year’s crop of young actors, directors, designers, and technicians. “I feel great,” he said, as if he felt that he had to say what even his tone of voice could not fully convey. “We have an amazing faculty, and amazing students. I’m very excited.”