Dining with a master of the theater

I found out last spring that Athol Fugard was to visit IU this fall, but I was not quite prepared for meeting this paragon of modern theater.\nFugard came to campus as the Class of 1963 Wells Scholar Professor, and his visit coincided with the purchase and exhibit of his notes and manuscripts at the Lilly Library, as well as the release of a book about his works by English professor Albert Wertheim.\nI was privileged to experience Fugard's art, wisdom and humor three times. The first was a public reading by Fugard of his prose work "Cousins" at the University Theatre. In "Cousins," Fugard spoke vividly about two cousins of his who helped him develop into a person who would come to love and work in theater.\nHe spoke of early experiences with the piano and turning music on the page into words for the stage. He also spoke of their first "productions," which were given for parents and friends with his cousin in the living room -- it was these living room experiences that first led him to the theater. What many artists know as the second real draw to the theater is the risk that is involved in that undertaking.\nHis second story surrounded a risk and trust circumstance with another of his cousins and a brave choice they had to make together.\nIt was evident that things "struck remote chords in his soul," as Oscar Wilde put it. He also answered lingering questions with his asides. He even let out a secret about the subject of a play he was afraid to write. \nI also experienced a session where Mr. Fugard worked with actors and directors in a rehearsal of his works "Hello and Goodbye" and "The Bloodknot." What I saw was the simplicity, the creativity and the courage that has made Fugard's plays and his art world-renowned. While rough, it was intriguing to experience how looking or thinking in a different way could result with a product that seemed unfathomable from the start of the enterprise.\nHe also, as a treat, read one of the scenes with a theater professor also from South Africa so participants and viewers could hear the language and the energy of his scenes in the voice and dialect they were meant for.\nFinally, I ate pizza with Fugard and about 20 other students where we just talked informally. Fugard answered some questions, including one very close to me about where art is, where it is going and how I should go about creating the kind of theater I want. He reminded me of the start he'd had with his cousin in the living room turning music into words.\nThe need to perform and to create, to imitate ourselves, as Aristotle put it, and to find out what humanity really is does not need to be done with a budget of millions of dollars. Art driven by money, we agreed, is deadly to art itself. He told me to do a play in my living room if that's the only place to do it rather than succumb to the bottom line.\nBasically, all we need for theater is a play, actors and an audience.\nWhat I learned the most from him came during the informal setting.\nThrough all of the horrors in life he experienced, all of the plays he'd done, he still had the good humor and basic humanity to sit and eat pizza with a group of undergraduates and allow the moments to linger.\nMore than taking life by the reins, Fugard reminded me that sometimes I just need to stop and gather my rosebuds while I may.