Since the pandemic decimated theater around the world, theater artists were stuck on interminable pause. And in the summer of 2020, theater received a reckoning for its failures in racial inclusion. Though this was true for many industries, the theater industry and Broadway specifically has been criticized for years for its consistent passing over of artists of color. Back in 1966, Douglas Turner Ward wrote an article for the New York Times called, “American Theater: For Whites Only?” The year 2021, however, gave theater lovers feelings of cautious optimism, although many pointed out that theaters still tended to ignore women playwrights when putting together their seasons. The theater industry suffers from the same hang-ups of seeing writing by white men as more “universal” and shoving all other identities into the niche category. Despite the shortcomings of the theater industry, there are still many positives that can come out of it. One interesting way to engage with the art form is, perhaps surprisingly, through book clubs. If you’re in a book club and feeling at all that the format is getting stale, reading a play is a great way to inject some new life into the conversation. Assigning out roles, reading a few scenes at a time, and breaking for discussion can be a creative way to engage everyone in the book club. People who usually speak less will have a way to speak up more, and people can try on accents and personae that they wouldn’t normally explore. Turning your book club into a play club is a great way to revitalize conversation and learn more about an artistic form that gets people talking. If reading plays inspires more interest in theater, your book club can also dive into books about Broadway, books for musical theater fans, and theatrically-narrated audiobooks.
