A cynic's view on the epic and social theater.

I have a big internal struggle within me. I believe that theater can be used for social change. However, I am also a huge skeptic. I have a cynicism about our art form. I look at the world around us and all of the issues it holds. Of course I would love to create a work of art that speaks to the socio-political-economic state of our world. A piece that forces my audience to observe and then urges them to act. However, I also realize that I will probably work in college theater for the rest of my life. (I am perfectly happy with that, and in fact thats where I WANT to work.) If i create this amazing show, there might be a couple of hundred people who will see it. Maybe a tenth of them will actually try to do anything about it. If that. However, they will be constrained by their circumstances and probably will have little effect on actually changing anything.

Later in my life, after said issue is taken care of, I will look back on that production and say, "Look what I did. Look what I started. A small seed that spread and actually changed the world." I will be doing nothing but lying to myself. In essence all I did was masturbate in the corner so I could feel better about myself and "change the world."

This creates a huge issue. How can we change the world with our theater. Forget even the notion of "changing the world," How do we affect those around us in any way? Affect our small communities, how do we do that?

Now don't get me wrong. I think we can affect smaller communities and push people to change, but once they leave the theater… how much of it will really stick. I worked on a production that did wondrous things… for those who saw the show. For those in the room. It helped heal their wounds within the community. But beyond that… it did very little.

How is it possible that I have this intensive love affair with theater, but I am also so skeptical about it's effects?