Anna Sokolow: A Good Audience

Anna Sokolow performing Kaddish in 1945.

Interview with Anna Sokolow

Conducted by James Grissom

New York City

1990

The extraordinary work is, of course, rare. One waits for it. One prays for it. One attends to it. And then it arrives, and every hope you had for the theatre or for the dance or for the opera is justified. What concerns me is the audience: Where is it? It's dwindling or it is impatient. Our audience now feels wholly fed by films and television, and theatre is merely that fusty, expensive outing that can't be trusted. We have to keep working well, but we also have to lure the audience back in. A good audience. A demanding audience.

©  2014  James Grissom