Best American plays?

John Moore of the Denver Post has surveyed 177 theater professionals for their opinions about the 10 greatest American plays. Top-ten results are here.
Complete list of all 296 plays that got votes is here.

Comments:
For what little it's worth, Bobo named eight of the top ten off the top of his head.
The two I missed reveal my own provinciality.
But in the overall rankings, note how August: Osage County is knocking on the door.
Women and ethnic minorities might wish for more representation.
I think the list is muddied: Best play by an American that's on ANY subject vs. best plays about the American experience.
I've seen the top 24 plays in performance — then, Little Foxes and Children's Hour, only in the movie versions — and Nos. 27-29 (Topdog, Blue Leaves, Normal Heart), I've never seen in any form.
I'll admit my ignorance: I've never even heard of Mud or My Head Is a Sledgehammer. And I am embarrassed to say that I have never even read A Moon for the Misbegotten. 
I think Buried Child is ranked ahead of True West because people admire it, respect its artistry, not because it plays better onstage or is more beloved.

Sorry, but Iceman Cometh is a duty, not a pleasure. And I saw Jason Robards in it. 

The plays of Horton Foote should move up; so should Sondheim's.  Musicals, in general, undervalued here.

But your mileage will differ. 

Best candidates for Spokane productions?
Our Town, Osage County, American Buffalo, Little Foxes, Dutchman, Grapes of Wrath, Kentucky Cycle (first half is best, and phenomenal), The Goat, Indians (big production values have lessened its perceived value?), The Boys in the Band. And that's just in the top 100 (after which, in my opinion, choices start getting quirky -- though I've long been an old softie for Christopher Durang's The Marriage of Bette and Boo).
Things would clarify if you restricted these, as the Pulitzer does, to an American focus.Enough. Your choices and comments?
[ photo: Arthur Kopit, who wrote Indians]

December pays the bills

In the Denver Post, John Moore ruminates on theaters' programming of holiday shows.

As in retail, December sales keep the rest of the year flush.

Note the list (at the end of the article) of the Christmas classics, alternatives, subversives and holiday-free theater-going options now playing in the Denver area.
Spokane, in its much smaller way, has something of the same going on: two Christmas classics playing at the Civic; one each at Lake City Playhouse, Spokane Children's Theater, and Pullman Civic Theater; an alternative coming at CdA Summer Theater; a non-holiday play at Interplayers; and so on. Will the non-classics come in "a distant second," as Moore's article suggests?

A snip:
"Sneed has a suggestion for anyone grousing about the prevalence of safe and predictable holiday programming: 'They need to be advocates for greater public funding of the arts, so we don't have to rely so much on this public-revenue stream.'"

Ah, but public funds should be spent on things we really need, like roads and bridges and sewers. Art is an expendable frill.

Oh, really? How much do state governments and municipalities spend on football stadiums and youth sports programs? Take away the Friday night high school basketball game, and people scream, feeling that their quality of life has been degraded. Take away the middle school art department or high school theater program, and people yawn. Why is that? Sports stir the emotions, bring back memories of playing catch with Dad, tap into atavistic us-vs-them emotions.

As a result, theater would do well to become (1) more interactive, (2) more competitive, (3) more tied to even more holidays.
1) more participatory; break down the fourth wall; hold talkbacks at intermission
2) What about a scene vs. scene Spokane Theater Idol competition? At a neutral site like the Bing, three local theaters present scenes from ongoing productions, which are judged; there are celebrity judges -- it's just a publicity gimmick, but it would get the attention of non-theatrical jock-Muggles
3) Halloween plays, Valentine's plays, and even Fourth of July plays (if you have A/C). People like festive, communal, etc., if there's a holiday tradition tied to it.

You really think there ISN'T such a thing as an artistic infrastructure? We can't just whine about how important the arts are. We have to demonstrate it.
Why isn't anybody doing flash-theater, sudden scenes at the mall, flyers distributed soon after to shoppers who wonder, "What the cuss just happened here?"

[photo: Peter and Tim Crachit in a 2007 production of A Christmas Carol at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta ]

Please silence all electronic devices ... and yourselves, you inconsiderate baboons

Actually, most baboons are more considerate than a lot of theatergoers these days.
Bobo thought he had witnessed some doozies of clueless theater behavior, but wait'll you read John Moore's *Denver Post* article.

So it may be too late to follow Moore's act, but ... hey, local Spokane theater persons, what incidents of boorish behavior have *you* witnessed? (Names disguised to protect the guilty, please.)

Endless chatter, compulsive texting -- Bobo's seen most of it, if not all. I find that turning around and simply staring (with a neutral expression, but right in the offender's face, works nicely). The worst? Actually occurred during a Symphony on the Edge concert at what's now the Knitting Factory. Naturally, it happened during a quiet musical passage. Loud cell ring. "Who's this?" in the braying tones of Elizabeth Taylor in *Virginia Woolf?* So the [uncomplimentary epithet] walks over into an open stairwell and CONTINUES TALKING LOUDLY and now with an extra added ECHO EFFECT.

We had her boiled alive and ate her liver with a nice Chianti.

[ photo: Denis Theater Foundation, Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania ]