American playwrights are embracing the nations complexity. Will audiences answer the call?

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Set us as preferred The American democratic experiment stands on shaky ground.Not since the Civil War have these proverbially United States been so disunited.

As the nation throws itself a grand old 250th birthday bash in Washington, the mood in much of the country is more funereal than festive.All-out partisan warfare has sown chaos.Republican legislators, taking their lead from a president who sees half the nation as his personal enemy, have put their own party’s interests over the republic’s.

Staying in office has become the only thing that matters.The values imparted to me throughout my public school education — equal opportunity, impartial justice, respect for expertise, basic honesty — have been abandoned by a new breed of politician that has turned governance itself into a blood sport.Where can one turn for reassurance that America’s best years are still ahead? Would you believe me if I said the theater? I’m not toeing the line for my field.

I’m merely calling attention to a development that’s been gaining strength since I first reported on it in 2015.A cohort of playwrights, breathtakingly diverse demographically as well as aesthetically, has been rejuvenating American theater.

These writers aren’t on a sociological mission.They’re not trafficking in grievance or appealing to a particular political base.

They let their plays do the talking.And they’ve been trying to have a conversation that isn’t hijacked by the most doctrinaire voices in the room.

From an institutional perspective, the American theater is in bad shape.The triple whammy of the COVID-19 closures, inflation and technological disruption has left everyone hurting.

The Mark Taper Forum had to suspend programming for more than a year, smaller companies still in operation are producing fewer shows, and producers everywhere are g...