‘Conservative’ Playwrights Among Us!

Four playwrights share their experiences

Scene from "The Rehab Addict" by Carl Williams. (Steve Sessions)

As the founder and president of Stage Right Theatrics, the home of the Natural Theater and the country’s only “conservative” theater company, I have discovered that the more traditional voice is indeed out there among playwrights. The bravest among them are willing to challenge the status quo in the arts, even at the risk of ridicule and censure.

To further this discussion, I called upon four playwrights who have written plays produced at my annual Conservative Theatre Festival: Cece Dwyer, Mark Sasse, Gary Wadley, and Carl Williams. Each has had plays produced outside of my festival and has won writing competitions. Each writes with a “conservative” point of view, and each explained what being a conservative in the arts means to him or her, and why it is necessary for a different voice in the theater to be heard.

Is ‘Conservative’ the Right Term?

The first issue to grapple with is whether the term “conservative” reflects reality in the theater. We don’t talk about “liberal theater,” after all. I suspect we don’t need to. In fact, “liberal theater” seems redundant along the lines of “unexpected surprise” or “hot water heater.”

But do some playwrights consider themselves “conservative”? Carl Williams does not consider himself a conservative playwright but rather a “conservative who writes plays.” Mark Sasse agrees, noting: “I am a conservative, and I am a playwright, but I never call myself a conservative playwright.” Playwright Cece Dwyer adds “I actually did not know I was ‘conservative’ until the rest of the world decided I fit the description.” This seems to be the consensus: “Conservative” is not a label that these playwrights attach to themselves.

Scene from "Safe Spaces" by Mark Sasse. (Steve Sessions)

The Conservative Voice Must Be Heard

However, the playwrights agree that the conservative voice must be heard in the theater, even if they do not call themselves “conservative.”

Playwright Gary Wadley sees the conservative point of view as necessary to protect life and liberty:

“The conservative voice leads to life, well-being, freedom, and social stability, without placing undue burdens on individual rights. Conservativism eschews relativism in favor of truth. Relativism as a social construct leads to death; truth leads to life.”

Dwyer believes that all perspectives should be comfortably at home in the arts. “All voices should have the ability to be heard,” she says. “Obviously, the arts would seem to be the one place that happens.”

Sasse views the conservative message as needed precisely because it is not heard via mainstream channels:

“The conservative voice has much to offer in terms of the grand American themes of love, freedom, personal responsibility, and the pursuit of happiness. I think that many people have conservative ideas yet don’t even know it, and the arts is a fantastic avenue to expose people to ideas and traditions which they may not naturally hear in mainstream media or academia.”

The point is that conservatives seem to be more likely to support diverse voices in the arts than even our present-day liberal caretakers of the arts.

The irony here is inescapable, but I firmly believe that this is not solely because conservatives are marginalized in the arts and simply want their voices heard. The fact is, conservatives are more tuned to support the concept of free speech in the marketplace of ideas, just as our Founders did.

We conservatives do not think in terms of silencing critics; these artists, therefore, do not either.

The Challenges Conservative Writers Face

There is no doubt that bad playwriting does not align itself with one political party or movement. But I imagine that some “conservative” playwrights must think themselves incapable of writing anything stage worthy as they have reported having their work rejected based on theme and subject matter alone.

Cece Dwyer, for example, talks about receiving “unsigned letters calling me things I’m not.“ She says: ”Playwriting classes can be brutal. … During playwriting classes sometimes my plays are found offensive, insulting, etc. Not the play of course, just the subject matter.” It should be noted that Dwyer’s play for the Conservative Theatre Festival, “The Comfort Room,” was about abortions—after birth.

Scene from "The Comfort Room" By Cece Dwyer. (Steve Sessions)

Gary Wadley recalls something similar:

“Probably the biggest challenge is getting a truly conservative work produced. Of course, it is a challenge to get any work produced, but explicitly conservative themes carry an added burden. I did have some audience members walk out on an antiabortion play I presented on a college campus several years ago.”

Scene from "Crossing the Bar" by Gary Wadley. (Steve Sessions)

However, others have not experienced this wholesale rejection of conservative themes. Carl Williams says:

“As someone active in the theater world, I interact with people of many different beliefs, largely liberal. Many of them locally know me as a Christian. We collaborate in a collegial way, respecting each other’s differences.”

Mark Sasse talks of something similar:

“I was in Ireland at an arts center doing a reading of one of my new plays based on the 1831 Nat Turner slave uprising. At the end of the reading, I was asked how others might view this work because I wrote about the African American slave experience when I myself am not black.

“Without skipping a beat, I said a writer should have no limitations to what he or she should explore, because limiting writers to their own experiences would be ridiculous. We are all human and we each can have contributing ideas about the human experience, regardless of our backgrounds. They seemed to accept that answer and overall, really enjoyed the reading.”

What’s It All Mean?

What this tells me is that what’s important is the ability of playwrights to develop an entertaining piece of theater, unapologetic in its stance but honest, civil, and thought-provoking in its execution.

And what is just as important is that playwrights play a major role in the development and promotion of their works. They cannot simply present their plays to producers or theater companies and expect the world to adapt. These writers must share in the effort to promote the values of conservatives in a positive and suitable manner.

The experiences of these playwrights point to a very positive trend, one that I believe parallels our country’s current debate on the primacy of free speech and the unfettered sharing of ideas. More and more, it seems as though the political dogma is being countered by reasonable people of all political stripes who defend the right to say things that might be labeled “disagreeable.”

There is still work to be done if the conservative artist is to be granted a seat at the table, but evidence mounts that we’re now at least a step or two from the room.