Percy MacKaye - Civic Theatre

Civic Theatre

In 1912 he published The Civic Theatre in Relation to the Redemption of Leisure; A Book of Suggestions. Here he presented a concept of Civic Theatre as "the conscious awakening of the people to self-government in its leisure". To this end he called for the active involvement of the public, not merely as spectators, professional staff not dominated by commercial considerations and the elimination of private profit by endowment and public support. This concept was influential on Platon Kerzhentsev and the Soviet Proletcult Theatre movement.

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