Leader(less)
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I have always believed strongly that one ofthe most advantageous aspects of theatre is that it provides people with new and interesting venues to approach complex ideas or notions. Through theatre, writers and artists can explore everything from philosophical and moral questions to the everyday lives of historical figures. And, in examining these various notions and topics, theatre can even educate others. By combining all of these elements, a single play for the theatrical stage can offer students a look at many historical characters, such as some notable former, and possibly current, United States Presidents, and examine how these people would interact in an everyday situation; thus, giving students not only valuable historical information on these figures, but a means to engage the larger moral and philosophical questions that national leaders must face. For me, as both an educator and an artist, I created the play, Leader(less), a story of 11 U.S. Presidents living together in nameless space, to accomplish two main goals. First, I sought to create an artistic piece of historical information that can be used to develop interdisciplinary collections between theatre and other subject areas. And second, I aimed to create a piece of theatre that asked the audience to question and think about what it would have been like to be a President and face the difficult challenges that each man faced in their respective time.