Theatre, The Constitution and Democracy

Most Americans are familiar with the parts of the First Amendment that protect freedom of speech and of the press. The connection between political speech and the Constitution is part of our national identity.What many Americans do not realize is that artistic expression is also deemed to be a public good in the Constitution. Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, of the United States Constitution is the Copyright Clause, and it grants Congress the power "To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." Our Founding Fathers recognized that authors made a useful contribution to a healthy democracy.Every once in a while, we get a reminder that other countries do not protect artistic expression to the extent we do here in America. In Poland, prosecutors are investigating the producers of a play called The Curse. The play examines the relationship between the Polish government and the Catholic church, and finds fault with authorities who failed to respond to allegations of child abuse by members of the clergy.There are many events depicted in the play which many Poles find scandalous, including simulated oral sex on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II. And a scene where one character contemplates raising money to pay for the assassination for the head of the Law and Justice Party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski.This fictional speech about hiring an assassin has the producers of the play being investigated by the state for inciting audience members to murder.That’s kind of like investigating the Royal Shakespeare Company for inciting murder by presenting a production of Macbeth. And that could never happen here, both because of the First Amendment and, arguably, the Copyright Clause. Our government would never shut down a play that depicted the murder of a political leader because free speech and artistic expression are necessary for a healthy democracy.It turns out, though, that political plays are not really safe in America. Take the recent Public Theatre production of Julius Caesar. Since the production presented characters that resembled our sitting President and his wife, many corporate sponsors withdrew their financial support.We are both a democracy and a capitalistic country, which means there are two levers of power that potentially can be used to suppress speech and artistic expression. The government can stop you from yelling “Fire” in a crowded theatre; the government can (and does) refuse to finance works of public art deemed objectionable. But the really effective lever to use if you want to shut down a play is the capitalist one. Why go through the trouble of an investigation and a trial if you can get the same result by withholding money?That’s one of the dangers of having a sitting President with business interests. If the President finds a play objectionable, for business reasons funders might feel obligated to withdraw. It would be hard to do business with the President if you are financing a play the President finds objectionable. It would be hard to do business with people who want to do business with the President if you are financing a play the President finds objectionable. Perhaps that’s why Breitbart News and Fox News also condemned the production -- they want to stay on the President’s good side.I have always been proud that my profession, among other things, supports artistic expression and by extension supports our democracy. But more and more I see capitalism censoring the free speech democracy needs, and it concerns me. The snide references to Hollywood elites and New York values are changing our national consciousness.Take Kathy Griffin for example. OK, the picture of her holding a bloody severed head did not have the effect she intended. But it was art. And no one would come to her defense when the President objected to her art, even on Constitutional grounds. The universal condemnation of the photo was as shocking as the photo itself.I fear we are on a dangerous path that will lead to entertainment products that only divert our attention rather than engage our intellect and challenge our beliefs. A fundamental pillar of our democracy is beginning to tilt, and should it fall we will no longer be the nation our Founding Fathers envisioned.