Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz MFA '94 and Professor of English Paula Vogel spoke Saturday to a full room of alums, parents and students on the nature of theater and its relevance in modern America, as well as Cruz's personal development as an artist.
The speech was one of many on Saturday morning celebrating the start of the Campaign for Academic Enrichment.
Cruz said he started his career before coming to Brown with an interest in theater. He tried his hand at acting but gravitated toward writing and directing. At the University, Cruz worked on his writing and built up a body of work.
Since leaving Brown, Cruz has had many career successes, including winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play "Anna in the Tropics," which was performed at Brown last year.
Cruz said he continues to be attracted to theater because it is "a three-dimensional medium and has a communal aspect" and said he sees theater as vital to the next generation of children because of the role it has played in his life.
"As a child, I was very creative and I didn't know what to do with it. Having all of that inside led me to other less constructive things," he said.
Vogel and Cruz said the current generation is missing the experience of the theater.
The theater community's goal should be to make theater more accessible to the younger generation, Vogel said.
Cruz said he tries to "empower children, not talk down to them" in the children's plays he writes. The theater world needs "more family plays," he said.
Cruz works with high school students in New Jersey and Florida to help them find their narrative voices and learn to love the theater, he said.
Though he says his work is not outwardly political, Cruz believes it is impossible for theater to not be political.
"I think all art forms are political and that all of the art forms in some capacity have a social message," he said. "I think you can find that (political message) in my plays."
