In 2002, the Neo-Futurists of Chicago premiered their original production of a show called 43 Plays for 43 Presidents. Soon after, Dad’s Garage Theatre in Atlanta mounted the show and former President Jimmy Carter came to see it about a week after he’d won the Nobel Prize. (Apparently he laughed hard during the Regan play.)
In 2004, the original cast was asked to remount the show at Theatre on the Lake, and also toured to the Carter Center in Atlanta, and even did a performance at the Chicago Historical Society. But the show didn’t die there, because that year a publisher called Playscripts, Inc. decided to take a chance on the show.
31 high school, college and professional productions later, the newly titled 44 Plays for 44 Presidents is still being performed across the country.
During each election cycle, the number of productions increases. In 2008, the Actors Theatre of Louisville, a world famous regional theater, mounted a production directed by Sean Daniels, to coincide with the last presidential election.
In 2012, were we to do nothing, we would expect big things. But we’re not doing nothing.