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by Jane Alexander

Jane_Alexander Arts_and_Literature English
  • ISBN: 1891620061
  • Category: Biographies
  • Author: Jane Alexander
  • Subcategory: Arts & Literature
  • Other formats: rtf lit azw doc
  • Language: English
  • Publisher: Public Affairs; 1st edition (May 29, 2000)
  • Pages: 352 pages
  • FB2 size: 1913 kb
  • EPUB size: 1536 kb
  • Rating: 4.8
  • Votes: 590
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Jane Alexander (born October 28, 1939) is an American author, actress, and former director of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Jane Alexander (born October 28, 1939) is an American author, actress, and former director of the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a Tony Award winner and two-time Emmy Award winner. Alexander made her Broadway debut in 1968 in The Great White Hope and won the 1969 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Her book, Command Performance: an Actress in the Theater of Politics (2000), describes the challenges she faced heading the NEA at a time when the 104th . Congress, headed by Newt Gingrich, unsuccessfully strove to shut it down

Command Performance: an Actress in the Theater of Politics. Public Affairs, a member of the Perseus Book Group; New York, NY, 2000.

Command Performance: an Actress in the Theater of Politics. Binkiewicz, Donna M. Federalizing the Muse: United States Arts Policy and the National Endowment for the Arts, 1965–1980, University of North Carolina Press, 312pp.

Alexander, Jane, 1939-. Alexander, Jane, 1939-, National Endowment for the Arts, Arts administrators, Actresses. New York : PublicAffairs. Books for People with Print Disabilities. Internet Archive Books. Uploaded by sf-loadersive. org on November 11, 2009. SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata).

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I just finished reading "Command Performance: An Actress in the Theater of Politics" and I could not put it down.

Jane Alexander had never been involved in mainstream politics and was happily engaged in her acting career when she was asked to consider becoming head of the embattled National Endowment for the Arts in the early 1990s. When, during her first visit to the Hill, Senator Strom Thurmond barked at her, "You gonna fund pornography?" she knew it would be a rough ride. I just finished reading "Command Performance: An Actress in the Theater of Politics" and I could not put it down. Not only is hers an interesting story, but her very readable prose flows along as if it was an engrossing novel. Nothing had quite prepared her for the role of madame chairman.

Her book, Command Performance: an Actress in the Theater of Politics (2000), describes the challenges she faced heading the NEA at a time when the 104th . Congress, headed by Newt Gingrich, unsuccessfully strove to shut it down. Congress, headed by Newt Gingrich, unsuccessfully strove to shut it down

Her book Command Performance: An Actress in the Theater of Politics recounts her time with the . For her performance in that production, Alexander was awarded Antoinette Perry, Drama Desk, and Theatre World awards

Her book Command Performance: An Actress in the Theater of Politics recounts her time with the . Alexander is the oldest of three children born to orthopedic surgeon Thomas Bartlett Quigley, a pioneer in sports medicine, and former nurse Ruth Elizabeth (Pearson) Quigley. Her paternal grandfather, Daniel Quigley, had been the personal physician to Buffalo Bill in North Platte, Nebraska. For her performance in that production, Alexander was awarded Antoinette Perry, Drama Desk, and Theatre World awards. When Alexander starred in the movie version of The Great White Hope two years later, she received an Oscar nomination.

Alexander, Jane (2000). Command Performance: An Actress in the Theater of Politics. Downstage Center at the American Theatre Wing interview. Jane Alexander in the International Leadership Forum. Appearances on C-SPAN. New York: PublicAffairs. Command Performance: An Actress in the Theater of Politics interview with Alexander on Booknotes. Awards for Jane Alexander. Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play (1975–2000).

Jane Alexander had never been involved in mainstream politics and was happily engaged in her acting career when she was asked to consider becoming head of the embattled National Endowment for the Arts in the early 1990s. When, during her first visit to the Hill, Senator Strom Thurmond barked at her, "You gonna fund pornography?" she knew it would be a rough ride. Nothing had quite prepared her for the role of madame chairman. Her tenure coincided with the ascent of the infamous 104th Congress, presided over by Speaker Newt Gingrich, and its campaign to eliminate the Endowment completely. InCommand Performance, Alexander brings a Washington outsider's perspective and an actor's eye for the telling human detail to an anecdote-filled story of the art of politics and the politics of art. And at the start of a new administration in Washington, she reminds us why we need art and why government should be in the business of supporting it.
Reviews about Command Performance An Actress In The Theater Of Politics (7):
Kajishakar
I learned a couple things from reading Jane Alexander's account of her contentious tenure leading the National Endowment for the Arts.

First and foremost is that the battle for freedom for the arts is never-ending and that among the toughest questions a society can ever face is how to support and sustain art and the freedom of artistic expression.

Second, and most surprising, is that Jessie Helms, the former powerful and pernicious senator from North Carolina is one heck of a letter writer - as wise in his correspondence as he is witty. In one of several letters to Alexander he is irked by specific pieces of taxpayer supported art he finds distasteful, "it only takes one cockroach to spoil a pot of soup, whether it falls into it accidentally or is gratuitously put there by someone who ought to know better."

Helms and others of his bent in both houses of Congress were intent on bringing the NEA to its knees during the four years (1993 through 1997) she served as its director, a Clinton appointee. Her book is a recap of her struggle to protect the first amendment and to preserve taxpayer funding for the arts agency.

Alexander, who has won an Oscar and an Emmy for her movie and stage work fought using her considerable talent as an actor, good at persuading her audience. Initially operating with "no intrinsic knowledge of how things get accomplished," she soon became really adept at the political game, winning support and achieving consensus senator by senator and congressman by congressman.

History says her perseverance fighting the good fight paid off. In her book she quotes Shakespeare's "Tempest" when Prospero exits with the line, "Now I want spirits to enforce, art to enchant."

Alexander organizes her book as a work of stagecraft with chapters titled "Audition," "Curtain Up" and "Curtain Down" and so forth. The story she tells fits her format, for the most part, and for me that represents a quibble. Occasionally events and information feel shoehorned into the framework of the book. The chapter titled "Intermission," for example, sort of invites us along on a rafting trip in Idaho but she takes up most of those pages ruminating about the status of the NEA's appropriation bill rather than telling us about natural wonders encountered paddling the remote Selway River.

Alexander characterizes herself as a storyteller. And that she is. To me, she's most accomplished working on the stage, relying more on the spoken word. She writes "Command Performance" to chronicle the struggle she waged to protect and preserve funding for the arts. It's a story that needed to be recorded and that's its merit. Alexander quotes Emerson when she says she struggled to hold back the "hobgoblins of little minds." In the end her story becomes a cautionary tale.

In a word: Spirited
Malarad
For those interested in the worlds of politics and the arts, esteemed actress Jane Alexander brilliantly recounts her tenure as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.
From her "auditions" for the position up to her meetings with President Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and correspondence with Jesse Helms, Ms. Alexander infuses her writing with intelligence, literary awareness, and a delightful, wry, witty sense of humour.
Republicans and Democrats alike are not spared Ms. Alexander's opinions on how funding was handled, what was considered art, and how arts organizations, artists, and arts education are constantly overlooked at providing no real social importance by men in power who are "of little mind". She writes adoringly of her staff at the NEA and of the congressional supporters who went to bat for the Endowment.
Voicing political opinion, especially someone who was in Ms. Alexander's position, is always going to be a touchy subject, but like art, it's meant for discussion to learn more about the human race and to challenge our own conventional ways of thinking.
Overall, this book is an educational, interesting look into an area of politics that is shamelessly neglected by members of Congress. Ms. Alexander is to be commended for all she accomplished at the Endowment and this book is a great account of what she had to endure at the center of one of the government's most controversial agencies.
Priotian
Item delivered on time, was as described
Malodora
Ms. Alexander's book presents a scathing indictment of the Federal government and many of the people it comprises, as well as an eloquent argument for government support of the arts (and for campaign finance reform). While Ms. Alexander is clearly a "liberal" (in fact, she has referred to herself as an "aging hippie"), she deals fairly with members of both parties -- crediting INDIVIDUALS who were supportive and chastising those who were not, regardless of party affiliation.
Unfortunately, although Ms. Alexander is an extraordinarily talented actress (her performance in "Testament" is perhaps one of the greatest screen performances of all-time) and an effective administrator, she is not the greatest writing. While in many instances, the book makes one feel as though he or she was "in the trenches" with Ms. Alexander, her tendency for "purple prose," coupled with her propensity for complimenting and thanking ALL who were supportive of her mission, has the effect of pulling one back out of those trenches. At times I felt as though I were watching a lesser actress portraying Ms. Alexander, and not doing a particularly good job of it.
Despite its flaws, "Command Performance" is an important book that should be read by everyone concerned with the future of our society. Thank you, Jane Alexander, for writing it and, more importantly, for living it.

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