{"product_id":"558-donald-trump-political-power-and-rewriting-history-in-tracy-letts-the-minutes","title":"558. DONALD TRUMP, POLITICAL POWER, AND REWRITING HISTORY IN TRACY LETTS' THE MINUTES","description":"\u003cp\u003eBefore Donald Trump’s first term in office (2017-2021), as the 2016 presidential campaign entered its final months, Pulitzer-prize winning playwright Tracy Letts began drafting a play about revisionist history, political power, and intolerance. He did not consider \u003cem\u003eThe Minutes\u003c\/em\u003e to be about Trump (since most of the play had been written before the results of the election), but he did view it as a meditation on “the way we conduct our politics in this country” and on the importance of coming to terms with our collective past. The play’s unusual production history, however, enabled it to span both of Trump’s presidential campaigns. \u003cem\u003eThe Minutes\u003c\/em\u003e premiered at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago on November 9, 2017, and even though it began previews on Broadway in 2020, its scheduled opening was cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The play would not get its official New York City premiere until the Studio 54 production in April 2022. Although Letts admits that “it did take some doing to not change the play and make it about Trump, in response to Trump,” the play’s political relevance today is more striking (and disturbing) than ever. When viewed alongside Trump’s efforts to reshape American education and to rewrite history, as articulated most explicitly in the 1776 Report and Curriculum, \u003cem\u003eThe Minutes\u003c\/em\u003e offers a powerful reminder of the need for an inclusive, nuanced understanding of history. For Letts, everyone—every nation, every town, every community—has a responsibility for its past and for confronting it honestly. This process begins not by erasing what is uncomfortable and shameful, but by including a range of voices to address past wrongs, to recognize the richness of native cultures, and to fill in the types of gaps found in the 1776 Curriculum. Ultimately, through images of erasure and loss, \u003cem\u003eThe Minutes\u003c\/em\u003e offers a damning portrait of political power as stemming not from truth but from the power to shape and control the historical narrative.\u003cbr\u003e(Text for course: Tracy Letts’ \u003cem\u003eTHE MINUTES\u003c\/em\u003e ISBN-13 978-0573707186)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cb\u003eDetails\u003c\/b\u003e:\u003cbr\u003eDonald Trump, Political Power, and Rewriting History in Tracy Letts' \u003cem\u003eThe Minutes\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003eProfessor Thomas Fahy\u003cbr\u003e1 session: Monday, June 1\u003cbr\u003e10:00 AM-12:00 PM\u003cbr\u003eFee: $35\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Frick Estate Lectures","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52057358532891,"sku":null,"price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/thefrickestatelectures.org\/products\/558-donald-trump-political-power-and-rewriting-history-in-tracy-letts-the-minutes","provider":"The Frick Estate Lectures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}