Ways of Being an Artist

Abstract

By way of coda to our earlier coverage in NTQ of Nicaraguan theatre under the Sandinista government, we include here an interview with Alan Bolt, one of the best-known and most controversial of the playwrights of the revolutionary period. The interview was conducted in September 1989, just a few months before the free elections ended the fragile, insidiously-obstructed Sandinista experiment in socialism with a South American face. While dedicated to the ideals of the Sandinistas, for whom he had fought underground during the Somoza dictatorship, Alan Bolt found himself increasingly opposed to some of those who were putting the revolution into practice, and he chose to work instead with his own theatre group and agricultural collective for a better understanding both of the issues which made revolution necessary, and those which were now prejudicing its success. Bernard Bloom, who introduces this interview with a brief outline of Alan Bolt's career, is a Canadian writer and photographer who lived in Nicaragua during 1987 and 1989. He has lectured extensively about the country, and his photographs have been widely exhibited.