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Command Performance: An Actress In The Theater Of Politics
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. In Command 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.
360 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2000
4 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
Jane Alexander
15 books19 followersJane Alexander, of Lockeport, Nova Scotia and Dobbs Ferry, New York, is a Tony- and Emmy-award winning actress, four-time Oscar nominee, author and wildlife advocate. She is known for her roles in “The Great White Hope,” “All the President’s Men,” “Eleanor and Franklin” and “Playing for Time,” among others.
Alexander chaired the National Endowment for the Arts under President Clinton, and she has served on boards and councils for many wildlife and conservation organizations, including Panthera and BirdLife International. In 2012, she received the Indianapolis Prize’s inaugural Jane Alexander Global Wildlife Ambassador Award.
Alexander chaired the National Endowment for the Arts under President Clinton, and she has served on boards and councils for many wildlife and conservation organizations, including Panthera and BirdLife International. In 2012, she received the Indianapolis Prize’s inaugural Jane Alexander Global Wildlife Ambassador Award.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 9, 2023
Fascinating account of Jane Alexander's time as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. A political appointee in the Clinton administration, she had very little experience with politics, though she had a great appreciation for the NEA, which had funded a number of theatres and programs that had been beneficial to her and to her career. At the time, the Republican Party was determined to eliminate funding for the NEA, and her overriding goal was to make sure the Endowment survived. I enjoyed the writing. It was well-paced with a good feel for telling details. The personalities of the politicians and administrators came through very clearly. Alexander is a committed Democrat, but I didn't find her account very partisan--she was as appreciative of any Republicans' support of the arts as she was disappointed by any Democrats' lack of support. Her memoir is punctuated effectively by details of her private life. I enjoyed the book very much.
October 7, 2013
Holding back the hobgoblins
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 important as a cautionary tale.
In a word:Spirited
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 important as a cautionary tale.
In a word:Spirited
June 6, 2009
After someone mentioned "The Culture Wars" and I realized I kind of missed out on them, I did a little NEA research, which led to this book.
This is a great commentary on art and politics. Highly recommended.
This is a great commentary on art and politics. Highly recommended.
August 2, 2011
Read for a journalism class on criticism. Could have been interesting, but instead is pretentious and in need of an editor.
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January 26, 2013A little "left" for me.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews