Editor's note.(theaters)(Editorial)

"THEATRE," Vaclav Havel remarks in his 1990 book Disturbing the Peace, "is always a sensitive seismograph of an era, perhaps the most sensitive one there is; it's a sponge that quickly soaks up important ingredients in the atmosphere around it." It's an observation that might be perceived as idealized or romantic--but this month's issue of American Theatre suggests that the intimate connection Havel posits between the art form and the world it mirrors is alive and well on a variety of American stages.

Borderlands Theater of Tucson, Ariz., whose work is the ...