Cultural Placemaking Through the Arts - Bill George

Annotation William ("Bill") George is the co-founder of Touchstone Theater, a not-for-profit theater in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In this interview, George recounts what drew him to Bethlehem as a college student in 1968, and what has kept him in this community. He talks about the founding of Touchstone Theater as the Bethlehem People's Theater in 1977, and about some of the key moments in Touchstone Theater history. He describes what the Bethlehem arts community was like when he was starting in the 1970s, and the important community that has developed there through time. George describes the importance of local places and experimentation to theater, performance, and art. He talks about the challenges they have faced as a theater company, and he reflects on the meaning and value of art to the broader culture, as well as to the specific community of Bethlehem. This interview is part of a series of interviews conducted by Lehigh University in collaboration with area artists Doug Roysdon (Mock Turtle Marionette Theater), Anna Russell, and Avi Setton. These interviews were supported in part by the Lehigh University Mellon Digital Humanities Initiative. An oral history interview is an act of memory and hence both highly selective and highly subjective. While it accurately reflects what a narrator remembers (or chooses to tell) of his or her experience and viewpoints, it may not accurately represent what actually transpired or what another person may have experienced. As such users should subject interviews to the same degree of critical scrutiny they would any other historical source.