what made america great is an independent, vigorous presence. if a jerk burns a flag, america is not threatened. political speech is the heart of the first amendment. they're expressing their religious beliefs. now is the time to make justice a reality for all of god's children. captioning provided by the freedom forum first amendment center welcome to speaking freely, a weekly conversation about the first amendment, the arts, and american culture. i'm ken paulson, executive director of the first amendment center. our guest today is a talented actress, whose work has been honored time and again. jane alexander received a tony award for her role in the great white hope. she received an emmy award for her performance

in playing for time. and along the way, she's picked up four academy award nominations and a television critics' circle award. and then in 1993, in what can only be described as a courageous career move, jane alexander signed on for the toughest role of all: chairman of the national endowment for the arts. she's here today to talk about her new book detailing her experiences with the n.e.a. it's called command performance: an actress in the theater of politics. thanks very much for being here. i've enjoyed your book very much. it's a-- it's a terrific read both for people who care about the theater and those who have a commitment to free expression. i-i was struck, though, by a lot of the content of the book where this appeared to be a dream job in some ways for you. but in other ways, it clearly-- there were mornings that you had to wake up and go "what was i thinking?" how was the job different from what you expected? i truly believed, when i came to the n.e.a., that i might be able to turn around the negative opinion that congress had of the n.e.a., in particular, because of a couple of controversial grants.

and what happened instead was, within the year, the 104th congress, the first republican congress in 40 years, took control with newt gingrich as speaker and with a whole new kind of republican coming in. it wasn't the rockefeller republican who had funded the arts and the humanities so much in the past. it was a new breed that was out to create a moral nation, pare down government, and so on. and the n.e.a. was top of their hit list. so i was in the trenches for the rest of the time there. in the book, you tell a fascinating story about your relationship with artists, both-- some of whom have been supportive, some of whom have not been. and you express your disappointment as you came in that-- people like fred thompson, who had a career as an actor, sonny bono, who was at one point a symbol of the counterculture long ago-- neither one expressed much support for n.e.a. did that surprise you?