Call me a theatre geek, but I firmly believe that WORDS are the most immediate form of human communication. They don't require a pencil or a computer. They just happen... from our breath... immediately!
Theatre was obviously more relevant when everything was words, words, words. But we've moved from that. Moved on to pictures, and then to moving pictures, and now to DIGITAL moving pictures... they're easy to understand quickly, and in some ways they communicate more. And that's great...
But.. WORDS... they still have their place. We need them! To express who we are and what's going on with us! They resonate - literally!- within our bodies. They trip from our lips and slip from our tongues. They viscerally explain what we're feeling with vibration that soothes and stimulates...
All right, I'll stop. I could go on for a while about the necessity of the spoken word, but I'll save that for another post.
However, if the spoken word is important, it must rediscover its place in society. I believe one of way it can do that is by showing relevance to our communities.
(yeah, yeah, we sit in our ivory tours and we talk about the importance of arts and literacy - but we don't seem to PRACTICE it. In practice we -the public ed system- continue to teach to the test and look for an immediate return - the system doesn't make a long-term investment in a student's life-long growth in communication skills)
And the school system isn't going to be able to do it. They have their own issues. But WE, the ARTISTS, the ones who understand empathy, and emotional intelligence, and the sheer power of words... we must take up the mantle. We must share what we know. Preferably with those who would not otherwise have a chance to learn.
So... we're attempting to do that at my theatre company. Educational programs for under-served and at-risk students are the obvious approach, and we're doing that, sure.
BUT I love that we're moving beyond that and creating theatre about our region of the country and presenting it to, even aiming it at, our region. And not easy topics.... Race, Military, Gays and Evangelicals, and more topics in process.
We are jump starting conversations - conversations needed for healing and for growth.
Our current project is about MASSIVE RESISTANCE - the situation that occurred when integration was forced on Virginia. Schools were closed for a year! And they re-opened because the white kids filed a reverse-discrimination case. Resentments are still harbored on both sides (Pretty tough for a city that is pretty much 50/50 black and white).
If Norfolk is to move past this - to get on with its growth - its got to talk about it. And where better than the theatre to jump-start this conversation?
Check out this interview with my artistic director about Line in the Sand. It will give you a taste of what's going on.
Much more press on the project and others will evolve in the following weeks.
Any ideas from your world? How you're increasing the common man's connection to theatre? I'd love to hear!
Information about Massive Resistance and Race in Norfolk:
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1 comment:
I just love how you open this post, Patrick:
"[Words] don't require a pencil or a computer. They just happen... from our breath... immediately!"
As a writer, words are my lifeblood. Without words, there would be no writing. And although I don't write for the theater (yet...I'd love to!), I still write as though my words will be read aloud. Music, rhythm, cadence -- to me they're as important in the written word as they are in the spoken word.
Storytelling -- be it on the stage or screen, around the campfire or on the pages of a book -- is one of the key ways we express our humanity. I've tried to communicate that in my novel, The MoonQuest, which takes place in a mythical time and place where storytelling is banned, storytellers put to death and humanity is, well, inhuman. Only when we're free to let the words of our stories just happen "from our breath...immediately" are we free to experience, express and share our humanity and, I would add, our divinity.
Bravo to you for bringing the written and spoken word to those who would otherwise have little access. It's so important. Without communication, we are nothing!
Keep doing what you're doing!!
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