talk-back #3

We had a very interesting talk-back on Saturday night. One woman in the audience asked us why our conversation about America didn't have more to say about racism in America. She also asked about our portrayal of black female stereotypes, notably Amanda's role in one of the four "America skits."

The cast said that the script for the show reflected the topics that the group talked about in rehearsal; since racism per se didn't come up much in our discussions it doesn't feature prominently in the show. Race is an implicit factor in a number of the issues we do address, like immigration and economic opportunity. But the script does focus more on class and economics in its analysis of America.

The young people also disputed the criticism of Amanda's performance in the America skit. Yes, she is playing a stereotype, but that comes from a section of the play in which everyone is a stereotype: moments before that Amanda speaks in a stereotypically "white" valley girl voice and moments after it Gilbert and Stephanie play a stereotypically male and female husband and wife. We're playing around with those stereotypes and with the lines of the poems. It should also be noted that that portrayal is only one part of the many personas that Amanda takes on throughout the show, inlcuding a very moving section in which she speaks in her own voice asking America why she has to be stuck in a world all on her own.

This discussion gave us all a lot to think about, though, and I'd love for some of our performers and audience members to offer their thoughts about these issues:

- What did our performance leave out about race in America?
- How would you start to create a "performed conversation" about race in our country?
- Of what significance is it that our cast is made up entirely of young people who are members of racial and ethnic minorities, of which the majority are first and second-generation American? Does that fact say anything about the racial make-up of America?
- What do you think about racial stereotypes, either in our performance, or in the media at large? How common are they? How do we internalize them when we think and talk about race?

There's a lot more to say about this. I hope we hear from several voices!