March 5, 2007
more pictures
Thanks to Sandy Friedman for these excellent pictures!! (as well as the ones on the previous post)
a message from sita
CONGRATULATIONS ON A WONDERFUL RUN! I've learned sooo much from each and every one of you, and I want to thank you all for it!
But, just because the play is over doesn't mean the conversation is... "keep talking America"...
I want to hear about your experiences when you first came here. Or if you were born here, how are your views of America different from your parents?
Did you ever believe in the "hype" about America at one point? How about your family? What kind of things would you tell someone that has never been here?
Dimelo Dimelo!!!
Love Always,
Sita
But, just because the play is over doesn't mean the conversation is... "keep talking America"...
I want to hear about your experiences when you first came here. Or if you were born here, how are your views of America different from your parents?
Did you ever believe in the "hype" about America at one point? How about your family? What kind of things would you tell someone that has never been here?
Dimelo Dimelo!!!
Love Always,
Sita
March 3, 2007
talk back #4
We started off our final weekend with a great show last night, followed by a really engaging talkback. We had a great debate back and forth between several different folks in the audience and in the cast.
We spoke a lot about why people come to America and what they find when they get here (as Francisco put it, should we believe the hype?). Someone in the audience told a story about a woman from Africa who accompanied her husband to America; her life in Africa was poor but simple, but in America she had so many other expenses and things to worry about. "Why did he bring me to America to suffer?" she asked. Well, some of our cast members understood where that woman was coming from. Tabetha and Stephanie noted that there can be a simplicity in poverty that may be more personally satisfying than all of the material riches that America has to offer. Marielle, on the other hand, suggested that the woman must like some things about being in America -- if she didn't, why not just go back?
Someone else from the audience commented that one thing America had to offer -- besides economic opportunity -- was a good education. We have a free public school system, which many children in the third world do not have. Others countered that our public school system has great disparities -- it's good in rich communities, but not as good in poor ones. Someone from the audience commented that young people in middle schools from poor countries in Southeast Asia are often doing more challenging work than their counterparts in American public schools. America, he suggested, tends to put money into whatever educational initiatives are in the country's economic interests. If the country needs people to staff cash registers, he said, then it doesn't have much interest in supporting their higher education.
A lot of different people had a lot of different opinions and as we went back and forth we got deeper into the issues. (Tabetha even quoted Plato: "Opinion is the medium between ignorance and truth.") One audience member concluded by saying that one of the great things about America is that we all had the freedom to get together and make this play. Everyone agreed.
And a big shout-out to Prof. Mendez's classes from Bronx Community College, who've been reading this blog and created some of their own performance projects and poems. Send me those poems and I'll post them on here! Let's keep talking...
We spoke a lot about why people come to America and what they find when they get here (as Francisco put it, should we believe the hype?). Someone in the audience told a story about a woman from Africa who accompanied her husband to America; her life in Africa was poor but simple, but in America she had so many other expenses and things to worry about. "Why did he bring me to America to suffer?" she asked. Well, some of our cast members understood where that woman was coming from. Tabetha and Stephanie noted that there can be a simplicity in poverty that may be more personally satisfying than all of the material riches that America has to offer. Marielle, on the other hand, suggested that the woman must like some things about being in America -- if she didn't, why not just go back?
Someone else from the audience commented that one thing America had to offer -- besides economic opportunity -- was a good education. We have a free public school system, which many children in the third world do not have. Others countered that our public school system has great disparities -- it's good in rich communities, but not as good in poor ones. Someone from the audience commented that young people in middle schools from poor countries in Southeast Asia are often doing more challenging work than their counterparts in American public schools. America, he suggested, tends to put money into whatever educational initiatives are in the country's economic interests. If the country needs people to staff cash registers, he said, then it doesn't have much interest in supporting their higher education.
A lot of different people had a lot of different opinions and as we went back and forth we got deeper into the issues. (Tabetha even quoted Plato: "Opinion is the medium between ignorance and truth.") One audience member concluded by saying that one of the great things about America is that we all had the freedom to get together and make this play. Everyone agreed.
And a big shout-out to Prof. Mendez's classes from Bronx Community College, who've been reading this blog and created some of their own performance projects and poems. Send me those poems and I'll post them on here! Let's keep talking...
March 2, 2007
sita's pics
Here are some pictures taken by our wonderful co-director, Sita. Some are from rehearsal and some were taken backstage...
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