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...
February 26, 2007
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!
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!
February 24, 2007
talk back #2
Since our first talk-back was such a success last weekend, we've decided to make it a regular feature of every performance. It's a natural extension of our "conversation."
Last night, we got some great questions from the audience.
One young man asked whether we thought the government could do more to change the problems we have in America. Some cast members said that the changes had to come from the bottom up, from individuals changing the culture, rather than the top down. When the audience member talked about the size of the problem by noting that, despite welfare reform, "the line at the welfare office still stretches around the block," Marielle responded (as she often does!) by saying that improving your station in life was a matter of personal responsibility. In her opinion, welfare should be around for people who've just arrived in America and don't know anybody, but people shouldn't be able to be on it for long periods of time. Not everyone agreed with her but we didn't have enough time to get into it fully...
Someone else asked if we thought American society -- and human life in general -- was "all just one big beauty contest." This reminded us of Cynthia's comments in rehearsal about actual beauty ocntests and the symbolic violence that they inflict on young women. What particularly bothers her, she said, was how the pageant organizers say they're "changing America one girl at a time." Other cast members pointed out that it's not only in America that we over-value beauty; every culture has a standard of beauty that people strive for. Perhaps it's part of human nature.
One great question that we got at the end: Is America built on opportunity or is it built on what we sell it to be. This got the cast talking about how America sells itself, in particular how the military sells the Armed Services to be a really "cool" job -- instead of talking about what it really is, a line of work in which you might end up killing people or being killed.
We could have gone on talking a whole lot longer and I hope that we do! If you have something to say in response to some of these questions, post a comment!
Last night, we got some great questions from the audience.
One young man asked whether we thought the government could do more to change the problems we have in America. Some cast members said that the changes had to come from the bottom up, from individuals changing the culture, rather than the top down. When the audience member talked about the size of the problem by noting that, despite welfare reform, "the line at the welfare office still stretches around the block," Marielle responded (as she often does!) by saying that improving your station in life was a matter of personal responsibility. In her opinion, welfare should be around for people who've just arrived in America and don't know anybody, but people shouldn't be able to be on it for long periods of time. Not everyone agreed with her but we didn't have enough time to get into it fully...
Someone else asked if we thought American society -- and human life in general -- was "all just one big beauty contest." This reminded us of Cynthia's comments in rehearsal about actual beauty ocntests and the symbolic violence that they inflict on young women. What particularly bothers her, she said, was how the pageant organizers say they're "changing America one girl at a time." Other cast members pointed out that it's not only in America that we over-value beauty; every culture has a standard of beauty that people strive for. Perhaps it's part of human nature.
One great question that we got at the end: Is America built on opportunity or is it built on what we sell it to be. This got the cast talking about how America sells itself, in particular how the military sells the Armed Services to be a really "cool" job -- instead of talking about what it really is, a line of work in which you might end up killing people or being killed.
We could have gone on talking a whole lot longer and I hope that we do! If you have something to say in response to some of these questions, post a comment!
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