This
was a really great reading, I have this book on my “to read” list and I can’t
wait to read the rest! It was extremely well written, particularly the part
describing Aristotle’s theater, versus Brecht’s theater, versus the Theater of the
Oppressed.
I like the concept that when people act
through revolution in a theater piece that it is rehearsal for revolution. That
through performing an action, seeing how it feels, seeing it’s possibilities,
it could help people to perform those actions in their actual lives.
I found the part about symbols to be
especially important. That you can’t go somewhere and use a symbol, language,
or idiom, that doesn’t relate to the people. Symbols are cultural, and we must
be aware of that. It made me think about symbols in relation to our El
Acercamiento projects/Rueda. It also made me think about the care we must
exhibit when entering into these projects and situations.
This reading also made me think a lot about
JR. How he doesn’t go into a place to make art for a people, but with a people.
People don’t want to just be given a something, a finished piece, made “just
for them”. It is much more respectful, empathetic, holistic, and effective to
create a piece with a people. One cannot assume what a people need or want
without exploring that with them.
I think a lot of these concepts would be useful
in reflecting on our El Acercamiento pieces. I also see them being useful in Rueda
and see some of the ways that they have already be used in rehearsal. ;-)
I have been reading
a cheeky self-help book about depression my friend wrote, in the last chapter
he likened life to a role-playing game to help battle depression and stay
productive; you fight boss monsters (goals/tasks), get epic loot when you
defeat them, have side quests, have to build up you abilities, etc. In the
chapter he said, “humans fucking love games” (he has his doctorate by the way,
haha.) But seriously, he shared that several scientific studies show that
humans really enjoy games and can be extremely motivated by them. It made me
think that playing theater games with people and practicing revolution is way
more effective than we may have realized and supported the information in the
reading.
The strategy I was
most interested in was “Invisible Theater”. I have never heard of it and I was
fascinated by it. I think it might be useful in thinking about a performance to
do at CalArts about a CalArts issue.
I really liked the
line from the reading, “It is not the place of the theater to show the correct
path, but only to offer the means by which all possible paths may be examined.”
This was sort of my idea for our “reducing gun violence” projects. My group
wants to explore the question of “Why? - Why does gun violence happen?” We don’t
know the answer, so it would truly be an exploration of the myriad reasons we
think it happens, showing conservative perspectives as well. We could present
these scenes just to make them visible, and to make people think. It is not our
place to assert an answer.
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