Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Back to Africa
So I am going back to West Africa in July...this time, to facilitate a Forum Theatre/Joking workshop for the Réseau Arts Vivants, a non-governmental organization in Niamey, Niger that uses the performing arts to raise awareness about social issues such as HIV/AIDS, girls' education, reproductive health, and early marriage. I was invited by my friend Djibrine Mainassara, who participated in the Forum Theatre workshop I taught in Ouagadougou in February as part of the International Festival of Theatre for Development. The workshop I'm teaching in Niamey will be based on that one. Needless to say, I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to return to West Africa, to see a new country, Niger, and to connect with more theatre makers and artists. I will definitely continue my blog when I'm there...
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Community-Based Theater in Chicago
Lynn and I are spending this week in Chicago, talking to theater colleagues and learning more about community-based arts here. In three days I've had so much stimulating dialogue about how to engage audiences in true dialogue with theatrical works, working with youth, the role of theater and performance in our society now, at this juncture. I talked in my last post about making this kind of theater as an act of love, and here I have connected with so many dedicated and intensely creative people who see it that way too, in a diversity of ways...
Among them is Michael Rohd, artistic director of Sojourn Theatre, a Portland-based company who creates work based on diverse community perspectives that inspires dialogue. He is a fiercely curious and creative person who I admire greatly and whose work I have adapted (e.g. ripped off) on many occasions. He is currently a visiting professor at Northwestern University.
...and Paula Gilovich and Megan Carney, who have both directed About Face Theater's youth program, which creates original works that are performed as mainstage shows in the company's season. They are one of the only professional queer youth performance projects in the country. Megan is currently working on an oral history/performance piece in my hometown (and hers) Pittsburgh...
...and Nicole Garneau, an actor turned performance artist who is dedicated to public performance...talking to her made me want to reconnect to my performance art roots, to the idea of art as a happening.
It feels so exciting to connect into the web of performing artists who have dedicated themselves to pushing the boundaries of performance in service of increasing our connection to one another, to build community in a culture where we are encouraged to stay isolated and fulfill ourselves through buying and having things. But the feeling we get from making meaning and having others resonate with those meanings, you can't buy that and you can't take it away.
Among them is Michael Rohd, artistic director of Sojourn Theatre, a Portland-based company who creates work based on diverse community perspectives that inspires dialogue. He is a fiercely curious and creative person who I admire greatly and whose work I have adapted (e.g. ripped off) on many occasions. He is currently a visiting professor at Northwestern University.
...and Paula Gilovich and Megan Carney, who have both directed About Face Theater's youth program, which creates original works that are performed as mainstage shows in the company's season. They are one of the only professional queer youth performance projects in the country. Megan is currently working on an oral history/performance piece in my hometown (and hers) Pittsburgh...
...and Nicole Garneau, an actor turned performance artist who is dedicated to public performance...talking to her made me want to reconnect to my performance art roots, to the idea of art as a happening.
It feels so exciting to connect into the web of performing artists who have dedicated themselves to pushing the boundaries of performance in service of increasing our connection to one another, to build community in a culture where we are encouraged to stay isolated and fulfill ourselves through buying and having things. But the feeling we get from making meaning and having others resonate with those meanings, you can't buy that and you can't take it away.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
All About Love
I am currently re-reading bell hooks' book "All About Love". Let me start by saying that, from the moment I opened "Ain't I A Woman" in college, I have been in love with bell hooks, or at least, in love with her words. Whether about race and feminism, education, or aesthetics, her writing satisfies me completely. Many years ago, I had the opportunity to hear her read...it was truly a spiritual experience. Her voice is calm and comforting, yet so powerful, the perfect match for her words. They fulfill me on both an intellectual and spiritual level.
So, "All About Love" is a book that everyone should read, point blank. It examines love in all of its facets: romantic, spiritual, familial, communal...reading this book again, at this point in my life, three things stand out for me:
...that the deep fulfillment I feel in making theater in community is, in fact, an expression of love. I have recently admitted to myself that I am in love with my work. Theater is communion, it is a deep and lasting love affair.
...that I am more spiritual than I used to believe, that my desire to find spirituality in nature has helped and soothed me, that I see theater as my church, and that I am seeking a conscious practice that is, in some way, an expression of my own faith.
...that I am always in the process of developing self-love, and part of that process is keeping in close, intimate touch with my own personal truth, and being fully who I am.
Thank you, bell hooks, for sharing your thoughts on this incredibly important topic...we all need to spend more time thinking about how to love more.
So, "All About Love" is a book that everyone should read, point blank. It examines love in all of its facets: romantic, spiritual, familial, communal...reading this book again, at this point in my life, three things stand out for me:
...that the deep fulfillment I feel in making theater in community is, in fact, an expression of love. I have recently admitted to myself that I am in love with my work. Theater is communion, it is a deep and lasting love affair.
...that I am more spiritual than I used to believe, that my desire to find spirituality in nature has helped and soothed me, that I see theater as my church, and that I am seeking a conscious practice that is, in some way, an expression of my own faith.
...that I am always in the process of developing self-love, and part of that process is keeping in close, intimate touch with my own personal truth, and being fully who I am.
Thank you, bell hooks, for sharing your thoughts on this incredibly important topic...we all need to spend more time thinking about how to love more.
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