Children Will Listen: Why I do what I do

I emerge from my blogging absence with lots of stories to tell and thoughts to organize. As it turns out, a full-time-and-then-some internship and a second job makes one quite busy! I was not idle in my hiatus, however. I was simply too busy DOING to record anything. I would like to find a better balance between work and writing, and I would like to keep my skills honed and my online presence…existent. So upon the conclusion of my internship, here is my first post about the most important thing I learned from the experience working on the Signature in the School’s production of the new play “Hero Worship” by Joe Calarco: what I’m doing with my life and why it matters.

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Nervous energy courses through the air as a group of young soldiers mills around the small space. Some listen to music to get in the zone. Others chatter about school. Some simply concentrate on the task at hand. What they are about to do will take courage, focus, and teamwork. If they succeed, they might just change the world.

“June 6, 1944.”

This isn’t June 6, 1944. This is March 10, 2014, and although this group of teenagers isn’t facing Nazi troops and bullets, they have some things in common with the D-Day soldiers they are portraying. They’re young (many soldiers at Normandy lied about their age and were actually 16 or 17). They’ve trained together for weeks (including an 3-week dramaturgy/acting rehearsal intensive called “boot camp”). They believe in their cause (these kids gave up 3 hours of time every day AFTER long days at school to rehearse.) And they’re a little nervous, because what they’re going to do is hard: they’re about to perform a play with very mature/controversial themes in front of 250 of their peers.

These high school actors blew me away.

“I pretended to be a man so I could go to war!”

“You don’t see any black soldiers in ‘The Longest Day,’ do you?”

They not only handled serious content (like war, race, PTSD, and suicide) with maturity and sensitivity, they showed some real talent on Signature’s professional stage. But as an educator, what most impressed me wasn’t their innate talent – although there was plenty of that – but rather their openness to instruction and support of each other. At one point, I had to make one of the actresses recite a monologue in which her character is reading her father’s suicide note again and again. I had to push the actress to completely break down and find her character’s vulnerability. She did it without question. At another point, I was responsible for directing 6 teenage boys by myself through a complicated D-Day sequence. They were completely attentive and respectful while I gave notes. On another day, when we did an exercise in which the whole cast was  to go around  a circle and say one positive sentence about each other person, everyone ended up saying a paragraph.

“Just don’t call me a hero. I was just doing my job.”

Perhaps the most validating moment for me as a dramaturg came during the talkbacks in the public performances. I had spent 2 months putting together what turned out to be a GIANT history resource guide for the cast and crew. I knew after the fact that I wrote too much, and there’s no way these kids would read it all. I was also convinced I had botched my dramaturgy teaching in the boot camp rehearsals. That was my first time teaching history to high schoolers, and the kids’ first impression of me. Many of them had already had one or two other interns from previous participation of Signature in the Schools. I was so nervous! Yet during the public talkbacks, when someone asked how they prepared for their roles, they immediately referenced the boot camp lessons and my resource guide. I almost exploded with pride.

Some of the crew joins the actors for a selfie!

These actors and crew members are young adults, not children, but they DO listen. They are about to become old enough to vote and enlist. They are solidifying values and opinions. And they make me very hopeful for the next generation of theatre practitioners and American citizens. Because of Signature in the Schools, they will be aware of the issues of war and returning veterans for the rest of their lives. They know the significance of D-Day and the Greatest Generation.

Students had the privilege to work with DC professional actress Nancy Robinette

That’s the power of dramaturgy,  teaching, and high school theatre programs. Theatre education programs are not just a way to keep the theatre at non-profit status. They might be the most important outlet to change society that a theatre has, if done right. Regional theatres and public school districts should not underestimate these kids. They will rise to the standards their educators set, so aim high.

After doing this internship, I believe that more greatest generations are yet before us. That’s why I do what I do.

 

A Few Thoughts about the Shutdown

Dramaturgs have a responsibility to comment on the society that surrounds them. Although many of us love nothing more than to bury our heads into academia, the past remains two-dimensional until we connect it to the reality of the present. As practitioners of the theatre, we must always be students of our fellow humans so that we can create art that speaks to the needs of our time. All this is to say that I could not, in good conscience, let the government shut down without a word or two in defense of our national parks.

Many people have opinions about this, but I initially just rolled my eyes at first. Although the news follows me like a swarm of bees in this city, the whole kerfuffle appeared to be the government reacting exactly as I expected them to react: Congress can’t agree, and some demographics get shafted. But the world keeps turning, and my little life continues as planned.

Except this time it didn’t. My little sister was visiting for one weekend, and I was planning on giving her a tour of my new home, especially the monuments. Then that week, the Government Shutdown closed the National Parks, and I had to cancel my patriotic walkabout. Even my dramaturgy was interrupted. I tried to get on the National Park Service websites for research, only to be reminded that the information was closed to me until further notice.

In a few weeks, things returned to “normal,” and everything opened again. I was able to continue my dramaturgical research for Signature. But as I walked around the National Mall last Friday, reflecting on the symbols of difficult times that Americans overcame together and some of the leaders who made great strides in human rights for this country, I surprised myself with defensive outrage.

How did we ever get to a point where it was acceptable to shut down these free, national symbols of all the best things about the United States of America?

I’m not just referring to the Lincoln and the Washington. We also allowed our government to lock the doors to the Smithsonian, an institution representing the pursuit of knowledge. We allowed them to close our National Parks, which preserve the natural beauty of this land. We allowed them to put metal gates around memorials dedicated to the bravery of our servicemen, although the 80-year-old WWII vets in wheelchairs were having none of it. Ford’s Theatre had to shut down their performance, although I was moved when Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company opened their space to Ford’s for the performance.

They stormed Omaha Beach. The WWII Memorial was a piece of cake.

I say “we allowed” because we voted these people into office. We did this to ourselves. We have to stop this rhetoric of demonizing the opposing political party. As I’ve grown up, I’ve heard things like, “The democrats are sending this country to hell,” sometimes meant literally. Or, I’ve heard, “Republicans are stupid.” I’ve internalized these comments as normal. I’ve become so numb to the heated political animosity that a GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN did not even give me pause at first.

Research and numbers also agree: political moderates nearly an extinct species in Congress. The WWF is calling for immediate redistribution!

But this kind of winner-take-all mentality breeds situations that led to the Government Shutdown. Any action that causes the shutdown of our national symbols should never be a political strategy. Granted, there was nothing “illegal” about it, but it’s bad sportsmanship. That tactic reminded me of playing games with my sisters when they were 6 years old. If something wasn’t going their way, instead of reworking strategy or challenging me to another round, they stopped playing. While that was their prerogative, it was annoying and unsportsmanlike. We should not be electing people who respond to situations like kindergartners, no matter how much we disagree with a policy.

I was reading an article the other day in a 2011 issue of TIME Magazine called “The New Greatest Generation” about Iraq veterans. Many are going into political leadership, and one story told of a veteran who ran for office as a democrat. He was supported by a Republican fellow veteran. When asked why, the democrat replied that although they disagreed, they knew each other’s values from being in the military together. What if these were the stories we told our kids instead of raising them to believe generalizations about the opposite political party?

I admire people who stand up for their beliefs. But the reality of politics is that it takes compromise. People are complex, so our leaders should represent that complexity. And we should start celebrating that. I myself am Republican-and-Democrat, Red-and-Blue, which conveniently enough were actually my high school colors. And in my generation, I’m talking to more and more people who feel similarly. We see the value in both perspectives. We disagree, but we never cease to respect each other.

Fight for your political beliefs. It’s one of our most beautiful freedoms. But political tactics that involve holding hostage the best parts of our country until you “win” must stop.

I took this photo last Friday. May this view always be open, free to the American people.