"And what's done is often done again and done again."

As the page loaded so that I could begin this blog post, I heard

Without going out of your door
You can know all things on earth...

...The farther one travels
The less one really knows

((lyrics from "The Inner Light," The Beatles))

And all of the sudden, like many things in this play, that song really resonated with my mind frame. I know that after we finished reading the play I barely spoke two sentences. But this play, for several reasons, was one I really needed to have time on my own to decompress from reading; to let my thoughts percolate and my emotions untangle as it were.

Since In the Heart of America is the third Naomi Wallace play we've read as a class, and I'm not yet familiar with her other work, it's the commonalities between these plays that stand out to me. Foremost are the themes of inequality (within interpersonal relationships), power struggles/issues of control (both inter- and intrapersonal), homoeroticism, the cyclical nature of history and the way people dwell on their past mistakes without trying to learn from them.

There are also several images she uses repeatedly -- whether in evocative dialogue or visually, suggested in the stage directions. With most plays, people within the theatre world--especially when taking a scholarly approach--tend to bear in mind that stage directions in scripts are often added into scripts not by the playwright, but rather, after they have been performed and the script reprinted. My question after reading Slaughter City, The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, and In The Heart of America is whether or not the stage directions in the versions of these scripts that are included in the anthology we read from are directions from Naomi Wallace. Given that we are not reading reading individual scripts, from different publishers, as happens with Shakespeare, Williams, O'Neill, Mamet, but rather an anthology containing works only from one writer, I would assume Wallace wrote in the directions we read.

This makes it all the more meaningful when we read stage directions indicating that Pace stands in Dalton's jail cell and he is unaware of her presence, or Cod, not yet born, standing in the room that will lead to her mother's demise, trys so hard to warn her mother of the fire creeping quickly up the building, or Remzi shows up in the shadows of Craver and Fairouz's minds in the final scene of In The Heart of America.

Then there is the language. Again her language in this play is striking; stunningly simple at times, profound in its blunt, provocative nature in places, and full of memorable phrases and imagery. The repetition of words and phrases within each play ((all roads lead to Viewpoints for me now?)) lead you to reexamine the characters motives with each utterance. The threats and occurrences of people gutting one another throughout these three scripts make you contemplate what it is to split a person open, metaphorically, and get their inner self -- who or what will you find their heart beating for? Can you figure out what makes them tick? And their soul, if it is still there, what will it look like? The one that gets me every time, the one I most want ask the author about is the significance of fishing. It (the fishhook, fishing, fish etc.) seems to be a trademark. It appears in each of the scripts we read at some point. See if you remember who said what in which play:

• "As though your chin has a string attached to it that is pulling it up. (stage directions). No, a hook is better, a hook in your chin, like a fish."
  
• "He took some fish line and a hook out of his box and he sewed my mouth shout. That's why I could never kiss a girl."
• "Long thin pieces of glass. He pulled them out of his cheeks with pliers, like pullin' fish bones out of a fish."
• "I was using a six-pound line that day and I landed a four-pound smallmouth bass...He kissed me on the mouth four times, one time for each pound of that bass."

To touch on the three questions we were asked to keep in mind for each reading (what stands out to you, what do you relate to, and how does this play relate to your community), I think I have one thing to say to all three. Because I'm spending 20+ hours a week immersed in working on Soldiers Circle, the things that stand out to me and that I relate to most are bits of the dialogue that serve as keyholes into the soldiers' minds (right off the bat, between pp. 87 and 89, there are three lines that sound so much like characters in SC, that I immediately flashed back to last week's rehearsals, and David, Justin, and Tiffany in different scenes, making different observations about Iraq and war...and killing.) The play I'm stage managing is based on interviews with, blogs, journals, diaries, and letters by veterans of and soldiers in the current war with Iraq.
Even though In The Heart of America and Soldiers Circle are structured very differently and each has a very different focus from the other, I couldn't help but think about the parallels between all of the soldiers in the past wars Wallace mentions and soldiers in the current war. History isn't just repeating itself when politicians, civic and religious leaders ignore the past and return to war against anyone they can find who'll fight back, it repeats as the soldiers on the front lines are taught not value the lives of others (much like the attitudes Sarah Carleton described in her Solo Composition); are inundated with messages that the only thing that matters is winning, is saving themselves, at any cost, are sent back to live as civilians with the knowledge of the things that happen during war, and with the weight of the world on their shoulders. The weight of a world that is filled with people who can never possibly understand their experiences, relate to their lives.
I know I sure as hell won't ever understand what it's like to kill someone, because you've been sent into their country by people who can make the decision to put you in the line of fire, knowing they're safe back home, and now if you don't take that shot it could be you who dies.

The current war, like all wars at home and abroad, impacts not only the global community, but our community down to its most localized level -- campus, and even further in, our department. I'll venture to say all of know someone involved in the war to some extent (I have a fraternity brother who was called back to active duty last year, a close friend who's recent ex just shipped out, and a friend from my last school who married a man in the service, as well as other friends of friends or friends of family), giving us all an even bigger stake in a peaceful resolution.

As much I liked the other two plays, and would particularly enjoy working on Pace, I feel that in the spirit of community based arts, In The Heart of America just might be what's called for right now.




Besides I'd have an easy time finding people to interview.