Monday, March 30, 2009

Performances so far (not ELP)

I received my grades back from my solo performance of my own story and my first performance of my piece from Trestle, so I figured I'd write on both of them.
The solo performance was kind of nerve-wrecking for me, I don't like to perform myself. Interesting, isn't it, how it is so much easier to hide behind a character that someone else has created? All actors are storytellers, but how hesitant we are to tell our own stories on stage. (Backstage... well, that's something else entirely.) So of course, I didn't execute my story exactly how I had rehearsed it, (and of course none of you knew any better, but there was even more great repetition and so fourth), but the plot was still communicated, so on that most basic level, I was still successful. As I said in my pre-story, I really don’t think I have many good stories to tell, in fact only one that I can produce on command that is really worthwhile, and even then it has to be for the right audience. It was very helpful to have someone say, in essence, “just tell. Me. A. Story. It doesn’t have to be epic, or ironic, or profound, it just has to have characters and action.” Time and again I find myself struggling as a student because I get too immersed in what I have been asked to do, and then I get overwhelmed and half the time I quit. When I don’t quit, I often end up settling for something less than what I had envisioned in my head, even though it still meets the assignment’s requirements. What did Shakespeare say about ambition?

Approaching Dray’s monologue was a different sort of challenge, as I had to figure out if/how to present it within the context of the play without someone playing Gin, and what to do with this need to destroy things-physical things-in order to manifest his frustration with his situation. I also wish I had spent more time playing with the physical tearing itself, and that I had sucked it up and brought something woven which I could tear. (I think someone I know occasionally does this as a stress relief mechanism. She also has been known to smash aluminum cans with a sledgehammer. Maybe I should interview her.) I want to work more with using the tears as punctuation.
In the future, I am also going to do the whole scene, I think, since we talked so much about honoring the script, and it really does make a huge difference in the action of the scene.
What I really like about this scene is they way that Dray is finally able to put his finger on something, to form the sentence “I don’t know how to belong to my life.” It gives a sense of hope, in the sense, at least, that progress is being made, and progress is the number one thing really missing from the lives of these characters. The stagnancy has smothered any remaining hope in just about everyone but Gin. What about Pace? In some ways, she is the driving force of the play, but she also doesn’t really know where she’s going.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Meeting the writer

I wanted to post over the break about meeting Naomi Wallace, and that seemed to slip my mind.. all week.. so, i decided to go ahead and post about it now.
Going into the meeting, I had a completely different idea of what she would be like, and what our meeting would be like. I just thought that it would be very professional, because she is a professional and very successful-- so i thought that we would be very restrained in our questions and that she would be cut and dry with her answers. However, I was proven wrong when she walked up to greet our group with this welcoming smile on her face. We sat in a small circle and started talking about writing and what we are doing with this class and she was just as interested in us as we were in her. It was so fun to hear her talk about her experience working with other people in the business, and I was so comfortable listening to her. She seemed like she was a part of our close community, and she is from Louisville, but when I stand back and think about where she has been and how successful she is, it really was nice to meet the person and not just a professional personality.
To be reading and performing her work is a completely different level of amazement for me. It is just such a new experience that I'm not quite used to and embracing that is definitely a fun adventure for me (and as I hope for the entire class). It makes me nervous to some extent too, to perform her work now, because we have met her and I feel a loyalty to her to perform it like she wanted, but i don't really know what that is.
the point of my blog is that it was a really educational experience getting to meet Naomi Wallace, and it was nice to put a personality with the name and face, and to know who wrote the plays that we have read and discussed.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

So Obvious, Yet So Often Overlooked

I haven't worked with a professional theatre in any capacity; my theatrical experience is pretty well limited to work at the University of Louisville. Therefore, when it comes to the etiquette of the professional theatre, I have only questions and some hearsay. What I saw during the special effects tech run for THWBP answered a question, and it also made me smile a little.

The director, actors, and crew members treated one another with respect and civility. Unfortunately, this behavior is not often seen in our theatre department. Instead of barking orders at others, those involved with THWBP made polite requests. Rather than give attitude, they offered thanks for having been accomodated. No one person acted as if he or she was better than another. Similar ideas may have been thought by some, but they were not shown. The director did not scream, the actors did not talk down to crew members, and the crew members did not insinuate that the actors were buffoons. How nice it seemed. Furthermore, the star playwright that we met was a nice as anyone that I have spoken with for only half-an-hour.

Granted, this was one experience. Despite my lack of knowledge on the matter, I highly doubt that all professional theatre is always so courteous. I even doubt that the same behavior was seen throughout every inch of ATL. We've all had our moments of shameful behavior, I have certainly had mine. But that is the absolute most that they can be: moments. Those mere moments are still too much, but all cannot be perfect. I am not asking for rainbow smiles and Beach Boy sing-a-longs, but something as simple as politeness can make all the difference. Theatre, both inside and outside of this particular class, should be about community and collaboration. Anything else and the work is no longer art, it becomes a gross product of the ego. Good manners are an elementary component of the collaborative process and an easy way to establish that egos have been put aside for the benefit of the community. I've had a fear that passive-aggression and high-horse attitudes would to be ever-present in my hopeful future. Two Thursdays ago, I regained an optimism that the days ahead may not be so grim.

The Writer. The Reader. The "Then What?"

After returning from talking to Naomi Wallace, I had this weird thought that...SHE WROTE IT! Haha, I guess what made it weird was that there was an intensity level of knowing she had the answers, or that we had questions that had no business being asked regarding the work itself, that make sense? It was when Rocky was talking about the issues regarding war and terror and war crimes and how it can be paralleled throughout the there plays that we read - i realized that this woman HAS THE ANSWERS! Then I got to thinking some more, what have i created on my own through my own experiences that were not hidden into these texts in the first place - and how off target will I be when I talk about it? Anyway, it was a bit of anxiety regarding a pandora's box situation - do I want to know what's intentional or what's not? Hmm...

I also had a very self-esteem booster type of moment when I realized that I had stumbled across something (seemingly)great that parallels the three plays. Perhaps it was something to do with the supernaturalness of being able to leave or find something better. Perhaps that was the role of Lue Ming, Sausage Man and the Train - they were these more than reality characters that showed us something about the characters and ourselves - where we are coming from and what we are striving for. That doesn't sound like what I said (if anyone wrote it down, I'd like to be refreshed) but I like this just as well.

Moving on to other things, interviewing.... I'm starting to get worried about who I can interview and how far I'm able to spread my wings in doing so. I've got interviews lined up with people who are in the class, but does that really do me any good?

Moving on again. Recently (Yesterday) I just got back from the USITT conference, which is a Theatre Technology conference that showcases the growing industry and offers classes regarding different areas of technical theatre to help people learn and share their experiences. While I was there and for a few weeks I've been dealing with the issues of what do i want to get out of what I am doing? For example, I really want to run away to NYC and latch onto a designer and work my way up in the world by becoming a Broadway Lighting Designer - but what good am I doing for the world? Sure, I'm entertaining the few masses who can experience such a pricey thing, but what am I doing? So, the activist inside of me really wants to focus on the world and the issues that are at hand. I want to make a difference with all of this schooling that I'm doing and is that Community Based Theatre?

I realize this is scattered, but this is how the good thoughts come out (at least for me)

Monday, March 9, 2009

research for naomi wallace

So, finally, here are the two articles I pulled from that I found online. The first is "Enemy Within," and you can find it at http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2007/feb/06/lyngardner.features11 . This article speaks mostly about how Naomi is percieved. It especially talks about what obstacles she has to face as far as the government goes, or just how she is not very welcomed in her playwrighting from the government because she is, after all, a very political writer.
("Today, if you put forward ideas of a different America, you are accused of being naive or presumptuous and of not accepting reality," says Wallace") This was a quote I pulled from the article that gives you an idea of what she faces as a writer, and how she thinks as a person. (Gardner, Enemy Within.)

The second article was titled, "Looking for Fire," by Connie Julian. It is found at
http://revcom.us/a/1232/naomirwinterview.htm. This was an interview with Naomi Wallace, and although she did not talk extensively about her background information, I feel that by reading this, you will know her more personally than you would with a biography.

("In this culture we are sexualized in a certain way, not only to be heterosexual, but we are told there is one story of the body, and that is how you interact with the body. You know, the attention is put on the breasts or the groin and these other parts of the body are neglected, right? [laughs] But it's not so much just finding, "Oh, my toe is erotic," it's not about that, it's that if we're trying to re-imagine ourselves, then maybe we need to touch the world and what's out there in a different way, and grasp it in a different way. It's through making it strange to ourselves that we sometimes get into a new place, and then we can look at ourselves differently or look at our possibilities differently.
While I have also written about queer sexuality, I've mostly done what you're talking about in heterosexual relations in my plays because how heterosexuals touch and act out their sexuality is extremely overdetermined and restrictive. I've tried to break that down. The Trestle at Popelick Creek was an experiment in trying to write a heterosexual love story which is not dead at the gate in terms of being a site for change.
I do not believe that any sexuality is inherently liberatory or resistant. It depends on where it's sitting in history. So the challenge for me is how can I take a relationship between a boy and a girl and remake that desire in a way that they're not just a boy and a girl any more. They have to look at what it means to be a boy and a girl, how they are supposed to act, how they are supposed to touch and what they want to do with that knowledge. That's why a lot of folks have felt that it's a very queer play in that way. Because the sex that the boy and girl have is not your typical teenager sex when they finally get down to it. Because they are strangled by the norm, what they are allowed to do, what their choices are, which are so few. So it's a boy and a girl trying to break out of how they are meant to interact as young heterosexuals.
I think there's also a way of looking at the body, the way the body is so overused in this society in terms of selling it, or the way it labors, or the way the body is used up, by capitalism you could say, used and thrown out the back door. How we're these incredible bodies, with this enormous capacity to feel and desire, and how that's destroyed or how that's harnessed for other means, like channeling our desires into buying or consuming. So to try to relook at the body, and almost retrain our bodies to respond in a different way, or go to a different place than where the legal touch requires it to go. I've always been interested in that." -Naomi Wallace) (Julian, Looking for Fire.)
That was just an excerpt from the interview that I found very interesting because Naomi Wallace's plays are very sexual, but in a very different, almost raw, way from the "mainstream," or "common," sex scenes we see in plays today. The rest of the interview is very informative and really shows what Naomi's mission is as a writer. I encourage you to read the entire thing- it may help when reading her plays.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

I'll meet you down at the trestle

GIN: Trains. Yeah. Huge, sweatin', steamin', oil spittin' promises when I was a girl. Always taking someone away, never bringing someone back. I couldn't get used to it.

This is a line from Act I Scene III of The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek. Gin says it to Dalton when he is trying to impress her with Pace's knowledge of trains. This conversation between mother and son is intercut with Dray's hand shadows portrayed by the often silent father character. The hand shadows are quite similar to Gin's idea of trains: something that you can see, but cannot touch or truly experience.
For my dramaturgy report, I researched and presented history and facts surrounding trains and trestles, especially those in Louisville and throughout Kentucky. In my applying this information to the play, I assumed the setting of the play somewhere in Appalachia.
The L&N railroad began extending its line to Eastern Kentucky towards the end of the 19th Century. As soon as the idea of trains and railroads became comfortable with these people, the Great Depression hit. Trains in Eastern Kentucky stopped transporting people, but continued to transport goods, like coal. Here is a (long) quote from the book, History of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad by Maury Klein:

"The elimination of trains and especially the abandonment of mileage evoked a similar anguish that extended beyond the L&N family into dozens of the communities served by the company. The accelerating rate of abandonments symbolized a striking reversal in the history of American railroads. The high tide of expansion had passed and was now ebbing slowly back. With its receding line went the hopes and ambitions of thousands who inhabited the areas no longer served. Usually the L&N's departure merely confirmed that any significant industry or resources were dried up. In this reverse process the railroad's leaving symbolized decay just as its coming had suggested prosperity. To these people, already crushed in spirit, abandonment often connoted desolation in more than the literal sense."

One of the most valuable books I found is called Trains, Trestles, and Tunnels, by Lou Harshaw. There are so many amazing pictures of trains, traintracks, tunnels, and trestles taken throughout Southern Appalachia, as well as a basic history and timeline of railroads in the South. There is one amazing picture of a trestle coming out of a tunnel, with a girl standing on top of it. Imagine Pace.
And finally, I found two songs that I think capture some of the overall mood of the show. I like putting music in my research, because it evokes a very specific emotion.

Train Song by Vashti Bunyan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AGD78mWcss
Trestle by Cletus Romp http://www.myspace.com/cletusromp

I know you won't miss kids like us, but kids like yours will pay the price

While doing the dramaturgy assignment for the class, I came across a huge amount of information regarding my topic: Gulf War/Desert Storm. My most valuable piece of evidence was finding a website that had many declassified government documents which were able to be downloaded into a PDF version. This information was WAY helpful, because it gave an unpopular, yet very factual, insight to the war.
The overall language of was very USA biased. For example, one of the main reasons we even started paying attention to things in Iraq was due to the Iraqi success in the Persian Gulf War and what Iraqi influence my do to the surrounding areas. We, and it's stated in the Executive summary released by the Government, the US Government became nervous of losing OUR influence in the land that is Iraq, Iran, UAE, etc. First off, the immediate question is why do we,the USA, have to have the overpowering influence in a land that is not, in anyway, our home? It's ridiculous. However, there are other reasons for war.
Kuwait sits on oil for days..., if Iraq took over Kuwait it was would have control of almost three quarters of the world's supply of Oil(previously having around 1/4). (It's safe to assume then Kuwait is not a threat - since by a simple arithmetical process we will easily discover that Kuwait now has almost 50% of the supply). Is it safe? Desert Shield was an act to protect Kuwait and keep Iraq out, then Desert Storm was born and created the effort to go around and attack Iraqi forces from the side (blindside them). We won! Hooray! - yeah...
The first Gulf War is heralded as the one that "broke the Vietnam Syndrome!" We did in fact have success in many ways in Iraq. I believe that this war had the least US Casualties reported as well as conflict seemed resolved, whereas Vietnam...is still a scourge in our history and will forever be the comparison for a war that went on for too long (and should have never started). When will ever learn; How can you remove a speck of sawdust from your brother's eye when the whole time you've got this great big plank in your own!

That little parable to me is the epitome of what In the Heart of America is for me. We've got these problems but we're spending time trying to solve other problems. We have to work on ourselves first to be able to open up and accept what is right and what is ... true to ourselves. It seems that the one character who does open himself up for truth is the one who dies. Remzi. Craver, who is lost in his own world from issues of PTSD and issues growing up; Fairouz who carries bitterness in her towards her brother and herself and how everything is turning out; they carry planks in their eyes and they need to be able to wash themselves of it. Does that make any sense?

Other information found was visual evidence from Youtube. There is a youtube channel that offers videos on all of the major American wars and the reason and tactics used during the war. It is extremely helpful in allowing someone (like me) who knows very little about war tactics and just general knowledge to be able to understand how it all happened. It is sponsored by the Discovery Channel.

I am not at my own computer so I cannot provide the accurate links (that are saved at home) but will update this post when I can get to my own computer!

I'm reminded of a song...

Thin Ice - Soviettes

I might not know just everything
But what I hear is that you kind of brought this on yourself
Well not quite you, but some before
They set it up so that the one you're after sat on top, they put him in a privileged spot
They gave him everything he's got
And now he's keeping to himself, so send someone for your revenge?
Well maybe not revenge
It's been suggested that you're out to finish up your daddy's war
You say it's not okay for them to have enough to wipe us out, so why is it okay for you?
It seems to me that since no one's got their hands on anyone for what happened last year
You're using this as a distraction
If you stepped back a minute I would hope you'd see
Its better that you work this out yourself
I know you won't miss kids like us, but kids like yours will pay the price
How will they see you then?

I wonder what they think of your big plan to wipe those people out
This could be your biggest regret
The ice you're on has never been so thin

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Our Myspace Pages, Commenting on Our Work, and Naomi Wallace on Youtube

Just a couple of quick things: first, we have set up Myspace pages for our characters. This is how we will collect the character based research we do for the rest of the semester. The point of collecting information on Myspace is so that we can build online identities for our characters in a very public way. Once again, please feel free to comment on our work: we want to know what you think! This is all about having a conversation with members of our community as we build and develop characters.

Which brings me to commenting: I recently figured out that it doesn't seem possible to add a comment on Blogger, here, unless you have a Google account or some other related online presence. That's unfortunate! But if you have things you'd like to say and don't want to sign up for a free Google account, please feel free to email me at amy.steiger@louisville.edu, and I will post your comments for you. The same goes for Myspace: if you'd prefer not to sign up for an account, I'll be happy to copy and paste your thoughts for you.

Finally, this is just an online interview between Naomi Wallace and Kwami Kwei-Armah that I found on Youtube:


Monday, March 2, 2009

video links

As I'm doing work on Boxler and looking at vids about PTSD, I'm also considering other things we (as a nation, not we as a class) remember about the Vietnam War. That took me to thinking about Kim Phuc, the girl in the famous picture regarding napalm attacks, which led to this video. Just something for TA 525 to think about; esp. given the Viewpoints work we've done in class regarding images.

Univ. of CA TV: Can an image change the world?


Also, here are links to the youtube videos that I am hoping to show in class today:

Vietnam War: Da Nang
Public Service Announcement
What is PTSD?
PTSD Awareness
PTSD


These videos are not 'the gospel truth' in terms of highly regarded authorities speaking on the subject, but they are there to get the mental cogs turning.

One last one, not related to PTSD necessarily, but still regarding how a veteran copes with the after effects of war:

CNN: Wounded and Inspirational