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Viewing entries by
Jessica Litwak
The H.E.A.T. Collective was founded by Artistic Director Jessica Litwak to create, advocate and inspire artistic expression rooted in healing, education, activism, and theatre. We work to build collectives in every context: in our performances, workshops and community events. Engaging artists across the world, we aim for powerful bridge building art of courageous generosity. In this series, guest experts will write a piece representing each letter of H.E.A.T. - week one will be healing, week two is education, week three is activism, and the last week of the month is theatre. Together these pieces will highlight the work that is being done across all aspects of The H.E.A.T. Collective in the hopes that we can ignite dialogue, spark further exploration, and encourage more people to get involved.
It all began with a question.
A man was sitting next to me at an immersive experimental theatre performance in Prague. There was a large map taped to the table in front of us. Participants were asked to add or color their countries of home and work. I got busy drawing The Middle East and India on one side of the flat spectrum of the world and the United States on the other. The man watched with curiosity as I ran around the table trying to establish my geography. He asked me, ‘You work all over the world, don’t you think, since The Czech Republic is not a racist country, that we should keep refugees out so we don’t become racists?’. I was shocked by the question. I repeated it to several people over the next few days and discovered that the man’s query was a not atypical of the general response to the growing refugee crisis in Europe. By asking other Czech citizens about their opinions regarding refugees from Arab and Asian countries, I uncovered a surprising amount of animosity for the ‘other’. One woman I spoke to said, and I am paraphrasing here, ‘The Vietnamese are OK, the gypsies are horrible but Muslims want to kill us and must be kept out’. I couldn’t understand how this seemingly friendly country, which had welcomed me so warmly, was harbouring so much hate especially when their refugee numbers from any country are quite low compared to most of Europe. Then a Czech colleague hit the nail on the head. He said: ‘In the basement of The Hate you will always find The Fear’.
I began to wonder whether fear really is at the root of most intolerance and conflict, and if people get angry before even realizing they are afraid. San Suu Kuy who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her fearless work advocating for human rights in Burma claims, ‘It is not power that corrupts but fear’. But fear is not only the cause of misery, it is also our way out of it. As John Paul Lederach observed, we must reach out to those we fear and imagine the possibilities. Only then can we overcome fear and hatred. The Fear Project was born out of my investigation into fear as a core motivator for xenophobia and, like VT and ethnodrama, it is a theatrical action based on interviews. The play is an ensemble piece that tells stories about fear and includes a combination of theatrical styles: choral poetry made from verbatim interviews, direct address monologues, and scenes. The encounter between the artist and audience includes pre-show interviews by the performers and a post- show discussion led by the artistic team. The goals are: to provide a safe space for all participants including artists and audiences; to build a forum to share our fears and become aware of the fears of others; to allow an experience of individual and community healing; to encourage the development of solutions to personal and social challenges; to create and invite others to witness vibrant and meaningful theatre.
The process is divided evenly between ensemble collaboration and direction by a lead writer and director. My roles include playwright, director, drama therapist, interviewer, educator, community builder and, sometimes, performer. The Fear Project process always evolves over these twelve stages:
1. Gather collaborators within community
2. Training interviewers
3. Interviews
4. Choral poem
5. Reading/discussion/improvisation
6. Writing family scenes and monologues
7. Reading/discussion/improvisation
8. Write additional scenes
9. Rehearsal: character development, staging, etc.
10. Interviews
11. Performance
12. Audience discussion
The play is reinvented in each location with new interviews, new brainstorming, new devising, a new script, and new staging. So far, The Fear Project has been reinvented four times: in New York, in Prague, at The University of Wisconsin, and in Kolkata, India.
The first stage of the process involves gathering the company who will conduct the interviews, collaborate on the creation of the script, perform the play and engage in the final discussion. Each person agrees to participate in all the tasks: seek out interviewees, conduct interviews, engage in an in-depth theatrical devising process, participate in performances, contribute to post show discussions, and to practice the four approaches of the H.E.A.T Collective. Some participants come on board as citizen volunteers although we have given stipends whenever funding is available. The project changes with each incarnation, despite the same process and the same form, not just because the interviewees and the audiences vary, but also because the company (performer, interviewers, collaborators) is different each time. Prior to beginning the interviews, I lead a short training with the company that covers the guidelines for interviewing.
The interviews last fifteen to thirty minutes each. The interviewer sets up the agreements, asks the questions (one to two minutes per questions) and then creates closure (see below). I ask that interviewees not be interrupted in mid flow of thought or mid-sentence. We keep the time limit as a gentle pressure, not a hard and fast law. The interviews can take place in person (preferred) or over the phone. These specific details are incorporated into the choral poem that is later developed from interviews. The interviews can be collected with audio recording or written notes. The interviews must be transcribed before they are sent to me with as much accuracy as possible.
I spent a few weeks arriving at the chosen questions that would evoke honest answers about fear from the interviewees. I wanted to find questions that would work across different demographics and still invite specificity without leading the interviewee. I couldn’t ask open questions as the premise of the project already supposes that everyone experiences fear of some kind. I tested questions with my Ph.D. cohort, my theatre and drama therapy friends, and my international colleagues in informal focus groups. I finally chose thirteen questions. All interviewers ask the thirteen questions in the following order:
1 What are you afraid of?
2. Who are you afraid of?
3. Where are you afraid?
4. How do you react to fear?
5. How do you conquer fear?
6. What is the enemy?
7. Who is the enemy?
8. Where is the enemy?
9. How do you react to the enemy?
10. What do you do to conquer hate?
11. Who is the stranger?
12. What is home?
13. How do you feel about your country?
I offer instructions to the interviewers to have a small closure process after each interview including thanking the interviewees for their time, and checking in that the questions did not stir up unbearable emotions. We inform people that individual follow up sessions with me are available for interviewers and interviewees if more processing is needed. The interviews are then sent to me and the next stage of the process begins.
The structure of the FEAR script is made up of five parts: the interviews presented as choral poetry, family scenes, supplemental scenes, direct address monologues that reveal the character’s inner voices, and embedded audience interviews. The first stage of the devising process is building the choral poem. Once the interviews are collected I organize them by question, into thirteen groups. Then I craft them into a choral poem. The choral poem brings a unity to the diverse voices and stories in the text.
Here we arrive at an important and perhaps somewhat controversial fork in the road. The Fear Project is an artful interpretation of verbatim text organized with collaboration through one voice. This reasoning is specific to my orientation as a practitioner. I balance community building and therapeutic goals with the creation of well-made plays: plays created with clear characters, a dramatic arc, strong structure (stasis, happening, crisis, climax, resolution) and poetic voices. I believe that the back and forth collaboration between ensemble input and one lead writer/editor make for a high-quality script. In my opinion, the better the script the stronger the effectiveness of the full experience.
The first thing I do is to play with the words on the page using performative writing. I then work with poetic voice, including scansion, rhythm and voice. I hear the poem both inside my mind and by reading out loud and make decisions about repetition and flow, as well as which voices should say which words. I score it like music for the number of voices I am working with. I use my knowledge of those voices as well as a sense of balancing their lines equally so it is truly an ensemble performance. I decide what interview sentences will be included or excluded. For instance, if three people say, ‘the loss of my healthcare’, I may fold those answers into one response or I may decide to repeat a certain line or word a number of times
The next step in the devising process is for the actors to read the choral poem aloud and respond to it. Here is where the performers, who have also been the interviewers, reflect on their experiences during the process of conducting interviews, they respond to both the thirteen questions and reflect on their own life experiences. They also respond to the answers they have received and I get feedback and information about the process and the community we’ve been working within. For instance, in one session after reading the choral poem, an actor talked about her recent split with her adult siblings, another remembered her fear of being bullied in school, and another recalled the first time he realized as a little boy that he was going to die. Another participant had a particularly intense connection with one of her interviewees and another expressed a political rage and a desire to throw things at walls. I guide the performers through improvisations based on these responses and then deepen discussion. The work we do together is developed into the scenes and monologues in Part Two of the script devising process.
In the next phase of the process I write the family scenes and the monologues based on the discussions and improvisations conducted after the reading of the choral poem. Since the fiercest microcosm of the larger world can often be found around a family table, there is always a family at the centre of The Fear Project script. Our cast in The Czech Republic reported generational chasms in their own homes in response to the refugee crisis, and in the New York group members wept in our first meetings about family members who had broken with them over the recent election. One colleague whose mother had voted for Trump said, ‘you talk about our nation breaking apart over this election – what about families?’ In India, the actors spoke openly about the need to keep families together by keeping youth from leaving the area and keeping women family members safe.
Theatre is the most integrative of all the arts: it can, and often does, include singing, dancing, paint- ing, sculpture, storytelling, music, puppetry, poetry and, of course, the art of acting. It can be argued that there is an innate healing function in theatre that goes all the way back to its origins in human culture It is the art form closest to life, an “imitation” of life; its purpose being “. . . to hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature” . Theatre is a celebration of life in all its light and darkness, and, as this article attempts to demon- strate, the art of theatre, per se, can be shaped into a powerful vehicle for therapy that positively effects psychological well-being.
Drama therapist Susana Pendzik, in her discussion of the transcendental aspects of performance, provides a good, succinct definition: “This approach involves the therapeutic development of a play and its presentation in front of an audience” Theatre- a celebration of life in all its light and darkness- a powerful vehicle for possibility effecting psychological well-being.
The FEAR Project attempts to have a positive psychological effect on the participants (artists and audiences) but the context of the experience is theatrical and up until now held in theatrical or educational settings. There is no therapeutic contract with the audience or the artistic collaborators; therefore, any psychological outcome is an indirect result of witnessing and/or participating in the artistic project. The post show discussions, which are an integral part of The FEAR Project often bring up strong emotions, necessitate skilled moderation. Audiences come to the theatre for many reasons, to escape, to enjoy, and to learn. For theatre to be therapeutic does the audience have to want to be changed or healed?
Drama Therapy is involvement in a dramatic event with healing intentions. Theatre methods intersect with therapeutic practice when the telling of personal stories merges with public performance. One cannot ponder the question “what are you afraid of?” without introspection. The interviews tell the truth about what individuals fear. Augusto Boal in describing how he understood the pedagogy of fear said, “truth is therapeutic” .
I first developed the project in Prague at The Alfred Theatre, and then created a version of the play at the Sagbahar Theatre Festival in Kolkata, India, the next variation of The Fear Project was developed through a US State Department Arts Envoy grant and performed throughout the Czech Republic. It was produced in New York at La MaMa with Artists Rise Up New York and at Dixon Place in conjunction with the International Human Rights Arts Festival. It was also developed at The University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. I have taught workshops in The Fear Project at The North American Drama Therapy Association conference, a Cultural Diplomacy session at the United Nations, and at the International Leadership Association conference. The questions have been used to develop original work at La Mama’s Director’s Symposium in Umbria, Italy. My cast from The Czech Republic is developing The Fear Project for high school audiences, Roma youth, and at-risk young adults. I am hopeful that others will use the questions, the format and the process to spread the opportunity for connection and the opportunity for dialogue. I think this project could work in many settings I am interested in bringing it to areas within the United States where the divides between red and blue, black and white, man and woman are creating unhappy chasms. I think The Fear Project is better suited to be conducted by artists or drama therapists than researchers who have not had experience conducting emotionally charged research using creative tools, but with brief trainings, I think this work can be led and developed by anyone.
In the end, the question at the heart of this project was can a theatrical event like The Fear Project inspire audiences and participants to becomes more aware of their fears and to address them? John Paul Lederach states, ‘If we are to survive as a global community we must understand the imperative nature of giving space and to the moral imagination in all human affairs [Ö] we must imagine beyond what is seen’. By exploring diverse sides of the political spectrum through interviews and fictional characters, I believe we can imagine empathy and move towards healing our fear of the other.
In his book on leadership, Senge (1994) describes tribes of Northern KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, where the typical salutation is ‘Sawu Bona’ instead of ‘Hello’. The phrase means ‘I see you’. The common rejoinder is ‘Sikhona’ which means ‘I am here’. In this culture, until someone sees you, you do not exist. From the conversations I have had with artistic collaborators and people who have been interviewed, I have heard many accounts that lead me to believe that both the interviewee and the interviewer in The Fear Project have a profound experience of being seen. A. G. Johnson stated, ‘Of all human needs, few are as powerful as the need to be seen, included, and accepted by other people’
The desire for personal change can be born out of fear, but the ability to construct and maintain positive change must be supported by truth. Without looking at our feelings of fear and anger we cannot move beyond them. The Fear Project allows artists and audiences to face feelings and situations they may have long buried. After truth, the next requirement of change is hope. Hope can be found in community with fellows who empower each other by listening. Passive powerlessness, which undercuts resistance, and leads to isolation and the experience of feeling inadequate and impotent. But the rigorous work of imagining, which is a central tool of theater making and drama therapy, opens people to potentially peaceful and beautiful change. The Fear Project inspires collaborative action. As theatre practitioners and drama therapists, activists and educators we can encourage an imaginative exploration of even the darkest truths to facilitate communication and transformation. We are not afraid, even of fear.
It all begins with a question.
Jessica Litwak is an Internationally recognized theatre educator, playwright, director, performer, puppet builder and drama therapist. She is the Artistic Director of The H.E.A.T. Collective and The New Generation Theatre Ensemble for Youth, and the founder of Artists Rise Up New York. Her plays include The Emma Goldman Trilogy, Wider Than The Sky, the FEAR Project, Secret Agents and My Heart is in the East. Her work is published by No Passport Press, Smith & Krause, Applause Books and The New York Times. Litwak is a core member of Theatre Without Borders, a PhD in Theatre For Social Change, and a Fulbright Scholar.
The H.E.A.T. Collective was founded by Artistic Director Jessica Litwak to create, advocate and inspire artistic expression rooted in healing, education, activism, and theatre. We work to build collectives in every context: in our performances, workshops and community events. Engaging artists across the world, we aim for powerful bridge building art of courageous generosity. In this series, guest experts will write a piece representing each letter of H.E.A.T. - week one will be healing, week two is education, week three is activism, and the last week of the month is theatre. Together these pieces will highlight the work that is being done across all aspects of The H.E.A.T. Collective in the hopes that we can ignite dialogue, spark further exploration, and encourage more people to get involved.
This month we brought in the new season with four new blogs to honor each of the four aspects of H.E.A.T. We certainly hope you have a chance to read this month’s offerings and leave comments for us.
I started us off in the H.ealing realm by talking about some of the work I have done with puppet building in various populations. I spoke about how this specific technique can be effective to inspire free expression, heal traumatic wounds, and create community.
The next week we looked at E.ducation through the eyes and voice of David Diamond. He outlined his love of teaching, stating: “The only reason I want to teach is to learn.” He expressed his profound love of teaching and described on of his most beloved ongoing projects: “For the past 20 of those years, I have been involved with an extraordinarily inspiring project - The La MaMa Umbria International Symposium for Directors. Inspiring for me, that is. It may also inspire the hundreds of artists who come each Summer to our little Italian paradise in the Umbrian hills…” David describes the beauty of the summer learning experience. He praises his mentor for giving him the opportunity to develop such a meaningful educational venue, and the confidence to keep it going for two decades. “If there was anyone who embodied the principle of Education for me, it was Ellen Stewart. She taught me many things. Her just do it philosophy was accompanied by a sense of possibility that was not limited by personal thinking or insecurities. It didn’t occur to her that something she wanted to do might not be possible.”
The following week Sue Hamilton spoke about A.ctivism by describing the inspiration, creation and development of Artists Rise Up Los Angeles. “On November 9, 2016, I got on the phone with Jessica Litwak. We had been friends and artistic collaborators since 2000, and found ourselves naturally and immediately reaching out to one another the day after the election. We didn’t spend much time talking about the election or its results, but rather, we went directly to WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO? With Jessica in New York and I in Los Angeles, we devised a plan that involved bringing artists together in our respective cities, thereby inspiring a place that invited people to share their feelings while simultaneously asking for everyone to RISE UP and do what we do: create ART.” She went on to illustrate how the work of Artists RISE Up Los Angeles unfolded with a growing group of enthusiastic volunteers: “Artists on both coasts were asking, “What can I do?” “How can I help?”’ Sue demonstrates the thrilling community of artists that has sprung up in Los Angeles around ARULA and the call to RISE.
Katie Pearl finished off the month by telling readers about a marvelous project she has initiated called Milton “ a performance and community engagement experiment in five small towns named Milton around the country.” Her company PearlDamour launched the project “as a way to heal something for ourselves: our broken relationship to the country we lived in.” She talked about how she and her collaborators wanted “ go out into the U.S. and educate ourselves about who really lived there…” In the process of creating this work they asked themselves what it means to be an American today? “Our activist impulses led us to enter into communities as strangers, as artists, and simply pay attention, remain curious, stay present, and let a relationship (and ultimately a play) grow.” She discusses the healing, activism and education that occurred through this project and linked her experience to the four aspects of the H.E.A.T. collective: “… each brings something into being, generating the new realities we need to keep moving forward—as individuals, as communities, as a country. And by recognizing that each aspect is integral to the success of the others, and that theater is one of those integral aspects, I realize that I have been doing H.E.A.T. collective work for a long time without even realizing it. “
Each of September’s practitioners bring a unique view into focus of theatre as a vehicle for personal and social change. We look forward to your comments and to our next set of rich explorations in October.
Jessica Litwak is an Internationally recognized theatre educator, playwright, director, performer, puppet builder and drama therapist. She is the Artistic Director of The H.E.A.T. Collective and The New Generation Theatre Ensemble for Youth, and the founder of Artists Rise Up New York. Her plays include The Emma Goldman Trilogy, Wider Than The Sky, the FEAR Project, Secret Agents and My Heart is in the East. Her work is published by No Passport Press, Smith & Krause, Applause Books and The New York Times. Litwak is a core member of Theatre Without Borders, a PhD in Theatre For Social Change, and a Fulbright Scholar.
The H.E.A.T. Collective was founded by Artistic Director Jessica Litwak to create, advocate and inspire artistic expression rooted in healing, education, activism, and theatre. We work to build collectives in every context: in our performances, workshops and community events. Engaging artists across the world, we aim for powerful bridge building art of courageous generosity. In this series, guest experts will write a piece representing each letter of H.E.A.T. - week one will be healing, week two is education, week three is activism, and the last week of the month is theatre. Together these pieces will highlight the work that is being done across all aspects of The H.E.A.T. Collective in the hopes that we can ignite dialogue, spark further exploration, and encourage more people to get involved.
Puppets For The People is a workshop that uses puppet building as a healing tool. As a theatre artist and drama therapist, I developed this creative and therapeutic puppet-making workshop where participants learn how to build a puppet using simple materials and then bring it to life.
This puppet workshop developed out of my search for cultural competence. I wanted the people I was working with to feel free to express rage, sorrow, and desire without feeling the oppression of having to communicate in languages of privilege- including the languages of theatre, movement or performance, I soon discovered that building the puppets in this way allowed each participant to make something deeply and uniquely his/her own. The expression of the puppet’s voice that followed the actual creation seemed much fuller and freer than other theatre or drama therapy tools I had tried .
Building these simple puppets for the healing of trauma in polarized communities, zones of conflict, with children, incarcerated women, in domestic violence shelter, in refugee camps, as well as in theatre departments and has proven to be very effective as means of inspiring free expression. The workshops have also been effective in part of training programs for drama therapists, Theatre of the Oppressed practitioners, theatre artists and human rights workers.
These puppet-building workshops have been done in in Palestine, India, Lebanon, all over Europe and the U.S. This unique form of puppet building allows participants to freely and deeply expresses themselves with hands, heart, body and voice.
I begin by building community and safe space before we construct the puppets. I will usually set up the supplies in a circle prior to participants entering the space, to uphold the ritual and beauty of the raw materials.
Then a warm up and a guided meditation serves to provide the participants with a context for their experience and helps participants choose something they want to bring into their lives (safety, forgiveness, love etc.) Each person discovers what sort of being s/he wants to create. Some examples, a family member or friend, an imaginary figure, a heroic person, a joker, a villain or a victim, an oppressor, oppressed, bystander, or ally, animal or alien or human. Then we build the “brain” of the puppet; workshop participants use objects, pens, paint, and paper to draw and/or write the secrets, wishes, dreams sometimes including meaningful objects. This creation becomes the actual core of the puppet head or “brain.” After building this inner life for the puppet, the heads and faces are formed around the brain with newspaper. We find the face in the paper, and hold and mold the face with masking tape. The heads are then filled with the secrets, wishes, dreams by way of drawings and/or meaningful objects. Then we cover the brain in newspaper and begin to build the head, finding the face of the puppet in the newspaper as we go. I ask people to remember what they’ve put into the brain as they build, letting those thoughts and feelings inform their fingers as they shape the face and head. We hold and mold the face with masking tape, covering every inch of it with the “skin” of tape.
Then the faces are decorated with paint, yarn, and all kinds of objects and art supplies such as feathers, buttons, beads, and ribbons, that help bring the puppet maker’s vision to full life. If it is a short workshop we finish with the heads. If the workshop is longer we build bodies onto the heads of the puppets using a wire hanger as a frame and then more newspaper and tape, clothing, fabric to build out the body. As the puppet builders create their puppets I ask them to hear the voice of the puppets.
The puppet is mounted on a stick or dowel that the puppeteer operates with one hand. One arm of the puppet is built out, while the other is left open – with a hole in the fabric of the puppet’s clothing the puppeteer can use one of her/his arms to express gesture and animate the puppet with even more life. These puppets work best in performance when the puppeteers use their own bodies and voices in concert/collaboration with the puppets.
This section of the workshops culminates with introductions. Finally, the participants become puppeteers, moving through space with their creations and embodying the personalities and the voices by introducing their creatures to the other puppets in the room. I tell participants that their numbers will double by the end of the workshop- if I start with 10 participants there will be 20 of us in the room by the end of the workshop. Because we work so deeply from the brain outward, the connection between puppets and puppeteers is quite profound.
In a longer workshop, the puppeteers write short plays for the puppets and perform small shows with their new creations.
All participant’s experience, heritage, beliefs, age, ethnicity, gender, orientation and dis/abilities are celebrated in this process. Puppets can go to the depths of conflict transformation in ways human actors cannot. Like mask work, puppet work allows people to distance themselves from conflict and therefore find a way through it. Puppets can surprisingly solve problems that their human counterparts cannot. I hope this blog will offer a context to this work within the field of performance and peace building and then, working with the workshops as medium, discover the theories that support the practice. It is my goal to create sacred zones of respect and community, while encouraging true expression with courageous generosity.
Jessica Litwak is an Internationally recognized theatre educator, playwright, director, performer, puppet builder and drama therapist. She is the Artistic Director of The H.E.A.T. Collective and The New Generation Theatre Ensemble for Youth, and the founder of Artists Rise Up New York. Her plays include The Emma Goldman Trilogy, Wider Than The Sky, the FEAR Project, Secret Agents and My Heart is in the East. Her work is published by No Passport Press, Smith & Krause, Applause Books and The New York Times. Litwak is a core member of Theatre Without Borders, a PhD in Theatre For Social Change, and a Fulbright Scholar.
The H.E.A.T. Collective was founded by Artistic Director Jessica Litwak to create, advocate and inspire artistic expression rooted in healing, education, activism, and theatre. We work to build collectives in every context: in our performances, workshops and community events. Engaging artists across the world, we aim for powerful bridge building art of courageous generosity. In this series, guest experts will write a piece representing each letter of H.E.A.T. - week one will be healing, week two is education, week three is activism, and the last week of the month is theatre. Together these pieces will highlight the work that is being done across all aspects of The H.E.A.T. Collective in the hopes that we can ignite dialogue, spark further exploration, and encourage more people to get involved.
As we continue to break down the components of The H.E.A.T. Collective in our monthly Blog series (Healing one week, Education the next, Activism the third week and Theatre the fourth) we welcome your comments and your assistance in our ongoing discussion.
This month we had four wonderful posts from expert practitioners in the field.
Sally Bailey, a wonderful master drama therapist and my teacher wrote about the healing benefits of theatre for audiences and artists alike. : “Our mirror neuron system, coupled with our sensory-motor-language systems in the brain, allow everyone watching the performance to unconsciously simulate the performed actions and words of the play. Audience members aren’t passively receiving a story second-hand. They are feeling the emotions of the actors and bodily understanding what they do. This means the actors are literally passing the story on into the bodies, hearts, and minds of those watching.”
Meggan Gomez, a brilliant colleague and theatre educator who I was lucky enough to visit at The Working Classroom in New Mexico wrote” We can all be better students. And teachers. And people. It takes listening, humility, and the understanding that you always have more to learn. These ideas are at the core of our values at Working Classroom, a 30-year-old arts, theater, and new media non-profit in Albuquerque, NM that cultivates the artistic, civic, and academic minds of youth through in-depth arts projects with contemporary artists to amplify historically ignored voices, resist systemic injustices, and imagine a more equitable society……… We do this because we know young people can be fantastic leaders, create stunning art work, and they also have a lot to say about the state of the world. We don't need to empower them, they are great at that on their own. We just need to provide the resources and stay in dialogue with each other. “
My dear friend and colleague Hjalmar Jorge Joffre-Eichhorn works in the deepest conflict zones with the most challenging human struggles imaginable. He uses theatre as activism to move societies towards justice and to serve communities wounded by oppression and colonization. In our August blog series he told a difficult story about the power of theatre to activate heroism in human beings in the most unbearable circumstances: “We finished our rehearsal in high spirits, getting ready to spend the evening with friends and families, trying to enjoy life in the midst of an otherwise increasingly unbearable overall context, haunted by 40 years of war and human cruelty. Then someone’s phone rang. Boom. We were told that a suicide blast had just happened right in the neighborhood where most of the performers, their families and many of our friends live. The room went chokingly silent. The first ambulances could be heard. The smell in our rehearsal space suddenly took on the stench of burnt human flesh. The line between joy and anguish is seamless in a place of war. Theatre of the Absurd. What happens in the following 24 hours is the Afghan version of Audre Lorde’s “transformation of silence into language and action.” Together with other colleagues and comrades, those who until just a few moments ago rehearsed collaboration and solidarity on the stage are now exhibiting the same qualities as part of an all-out, collective emergency response to aid the victims and their families. “
In the final week of our series, the awesome H.E.A.T. staffers Rebecca-Anne Whittaker and Brooke Schilling co-wrote a report on two theatre events that H.E.A.T. held this month, the Terrible Virtue Pot Luck Dinner and the Structural Compositions: Writing the Revolution workshop and performance. About Terrible Virtue they wrote:” Reproductive rights. A topic that echoes in my brain as a young woman living in America in 2018, as a woman whose major maternal figure no longer can act as a guide for such womanly choices. Jessica Litwak’s Terrible Virtue is filled with choices and negotiations, and navigating the world we live in now and that was built for us by women like Margaret Sanger and Angela Davis. A couple glasses of wine, some cheese, and I was ready to hold the hands of these strangers as we discussed all of these topics so true and personal. I may not see these women again. Hell, I don’t remember all of their names. But that table, for a night, became my community. Lesson learned: Read your next play around a table with wine and cheese.” About the second event they stated:“ Ultimately, Structural Compositions was more than a playwriting workshop. It was a healing circle. It was a tight knit community. It was a safe space to collect our reactions to events that shaped us and pour them onto the page. Participating in the workshop was a powerful process for me. Not only was I equipped with the tools to hone my craft, I was rooted in a community of artists who share the same goal of making a difference with our words. In this way I was encouraged to grow, and for me that meant stepping into my power as both a theatre maker and a human being. As all the participants sat around a table we found our power and we unapologetically wrote………In a time where the voices of artists are needed now more than ever, that too is an act of resistance.”
This month I was inspired and grateful for these four insightful and generous contributions to our community conversation. Please join us by commenting on the Blog entries. Also feel free to contact us if there is a Blog you want to write and/or a discussion you want to generate about Healing, Education, Activism or Theatre on our platform. We welcome your voice to join ours in using theatre as a vehicle for personal and social change.
See you in September.
Jessica Litwak, August 2018
It has been so wonderful to read our first month of guest blogs! The mission of H.E.A.T. is to incorporate aspects healing, education, activism and theatre into every project, event, workshop, publication and performance. This Blog series focuses on one aspect per week, allowing us to build the Collective through writing and readership, AND to discover more ways of implementing H.E.A.T. in the world. Thanks so much to Brooke for the idea and to Rebecca for curating. I am thrilled by the response so far and excited by our line up of guest bloggers in months to come.
This month we heard from Adam, my frequent collaborator and friend. Hewrote" I am a person of color. I am an artist. I am a drama therapist. As I move through the world of the arts and various clinical practices, I bear witness to people of color being expected to perform and uphold myopic standards, stereotypes, appropriated by others. When a person of color steps outside this regulated box, or cage, conflict ensues and discomfort rises. " His honest, clear and heartfelt description of being a person of color in the field of drama therapy is truly worth a read.
Kathy Nigh wrote about education in such a profound way. She states: "One of my favorite comments I get from students (and I have been fortunate enough to hear it more than once) is that they have learned as much if not more about a topic in our theater history course as they have in a “straight” history or critical theory course. I think one of the reasons why theater can connect us with “the other” in a particularly impactful way is that in order to make good theater we have to understand “the other.” If you are playing the “bad guy” in a play, you have to understand and empathize with that character because you are that character. You have to understand why your character is the way they are. It is all too easy to judge others these days, but theater invites us to understand what makes people tick. I have learned time and time again not to underestimate the power of theater in the classroom. " Her writing is a solid and deep analysis of why educating people about theatre can be such a life forming act- both intellectually and politically.
Joan Lipkin is a constant inspiration to me. We have worked together, planned together, and shared deep conversations alone and in groups about how to create change in the current world. She writes in her blog about some of her many action projects that directly impact the communities in which she circulates. She writes: "We also founded a project called Dance The Vote that utilizes performance to call attention the necessity of voting and exercising our rights and responsibilities as citizens of the USA. In St Louis, we partnered with local dance companies and spoken word artists and poets to create new commissioned work about the history and urgency of voting, especially for people of color, women and people with disabilities that was performed free and outdoors. Again, we helped register audience members to vote." This blog is an important example of how artists can dive into activism with courageous generosity.
Catherine Filloux is a very dear friend, co-teacher, artistic collaborator and comrade. She writes here about a subject at the heart of the H.E.A.T. Collective paradigm: collaboration. She writes: "A key discovery I have made during this process is that the whole team needs to consistently work together. The three of us have discussed everything down to the use of one word over another. This kind of artistic collaboration can serve as an example of how a group working together--listening, disagreeing, coming to decisions that ultimately work, understanding the need for change--can be greater than an individual." Her blog explores the process of one of her current projects and is a very interesting window into the art of writing with others.
It is with great pride and love that I share my thoughts about these great practitioners. I hope you will read and comment upon their blogs, and stay in touch with us. Please let us know if you would like to write something for the Blog.
In Solidarity and With Love,
Jessica, Artistic Director, The H.E.A.T. Collective
The song Over The Rainbow written by Yip Harburg (lyrics) and Harold Arlen (Music) for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz has had wide-reaching effects. I have recently been trotting down the Yellow Brick Road of research and the history of the song is fascinating. I also found potential for future inspiration for social change through the message of the lyrics. The song has been woven into American culture and International awareness for the last 80 years. The song has been the anthem for refugees historically and contemporarily as a symbol of hope.
It’s hard to imagine that Over The Rainbow, an iconic ballad that has affected many for the last eighty years, was almost removed from the film The Wizard of Oz by producers Louis B. Mayer and Mervyn LeRoy, because it “slows down the picture”. In Western culture we are often too concerned about keeping up the pace and tempo of our lives, and thus risk losing genuine unhurried moments of yearning and reflection. When Dorothy sings the song five minutes into the movie we are witness to the paradox of her desperate need and her courageous optimism that cause her to call for a miracle. Judy Garland’s performance of the song is both gorgeous and painful. Her heart seems to be reaching out of her chest as the lyrics beg the universe for a new geography somewhere far above the troubled reality of life on earth.
This is a song which my grandmother sang to my mother, my mother sang to me, I sang to my daughters, and I can almost guarantee that they will sing to their children. This song is one of the most crucial landmarks of my childhood: the good and the bad of it, the frightening, the joyful, the lonely, and the hopeful. I grew up in a time and place when and where the world was bleeding out its ears. I was just a few years too young to eat the magic mushrooms or throw the homemade bomb over the corporate fence or join the revolution. But I sure went to a lot of protest marches. And parties. I grew up in San Francisco. My neighborhood was the Haight Ashbury of the late 1960s. The apartment where I lived was across the street from Janis Joplin’s place. The Grateful Dead’s house was a few blocks away. Daily life included free concerts in the park, peace marches, rallies for justice, picket lines adults who were too stoned to make dinner and a hippy school where we celebrated free will with very little guidance. There were bright colors and loud music. There was also violence and fury. It was a strange time to be a kid. In this turbulent world, Over The Rainbow was an attachment object for me, a private lullaby and a personal prayer. It was a promise of imminent rescue from above (where happy little bluebirds fly).
I don’t know what kid doesn’t want to go someplace where “there isn’t any trouble” (Aunty Em’s directive to Dorothy just before she sings the song), but I certainly remember wanting to get away from the tumult and find peace. So, like Dorothy I sang to my dog in hopes that the song would induce a tornado to whisk me away to Oz. I lived in earthquake country, not tornado land, so that from of escape wasn’t very likely. Still, I told my dog that where we needed to go was “not a place you can get to by a boat or a train”, it was somewhere we could be invisible to the grown-ups, somewhere over the noise, over the smoke, over the rainbow.
I imagine that for so many children this is a song of magic and flight. For adults it is memory and therefore a kind of homing message. However, for many of us who have lived with the song through the generations, it is also a reminder to keep singing out so that dreams really do come true.
The lyrics of the song tell us that somewhere way up high there is a natural order to things and anyone courageous enough to wish for aspirations to be realized can see her/his wishes come true. Up there in the land over the rainbow troubles melt and bluebirds fly. All she/he has to do is open her/his heart and dare to dream. The song gives all of us earthbound dreamers something to reach for.
Dreamers are essential and our so deeply entwined in the fabric of America from the dreams of the early settlers to the dreams of today’s undocumented youth, the ability to live the American Dream has been an essential component of our national identity.
Our current Dreamers now unprotected by DACA (Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals) arrived in the US before turning 16 and lived here continuously since. DACA was a compromise devised by the Obama administration after Congress failed to pass the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (Dream) Act, which would have offered those who had arrived illegally as children the chance of permanent legal residency. The Dream Act and has repeatedly failed to pass a vote in congress. But over the rainbow dreams really do come true. Over the rainbow dreams surpass congress, surpass fear and hate, and by singing this song perhaps we can somehow keep daring to dream for ourselves and for others.
Although as a child I believed the song to be mine, a subjective hymn to my own secret and personal rainbow, I learned later that the song was just as important to millions of children and adults worldwide. In the United States it was particularly vital. It was the audio wake up for a space shuttle mission, adopted by American troops during World War II as a symbol of home. In 2005 Yip Harburg the lyricist was commemorated on a postage stamp with the first line of the song. The song has sometimes been written off by the intelligentsia, and by radical listeners desiring a more obvious protest tune. But much more than a sentimental ballad from a children’s movie this song is a vibrant and long lasting piece of near perfect musical poetry that has attracted some of the best musicians in the world.
It has been sung by many great artists aside from Judy, including Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Tony Bennet, Sarah Vaughn and IZ, just to name a few. Each version of the song has spoken different generations from different eras. And there is no doubt the song will continue to be sung by musical stars in times to come.
Over The Rainbow has become the second national anthem for many of us. A song ALL of us regardless of race, class, or creed we can stand up proudly to sing.
The anthem sung at the Super Bowl is our official theme song– it too has been sung by great artists and speaks to a foundational human desire: freedom.
However, these two songs have a different methodology for getting to that dream of liberty, one uses a country’s flag the other nature’s rainbow. In one song bombs are bursting in air above our heads, in the other song blue birds are flying. Both celebrate American values in very different ways. Let’s look at the opening lyrics of both songs.
Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high
There’s a land that I’ve heard of once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.
Someday I’ll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops, that’s where you’ll find me
Somewhere over the rainbow blue birds fly, birds fly over the rainbow
Why then, oh why can’t I?
Say can you see by the dawn’s early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad strips and bright stars through
the perilous fight, o’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming.
And the rocket’s red glare
The bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner still wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
“The Star-Spangled Banner” can be a source of conflict across politics and party lines. But “Over the Rainbow” is a force of unity, an example of music without borders. Little children in Red States sang it with their conservative parents as enthusiastically as little children and their liberal parents singing it in Blue States.
Here we go further into what an anthem is, and how this song serves as one – including examples and interviews from kids and grown-ups around the country…
Somewhere
Most humans in crisis long for somewhere safe. Somewhere to be who we are, love who we love, pray how we pray and look how we look. Somewhere all of our races, religions, genders, sexual identities, sizes, and ages are accepted. Somewhere we are not only tolerated but celebrated. Somewhere we can be free, be secure, and be proud.
The first word of the song Over the Rainbow is “somewhere”. That word has had meaning to human beings throughout history. Especially to those who do not have a safe somewhere to be. We will dive into several examples:
The Holocaust: We will look in depth at the effect the song had on people in concentration camps. Released just as the war was breaking out in Europe, the song became a secular prayer for those suffering through torture, incarceration and death. The somewhere in the song became a small shining light of distant hope. We will use interviews will survivors to hear the story of the song’s effects during WWII.
The reprise of the song cut out of the film sung by a frightened and weeping Dorothy in the Witch’s castle as she waits for her sand of her life to run out. This version of the song is filled with the anguish and fear we know that refugee children experience when they are homeless, hopeless and there is not a rainbow to be seen. When Judy Garland sings in a shaky tear stained voice: “Someday I’ll I wake up and rub my eyes and in that land behind the skies you’ll find me...” we don’t know if she is giving up on her dream, or if singing the song is replenishing her reserves. If we look at news stories of refugees while listening to this rendition of the song, the experience is heart wrenching and very recognizable.
Here we will talk more about Somewhere – the concept in the song, in the musical, and in the world.
Over
Reaching over a problem verses going through it, is the province of music. My medium the theatre require conflict to make good art. I know musicians who get warring factions to sing together. I have colleagues in Palestine and Israel who get music from both sides of the Gaze barrier wall to unite human beings from two different worlds. The Israeli’s on one side of the wall and the Palestinians on the other cannot get together in person, but the music carries over the wall to create a temporary peace. The treaty is in notes and lyrics (in two languages) in melody and in rhythm- peace lasts as long as the song. So, they keep singing.
Dorothy is reaching over the rainbow for her somewhere – it isn’t in another state or a different city it’s up and over not under or through. Here we will look more deeply at the concept of Over and Reach – giving examples of how this song reaches over troubles even though the story leads us right down the middle of them.
The Rainbow
Rainbows have long been symbols of peace and freedom. In the 18th century Thomas Paine wanted a rainbow maritime flag for neutral ships. A Buddhist rainbow flag was created in Sri Lanka in 1885. In Peru and Bolivia, the rainbow flag honors the legacy of the Inca Empire. In Italy a rainbow Peace flag has been waving since 1961. The Rainbow Coalition was a coalition active in the late 1960s and early 1970s, founded in Chicago by Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party. Jesse Jackson later founded Rainbow/ PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) and the rainbow represented diversity within the Black community.
In 1978 artist Gilbert Baker created the rainbow flag at the request of Harvey Milk in San Francisco before Milk was gunned down. During the Stonewall riots in 1994, a mile-long rainbow flag was created in New York. Now the rainbow or Pride flag waves all over the world as a symbol of tolerance, freedom and pride. Here we will look in depth at the significance of the rainbow in the song….
Can a Song Save the World? The action of singing Over the Rainbow to children is a more effective childhood ritual than the tooth fairy. The song is a piece of innocence that doesn’t require either capitalism or fabrication. It instills a method for getting to a better place: invoking magic by daring to dream. The song is a testament to imagination. The skill of being able to imagine a better world is essential for surviving childhood and adulthood, a skill necessary for inspiring and leading change.
In our tumultuous 21st Century world where injustice reigns supreme and people have become jaded and cynical about things like hopes and dreams, perhaps we need to revisit Over The Rainbow and sing it more often, and a little bit louder.
The first verse of the song, cut out of the film but present in many stage productions as well as in Ella Fitzgerald’s rendition is relevant to our times. It offers a map towards the pathway to positive change: “When all the world’s a hopeless jumble and the raindrops tumble all around, heaven opens up a magic lane. When all the clouds darken up the skyway, there’s a rainbow highway to be found leading from your window pane to a place behind the sun, just a step beyond the rain…”
Jessica Litwak is an Internationally recognized educator, and an award-winning playwright and performer focused specifically on theatre for social change.
She is the Artistic Director of The H.E.A.T. Collective.
What a wonderful experience it was to gather with one amazing director and nine generous performers to explore this new play with puppets.
The Night it Rained by Jessica Litwak is hysterical, historical, hilarious, and heart wrenching.
The Night It Rained is about a woman attempting to remember one night in the life of her suicidal, drug addicted, brilliantly charismatic mother. She has to answer questions about an unsolved murder committed one rainy Christmas Eve in 1968, in the Haight-Ashbury.
Part memory play, part detective story The Night It Rained takes us on a wild journey through a world filled with rock and roll icons, moon landings, famous bank robbers, revolutionaries, sex changes, psychedelic drugs, and deep love.
Cast:
Dana Boll, Oliver Burns, Christian Cuoco, Stacey Linnartz, Jessica Litwak, Lim Mui, Hugh Sinclair, Clara Solly-Slade, Adam Stevens
Artists Rise up New York, an introduction.