It is time for us to begin to heal. As a community, as a nation, and as a world, we have recently experienced turbulences that have shaken our cores and unearthed hidden knots of ugliness and hatred which had previously laid buried for decades (at least buried from the eyes of the mass media). Recently, it has seemed that every day, something new has stirred up questions which reveal fundamental disparities between our own belief systems and those of our friends and neighbors. Whether we subscribe to it or not, we are surrounded by a lifestyle that perpetuates fear and insecurity based upon those beliefs which contradict our own.
It is time for us to begin to heal. As artists, it is our job to present the world through a lens that is informed by our pasts. Our ethnicities, sexualities, gender identities, religious beliefs, abilities, family backgrounds, and economic standings affect who we are as people, and therefore determine the way in which we register and reflect the world. As theatre artists, we are often tasked with presenting the world through the lens of another worldview. We take on the personas of different characters, given speech by playwrights who may have lived hundreds of years ago or may live down the street from us today. We are tasked with the impossible job of viewing the world through someone else’s eyes. While the adopting of worldviews requires extreme amounts of imagination, it also relies heavily upon an artist’s capacity for empathy. It is time for us to begin to heal, and we need to begin the process by challenging our own senses of empathy. This summer, Artists from Suburbia is thrilled to announce “The Suburban Summer Theatre Surge”, where we plan to flood the local area with new theatrical works which stretch the boundaries of conventional theatre and allow our community to engage in the theatre as a pastime instead of a costly event. All of the works we present this summer will reflect upon the theme, “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter”, a line from John Keats’ poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn”. Our first project will be our Second Evening of Original One Act Plays, where we will present staged readings of new plays written by playwrights from Massachusetts. We have asked all playwrights who are submitting their works to us to consider how they can use their plays to give voice to an ‘unheard melody’ or a perspective belonging to a group marginalized by our society. We hope to build off of the success of last summer’s event and continue to provide a space for local playwrights to share their works. Our second project will be a workshop of a brand new, full-length play which (without revealing too much information) promises to challenge the way we view an important era of turmoil in world history. This work will be presented in a series of readings, allowing the audience to interact directly with actors, playwright, and director, and see their feedback taken into consideration as the work is reshaped over time. Our third project is one that I am thrilled to be helming, as it is one I think will be personally restorative and productive. Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess, or What Happened at Miss Minchin’s encapsulates messages that are vital for us to examine. We see a girl whose treatment is solely based upon her economic standings and whose story is interwoven with anecdotes of mysticism and mystery from the distant land of India. How do these awe-inspiring images of foreign lands shape us when we are young and at what point do they begin to lend to our xenophobic tendencies? We at Artists from Suburbia have been busy at work for many months now planning for this upcoming season. We want to start back at square one, not assuming or accepting anything. What conventions of the theatre experience innately exclude members of our community from attending events? What conventions exclude members of our community from partaking in theatrical endeavors? We hope many of you will join us as artists, volunteers, and audience members this summer. Keep an eye out in the coming weeks for announcements of further details about each of these events and, of course, please continue reaching out to us and allowing Artists from Suburbia to be an integral part of the community. We, as artists and as human beings, have much work to do in the world right now. We hope you will allow us to continue to do this work right now. Andrew Child serves as artistic director for AfS. This summer, in addition to curating the Second Evening of Original One Act Plays, he will serve as director for A Little Princess, or What Happened at Miss Minchin's.
6 Comments
Cathy Hodges
1/11/2017 07:13:17 pm
Excited to see. What you have in store for us this summer!!
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Paul
1/11/2017 07:16:05 pm
hoping to audition.
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Abby
1/14/2017 09:03:13 am
Beautifully stated. The work that is being done moving forward is suddenly so important for the health and growth of our community. I am so glad that this group is taking their role as artists so seriously and hope other local groups begin to as well!
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Alex Lodi
1/28/2017 06:02:57 pm
Agreed! And I agree with so much in this post. I think it is important that we make art that makes a statement.
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sequin
1/19/2017 03:09:45 pm
rt. rt. rt. Amen.
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Josh Pinilla
3/5/2017 10:39:21 pm
honestly, shut the f*** up. your puppet show was good. just do that again instead of all this preachy liberal bull.
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AuthorBlog posts are written by various members of Artists from Suburbia's productions and staff. Archives
July 2017
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