Blog #10

The theater is a place to give off and send out a message to the listening and engaged audience. Nowadays theatre is becoming more and more empathatic. Certain shows are focusing on more real-life and controversial issues, rather than theater just strictly being known as "I'm off to the Sunday matinee of a Gershwin musical....which is not a bad thing, but you get my point. ;) For these more controversial and emotional pulling pieces that are becoming more popular today, I believe that they should all include a talk-back after the show. With this talk back, we are not only discussing the issue presented, but opening up the platform to the COMMUNITY and everyone is given a chance to speak their voice. Communication is crucial with these sort of pieces and I believe they all should have the option of an open talk-back. 

For a long while, I strongly believed that theatre should not intertwine itself within the world of such controversial issues such as genocide, war, mental illness... As I have read more and more pieces, I have become increasingly open to the idea though. At the start of this semester, we read the play 'Aftermath'. This was a very controversial and emotionally draining play about the ongoing war and includes a variety of interviews of Iraqui refugees and their stories of all being held under power by Saddam Hussein. These are very emotional, some comical, but for the most part very eye-opening interviews. While possibly being a controversial topic to go see and try to enjoy a play about, I was very interested in it. I found it to be very eye-opening and informative, as I really only saw the one side of this war we dealt with. You never really got to see the stories of some of the innocent Iraqui citizens. It's quite heartbreaking. So, yes, I do believe that there is a line with theatre and iffy topics. As long as these topics are accurate, and factual, I don't necessarily see a problem.  I find them very informative and educational. 

I do see theatre as a forum to air our beliefs and strive to educate others on our beliefs. There is a message in every production out there, some more visible than others. Sometimes it takes something as powerful as theatre to get out these issues to the world.