When I entered our field, I believed that sharing space and story in a darkened room with strangers was a community-building activity; that my role as an artist was to find stories that needed telling, make dynamic context for the telling, and tell them well. By the time I founded Sojourn Theatre in 1999, I was questioning that belief. And now, I have come to believe that my role as an artist is actually to make experiences during which strangers connect with each other. Our lives are filled with opportunities to watch and listen to narrative surrounded by people we don’t know and never will. I am interested in work that builds the possibility of connection.
Michael Rohd, co-founder of Sojourn Theatre, in an excellent article that distinguishes what he sees as three allied movements in theater that work for similar goals, but have markedly different philosophies and processes. He defines these as Community-based, Participatory, and Civic, all words that are bantered around without much critical examination these days, not just in theater, but in art and community development across the spectrum.
Perhaps it’s time we started asking, and being more precise, about what we mean when we say that our work is participatory, builds community or engages the public.
I think if we’re going to choose to work with and in public, we owe it to ourselves and to those we collaborate with to think deeply about our process, to challenge our own assumptions and beliefs, and to ask what impact we’re really making.
In the past weeks I’ve started to grow a little weary of the non-specific, uncritical approach.
I’m not saying that Works Progress has always been good at holding ourselves to this standard (we’re learning as we go) but my resolutions for 2012 including taking the time to evaluate & reflect, seeking real feedback from the communities and collaborators I work with, and being as precise as I can in what is a messy and quickly-evolving creative landscape.
1 Notes/ Hide
-
ashliej liked this
-
weworkhere posted this
