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Theatre as Documentary

POLITICAL COMMENTARY - by G.L. Horton

BST wrote: "Geralyn or Linda, I think one or both of you knew something about Ophelia - was that book not being developed into a theatre piece and fell through? Do you see a market - a valid market for this kind of social theatre - and, as a performer, the desire or need to participate in it?"

I read "Reviving Ophelia", and I have written a piece about a girl who identifies with Ophelia -- "Jenny Does Shakespeare"-- but like you, I heard once that somebody was making a piece based on the Ophelia book but that the project had problems and I've heard no more.

I don't find myself attracted to this sort of work: the discovery is already made by the literary author, the adapting one is doing "illustrations".

OTOH, I DO admire and have been moved by Documentary pieces that use interviews and public records to arrive at an understanding of some event: I really really like "Copenhagen" at one end "Fires in the Mirror" at the other. I'd love to see "Bloody Sunday", that just opened in London at the Tricycle Theatre. I'm reading "Living Justice" now, a book about the development of "The Exonorated", --- the authors were the keynote speakers while I was at the Mid America Theatre Conference, where I also I went to panels on "How To" work on a non-fiction piece. Some of these sound breath-takingly artistic, others are at best an improvement on a dull lecture and suited for middle school history or social studies classes.

Also, when actors-turned-writers Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen talked about their work on "The Exonerated" they were filled with passion and a kind of wild ego-free artistic satisfaction that moved many of us in the audience to tears of joy. Their process of finding and taping these people who were on death row and distilling what they got from them into the essence of 6 different characters and the personal circumstances and social significance of what they each went through, drew on every bit of intelligence and empathy and craft and aesthetics they had as actors and as human beings. They were willing to risk everything to accomplish it and glad beyond expressing when they realized that they had done it. JB & EJ (they are married) recruited dozens of actor friends to help them shape the material, working from edited typed transcripts rather than the tapes. One amazing (but right on in my experience as a playwright) thing they said was that although they never gave a physical description of the "characters" or played the tapes for the actors to hear the speech patterns, if the editing they were doing was "right", then (undirected) their actors took on the gait and posture and accent and speech patterns of the real person they were portraying. When it came time to do a high-profile presentation of "The Exonerated", one that could save the lives of other wrongfully condemned prisoners on death row, then Name Actors took over for the less well known but equally good ones who had worked on shaping the piece-- but no one seemed to mind. Everybody who worked on it felt personally enriched by the experience.

Would I personally like to have the experience of working this way?

Well, in a way I have had it. My 1990 play "Under Siege" is documentary/non-fiction, based on interviews with abortion clinic counselors under siege by pro-life fanatics and with a whole spectrum of women who have had abortions, both legal and back-alley. The counselors felt that the underpaid and disrespected work they were doing was vital, important, crucial to the lives of women as moral beings responsible for their choices. They wanted their stories told! Shaping the material I worked with wonderful volunteer actresses who "drew on every bit of intelligence and empathy and craft and aesthetics they had as actors and as human beings, and were willing to risk everything". We weren't at all sure that the fanatics who threatened to bomb the clinics wouldn't bomb our show! It was a great experience. The script and I (at that time titled "Choices") made it as far as Sundance. I'm only sorry that I don't have gumption that JB and EJ have, and I was never able to secure a high profile production that might have made the insights we uncovered part of the ongoing social dialogue.

However, monologues from the script are published in "Millennium Monologues", and on my web site, and lots of acting students are doing them. Maybe some day the script will have a high-profile production.

Reproductive rights are still "Under Siege", anti-choice fanatics are vetting the judiciary, and clinics are closed by threats or regulation every month.

 

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