Thursday, February 13, 2014
What Makes an Artist Qualified to Tell a Story?
HowlRound: When I was a little girl, I was obsessed with mythology. Greek, Roman, Indian, Norse, you name it…I loved them all, more so than your standard fairy tales. I loved the epic nature of the stories that were so magical but also so obviously written (or orally shared through time) to speak to universal truths about the human condition. They were remarkably similar from culture to culture, and transcended the boundaries of time. In the seventh grade, we were assigned the task of writing a myth, and I wrote one with the Norse gods, explaining how Norway got its jagged coast. I have it to this day, with the red A+ prominently displayed at the top, not as a reminder of my twelve-year-old genius (note heavy sarcasm), but a reminder that no matter where you’re from, you can tell a story about another person if you focus on the universality of the tale and their experience, and not the specificity of their race. I believe my teacher assigned this task to teach us just that…no matter the color, gender, or year that a character belongs to, their humanity makes their story equally worthy of being told.
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6 comments:
Great article about an important and controversial topic. I want to agree with the writer that as long as the playwright treats the story and characters with the respect and sensitivity required, writing from another person or culture's perspective is fine. In our day and age we have access to so much information about different experiences all around the globe or in our hometown, and I think that such a wealth of perspectives and knowledge would allow someone to truthfully tell a story that does not relate to their personal experience.
I do think, however, that understanding the human nature to the extent necessary for that kind of work is rare, and that there are things that one must experience first-hand to be able to write about them.
I am actually impressed by this article because it has changed my views and understanding of a qualified artistic perspective. Growing up, I have heard many times that white people are just unable to understand the suffering of black people. And if I presented this article to many of my family members, they would still sneer.
The way that the article presents perspective is really interesting because I would assume that I a person would need to go through a historical experience or at least have some contact with it. But, they way that she presents it shows that someone can relate even if that haven't and has the right to create what they have experienced like any other person who has experienced it first hand.
The reaction towards cultural portrayal that the artist commented on reminds me of a reaction that I saw towards a production of Corpus Christi. The play somewhat parallels the violence that occurred to Christ when people condemned him for being unholy to how people can condemn gay people. Needless to say, the christian community around the theatre was not happy that this production was happening and protested outside the theatre a week before and throughout the show. Their complaint was that the the theatre was portraying Christ as gay while the theatre was saying that they were portraying how people still condemn what they do not understand. I agree with the author in that it is interesting how people hold history to such a high regard that they want things to be accurate in a show instead of acknowledging the idea that plays are stories and stories should be universal and should be able to be connected to without pre-judgement.
I really enjoyed this article. I've been faced with the idea many times that someone does not have enough experience to create a story. I do agree that a younger artist may not have the life experience in general to empathetically understand certain turmoils or feelings. I do believe that as we grow as artists we acquire the ability to understand things that we haven't experienced first hand and that this ability should not be underestimated.
This article presents a very interesting perspective on something that I have thought about a little but had never read or heard much about. I appreciate that the author chose to adress this particular topic and I think the ideas in it are very significant. I have heard people respond to plays, books, and movies, questioning if the author is qualified to present that narrative. Just this weekend, I had a conversation about someone over the director's pieces where she was questioning if it was a white person's place to tell the story about Kafala. But I think this article answers this very well. This idea that all one is truly required to have in order to tell a story is understanding of and respect for humanity. Some stories do benefit from research or personal experience, of course. But we shouldn't write off any story told from a perspective different from those of the characters.
It's funny that this article was posted because I have spent the last year and a half being told that all DPs are artists and how to tell a story. Really, as people who make theatre happen that is what we do, we tell stories. I agree with Camille, this is a controversial topic. I have actually had a conversation about this recently. When I see a show written by someone I know of or someone I know personally the first thing that I ask is, "what do they know? What experience do they have?". A part of this thinking is to wonder what the motivation behind writing the piece originally. Now that I think about it, this author is right, plays are stories that can be told by anyone about anything as vague as that sounds. It is a shame that people, such as myself, are limiting creativity with the limited thinking this article is talking about.
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