Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Play dramatizes youth murders
PittsburghCourier: "On Sept. 6, more than 300 Pittsburghers gathered at West Park on the North Side for “Two-for-One,” a drama by playwright Deborah Starling-Pollard that featured adults and teens who dramatized the murders of two young people and the wave of grief that hung like a cloud over the community."
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3 comments:
I recently did a research project on the history of The Hill district and the efforts that are being made to revive The Hill. This is not the first time that an effort to rebuild the Hill has been made, however this time and organization called Build The Hill is "creating an economically sustainable and vibrant Hill District by empowering and mobilizing residents." However issues like this bring up the fact that to make a real change the change must occur on a deeper level than just economically or architecturally. Plays like this one can help make this change and coupled with projects like Build the Hill make a real difference in troubled communities.
I find the whole concept of dramatizing sensitive and difficult subjects such as death to be very moving and emotional...one really does vot appreciate it until one actually does it. This summer I put on a silent skit with my church (kinda like a slient film) where we had to represtent the temptaions that face today's youth (sex, drinking, cutting, suicide). My best friend and I acted out a scene where I had to hand her a gun and try and convince her to commit suicide. It was so much more real than I realized and I almost lost it. I really think plays like this are good and essential b/c like the article said they are wake upo calls that a lot of us need.
Its very difficult to address these issues through the theatre, even more so to do it in a community that originated the issue discussed. It seems like this production did it relatively well, and I was glad to see the inclusion of a talkback and discussion. I wish that this had gotten more publicity and was presented to more of Pittsburgh.
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