Thursday, February 09, 2012
'The Gammage Project' based on facts, feelings
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Almost a decade after it happened, Jonny Gammage's death continues to raise questions and controversy. After the 31-year-old black man was killed during a routine traffic stop in October 1995, a coroner's jury unanimously concluded that the police officers involved in the incident should be arrested and charged with homicide. But none was convicted.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
This time, I think that the article was cut off and a little bit too short for the gravity of the theme. There is so much to be said for cases such as the Gammage attack. America was not unified and equal in the way that it is today, and it is still working out racism and sexism. A horrible amount of violence and injustice occurred since the slave liberation, black citizenship, onward to segregation rights and the Jim Crow Law struggle. This play should be delving into all of the issues above and will probably touch on even more than that. It comes as no surprise that cases such as this pass through with the wrong people involved and through a difficult circumstance.
The injustice is relatable and harsh, the outcome is unbearable and outrageous. What is truly scary is the way that these problems aren't out of the ordinary. Any injustice can happen to anyone at any time, making it a tragedy. I think that it will therefore resonate with the audience watching and I hope it is successful.
This is exactly the way live theatre should be used. Each artistic medium has its strengths, and one of the strengths of theatre is its ability to accurately convey emotion. Just reading about this case makes me feel uncomfortable and suspicious, I can only imagine how much stronger those emotions would be in response to a live performance. The earliest patrons of theatre, the Greeks, believed that the purpose of theatre was to reach catharsis. Ideally, this show could help the community recover from the damage that race relations in Pittsburgh suffered as a result of the Gammage case.
The integration of social issues into theatre is exactly what made it so popular. Projects like these are fundamental theatre pieces that need to be around, theyre classic. I do not mean classic in a "Disney movie" sort of way, rather I mean to say that theatrical works like these are what built the infrastructure of the world we work in. This piece also brings to light a new perspective on the issue they discuss, which in an essence is exactly what theatre does. The audience is told a story from a perspective that may or may not be their own - bringing to light new details and logic of situations. Props to this piece, i wish it success
Post a Comment