www.clydefitchreport.com: Together We Are Making a Poem in Honor of Life was influenced by the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, that killed 26 people in 2012. Our son was only a few months old at the time, and we found that as brand-new parents, we were affected by the event in unexpected ways. Even speaking about the tragedy suddenly felt wrong — or maybe it was too real to know.
9 comments:
I feel like once every few months another article like this pops up on the green page - and I am just so disappointed every time. I get it that school shootings are interesting to artists because of all the emotions it stirs up, and it is a current problem in our american society. But, does this couple who thinks they are making such informative and change enacting work really know what Sandy Hook did to parents? As the article goes on it seems that the playwright did change things and not specifically pin point themselves as parents of the victims of the shooting, so why is that the articles title? So many things in my hometown get covered up because it sickening to know that just by putting Sandy Hook or Newtown in the title people will read it. So go ahead and make your art, please do your proper research, with people who are willing to share, but keep the name out of it, because it just seems like a publicity thing at this point. Also if anyone is interested in this topic and the art created from it - there are parents and kids who survived it that have created their own art and theater, look for that instead.
I was intrigued by this article because I was curious to see how these people would tackled this topic. I was not particularly impressed by their effort because it seems, at the most basic level, to lack authenticity when authenticity is what is crucial when these topics are being represented. I think, especially because of the setting, this play will not be able to accomplish what it wants to accomplish. The play takes place in the setting of a support group, which the audience partakes in. While no one from the audience is asked to participate, they are still brought into the set and are essentially a part of the action. Because of how realistic the play is supposed to be, the authenticity of the experience is crucial and I did not get the impression that this couple really understands what they are talking about. Their emotions in response to this school shooting, as the parents of a child, are completely valid and real but that is not what they are tackling in this production and I think that fact will hurt the show.
I think Annie makes some good points up there that this one might be too much to touch. I understand that artists like to pick challenging work for both themselves an eventual audience but o talk about children being murdered is maybe a topic that doesn't need to be challenged anymore. Personally, I would be interested in seeing a show about Sandy Hook, and using a tragedy as a way to make art and inform people pf how it happens is a tool that I think artists can utilize. However, I wasn't living in that town, and I didn't know any of the families and if happens where I grew up I wouldn't want anyone near it who didn't experience it first hand. I think this conversation opens up a larger one about what really is appropriate to talk about and when is too soon to the action to talk about it. I am of the opinion that anything that can possibly prevent tragedy from happen again should be worked on, but again I am not close to this tragedy, and if the parents of the children and the people of the community asked me not to make it I think the only correct thing to do would be to stop.
This article intrigued me, but after reading it I think this show is very problematic. I understand that many artists express their feelings through their work, and this play may have been a way for Dean to cope with the reality of his child's future. You can definitely use art as a coping mechanism, but this is a medium where I don't think it's appropriate. If you want to write a story based on another's tragedy, I strongly believe they should be involved in the process. Yes, they are parents and yes, they have a child and yes, they have every right to be afraid of what happened at Sandy Hook- however, it's not their story to share. If a show is to be written about two parents that lost a child in a specific situation, two parents that actually experienced that should at least be a part of the creation. I fully believe Dean and Monica could be traumatized by this event, but I don't believe they have the authority to write and perform a story about something they have never experienced -- especially without consulting anyone else who has. If someone from the Sandy Hook community has not tried to write a show yet, they probably are not ready, or never think it should happen. I think it's important to respect others' grieving periods, and not try to use their tragedies as inspiration for your art - no matter what your intention is.
This article intrigued be mostly because of the title at first glance. Because guns are such a controversial issue in America, taking on a subject such as Sandy Hook has to be done in a very respectful and delicate way. After reading the article, I can say the ground-level concept of this play is great, if they had used a completely different inspiration. Having heard of the trauma that losing a child can cause from my grandmother after my uncle’s death, I can see why they would want to take it from the parents point-of-view. As Miranda said, If they had used accounts of authentic stories from parents, this show would have a much deeper meaning. But you cannot create that feeling of trauma out of your mind. If they had used Sandy Hook as an inspiration and talked about gun reform and keeping schools safe, I feel that would be a very respectful and applicable way of using that tragic event. Overall, it was a poor execution of the idea and I feel they really need to take into account whose story they are deciding to tell before producing such a sensitive work.
This article was the definition of vague and I feel like it is purposeful. Not vague to add to the article, but because they are afraid people will be hurt by their show if they show its true colors. To me, that should be a hint. This play was written in a dangerous way. There parents obviously care about presenting the show respectfully but they made a mistake. From the short article it seems like they only include one set of parents. This sends a dangerous message. Everybody deals with tragedy in a different way and by grouping all of the parents stories together in the same way, solely based on feelings assumed to be felt we are only sending one story to our audience about these parents. I feel coming out of that show you will have a more biased less comprehensive understanding of the parents who were forced to go through this horrific tragedy. To me it also seems to be a bit weird that they are selling this show out of interest created by tragedy. It just seems a bit off.
Like many others who have commented on this article, I found issue with the execution and motivation behind the show, despite the genuine sentiment and honest effort. The creators of Together We Are Making a Poem in Honor of Life took on an enormous project that wasn’t theirs to take on. As a couple who did not directly suffer the consequences of Sandy Hook, I find it seriously problematic that they’ve put themselves in the center of the piece to play the mourning parents. While I never take issue with a small, intimate show, I feel that the bareness of this one has also somehow become an excuse to not take the fullest care of the content. I was looking for some mention of Sandy Hook survivors or parents who contributed writings, interviews, anecdotes of any kind to shape and present this narrative in the most authentic way possible. Without those accounts, this effort feels like a superficial attempt at best, and even without seeing the piece, I would argue that they did not meet the goal of being “respectful, powerful, and true.”
I think this is always such a complex and difficult subject to cover. Large national tragedies are typically not meant for the stage necessarily. The first thing that came to my mind when I was reading this article was Come From Away, which I feel is an enormously successful work about a national tragedy. When I first heard about it, I was very confused as to how they were going to make a musical about such a sensitive matter, but after seeing it, I think it’s both one of the most important and beautiful shows on Broadway right now. Come From Away focuses not on 9/11 itself but instead on one of the many ripple effects caused by 9/11. To successfully do a show about a very recent tragedy, I think that it needs to be something like Come From Away. Just doing a show about the event itself can very readily become insensitive or overly graphic. Sometimes things are simply too much to have on stage.
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