Playbill: Before their play premiere Off-Broadway, Liliana Padilla was taking a self-defense workshop, on what to do if they were ever threatened. It was being taught at the Center for Anti-Violence Education, and Padilla recalls their instructor telling them that in the event of an attack, anything they had on them could be used as a weapon. Padilla recalls walking down the street after the workshop with a heightened sense of vigilance. “I noticed myself holding, like, my water bottle in a different way when walking around,” they recall to Playbill. “Not like I wanted to attack anyone, but I wanted to be ready in case anyone came at me. And that's interesting. I had not experienced that before.”
2 comments:
I remember hearing about the MeToo movement when I was probably in 8th grade and wondering where the movement would lead to and for how long. From this article I’m reminded how the movement is still very prevalent in current culture and the issues within it have been present since the dawn of time. I like how the article explains that in current day playwrights that the MeToo movement now seeks to tell stories aside from just the trauma perspective–but as an angle of community. How violence, sexual assault, and other related violations of people affect the surrounding community to provide a different way for survivors to be seen and perceived by the public. I appreciate the highlighted playwrights’ generosity to share their works based on sensitive and deeply personal experiences to them.
The question of how to move forward in the wake of a tragedy or crisis, is always the most difficult to grapple with. People often treat cutting someone off as the easy answer – if someone does something so horrible as commits an act of assault, then they are cancelled or whatnot. And to some extent that’s true – some acts aren’t worthy of forgiveness, and I strongly believe that sexual assault is one of those acts. However, in real life, these lines become more complicated, and to me it sounds like that’s the question that The Best We Could is asking. How do we deal with the aftermath of these events, is it possible for someone to change, and either way, what do we do with the people who have committed these acts? It’s a brutal dilemma with no clean answer, but theatre’s biggest strength is being able to start the conversation.
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