Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. ~Dalai Lama
Friday, May 27, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
The Censorship Conundrum
There is a fine line between censorship and good taste and moral responsibility. ~Steven Spielberg
Every Teaching Artist who has been in the field for any length of time has most likely had to make decisions involving censorship. As Teaching Artists, we spend a good deal of our energy helping our students to silence their Inner Critics and encouraging them to produce raw work first and apply critical thinking later. However, this method of work can be fraught with peril.
I often tell my older students that censorship has less to do with what is "allowed" and far more to do with understanding the audience. I especially emphasize this point with student playwrights. You may write anything you choose, I tell them, using whatever language you think the play requires. I promise that I will read whatever you have written, and I promise that I am unshockable (yes, sometimes I have regretted that promise.) I promise to give you feedback. But what I can't and won't promise is that the play will be produced, or even read aloud in the classroom.
In a similar vein, the canon of dramatic literature is filled with important prize-wining plays that simply cannot be produced in a school environment. The merits of any one of these plays can be debated at length, but it ultimately comes down to this: a student may read a novel under the guidance of an English teacher that contains adult language, situations and themes that are considered appropriate for that particular student in that particular school, depending on grade level, overall curriculum, community norms, etc. But put that same material up on stage, performed by student actors, and suddenly everything changes. A dramatic version of many novels routinely read by high school freshmen would quickly ring down the curtain (and probably leave the director looking for another job.)
Simply put, the power of "acting it out" changes the dynamic of how the material is perceived, both by the actors, and certainly by the audience. A clear understanding of this fact is essential for those Teaching Artists who work in schools. Ultimately, this concept is at the very heart of why art matters: art affects us deeply, and often in ways that are difficult to understand or even express. As Teaching Artists, we must remain acutely aware that we are working with powerful stuff. We must not take that responsibility lightly.
(For more on this topic, please see my post The Power of Enactment.)
Every Teaching Artist who has been in the field for any length of time has most likely had to make decisions involving censorship. As Teaching Artists, we spend a good deal of our energy helping our students to silence their Inner Critics and encouraging them to produce raw work first and apply critical thinking later. However, this method of work can be fraught with peril.
I often tell my older students that censorship has less to do with what is "allowed" and far more to do with understanding the audience. I especially emphasize this point with student playwrights. You may write anything you choose, I tell them, using whatever language you think the play requires. I promise that I will read whatever you have written, and I promise that I am unshockable (yes, sometimes I have regretted that promise.) I promise to give you feedback. But what I can't and won't promise is that the play will be produced, or even read aloud in the classroom.
In a similar vein, the canon of dramatic literature is filled with important prize-wining plays that simply cannot be produced in a school environment. The merits of any one of these plays can be debated at length, but it ultimately comes down to this: a student may read a novel under the guidance of an English teacher that contains adult language, situations and themes that are considered appropriate for that particular student in that particular school, depending on grade level, overall curriculum, community norms, etc. But put that same material up on stage, performed by student actors, and suddenly everything changes. A dramatic version of many novels routinely read by high school freshmen would quickly ring down the curtain (and probably leave the director looking for another job.)
Simply put, the power of "acting it out" changes the dynamic of how the material is perceived, both by the actors, and certainly by the audience. A clear understanding of this fact is essential for those Teaching Artists who work in schools. Ultimately, this concept is at the very heart of why art matters: art affects us deeply, and often in ways that are difficult to understand or even express. As Teaching Artists, we must remain acutely aware that we are working with powerful stuff. We must not take that responsibility lightly.
(For more on this topic, please see my post The Power of Enactment.)
Daily Thoughts
The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure. ~Joseph Campbell
Friday, May 20, 2011
Daily Thoughts
Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies. Philippians 4:8-9 (The Message)
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Daily Thoughts
In a way humans are not made of skin and bone as much as we're made of stories. ~Sue Monk Kidd
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Daily Thoughts
Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn. ~C. S. Lewis
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Daily Thoughts
Darling, the legs aren't so beautiful; I just know what to do with them. ~Marlene Dietrich
Monday, May 9, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
Daily Thoughts
We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us. ~Joseph Campbell
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Daily Thoughts
We are the teachers of the world. We are the descendants of priests and rabbis and ministers. We are special. We are no longer allowed to look at the world like everybody else. – Nina Foch
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Daily Thoughts
The passing moment is all we can be sure of; it is only common sense to extract its utmost value from it; the future will one day be the present and will seem as unimportant as the present does now.~ W. Somerset Maugham
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Daily Thoughts
I can never remember being afraid of an audience. If the audience could do better, they'd be up here on stage and I'd be out there watching them. ~Ethel Merman
Monday, May 2, 2011
Daily Thoughts
New needs need new techniques. And the modern artists have found new ways and new means of making their statements... the modern painter cannot express this age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or of any other past culture. ~Jackson Pollock
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