Carlie Daggett-- Roberta Uno

 In a blog post, address each of the following prompts:

- What are the most important/significant ideas or elements outlined by Roberta and why?

In concept, the idea of creating an arts space with inclusivity and social awareness doesn’t sound any more complicated than “treating others as you would like to be treated.” But in reality it requires constant vigilance and dedication to achieve. Steps Towards a New World lays out how it was done. 

- What are the implications or resonances of Uno's precepts in your own practice?

I question, how can I elevate works that I feel passionate about as an ally, without  colonizing someone else’s story or appropriating something that does not belong to me. 

Throughout the chapter Uno talks about her work, which sometimes she had an insight on and sometimes she did not. Part  of her process as a theatre artist is knowing that some stories should not be told by her, but still facilitating a means for that to happen. Wether as a producer or as a 

- What could be a metaphor or analogy for the kind of theater that Roberta Uno describes in this text?

Looking out onto a field where many types of people were separated. One person see’s someone close enough to bring towards themselves. That person is able to beacon someone standing even farther away, and the process repeats until there is a crowd of people, many of whom, the first person didn’t even know were in the field.

 - What questions came up as you were reading this piece?

As I was reading this piece,  I felt my brain moving and flashing questions at me like I was a child. I grew up in western Massachusetts, why have I never read this? Why is this the first time I am hearing Roberta’s name? I was scanning the article hints and locations of the people I knew who would have been the right age to have worked with Roberta. I wondered,  where had New WORLD’s audience gone? Did they still live in western mass? Where had all of these artists gone? Did they leave New England or head to the Berkshires or Boston where the affluent consumers lived? In the end I know the answer, those people those people dissolved here and there, some stayed some went, others stuck around and went on to teach in the area or make work of their own. 

Reading about Roberta Uno and New World was a gift. I grew up in western Massachusetts, practically next door to the New World, and the people who introduced me to the theatre, were of the New world theatre generation. My teachers always talked about and arts scene that had nearly disappeared from Western Massachusetts. We talked about it almost as a folklore, none of the people I grew up with could even imagine that our economically depressed, and class segregated community had once been a home to high caliber artists. It is something I nearly forgot about. I take so much pride in my homeland, and yet, I have never come across a piece of writing that validated this period of time. I fully believe that when an artist makes an impact on a community, that impact trickles down to younger generations in that community, and I am certain that I wouldn’t be where I am today without the contributions of New World theatre.