Skip to main content

Jason Pollak Theatre of Witness

In her projects Years, Home Tales, and Growing up Female, Sepinuck was just developing her process. Since these were the beginning of her theatre career, before the Theatre of Witness was even officially born, they were the prototype for all her future work. In how she discusses working with elderly and aging people, you can see the real core of her work-the throughline of her practice: Not Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Falling in Love.

Not Knowing
Sepinuck says that she was unfamiliar with old people and the world of the theatre. To jump into practice with complete strangers with a vastly different experience, in an unfamiliar world, is an incredible leap into the unknown.

Bearing Witness
It's clear that so much of Sepinuck's work is created through being there to see other people. The discovery she talks about is how putting "people onstage playing themselves" is possibly the key to making powerful theatre. In cultivating the shows she talks about in this section, she tells much of it through the stories of others that she was able to bear witness to.

Falling in Love
The incredible thing about bearing witness and fully listening with presence is that it's impossible not to fall in love with someone when you see the beauty inside. Allowing herself to feel that way and get lost in these performers' extraordinary stories is what makes for such powerful understanding.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Emmanuel Bradshaw-Monuments article-wk4

While reading some of the monuments pieces I felt as if each of them had something that they  needed to prove. For example, for the Tate piece felt the need to expose what history has done to  people. Each level exposed how much each person was taken advantage of in service of someone  else. For the rumors of war piece exposed the whole idealism of the past resurrecting a past historical  leader to make sure that the event does not happen again. The Bracero monument exposed all of the  work that the people of that time had done in order to make sure that not another person is taken  advantage of again. But truth be told, all of these monuments have come with some sort of backlash.  The bracero monument had gotten criticism for stating that the braceros were free to do what they  wished. From what the article had stated that was not the truth. It was merely one persons  interpretation of what a bracero was, b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Clare Morrissey-Art and Social Change Reader- Week 6

Art and Social Change Invisible Theatre               Invisible Theatre is the art of creating a performance in spaces that are not stages. The people who witness it cannot be aware it is a performance or else they would become spectators. The way this can be done is creating a solid and locked script that the actors stick to but also know it so well it allows flexibility and the ability for them to mess with it when the people witnessing the act give input or there is any disruption. The actors will prepare for anything when it comes to their performance. It is imperative to choose a location where people gather in large groups in the public. An example of how this is done is by having actors play in a scene in a crowded restaurant with many patrons. You have one actor make a big fuss over a meal they hate and the waiter offers them the nicest meal, acknowledging the price which the actor eating the meal lets it be known that the price is o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Scott Goldfarb Week 7

Assignment: Roberta Uno- Blog Post (due October 29th, 8pm) In preparation for Roberta Uno's visit next week, read her  "Steps Towards A New World."    In it she includes 11 precepts. In a blog post, address each of the following prompts: - What are the most important/significant ideas or elements outlined by Roberta and why? - What are the implications or resonances of Uno's precepts in your own practice? - What could be a metaphor or analogy for the kind of theater that Roberta Uno describes in this text? - What questions came up as you were reading this piece? ​ I found that the most important concept in the text was how the organization is not simply chained to a building. The theatre is wherever it is necessary to be, and is defined by the community it envelopes, not the brick and mortar it houses. Community and working together collectively to create art is more important than finding a roadhouse or a nice stage. Interestingly to me, this ...
Post a Comment
Read more