In this week's post I chose to use the 'Did you understand what you are dying for?' chapter. It is a profoundly deep case study on the psychological effects of war and how we can possibly tackle them. In the chapter I saw evidence of all the case studies being used like: hold the paradox, bear witness, deeply listen to the ears of your heart, and find the gold. All of these principles apply deeply to the kind of theatre being produced by survivors of war, but the one that stood out to me the most was "find the medecine." I was moved by this guiding principle because of its impact on life as a whole for these people. They were able to channel a deeply disturbing feeling, like the story about guarding the possibly boobytrapped body of a diceased woman; and create an artform that allowed those feelings to be expressed. They were able to find the healing that resides in every performer's story or persona. Another powerful aspect of the Man to Man play that was talked about was the fact that the performers were both former soldiers who fought, as well as conscious objectors. This gives diversity in perspective makes for an excellent dichotomy of expression. These people are disturbed by the sounds of choppers floating around in their minds, and visions of the extremes of human existence. Through the theatre, they were able to find a healthy way to release these emotions, instead of walking around with them bottled up inside. When they talked about the smell of rotting flesh, I immediately thought about every history book on World War I I've ever read. In every one of those books, one of the first things talked about was the constant smell in the air. A smell of rotting flesh that would make most people vomit; was these soldiers reality day after day. I am extremely fascinated by extremes of human experience, and the lengths human beings will go to in order to achieve a certain goal. However, when soldiers come back from extremes of living into regular monotonous life; it feels like they aren't living any more. In war they had to put in strenuous work in order to ensure their daily survival. At home they are at a loss, dealing with post-traumatic-stresses on their minds and bodies. This is wear theatre, and performance can really work their magic. It can transport them to a realm of emotional elation. Where they can feel safe and free to express their emotions in a healthy way.
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...
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