Rebecca Lerman - Reflection - Week 7

I have already taken away a lot of key information, new understandings and inspiring tactics that I plan to add to my “artivist” toolbox so far. Ten key takeaways that I plan to add to my “artivist” toolbox include:

1. Melodrama paved the way for Romanticism in theatre. Romanticism departed from Neoclassicism and aimed for larger audiences. Romanticism in theatre was performed by enhancing the drama of human life. It worked to combine the ugly and beautiful. Performances were what could be seen and interpreted as a reflection of human life. Something that the audience could relate to.
2. Recognizing Privilege is also something that opened my eyes up when we started going through the Privilege Checklist. Also, a new understanding of recognizing privilege that resonated with me was listening to "Radical Hope Is Our Best Weapon" with Krista Tippett and Junot Díaz on Krista's podcast "On Being". At one point during the podcast Junot Díaz said "...how people get riled up about things and then slip back into comfort of their historical privileges and their historical aporias". That just really opened my eyes and plays a major factor in my vision of radical hope, alongside to continue learning about my own privileges and becoming aware of them, to help others understand and be able to recognize their privileges,being open and vulnerable.
3. Vulnerability is humane and for me, personally, my artistic practice might help me give shape to my vision for a different future through vulnerability. As I wrote in my Vision Assignment, whether it is through having the strength to be vulnerable on stage, in front of strangers, loved ones, myself, honestly everyone, can only do so much good for myself as an individual and hopefully give off the impression that it's okay to feel feelings. I think that a lot of the lessons that society teaches young humans are to be, think, feel a certain way, rather than to embrace, question, and communicate what it means to be a human.
4. Propaganda  and how it has been used in many certain ways to symbolize something bigger. For example, the Natzi Leaders had the ability to choose specific architectural styles that would demonstrate what it was the Natzi Party meant to them. Propaganda can also be done through music, art, architecture, newspaper theatre, etc. and is used to express information, beliefs, or rumors to the public and possibly provoke them to feel and/or respond in some way.
5. A few inspiring tactics that I have taken away with me so far are the use of videotaping, interviewing, and performing in the real world without letting the public know that a performance is going on “Invisible Theatre”. Specifically, after watching “The Couple in a Cage” by Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gomez Peña, what really became eye-opening was how the artists were placed in a cage where they would separate themselves by wearing things that were exotic to what people saw as norms. They would bring things in that would be seen as exotic and wear them, along with using consumer items in an exotic way. In addition, the had announcers that spoke about the people in the cage, which created a mirroring symbol of animals that are caged in a zoo. The performance was also a carnival style which  included a form of “audience participation”, where people could pay $1.00 to have their photo taken by the cage, $0.50 for the female to perform a native dance, $0.50 for the male to tell a story of their native homeland, $5.00 to see the “male specimens” genitalia. This performance represented how the modern world looks at indigenous people. The interviews within the performance and the entire video altogether created this really moving piece that literally showed us with pure evidence how the modern world looks at indigenous people. The final video of “The Couple in a Cage” is a reflection for those to witness that just because two announcers had brought out two people in a cage and you could pay money to get a photo, or see them do something, or just stand by and watch them is honestly shocking.
6. The principle: Bring the Issue Home is a key takeaway for me because as Rae Abileah and Jodie Evans, point out, “People care, but usually not enough to act on that concern, at least until they understand viscerally what’s at stake.” Ways to bring the issue home include: showing the human cost (ex. Kricorian wanted “to bring the human cost of war home”), issue brought home becomes personal, putting up a price tag.
7. Invisible Theatre is definitely an inspiring tactic that I could add to my “artivist” toolbox. As Tracey Mitchell describes, “Invisible theater is theater that seeks never to be recognized as theater, performed in a public place. The goal is to make the intervention as realistic as possible so that it provokes spontaneous responses.” I personally believe that the use of Invisible Theatre is an incredible way to bring up the difficult topics of everyday life in order to get a conversation going in the real world. I also liked the idea of how the actors were required to stay in character even if the situation went in a completely different direction, because the idea of invisible theater should have the audience believing that what they are witnessing is actually happening in real life.
8. Theory of Expressive and Instrumental Actions. A major takeaway I had from this theory is the idea to shift focus from reaction to action. I learned and took away from Jonathan Matthew Smucker, Joshua Kahn Russell, and Zack Malitz theory of “Expressive and instrumental actions”, that although self-expression is important in terms of wanting to take action to make a change, it is also important to ask what the action is achieving for the cause of it. As Smucker, Russell, and Malitz say, “If we really want to change the world, we must know the difference between ― and artfully balance our instrumental goals with our desire for self-expression.”
9. Interviewing individuals that are directly affected in a specific situation to get their point of view and an idea of what is affecting them, how something is affecting them, and how their overall lives are affected because of a larger problem that should be addressed is a key tactic that I think is super important to use. Because interviews are real, and come from real people that are directly affected by something that the performer or artist is trying to address overall.
10. Multiplicity is Strength - the more we are able to share, be open minded and vulnerable with one another,  learn about our own privileges and to become more aware of our privileges, to help others understand and be able to recognize their own privileges, the more we teach others and pass along the dialogue of information. Multiplicity is strength also reminds me of the saying “Communication is key”.