UMBRELLA COLLECTIVE
  • Home
  • About
  • Projects
  • Support
  • Connect
  • Blog

Conduit

7/27/2011

 
This is the eight post in a series of blogs about our current production, Ex-Gays, written by Eric F. Avery. Ex-Gays will be presented at Matthews Park and Recreation Center, continuing through Saturday, July 30th. This blog is written by company member, Rachel Nelson.

Working on Ex-Gays has been a heart-breaking experience. I know, I know, its a comedy. Well, a satire. A heartbreaking satire? Fine, we'll go with that. Originally, the company was excited about producing Ex-Gays because it was both socially relevant and artistically exciting.  Little did we know how politically relevant it was about to become (enter Marcus Bachmann and the gay marriage explosion in New York). Again and again over the past week, I've had conversations with audience members about their experiences with Christianity, with spirituality, with sexuality, with gender, and the list goes on and on. This show touches a nerve in almost everybody.

Obviously, this kind of impact on the pubic is a great success and a wonderful blessing for theater artists. It's also touched off a whole slew of neurons in my brain about who Savage Umbrella is, and why it is important. In the light of recent social-political events, it is worth pondering why we make theater instead of lighting buildings on fire? Instead of taking the extra time to cuddle with those we love? Or stand on street corners throwing pamphlets into the wind? Why is this important?

Here are some not-so-clearly-organized thoughts:

Repression of self and desire is always heartbreaking. It's a movement away from love, and that is what I am most interested in when I think about theater. Jeanette Winterson once wrote "what we risk reveals what we value."  I've been thinking about this a lot as our season reveals itself.  It seems to me theater pieces are always based on some form of love.  Love is what motivates us. Everything else is just fluff and distraction.

Seeing how removed the conscience acknowledgment of love is from our day to day activities is somewhat shocking, and ultimately heartbreaking. I'm gonna go out on a shaky limb here and say that I think that theater's greatest gift is that is hones in directly on what motivates us. That's right...love. Theater is not embarrassed to say it.  Theater is not subtle. Theater wants to pull you into the bathroom and talk intensely about your feelings, then break your heart and write you a really great poem about it. Theater always gives you the first orgasm (er, catharsis). It can't help it. It's designed that way. Theater speaks clearly and directly into the places that feel embarrassing or too intimate, and it's almost always talking about love.

When the company members of Savage Umbrella wrote our mission statement last winter, we talked about community conversation. We had a vast difference of opinions and styles about almost everything, but on one thing we were clear: we wanted to be involved and present in the lives and conversations of our communities.  We wanted to be a conduit.  It seems, as I look at this season, we are all focusing in on love. We have shows about people fighting toward some form of love through great adversity, shows about self-discovery, shows about pain and denial, and shows that expose the false notions and snares of traditional love. When I see the bravery of the other artists in the SU company in addressing these topics, it suddenly becomes clear to me that this is one of the best forms of activism: the kind that starts conversations, the kind that connects.  This is why this is important.

So!  Ex-Gays is closing at Matthews Park this Saturday and then we are moving to the Fringe. Then, work on our new show Ravagers is heating up, our big bad fun fundraiser is looming at the end of the month, and season auditions start next week. I hope that the energy and the conversations from Ex-Gays carry us through into the fall, and I hope that you (whoever you are) are planning to be involved somehow in the radically lovely and gutsy season we've got coming your way. I hope we see your face and get to know you. I hope you continue to embrace theater, and that it continues you embrace you back. It will. It can't help it. We can't help it either. We're just kind of built that way.


Comments are closed.

    Archives

    November 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    October 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010

    RSS Feed

Picture
Together is better.
Get under the umbrella.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Copyright 2019
​Umbrella Collective
  • Home
  • About
  • Projects
  • Support
  • Connect
  • Blog