In 2016, Caridad Svich wrote a moving essay on Howlround about the paralyzing conflict artists face when creating art with the goal to effect immediate change for a movement of social justice, but when actual legislative change seems worlds away. I happened upon this essay reading Tiffany Antone’s essay, “Amplifying Civic Engagement Through #TheatreActionGunControl,” which outlines a galvanizing movement to produce plays across the country that are in response to American gun violence, in support of the #Enough walk-out and #MarchForOurLives.
Her organization, Protest Plays, has sourced together plays from NPX, the Every 28 Hours Project, and Svich’s projects, 24 Gun Control Plays and the plays of After Orlando. Their call to action asks for the space, time, and attention of the American theatre community for artists to protest in the form of creation.
I wanted to compile these resources on our blog as the BU community is invited to participate with #Enough in tomorrow’s Walkout for Action and other upcoming protests.
I’ve been asking myself if it takes a tragedy to happen locally for a community to respond as directly and with as much ferocity as the Parkland students have. Boston as a city knows tragedy and its citizens have the resilience to be art activists alongside communities that have been more directly hit with gun violence. I’m curious to see if there will be any theatre events in Boston over the next few months that are related to #TheatreActionGunControl and overall, if the national theatre community will take up this challenge.
The world may be dashed.
The world may be in pieces.
But to make…speak… do…
In the face of
Powerlessness
In the midst of
grief and mourning
Means that we still have faith
In the possibility of
humanity
But also in
A politics that could acknowledge
That we are all grieving and mourning— Caridad Svich
“Art is not a mirror with which to reflect reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”
— Bertolt Brecht
Drama Lit Blog 2.0: BU School of Theatre 