Renegade's Edge

Well we did it. And with only two walkouts all weekend, a nice debate at the talkback, a standing ovation at the fundraiser, and some excellent conversations with audience memmbers, only two walkouts all weekend and I can now offically say we have not only succeded in our goal of making people think, we have gone beyond the expectations we set for ourselves. I would love to see the house full for at least one performance, this as we have said over and over, and as was reiterated by audience, an important piece. If we do not examine our rights, we risk abuseing them or having them taken away. T o say we have taken liberties in producing this would be an understatement. Reviews from the Metro and the Milpitas Post will be out Wednesday, a piece inthe Rose Garden Resident was great and Ron from Artsopolis may shoot some video for the site this week. (Speaking of which, if you saw the show, right a review on artsopois.com and get us in the top 10)

Congratulations to all cast, crew, and support staff for helping to produce a project that I am very, very proud of. I know with the anniversary of September 11th, we may be a bit shy to see such an emotional piece this week, but all the more reason to examine and experience the experiment. Tell your friend, tell your neighbors, teachers, coworkers and enemies! Let's keep the buzz going....

As we have already discussed inthis forum, our main objective in producing Bill of(w)rights was to get people to react and to think. Pictures as well as sounds carry an enormous emotional power and in searching for images for our set and our slide show I have discovered some priceless images that elicit an immediate response. We have a touching history, and partcularly in the last decade with the widespread access to digital photography and the internet, we have a really amazing opportunity to see so many important events unfiltered through the eyes or our all important "liberal" but not neccessarily unbiased media. One such site I came across has pictures soldiers have taken in fulluja, and many of them are just fantastic not only from a photographic/artistic composition standpoint, but they come from a place of purpose. It's a "see what I see" Hamlet moment and you can hear the "why?" behind many of the images. Take a look and see if you can come up with words with the same weight that these photos do.

http://www.fallujah.us/photos/

It occured to me during a rehearsal in discussing our "borders" and the isolationist course our country seems to be taking in some ways, that we really do have more access to education then ever before, and yet somehoe we remain uneducated in many respects. It's harder to compile, house and fund a paper library, but one computer in a school or home opens a world of information to you. It's easier than ever to obtain images, articles, definitions, and reconstruct histories within seconds of typing in a key word, and yet, we deny ourselves the experience more and more. The passion to travel to places and experience things first hand is diminishing. And maybe it's because we've started to get the idea, that it's not all good out there. That life is hard enough without the knowledge that we as humans take part in hypocracy and unjust behavior daily. The knowledge that what makes us great, also makes us capable of causing great pain, and a cause for many to dislike us. That this progress which should erase the borders and bring us closer toghether, is dividing us further, and ultimately will destroy us if we are not careful and proactive now in doing something. If a photo, taken by an ordinary soldier, can make 1 person see the "argument" from a unique angle...who's to say if we take enough photos, and seek out an equal number, that we can't enlighten the world one person at a time? Who's to say?

Some thoughts on the subject matter, the governing document responsible for the inspiration of this play, the Bill of Rights:

I noticed something very odd. The number of times a negative (no, nor, neither, not) is used is extraordinarily high for a piece of text intending to grant FREEDOMS to people. 18 times these words appear. This carefully drafted piece took Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, along with other instrumental advocates 2 years to make “law.  I find it very intriguing that people who had recently emancipated themselves from a monarchy were driven to draft such on oddly negative document. “Individualist” who after the constitution had already been ratified in 1789, found it necessary to go back and draft this Bill of Rights, which arguably details that which had been deemed unalienable by anyone who had heard John Locke philosophize.  Seems more like the wording of the Ten Commandments than the ten amendments to me. But this was in fact intentional as I have discovered through some more research.

“The Constitution was remarkable, but deeply flawed. For one thing, it did not include a specific declaration - or bill - of individual rights. It specified what the government could do but did not say what it could not do. For another, it did not apply to everyone. The "consent of the governed" meant propertied white men only.”  And fascinating is it that even that early the delegates tried to be all inclusive, to apply these to AMERICANS. And isn’t it amazing how much more progress in that area still has got to be made?

They left or attempted to leave nothing for interpretation and yet left everything up to possible interpretation. The old conundrum of how to give with out encouraging abuse. How to prevent the restriction of freedoms and protect ourselves from anarchy, chaos and those that by heinous acts should have these freedoms revoked? But is the constitution itself intended to be amended and change with the times? As long as these additions and amendments occur within “reason” and by following the checks and balances that it initially sets up was it really intended to be a living document or concrete unwaivering gospel? And for the record look at how we define that word Amendment:  The act of changing for the better, improvement, a correction, or alteration. So why state the obvious? Why put into writing what should be automatic, natural, and fundamental? The inspiration and biggest supporter for this text, Thomas Jefferson had this to say:

A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular; and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inferences.

I do not like... the omission of a bill of rights providing clearly and without the aid of sophisms for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, restriction against monopolies, the eternal and unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land and not by the law of nations. It astonishes me to find... [that so many] of our countrymen... should be contented to live under a system which leaves to their governors the power of taking from them the trial by jury in civil cases, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of commerce, the habeas corpus laws, and of yoking them with a standing army. This is a degeneracy in the principles of liberty... which I [would not have expected for at least] four centuries. I hope, therefore, a bill of rights will be formed to guard the people against the federal government as they are already guarded against their State governments, in most instances

Being an English and Drama major, I find I have always had a softspot for homonyms. Let’s examine wright, writes, and rights shall we?

Wright- to construct or repair.

Write- to express, communicate, trace or form, compose, transfer, to author, fill in the blank spaces of, to sell (as in stocks).

Right- in accordance with  what is good, proper or just, the opposite of left, fitting, appropriate, in good health/spirits, sound, sane, normal, convenient,  a just claim, in accordance with fact, reason propriety, a blow delivered by the right hand, exactly, precisely,  the complex of individuals or organized groups opposing change in a liberal direction, usually advocating maintenance of the established social, political, or economic order, sometimes by authoritarian means,  to bring into conformity with fact, to redress a wrong.

Interesting no? So with that in mind it could be said these written pieces by playwrights, on the topic of rights, aim to right wrongs, and question the resistance of the conservative Right to interpret rights as unchanging entities.

Search for Bill of Rights on the net. You come up with some great stuff.

There’s more where this came from….but for now…discuss…

While you are brushing up your Shakespeare for RTE's Titus Andronicus, try your hand at this little quiz.  Amazing isn't it? I wager most of us, myself included of course, despite our enlightened upbringing, would be hard pressed to summarize the first ten amendments of our precious govening document without prompting.

The last time I think I truly visited the text of the constitution prior to involvement with this project was 10th grade U.S. govenment class. 15 years ago. I've surely exercised my rights since then, but the words and the meaning behind them have gotten buried in journal entires on headline news we were required to keep during the first gulf war. 

And being on the west coast believe it or not, though it has the sterotype of being more imersed in modern politics than many other states, is at a disadvantage. We lack the phsycial exposure to some of the countrys greatest landmarks. While we are panning for gold, doing reports on Missions, visiting Nasa and hiking in the woods for our education (and I'm not mocking/knocking it) East coast kids are visiting the Liberty Bell, the Assembly Building, the Boston Harbor, Williamsburg, The Smithsonian,  Mount Vernon, and Monitcello.  If my mom hadn't grown up in Virginia and my Grandparents hadn't lived near DC I'm not sure I would know even as much as I do know. I have to say though, I know more about composte piles, the water cycle, and the life cycle of the banana slug than anyone I know. I once had a challenge with a college friend that for every fact about the early history of this country she could name, I could name a Native American tribe. We were about even. We exchanged a lot of information over more than a few cups of coffee.

I hope this play reminds you (as it has me) of that which is at the core of our American civilization, that which is ignored in abundance, hyped to extremes, and in far too few cases, effectively put to use to promote a sentient country if not a world of true citizens.

Greetings! Madam Director here, with a brief progress report on Bill of (W)Rights! It’s been a hectic and exciting beginning to the next RTE experience. We have a wonderfully charged script to interpret and a cast from heaven. They are brave, flexible, intelligent, so much fun, and lest we forget, uber talented. We are having a great time exploring these pieces to their fullest. Our crew is committed, creative and generally outstanding on all fronts. My first time behind the RTE helm has been a toss into the deep end, but educational, invigorating and really a blast! The art we create is stimulating and heated and the amount of laughter during rehearsals, certainly had made more than a few of us question how sick we really are.

Much like the spirit of this play, the rehearsals have been based a lot on spontaneous reactions to what the cast has been doing. Their brilliant choices lead to a myriad of different exercises intended to further draw out the fundamental objectives of these characters and to give the actors the same sort of initial discomfort that leads to discussions and discoveries that we hope the audience will feel when seeing the final product.

We’ve done exercises from handing an object to another actor every time they place blame on someone else to interrogating the actors in the middle of the scene on who they are, what they want, and how they feel at that moment, to making a tic mark on a white board each time a statement supports the right to privacy or to public disclosure.

The process is going swimmingly and in the spirit of “Big Brother” here are a few of the types of out of context “conversations” we are having throughout the rehearsals as we come up to the 2 weeks before opening mark.

I need you to lick her face slower and more menacing.

Can we warn them about getting naked today?

More disgusting.

Yes, these are Balsamic vignettes.

More upbeat. Yeah, and molest her more while you are at it.

Grab her boob with your left hand. Please. I don’t know why I said please.

Director: Okay think about the worst thing anyone has ever said or done to you, don’t tell me, just do that scene as if you are reacting to that.

Actor: Uh, I try to forget those things actually.