Curtain Rising - Index

Curtain Rising - Curtain Rising Magazine - Volume 1, Issue 20 - September 11, 2007 - Index

WELCOME
September 11
2007
Photo courtesy of the Living Theatre
Image from The Brig.
The Team
Each issue we ask a theatre related question to the
Curtain Rising staff.
This issue: Q: What is the name of the first play you saw
that had an impact on you?
Publisher
Julie Roza
A: Medea. A bare stage and great actors is
all it really takes.
Editor
Sean C. Tarry
A: Waiting for Godot. Beckett is brilliant. His
minimalist style evokes thought and emotion
of the highest level.
Art Director
Negar Motamed-Khorasani
A: The China Mender. It was the first play I
saw when I was only 7. It was musical and I
can still remember some of the songs.
Assistant Editor
Karen Jackson
A: The Merchant of Venice.
Chief Technical Officer-POTN
Nick Murray
A: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour
Dreamcoat. Enough said.
Lead Programmer-POTN
Jorge Sariego
A: Macbeth.
Senior Research Analyst
Samuel Bramley
A: Equus. Those horses didnt deserve what
they got.
September 11, 2007
There are but a few topics of conversation that one dare not raise in many, if
not most, social circles without the precognitive realization that their views will be
met with harsh criticism and hostility, whether their stance is based on rational
evidence or otherwise.
Race relations and gender inequality are surely two of the most highly debatable
points of interest that many people abstain from commenting. And although
each of these subjects merit a division and individuality unto themselves, and
pose a potentially high-charged argument, they both, depending on the flow
of conversation, fall under the umbrella of the most hotly contested moot point
of all; politics.
There is no easy way to broach any political conversation without inadvertently
challenging the beliefs of another while exposing your own. And there is also no
other way to more substantially remove oneself from the customary humdrum
of popular society than to raise the issue in public...which is precisely what the
Living Theatre in New York City has made a habit of doing over the past 60
years.
The experimental theatre has influenced the founding of many other American
theatres of the like, often challenging audiences to ruminate on issues of
contention. And their most recent production, the revival of the 1963 antiauthoritarian
play The Brig, is no exception.
The hyperrealistic performance, set within a military prison, examines the
inhuman treatment of prisoners of war and the atrocities that result, while linking
to the red-hot controversy of the American-led occupation and destruction
of Iraq. The play elicits raw emotion from its audience and beseeches an
examination of longstanding American international policy and an evaluation
of the government's exorbitant techniques of mass persuasion. Most notable are
the crudely constructed signs, often hanging in the backdrop during outdoor
performances of the play, reading "Close Guantanamo Now? and "Support
our troops. Stop the war.?
Amid the brutal Middle East conflict that is slowly engulfing our collective
consciousness and the heightening concerns of some regarding the hegemonic
intentions of the United States government, it is becoming increasingly
imperative for voices to sound and for opinions to be asserted. The Living
Theatre is doing their part to fill the void with relevant adversarial argument.
Onward,
Sean C. Tarry
Editor
Administrator
Khadija Mabayeke
A: I have two actually Momma I want to
Sing & Sarafina.
Communications Director-POTN
Emily Want
A: The Taming of the Shrew.
CEO-POTN
Chris Savery
A: King Lear at Stratford upon Avon.