Dark Matter

"Dark matter comprises whatever is materially unrepresented onstage but un-ignorable. It is not a finger point- ing at the moon but the tidal force of gravity that pulls at us unseen." -Sofer

I was thinking about the concept of Dark Matter, that Sofer had written about, and the best examples kept coming to me in the form of a scary movie. I personally hate scary movies, but one that I remember and enjoyed was The Village.For those who have not seen this, the movie is about a small colonial town that has strict rules about the boarders of the village. The citizens of the colony are told that the woods are forbidden and that if they venture into the forest, they will become crazed and possibly exiled from the town. There are monsters that are also in the woods that the entire village is aware of, they are sensitive to the color red and could do harm to anyone in their path. Ok Amanda, where's the dark matter? The entire film they are told by the elders, "do not go in the woods, it is forbidden", the outskirts of the village are the dark matter, always being referred to yet we never see what is in the woods or beyond the woods. Are there other villages? Why can't the characters leave the village? Whats beyond this place? However, it seems the elders know whats out there, not until the end of the movie do we finally see what's there. As the Sofer quote states above, some of the younger villagers are stuck in that gravity of dark matter that pulls them to the unseen. For a double dose of dark matter, I won't tell you the end of the film, watch it, it's quite good.

Ok, so the Holocaust, this is a tricky situation, I do see what Adorno is saying, in that we really aren't honoring the Holocaust but simply honoring ourselves for not being 'bad people'. However, I would be lying if I said I didn't like art about the Holocaust. I personally think art is a way of remembering and honoring the lives that were lost in such a horrific event. I think that Adorno has a very closed minded point of view of what people take away from the art they ingest. Some probably do look at these films, plays etc. and think we are such a superior generation, but I think it's more of a reminder of how we can loose our human empathy when faced with fear and constrictions of our society. That we can turn on each other and act as animals destroying each others lives. We should never forget these events because as the old saying goes, 'History repeats itself', and we should always carry that awareness to try and be that better generation that we claim to be. The best way to keep that awareness, is to make art about it and not let such a tragic event be erased over time. 

Theatre and Truth

Thank you Joe for a wonderful prompt!
Let's see, two productions that come to mind... I will have to reference shows I have been involved in. The first production that pops out in my mind, is Children of  a Lesser God. I was in this production in high school, and to this day I still remember the reaction from the community. This show is one that I will always be happy that I was a part of, due to the fact that the plot really struck a chord with those that came and saw the show. The show is a about a deaf school and the trials and tribulations of being deaf and also finding your voice even if you may not be able to hear it. This production is closest to my heart, because we worked with fellow members of the community from the deaf school in town and really got a hands on experience from them, an insight of what it is really like to be deaf and live in such a loud and noisy world. This reminded me of the article Scott Magelssen wrote about the American Iraq performers in the Sand Box, having a first hand point of view to hopefully change the way we communicate with each other in war situations. We used the community to help us which, in turn brought and even better audience to the theatre because they knew we were trying to convey the closest  truth as possible, walking a day in their shoes, so to speak. Many times we had an entirely deaf audience, which finally called attention to them and gave them a piece of theatre that could reflect a sort of truth within their lives, which is not always represented in the art world, and society in general.

A show which I think brought about a new spin on truth, was a production of Flags by Jane Martin. This play is about a family that looses their son on a deployment to Iraq and how they deal with the distress. The family is angry with the media and their over invasive reporting and the governments motives for going to war in the first place, and as an act of protest, they hang their American flag upside down in their front lawn.  This spins the community into a rebellion against the family, and members of the community that were before honoring the son that had been lost, now torment the family for hanging their flag, spitting on them, robbing them, breaking windows and eventually rioting around the home to take the flag down, resulting in the shooting of their other son, on the roof of their home, while trying to remove the flag. This brought about a new sense of truth for the audience; that we act as if we support the fallen soldiers and the war abroad, when in reality we are still fighting our own wars at home, we may very well be part of the problem, and though we don't have the outward appearance of a war torn country like that of Iraq, we still can turn on each other, when we need each other most.

Personally, I think that verbatim truth, performances that offer truth, both are striving to awaken and ignite some kind truth which we may or may not be aware of, and that any theatre that is trying to spark thought and recognition is a good thing. Which is better? I don't have an answer to that, but what I will say, is that it is better to try and make a point and bring about change than to just comment on it, and pretend as if there aren't issues and injustices going on in the world and societies around us.

Performative Utterances 

There are many performative utterances that we use, to signify a completion, or official end of an event-taking place. Examples we spoke about in class were, 'I do', 'I hereby name this ship' etc. What about Happy Birthday? When I looked into this further, the utterance, 'Happy Birthday', is a statement we use to wish someone to have a happy birthday, rather than, 'Sad Birthday', which would be, well, sad. We use this utterance in the form of a song, that we typically hear before our delicious cake is served to us; this whole ritual is a performance we have every year, in fact, singing this song almost completes this experience of our birthday, making it in a way, 'official' that our birthday has occurred. Happy Birthday is a song we hear once a year, and rarely do we have someone sing it to us on the other 364 days of the year. 

Thinking about a specific example, the classic moment in history when Marilyn Monroe sang, 'Happy Birthday' to President JFK. Video link is below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqolSvoWNck&sns=em

 As we can see, the song was set out to wish JFK a happy birthday, which I think was done by Marilyn, but in a way that he or maybe even the world didn't expect. Typically when we hear this song, it is an upbeat caring tune to express the love from family and friends and celebrating the completion of another 365 days of life, but Marilyn took a turn in her performance that completely changed the context of the song. Her rendition of Happy Birthday, was a sexy, sultry interpretation, which was saying way more than 'Happy Birthday', the amount of sexual undertones in her performance changed the meaning of the song. Though Marilyn was still wishing him to have a happy birthday, she was also hinting at, possibly, how she could make it a happier birthday, or how she now made it a happier birthday than before. What also should be mentioned is the fact that the song was elongated and added lyrics to make it personal to the president, which is also a disruption of this performative utterance that we all have come to expect. 

The other part of this example with Marilyn brings me to our Butler article we read about gender and sexuality. Clearly Marilyn is giving into a social view of what it is to be a sexy woman. She is repeating an idea that she has learned about her gender, the breathy voice, the glam gown, all point to what society deemed attractive and effeminate. In many ways people can argue that she was an original character, but she made herself that way to be the most loved and likeable version of herself for the public, to try to establish a feminine norm. 

Needless to say, Marilyn was definetly remembered as an icon, of the feminie mystique, that many women to this day still admire, so in a way she was the birth of a new female norm. We remember her beauty and her rendition of Happy Birthday, for they disrupted our way of thinking, and the social norm that was established at that time.