“The All Stars Project, Inc. (ASP) is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting human development through the use of an innovative performance-based model.”
From the moment I saw this blurb on their website, I was convinced that working with The All Stars Project is where I’m meant to be. I believe theater is inarguably essential to human development and is quite literally the art of human experience. As part of the application process for their Activists for Social Development Fellowship” we were required to produce a “response” to their special report entitled “Let’s Pretend”, and, after reading that report, my instantaneous reaction was to go off on a bit of a tangent of some of the fantastic experiences the report reminded me of…and I’m afraid I’ve done just that. However the following tangents help explain why I value performance art so highly. The piece “Let’s Pretend” details the All Star’s mission as using performance to “harness the uniquely human capacity to perform as someone or something we are not,” so that “underachieving kids can pretend their way to growth,” an admirable venture that immediately had me thinking about a “theater for human development” project I studied in the past for one of my undergraduate classes…
The Tangent:
Oscar Wilde, the highly celebrated 20th century playwright once said: “I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.”
Theater arts offer a way for an individual or group to express feelings and emotions that many in the audience have probably felt themselves, are longing to feel, or hope never to feel. Theater is a way of connecting to other human beings and sharing experiences of all kinds, both fictional and true. However, theater is not always created for the benefit of the audience. In times of antiquity, “theater” as we know it today existed as a tool for demonstrating points of view, depicting religious scenes and rituals, and delivering messages of high importance. The first plays ever performed were intended for everyone in the surrounding communities to participate in, not for some to partake in while others looked on.
While most theater today has been highly commercialized, an incredible example of theater with its original intentions still exists. Designed for the benefit of those involved was a project entitled “After the Storm”. “After the Storm” was a theatrical endeavor that began as a way for youth affected by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans to express their feelings about the tragedy and tell their stories in a creative outlet. Many of the children and young adults asked to participate had never had any outlet whatsoever to express their emotional struggles and hardships resulting from the storm. The project began with a group of actors from New York City, who were inspired to use the craft they love for something other than their jobs onstage, that set out to use their skills as a tool to benefit others. The group travelled down to New Orleans and revitalized a community center destroyed by the storm.
They decided to produce a play, “Once On This Island” (A critically acclaimed musical about a peasant girl discovering her purpose in life in the wake of a terrible storm). While the play was performed for audiences eventually (with overwhelming rave reviews by area critics), the project was originally designed as a creative and therapeutic outlet. The cast was made up completely of Hurricane Katrina survivors, and the participants all shared their stories of survival. They used their experience with Katrina and their emotions surrounding the event to fully develop their characters, whose fictional lives did not differ wildly from their own. While rehearsing their roles and preparing to bring this musical to life, each cast member was asked to tell their story, go back and visit their destroyed homes, or talk about their estranged families. The preparation process and resulting theatrical production can be seen in a documentary film, the trailer of which can be viewed at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJQNFzUwZAo&tracker=False&NR=1
The fact that so much reality went into preparing a fictional piece helps to strengthen the validity of Mr. Wilde’s words. Audiences who attended this unique production shared an experience with their fellow audience members, and with the cast members of the play. While reading about tragedy and trying to understand disaster through information provided by media is perhaps the best source for worried and curious minds around the world, horrific images and heart wrenching interviews are often re-played so many times that the problem begins to seem too overwhelming to actually deal with. People who want to sympathize often become desensitized to the tragedy of it all. However, through this project, a fictional tale infused with raw, very non-fictionalized emotion, viewers of the play are able to experience what it meant to be human during an event of fear and tragedy. While many in the world might never have to deal with such horrors in their lifetime, the importance of understanding such an experience and sharing in this facet of human existence and emotion has the power to help each audience member understand humanity a little more. By watching this play and feeling the emotional, real-life struggles of the actors shine through the façade of their characters, audiences that may have felt disconnected previously can begin to feel as though they are part of the story. This project that began as a charitable endeavor to provide therapy to its participants became an educational and therapeutic outlet for all involved, and was indeed “the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.”
Pretty great right? And as I began to read on, the exciting mission of The All Stars becoming ever more clear, my thoughts began to wander again. Not because of any lack of interest in the article in front of me, but because of all of the experiences this business model was encouraging me to recall. It seemed as though every thought I’ve had about the essentiality of theater was being brought to life through a plan to help the education crisis in America. I thought of how many times I’ve preached the importance of theater education not only for the sake of becoming a better student, but for developing into a better person. I once gave a speech to room of 300+ students, most of whom couldn’t care less about budget cuts to our University’s theater department: “Theater helps you become a better public speaker! More confident! Unafraid of taking risks!” I explained; “…boosts your creativity, and helps you to always think outside the box! The skills learned from performance arts affect so many areas of human life, and are basically essential to human development!” These words are directly from my speech (for which I received Professor Bergren’s coveted A+ thank you very much), but more importantly, these are some of the exact sentiments expressed in The All Star’s “Let’s Pretend” special report.
Another (slight) Tangent:
When home in New York City, much of my free time is spent getting involved with the “missions” of street-theater group “Improv Everywhere.” This group, well-known throughout NYC, strives to create “extraordinary scenes in ordinary places”, through comedic pranks and role play, to get as many people involved in a theatrical experience as possible. In many ways, Improv Everywhere’s goals remind me very much of what I’ve just learned about The All Stars Project through this “Let’s Pretend” piece. Improv Everywhere aims to use the technique known as “Free Play” to help adults get as close as they can to a childlike mindset through improvisational theater. When we were young, we all used to play games, or make up elaborate scenarios and characters with our friends very easily. It was not art, it was not work, it was something very natural and constantly exciting. Improv Everywhere’s goal is to bring this mindset back to as many people as possible. They find it to be very important both to their theatrical art form as well as to human development. Check out their website to learn more: http://improveverywhere.com/
From “Let’s Pretend” it seems to me that The All Stars use this same sentiment, but use it to help youth grow into an adult mindset through theater, while using that same, internal aptitude for “Free Play” that Improv everywhere uses to help adults grow and relate to each other. The “After the Storm” Project, Improv Everywhere, and The All Stars all demonstrate why I have fallen so in love with performance art. It is not simply fun, but essential for human development and I honestly never thought I’d find an organization that not only shared this same sentiment, but values it so highly as to use it as its core business model and as a tool to help underprivileged children and their communities.
And Finally:
“We believe that if such a national ‘performance’ were created, the education crisis in America would be over. Children, having developed the capacity to pretend to be who they are not, i.e., good learners, also develop the capacity to become the thing they are pretending to be. And, thus, if we could all together assist poor and minority kids in pretending that they are classroom achievers, they could choose to become that.” – “Let’s Pretend”
In the now infamous words of The Bard, “all the world’s a stage”, and indeed, at the risk of this all sounding cliché, truer words were never spoken. We are all actors, whether we are waking in the morning and putting on our corporate costumes (the suit and tie), speaking in the professional business dialect we were taught is appropriate for work, or perhaps putting together our hair and makeup, rehearsing our witty lines and preparing for the evening’s encore performance of “date night”, we are all constantly actors, acting in the manner we’ve learned is appropriate for each part of our day, or event in our lives. Our religious and ceremonious rituals, like our weddings, or baptisms, or bar mitzvahs are our plays, put on for an audience, wearing a certain wardrobe and speaking in a certain way. Our daily conversations are based on rehearsed behaviors, of how to talk to your parents on the phone vs. how to speak during a presentation in an office.
As “Let’s Pretend” so clearly states: “Because the most innovative researchers and practitioners have come to discover that pretending, or “creatively imitating,” or performing in social contexts, is how human development is produced.” And indeed this idea is no way ridiculous, it is how we’ve always developed and will continue to, acting as who we want to be helps us become just that; To base a business model and thriving non-profit organization on these ideas, and using them as a way to solve the education crisis in America is not only the opposite of ridiculous, but an extraordinarily immaculate endeavor, that I truly hope to have the opportunity to be an influential part of.
