In thinking about a name for our upcoming event the questions associated with so many aspects of our work kept coming into play.  Why are we delving deeply into the development of new creative work at a time like this?   How can we put a focus on issues abroad to Americans at a time like this? How can we possibly hold a fundraiser at a time like this?

The answer, of course, is obvious.  It is Especially Now that we should be doing the work we are doing.  It is Especially Now that we need to build the most responsive, innovative, visionary and positive cultural organization we can possibly imagine.

Thus, the name of the event came easily.

But this event brought on deeper contemplations for me than assigning it a title.  It made me think about our work in general.  I do see, of course, that The Global Theatre Project is an extension of my own experience of life.  It is my response to the world I see around me and so it is subject to those responses.  In many ways it is a living thing.  So what is it that I see? A world in dark transition struggling to find its light.  It is a real struggle.  Played out now in almost every country around the globe.

And the only way I believe we will achieve moving through struggle to real peace is through experiencing and understanding our commonality.  Then we can move forward.

As I mentioned in my last post, I recognize my ‘naive’ perspective on solving conflicting global issues through theatre.  My perspective on life in general has been called very ‘American’ from time to time by some of my international colleagues.  Of course I am aware that there are complex challenges and systems, structures and cultural divides (as well as economic, social, political, etc. etc.) that we hold as reasons for the tensions and conflicts which are becoming more and more articulated.

But, at the same time.  I recognize that there are more and more people around the world who are reaching across those divides in spite of the complex challenges.  They are motivated by one thing.  Human connection.  Because once you make that connection. . .once you see yourself in that other person or people. . . you create possibility for change. 

In our work it is important that we always celebrate our connection.  Even when we are addressing difficult issues, such as we will do on December 11th.  It is the process of exposing what is, breathing life into it through communal and public experience and moving forward armed with an awareness that can no longer be ignored that interests me.  How can theatre and all the aspects around creating it do this?  And how can it do it better and better?  How can we take this evening and apply as many prisms to the experience for our participants and our audience as we possibly can?

These are my questions.

Because, to me, it is Especially Now that we must focus on how we can Create the World Together.