Girl Talk Theatre Hits the Road!
On October 28, 2007 the Girlfriends of Girl Talk Theatre enjoyed a field trip to the Boston Center for the Arts “Friends Matinee” for a performance of The Bluest Eye based on the book by Toni Morrison. Before the performance the women enjoyed a reception and the chance to meet the production’s director and company’s artistic director.
My hope was that this shared experience would continue to build community among the participants. I also thought this would be a good initial introduction of my classes to each other, since my hope is that they will all be performing together next Spring. These goals were definitely met, but the outing proved to be valuable in other surprising and unexpected ways. What I thought would be a fun field trip has actually turned out to be a key element of the program.
Some of the actresses in my class have had little or no exposure to theatre – experiencing this play together helped them to see first hand some of the concepts I have discussed in class and hope to use in our performance. For example – I have mentioned in class the word “stylized” and the concept of using one simple set for many different locations. They were able to experience these concepts and others that I now refer to in class, and my actresses now share this common language.
During the first class after attending the performance, I used the questions provided by the BCA and added some of my own to guide a discussion of the performance. My actresses had very strong reactions to the characters and related to many of the things they saw on stage. The discussion led to the sharing of personal experiences they were reminded of by the play. They had very strong reactions to various characters and events that happened, and strong opinions about how the play ended. The best thing about the class discussions is the evidence that everyone was completely engaged in the performance, they weren’t passively watching (they mentioned many times how different attending a play is from going to a movie) They luxuriated in the experience of reflecting on what they saw and knowing they had a place where their opinions would be listened to and validated.
Girl Talk Theatre will definitely make BCA Friends Matinees a regular outing!!
