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Special events with human rights orgs

posted by Karen McKevitt on Tue, Mar 8, 2011
in News , Our shows

Guest blogger and Berkeley Rep Fellow Jennifer Wills offers this post today, International Women's Day:

As the 2010-11 Bret C. Harte Directing Fellow, I came to Berkeley Rep looking for proof to my belief that theatre really does have an impact, that maybe it can make a difference. What I’m learning is that while creating or watching theatre does not usually change the world directly, it does have the potential to change people’s perceptions of the world, and that could change a lot.

Today is International Women’s Day, a global day when women and men all over the world celebrate the economic, political, and social achievements of women past, present and future. Here at Berkeley Rep we are celebrating today with our production of Ruined, Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play that gives voice to women of the Congo. In sharing their stories she also gives voice to women around the world who find themselves as victims and survivors of rape, war, and abuse.

As artist-activists, Berkeley Rep is teaming with several human rights groups in the Northern California area and beyond to offer you more opportunities to learn. Tonight, we are hosting a pre-show discussion with Anneke Van Woudenberg, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch who spends a lot of time on the ground with women like those in Ruined. Or come to one of our many other events this month and next:

• March 17: post-show discussion with our staff or speak to representatives from Women for Women International who will be in our lobby to answer your questions
• March 22: post-show discussion with International Medical Corps
• April 4: our free Page to Stage series featuring a panel on human rights with speakers from Human Rights Watch, Global Fund for Women, Cal Human Rights Center and International Medical Corps
• April 6: post-show discussion with International Rescue Committee

 Find more information about these events on our site.

If empathy is the highest form of critical thinking, then the ability to empathize is the artist’s best tool. So often we, artists, find ourselves serving as activists. Because we invest so much of ourselves into the work we do, we cannot simply walk away unchanged. It is our hope that our audiences will have similar thought-provoking experiences while watching our work and that that experience will spur you to change. After you see a production like Ruined, maybe you’ll be more likely to read the whole article rather than skim the headline the next time you see a piece in the New York Times about maternal death rates or prostitution. Maybe putting a name and a real woman’s story with a face and a feeling you felt while you sat in our theatre, will give you the opportunity to empathize the next time you hear a woman, any woman, speaking out against abuse. Maybe when you hear the newscaster start to talk about Africa, you’ll wait a few more minutes before changing the channel. Or maybe you’ll decide to do even more.

On any performance night, you can browse our lobby display of International Medical Corps’ vibrant photo collection and read excerpts from Voice of Witness’s forthcoming book of oral histories from the Congo. You can purchase t-shirts or jewelry in support of L.E.A.D. Uganda and Alliance for African Assistance’s Child Sponsorship Program -- educational organizations who work to support the children of Africa. You can simply pick up a brochure, read through our program articles or check out the Berkeley Rep web resources from home.

You may think you are just coming to watch a play inside a dark theatre in Berkeley, California, but in doing so you become an important part of the process as well. We are all partnering to give voice to those people who cannot speak for themselves. It is the hope of all of the artist-activists who brought this show to life that you will take the opportunity to educate yourself and empathize with another human being. If you do, it could change your perception of the world around you, and if we work together, it very well could change a lot more.