There and back again! We’ve put half the country under our van, performed 30 shows across 6 provinces, slept on more couches than I can count, and we’ve met hundreds of inspiring and awesome people. But now we are home and we are already looking forward to new shows and inspired by burgeoning ideas! With any new project, funding is needed, so I’ve been looking into various forms of grants and arts bursaries. One of the interesting application questions that I’ve recently stumbled across was: “How do you hope to affect your audience?”
Phew, that’s a toughie! I mean, obviously we’d love it if every audience member left “Gadfly” inspired to work for peace. But, like with any art form, different people can take different things from it and within any audience there will be a magnitude of outlooks. For example, when we present “Gadfly” in the Mennonite communities, it sometimes feels like we are preaching to the choir as many are familiar with conscientious objection and pacifism. But we can sometimes ruffle some Mennonite feathers when addressing hypocrisy in the Church and complacency combined with the language and content of the play.
However, when we step outside the Mennonite community, we’re faced with a whole new dilemma. In theatres or at festivals it is not the smoking, swearing, or agnostic material that makes audiences feel uncomfortable but the blatant peace message. Some audience members express their surprise that a draft dodger was portrayed as ‘a man of principle’ rather than being a coward. Some have friends or family members who serve in the Armed Forces or Navy. Turns out non-violence is not a widely held philosophy; who knew?
In either realm, audiences have responded very well to the play. The interpretations are always changing, but overall the play seems to leave our audiences challenged in one way or another. I guess that’s a good sign, right? Ted Swartz (from Ted & Co.) says that theatre should work to exist within a community and push outwards. He warns that if you stand outside the circle and push in, people become defensive and push back against you. But, if you are inside pushing out, the community might feel challenged and encouraged to expand their perspective.
Writer and humorist Finley Peter Dunne once wrote, “My business is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” I suppose Theatre of the Beat aims to do the same, stretched somewhere between the faith and traditions of the Mennonite community and the open-minded progressivism of secular society.
Revisiting the initial question of “How do we hope to affect our audience?”, I suppose we, like many artists, try to create work that doesn’t let anyone off easy. In reference to Ted’s example, perhaps Theatre of the Beat aims to exist within two circles simultaneously; a venn diagram if you will. As there are many communities that we feel a part of, we want to find our work within the overlap (that squinty eye shape at the centre of the venn diagram). If we’re somewhere in the middle pushing outwards into whatever community circles we occupy, it means we might not make everyone happy all the time, but we should be able to challenge everyone…at least a little.
-Johnny
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