Rabbi Brant Rosen on Rohina Malik at JRC: Unveiling Our Humanity

Rabbi Brant Rosen of JRC in Evanston posted this on his blog about the interfaith event Sunday night. Thank you JRC for once again welcoming 16th Street to your beautiful synagogue (we were there one year ago with FIRES IN THE MIRROR). This is why we do theater. For dialogue. To be moved to conversation and action. To share our humanity indeed. --Ann Filmer

"Last night JRC was honored to host a performance of the one-woman show Unveiled by Rohina Malik. Breathtaking.

Rohina is a playwright, actress and solo artist of South Asian heritage who was born in London and emigrated to Chicago when she was 15. She is an impressive and important contemporary artist – and her identity as an American Muslim woman clearly plays an important role in her art."

Read the rest of Rosen's blog here

Best Emerging Theater - wow!

Best Emerging Theater Company

The Reader’s Choice: 16th Street Theater

"Most Chicago theater companies get started because like-minded artists decide they want to do the work they love best the way they want to do it—finding a space and an audience comes later in the process. Ann Filmer took a different approach. When she moved out to Berwyn a few years ago, she found there was a nifty little black-box theater in the Berwyn Cultural Center, but no professional company to use it. So with the help of the North Berwyn Park District, the longtime director started 16th Street Theater, and got busy producing work that would speak to the western suburb’s ethnically diverse, working-class audience base..."

Read the rest of story here.

Thanks Chicago Reader and Kerry Reid!

Anna Deavere Smith at Columbia College

The cast and crew of FIRES in the MIRROR with playwright Rohina at reception for Anna Deavere Smith at Columbia College.

Overwhelmed from hearing Ms. Smith speak and seeing her perform last night. It was unforgettable.

"The stories that we express--and that we don't--determine our survival."

---Anna Deavere Smith, 1/27/09

Martin Luther King on Race Relations

Today was an emotional day for me. Working deep on FIRES in the MIRROR. When insecurity takes over, I feel overwhelmed by the emotions within this piece. The strong and sharp words. Today I took the opportunity to read the words of MLK for inspiration and guidance. And tonight in rehearsal I read this excerpt from Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech A Realistic Look at the Question of Progress in the Area of Race Relations

"...There are three basic attitudes that one can take toward the question of progress in the area of race relations. And the first attitude that can be taken is that of extreme optimism. Now the extreme optimist would argue that we have come a long, long way in the area of race relations. He would point proudly to the marvelous strides that have been made in the area of civil rights over the last few decades. From this he would conclude that the problem is just about solved, and that we can sit comfortably by the wayside and wait on the coming of the inevitable.

The second attitude that one can take toward the question of progress in the area of race relations is that of extreme pessimism. The extreme pessimist would argue that we have made only minor strides in the area of race relations. He would argue that the rhythmic beat of the deep rumblings of discontent that we hear from the Southland today is indicative of the fact that we have created more problems than we have solved. He would say that we are retrogressing instead of progressing. He might even turn to the realms of an orthodox theology and argue that hovering over every man is the tragic taint of original sin and that at bottom human nature can not be changed. He might even turn to the realms of modern psychology and seek to show the determinative effects of habit structures and the inflexibility of certain attitudes that once become molded in one's being. (Yes) From all of this he would conclude that there can be no progress in the area of race relations. (Alright, Alright)

Now you will notice that the extreme optimist and the extreme pessimist have at least one thing in common: they both agree that we must sit down and do nothing in the area of race relations. (Yes) The extreme optimist says do nothing because integration is inevitable. The extreme pessimist says do nothing because integration is impossible. But there is a third position that is another attitude that can be taken, and it is what I would like to call the realistic position. The realist in the area of race relations seeks to reconcile the truths of two opposites while avoiding the extremes of both. (Yeah) So the realist would agree with the optimist that we have come a long, long way. But, he would go on to balance that by agreeing with the pessimist that we have a long, long way to go. (Amen) [applause] And it is this basic theme that I would like to set forth this evening. We have come a long, long way (Yes) but we have a long, long way to go. (Amen) [applause]..."

So I am thinking that "long, long way to go" starts with dialogue. It starts with hearing each other. I must believe it can begin within the sacredness of a communal place, like a theater. Where we sit in the dark, side by side, in order to see it clearly.

Walking in San Francisco

Spending the end of 2008 rejuvenating and getting inspired for the New Year in my home state of California. The Bay Area. Full of different emotions for me. So much has happened here. It is my past, it was my home. I had to leave in order to see it.

As I prepare for Anna Deavere Smith's FIRES IN THE MIRROR I am devouring Smith's TALK TO ME about her travels through media and politics. Smith studied and lived in San Francisco and as I walk those familiar hills, the energy charges through me. But then I also look around to try to find those who do not look like me. I am surprised by the lack of color. I see mostly a sea of White among the Asian population. My old friend Chris tells me we are in the Western Addition. "Yeah the blacks were pushed out, once again." I read up on it and find the Fillmore District after WWII indeed was a cultural center for San Fran's African-American community. But then read about the changing demographic. And the "return of the middle class." I wonder why "urban renewal" means more whites and less people of color. I think about economics and code words like "bad neighborhood." I think of Oakland and turf wars. It's complex and unsettling. I look to myself to see where I fall in this.

It's scary to look. Afraid of what I may find. I am nervous about diving into FIRES IN THE MIRROR and those strong, uncomfortable words. To put that out there: our complicated relationship with race, with class, and with difference. Our American identity. The melting pot that has yet to melt. The melting pot that seems only to continue to separate.

I remember something. I open up the intro to FIRES IN THE MIRROR and read Ms. Smith's words: "I think there is a gap between those who are heard and those who speak. Those who really speak in their own communities, to their own people, are not heard as frequently as those who speak on a regular basis with authority. The media most often goes to experts to speak about difference. My sense is that American character lives not in one place or the other, but in the gaps between the places, and in our struggle to be together in our differences. It lives not in what has been fully articulated, not in the smooth-sounding words, but in the very moment that the smooth-sounding words fail us. It is alive right now. We might not like what we see, but in order to change it, we have to see it clearly."

I keep walking. I keep listening. I keep looking.

The Scarlet Ibis - video poem

This video poem of Susan Hahn's The Scarlet Ibis is by Kristin Reeves who designed the video projections for 16th Street Theater's production that premiered July 2008. She captures the essence of the text, movement, music, metaphor, video and dramatic arc all within 6.5 minutes. I am in awe. Enjoy!

"I experienced communion that night."

This is an excerpt from my friend and fellow Artistic Director, playwright David Alan Moore:

"In many ways, that play was as far removed from my own experience as it could possibly get. Much of the dialogue was in Spanish (I speak French and English). It explored the immigrant experience (my family has been in America for many generations). It examined the challenges facing women (I know a lot of women, but...).

Yet, despite all of these differences, I understood what was happening on that tiny stage, in that darkened room. I knew what those characters were feeling, I looked through a window into a small part of their souls, and I knew that the people around me also saw through that same window - and saw themselves reflected. As audience members and as actors, we laughed together, we grew silent together, we were moved together. Together, we considered the meaning of both our own, unique experiences and our common, shared experiences.

We sat by ourselves, inside our own skins, wrestling with our own reactions to what we saw onstage. At the same time, we sat together, enveloped by a sense of community and common exploration. And as we applauded at the curtain call, I hope we all felt, in some small ways, less alone. Felt that our lives, as separate and distinct as they can be sometimes, had touched the lives of others - briefly, perhaps, but in a way that also left a mark.

That, I believe, is the value of live theatre. That, I believe, is what makes theatre different from literature and film and television. That, I believe, is why the ensemble and board of Stage Left Theatre and of companies across the city devote so much of their own time, energy and resources to the act of sharing stories, person to person.

We make theatre and we see theatre so that all of us - me, my suddenly unemployed friend, my friends who just got married, my friends who just had their first baby (and are finally getting out of the house!), and my friend fighting breast cancer - can gather in one place to laugh and to weep and to ponder together. To live together. In communion."

Beautifully said, David.

Traveling the land of Berwyn

The cast of The Ascension of Carlotta, which takes place in and around Berwyn, enjoyed slurpess from 7 Eleven last night.









Anna as Tammy and Janna as Alice rehearse their scene in the alley next to the 7 Eleven.










After we hung out at the convenience store, we went to Lalo's to rehearse Joey's & Alice's scene which takes place at "The Happy Sombrero."










The cast with stage manager Jennifer at Lalo's.