Creating a World of Simple Superheroes
Manifesto: a public declaration of principles and intentions, and of the theories and directions of a movement.
The World or America as part of The World:
The world is made up of people.
People are the most important thing. What connection is more fulfilling or true or alive?
We are currently severely alienated and disconnected from each other as humans.
We live behind walls, work, crossed arms, screens, and headphones.
Technology is becoming the primary mode of connection. How do we feel more connected to someone we just sent an abbreviated text to than the people in the room around us? We allow that to happen.
We are sometimes unsure if we even really know those closest to us
Those that do feel connected to those closest to them often don’t consider acquaintances or people they may never meet.
Events (and the people they affect) that are not in our near vicinity do not matter.
We value material things, power, employment, status, art, and work over people.
Our society, our government, our religions foster fear.
The statistics are astonishing. Divorce, unemployment, homelessness.
Illness has taken over our people. Everyone seems to be on some kind of medication and most of them are treating (or not treating) depression.
Humanity has become lost in a world it created.
“Not my problem.”
The world is made up of good people who are not all the way awake.
These people are so smart and able to change.
We are small. We know it, we can feel it, we can see it. We don’t know what the bigger thing is. We want it to be something we can actually grasp onto without feeling lost in our smallness. Humanity is the huge web that we are small within. Humanity is tangible. You can touch the little strings of the whole and the whole is affected. We are small, but we are powerful.
Because of the basic tenets of humanity this society has created a world that is difficult to live in. So people are ready for change.
Humans
With all our differences, when boiled down to our very cores we are all humans. We are all connected under humanity. We want the same very basic thing: we want to be wanted, needed. We have the same basic emotions. We know what tears feel like when we see them on another person's cheek.
Humans are, at their cores, good.
We are constantly progressing. We are so smart. We are quick. We are driven. We are kind.
Too many humans feel like they are suffering.
Some humans are truly suffering. (Picture of a young girl in Africa with the vulture behind her, tragedy victims, etc.)
We are unaware of our fellow humans, their plights, their humanity.
If we are aware we think we cannot help or choose not to. Everything is too big.
We label people as different from ourselves for a thousand different reasons.
All human negativity is driven by loneliness and/or fear. Insecurity is a form of fear. Our current society is fostering a sort of widespread loneliness that is detrimental to its people.
“If I see a person talking on the phone I want to know what that conversation is.” They are crying because there is no warmth besides the heat created from their phone battery against their wet face.
People are not bad; most of us are just not fully awake and may stay in an early morning haze our entire lives. Early morning hazes can be refreshing. They can also waste the rest of the day if we don’t move into the full heat of the afternoon.
We are a product of our society. Society is our product created over time. It is an endless chicken and egg cycle that we have the ability to change. People are ready for the heat. (I typo-ed this as heart the first time...)
Religion
Some force kicked the world into motion, call it God if you like. I believe in God. I do not believe in a "religion." Religions were created by men because of a fear caused by not knowing what the force, God, was. I cannot believe because why would God divide us into so many different sects that call each other wrong? That damn each other? That damn their own for being the way they were born or for doing things that make them happy and do not harm others?
The world is good. God must be good. This God religions have created is not and so, for me, cannot exist.
People created rules and images they could hold onto in order to not be afraid of what God might be. If there is a God that cares about our actions, we are not alone. If there is a God with rules that lead to some sort of reward then there is purpose in life. I do not blame people for giving themselves this structure to feel safe within and truly do not wish to tear it from them. But this safety people fabricate in religion actually exists in humanity. If we give ourselves to each other, we are not alone. When we are in communion with humanity, we are in communion with the world and the force that created it. Fight for humanity. You will live in salvation rather than wait for it. And what God would not love you for being good to people?
I believe in a force bigger than myself. I believe in a God. I do not believe in a religion. I believe in humanity. And I believe in fighting for them, not damning them. God does not need us, but we sure as hell need each other.
Living for Humanity
We have to engage in the world immediately around us. We have to be aware. We have to care. We have to be critical. We have to improve. We have to love. We have to respond.
We have to find ways to dissolve our fear of openness and vulnerability. We have to embrace kindness, openness, and each other. It is absolutely necessary to tear walls down and take headphones out. It is impossible to foster community with crossed arms. If you are not open and comfortable, no one will feel comfortable being open with you and that connection is what we want. What we need. Be someone people want to be around. That is the beginning of the revolution.
We have to take care of each other. We are completely responsible for each other, for the people we see every day, for the people we will never see.
What would it be like to know someone else (whether they could or not) wanted to fight your fight. A friend, a stranger. I want to fight your fight. We have to invest in each other's happiness.
We must be genuinely curious about the people around us. We must engage wholly with people. We must become aware of ourselves and the situation humanity is in. This awareness then must feed into a fight, a revolution. We must challenge the state we are in.
Who will be there if a disaster strikes at this second? Do you know the people around you? How did you just treat them? Do you know your neighbors, your community, your friends, your family? What suffering human body is draped over the Plexiglass box you live in?
Things that are fulfilling. things we need. things we can provide:
Fostering ensembles/communities
Taking Risks
Exploding with hope
Provoking a discussion
Creating a smile
Warmth
Security
Inspiring change and hope
Simple positivity
Genuine engaged listening
Working together
Touch
The Theatre I Want:
“Why do you do theatre?”
“Because it is important. Because it is powerful”
And now I know how this thing I have always said can be, and is, actually true.
Theatre is a platform with creative juices that make it less dull, less intimidating than a podium with a microphone. It is a forum for change. It can be anything and it has an audience.
But it is not a soapbox. After 22 years a succession of experiences over 6 months with a significant 1 week climax led to my “revelation.” We cannot force these findings on audiences. We must only plant the seed and reinforce with dialogue.
This theatre must be accessible.
This theatre is not art for art’s sake.
This theatre does not have rules about form or structure
This theatre must challenge, move, and respond honestly
This theatre must be followed by talk back sessions
This theatre must be created by a multidisciplinary ensemble
This theatre must:
engage it’s artists in their world and community.
respond to our situation and people with brutal honesty and genuine hope
support community and provide hope
foster human connection
relieve the suffocation
reach people on a visceral level
This theatre should help people:
Wake up
Want to be engaged in their community
Feel responsible for each other
Actively hope for (and with) humanity.
Me
I feel powerful. I am smart. I am driven. I am aware. I am young. I am exploding with hope. I am supposed to do this and I can. I am on fire. I cannot do it myself, but I can fuel it.
Theatre is what I (or we, depending on who you are) do. I should use what I know and love to spread the truth I believe, start the discussions, provoke change, and promote hope. I am young. I am small, but not in an insignificant way. I can shake the web.
Simple Superheroics in 12 Points
1. People are the most important thing.
2. We are each a small part of the whole of humanity.
3. Humanity is tangible. We can affect the whole by touching just one. Humanity ripples because we are all connected.
4. As different as we all think we are from one another, are are all humans and at our cores we want the same basic things and feel the same basic emotions.
5. People are good.
6. All human negativity is either based in loneliness or fear.
7. Our society, and we, as part of it, has somehow driven out human connection and degraded the importance of community, often replacing it with technology.
8. Currently much of our world is therefore fostering loneliness and capitalizing on fear. This has created unhappiness, but also a readiness (if only subconsciously) of people for change.
9. We, as humans who are a piece of the whole of humanity, are responsible for each other.
10. We must take care of each other. To do this we must engage wholly in our immediate world and with the people around us. We must be aware, we must respond, we must discuss, we must challenge, and we must care. We must want to fight each other’s fights.
11.Hope is not passive. We must explode with hope for humanity.
12. As an artist I must use my forum to respond to our situation. I must create work that is critical, challenging, and hopeful in order to provoke discussion and, ultimately, change. The timing is right; people are ready.
This is essential.
ThThank you to my family, Universes, Carmen, Scorched, Spinoza, and good people for incredible inspiration. And Brandon, for the title :)
