Fireside Chat

artist statement:

Overall, this was my favorite project this year.  Not only to do, but to watch as well.  Our class is full of some talented and wonderful people. It was amazing to get to see everyone being so open and to learn things about these friends that I may never have guessed.  It was probably my favorite experience in the class.

Okay, now to my project explaining.

So my project was based on my deep belief that the world tries to take away our imagination as we grow up, but we must hold on to it.  When we are young children, it is okay for us to be ridiculous or silly yet the older we get the more that is repressed.  The main focus is to grow up.  If you don’t get a serious job, you can’t make serious money.  So the world tries to tell us to move past those childish dreams and plays and to grow up.

Unlike most of the reading, I did not want to share a true, personal story.  The stories, like the struggle of being half black and half white, were very deep and personal and held great meaning.  But I have learned I am pretty good at creating stories, and I felt that style went a bit better with my belief as well.

So this is what I was trying to show in my performance.  I had two actors who had no idea what was going on, to try and add to the imagination and improvisation I was trying to promote.  I pulled from one of my favorite books growing up, Where the Wild Things Are, but in a sort of reversed way.  This book takes a child’s room and turn it into a magic forest; I wanted to do the opposite.  I wanted to take a magical land and turn it into an office, to show how the world tries to tell you that what you are imagining is not real.  It is your inner child and not something that can help you in the real world. 

When I made this, I wanted my audience to hate the ending.  I wanted them to be so into the story, wanting the prince to win and excited for what was going to happen, and then crushed a little by showing how crappy of an ending it is to make the main character believe that fairy tales don’t exist.  I figured I might be able to make a better point by having my audience feel the same way I do rather than telling them what I thought.  To hear that the prince did not win because he was forced to grow up leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, and hopefully it led them to think about the message.

Don’t grow up.  Keep your creativity.  Keep imagining.