Naropa students engage community in preparation for ‘Dead Man Walking’ – By Mark Collins For the Boulder Daily Camera

Dear readers,

Check out the article by Mark Collins on Naropa’s Dead Man Walking production.

http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_14915299#axzz0lxLnTnWN

Walking

This Dead Man Walking is not what I thought about it.

When we were “in” the actual group processing, I seemed to think that this was the beginning of that sort of intense processing. It turns out that was it- that was what I thought I was waiting for.

I regret that I took those moments for granted. I had a tense moment with a fellow student who claimed to think that some people deserved to die. I felt the passion, the indignant righteousness in my chest before I even knew what words I would choose, and instead of resting with that feeling, I let it rise to my throat and out my mouth. This is not entirely shocking, if you’ve spent even small amounts of time with me!

I remember reflecting then, that I had just perpetuated a smaller scale version of the Death Penalty dynamic: I tried to deal with another person’s violence with aggression and anger, rather than patience and compassion.

This seems to be the most profound (and astonishingly obvious) reason that the Death Penalty is, as Poncelet’s lawyer says to Sister Prejean, “bunk.” I am reminded of a situation I encountered this summer. My mother and I were Kenya to working and teaching in an orphanage. One day, during the play period. A small child (about 6 or seven years old) pushed a younger child over and the child began to cry. Immediately one of the teachers, and also consequently the Head Master of the school the orphans attended during the week, called the boy who had done the pushing over to him. He took the boy firmly by the arm, and picked up a stick that was laying beside him and put it up the boys shorts. The boys head fell and he began to cry silently, as the man spoke in hushed tones to him.

I went up, and asked, “What are you doing?”

The man’s lips began to quiver….

I will not go further into the story, but when we hear this example it is so obvious that the man was trying to get the boy to not hit younger children through his own act of violence (and how much more powerful he was than the 8 year old to a 6 year old!) We cringe at the story because, when it comes to children, our hearts are so much more tender; we still believe in their humanity, their right to be loved and cared for, respected and taught with compassion.

But somehow, if the child is 18 years old, he no longer deserves our compassion or love, patience, creativity or nurturance. Violence that is “treated” with violence is actually only “perpetuated.”

One might argue that these are just my “beliefs.” This is incorrect. I am pointing to simple truths. Francis’ lip   quivered at being caught in an act of violence toward a vulnerable child, because he knows- he knows something that as humans, we all have the potential to recognize.

I would like to quote the Dalai Lama from his book How to Practice; The Way to a Meaningful Life:

The sales of weapons-thousands and thousands of types of arms and ammunitions- by manufacturers in big countries fuels the violence, but more dangerous that guns or bombs are hatred, lack of compassion, and lack of respect for the rights of others. As long as hatred dwells in the human mind, real peace is impossible… The only way to achieve lasting peace is through mutual trust, respect, love and kindness. The only way. Attempts by global p0wers to dominate one another through competition in armaments- whether nuclear, chemical, biological, or conventional,  is counterproductive… To achieve a friendly attitude, a warm heart, respect for the rights of others, and their welfare you must train the mind [to cultivate an attitude of compassion and calm]… Anger diminishes our power to distinguish right from wrong, and this ability is one of the highest human attributes… Anger is not necessary. It has no value. I call compassion the human staple”

This speaks to me in terms of how it relates with the family of victims wanting to see the attested criminal be killed. They claim that they need vengeance to feel at peace. I challenge this with all my heart. I know it would be very hard to say this to a person who is in pain, having lost someone they loved and were deeply attached to. And compassion means I must have compassion for them. But it does not believe that I have to side with them and say, “Oh, I understand how you feel and therefore, I am on your side: let’s get that scum!” Compassion is unbiased, and is very courageous.

That’s all for now.

Clay Hamilton

Do I have to be a nun?

I thought I was going to have to tone down my feistiness in order to be able to play a nun.  Turns out, I have to find new heights of grit in order to be able to do justice to the character of Sister Prejean  in Dead Man Walking.  In almost every scene, Prejean manages to slice through what she perceives to be someone else’s delusions.  She really holds her own with those hard-shelled prison men.  I’m still working on getting there; sanely.    One day after rehearsal I was so fired up that I had to walk out of the building jumping and punching the air.
Sister Prejean has a lot to be fired up about.  Although we have supposedly studied both sides of the death penalty debate, I have yet to come across a justification for capital punishment that seems honest besides pure revenge.  And I can understand wanting that.  If someone causes a pain so deep as the pain of not being able to touch someone you loved, it seems natural to want to see them suffer too, especially if they cannot admit their wrong-doing.  But ultimately, there have got to be healthier ways of coming to resolution than the satisfaction of knowing someone was killed.
I have learned so much in this process already.  I grew up mildly Christian and when I go to church it still leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.  I don’t want some old white guy telling me what to do, as if he understands faith better than I do.  A lot of the messages are beautiful but there is no way anyone can convince me that the church provides the only way to God.  Sister Prejean is so refreshing to me because she is not afraid to openly question her faith, to form her own relationship to God outside of the church, to trust her own sense of what is right. It takes a lot of strength to hold one’s faith and be able to question at the same time.  But if we are not willing to question, how can we learn?
I also really appreciate her humanness.  My acting teacher expressed that she is a gritty, tenacious woman first and a nun second.  Throughout the play we see that Prejean makes mistakes, feels afraid, experiences loneliness, questions the authority of the church and  her own involvement in prison work and expresses dislike for someone she is trying to help.  She is just an ordinary person who has made a commitment that has changed the orientation of her life.  I am taking some cues from Prejean- how to not back down, how to be curious, how to continue when you don’t know.
Thank goodness I already passed through the bad southern accent and I-want-to-be a-nun-too (I’m talking less than five minutes) phases. I am beginning to understand why people devote their lives to performance.    It is like following an elusive and beckoning beast to try to convey something that means something, something that makes sense of all the somethings that happen to a person.  We keep trying to hit something that is the ultimate truth, but of course, that is impossible, and yet it also doesn’t feel far away.  It is like truth is already there just watching you try to make a model of it and you can always feel how close you come.  I hope that we will capture some part of truth in what we are making.

Do you want to check out our in class performances?

Are you curious to see the Naropa BFA Dead Man Walking ensemble’s is up to in class?  Check out the videos below of our in classwork with visiting San Francisco performing artist Erika Chong Shuch and check out her website: http://www.espproject.org

We created this piece by gathering three weeks worth of material from class and compiling it together.  This in workshop showing was created in one class period.  You can almost taste the ripe creativity!
Select from below!

Naropa BFA performance Part ONE, Spring 2010

Part Two

Thank you!
Lilli Myers