Download PDF Version Revolt Magazine, Volume 1 Issue No.4

THEATREVIEW
Theatre for the Person:
BY ADAM LATEN WILLSON
Two Perspectives
Special Thanks to Reka Polonyi and Adam Belvo
I have always seen theatre as a ne plus ultra of
the arts – by melding together literary, visual,
locomotive, and phonetic elements, it serves as a
vanguard for all of the disparate forms of artistic
expression. But until 2009, my relationship with
theatre had only been in the abstract. I had rarely
ever performed and when I had, it was more for the
sheer devil-may-care fun of it.
In 2009, I became an official member of Aztec
Economy (www.newyorkisdead.net), a Brooklynbased
underground theatre company that
specializes in lyrical studies of human psychology
and crisis. Since then, having contributed to over
15 productions in varying capacities, I have grown
to think of theatre as a serious and evocative art
form, and have acquired firmer ideas about what
theatre is capable of. Aztec’s plays are abnormal:
some of them more like poems or dramatic
experiments, almost always unconventionally
staged and feverishly scripted. We have performed
in a variety of unexpected venues – once on the
deck of a docked steamship, another time in the
attic of a New Orleans karate dojo. We have toured
frequently, participated in prestigious festivals
such as the Ice Factory, but also produced small
Brooklyn events in backyards. In a word, we
are always on the lookout for new and gripping
challenges for ourselves and for our audiences,
and we attach ourselves to each project with
unflagging adrenaline and dedication.
Truth be told, however, because I have mostly
collaborated with this one group, my understanding
of the possibilities of theatre is still very limited.
Recently, I had the fortune of meeting Reka
Polonyi, a highly spirited social theatre practitioner
who has traveled the world engaging immigrant
and refugee communities in devised theatre
workshops. In 2004, she studied Drama and
Theatre Arts in Scotland. Afterward, she made the
rounds, traveling and working in Cuba, Ecuador,
Argentina, Brazil, and finally in Hungary, where
she worked with a community of Roma gypsy
performers. It was this experience that inspired
her to pursue a Masters degree in social theatre
at the Central School of Speech and Drama in
London. In 2011, she was commissioned by the
UN Refugee Agency and the Ecuadorian National
Ministry of Public Health to lead a workshop on the
Ecuador / Columbia border that addressed sexual
health concerns for adolescents. This workshop
later became Chancho al Horno, an award-winning
collective led by Javier Perugachi that is currently
seeking UNESCO funding to broaden their scope.
In 2012, after moving to New York, Reka helped
found Frontierra, a community-based theatre
company in Corona, Queens that focuses on
immigrant rights awareness and mobilization (www.
frontierra.org). Reka’s devisement process borrows
Photo courtesy of Frontierra Theatre Group.
from Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed.
Founded in the 1960s and inspired in part by
Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, TO’s
methodology provides a new way of looking at and
working with theatre as a device to promote social
and political change by opening up a free dialogue
between performers and audience.
A few weeks ago, I conducted an interview with
Reka about her involvement with theatre, her
process of theatre devisement, and her general
ideas about the craft. Then, Adam Belvo, a fellow
member of Aztec Economy, interviewed me
about my thoughts on theatre. What follows is an
alternation between our two perspectives. It was a
great pleasure sitting down with Reka and hearing
her ideas, as well as further codifying my own ideas
about the dramatic arts.
What is your rehearsal process like?
Reka: I’ve had a few participants who had never
heard of the word ‘theatre.’ So the first thing that
we do is usually gauge the energy of the group,
whether they are ready to get up on their feet yet,
what’s it like in the room…
Just like in any other practice,
we start with a warm-up. But
depending on the energy of the
group, it could be something
like sitting in a circle, but we
each do a movement, and then
we build on that. So then OK,
now we’re ready to stand up.
So let’s do the name thing,
then let’s each do a movement,
and then we all repeat it. If that
goes okay, then the next step.
But every time we take a little
bit more risk…At the beginning,
we do a lot of games focused
on trust and confidence, and
working together as a group,
making images together…
With image work, we get in
a small group and form an
image of something with our bodies, whether it’s a
crane or a bridge – something simple. But then it
becomes slightly more interesting. Like a machine
– a washing machine or a coffee machine. This is
also a Boalian thing, a Theatre-of-the-Oppressedbased
game. First you make your machine real
simple, like a little mechanical bicycle. Then each
one adds on to the last person, so that you have
one big machine. And as the facilitator, you can
slow it down, you could speed it up, or say ‘Oh now
this part’s broken.’ Then slowly, you come to a
stop. ‘OK, next we’re going to do another machine,
but a machine of love.’…Usually, we talk about it
afterward: ‘So why is the machine of love like that?
REVOLT
Magazine Number 4, 2013 32