“I should have called instead of updating my status on social network
sites, no I am not well, yes I am struggling,…
Gone are they, the days of coming by with chicken noodle
Now I would rather send you an e-caldron of broth via face book…
But I give you my poetic word that I dying to live again.
and just be.” (excerpts from Humanity by Azure Antoinette, Get Lit! Artistic Director)
There is some classical poetry in their repertoire. The list of “classical” poets is outside my limited knowledge on the subject. We heard the ripping words of Carol Muske-Dukes, Claude McKay, Joy Harjo, Sekou tha Misfit, Robert Pinsky and others. From that list how many people know who the poet laureate of the United States is? Of California? I am ashamed to admit that I had no idea.
But this wasn’t a class room. The walls of the old substation reverberated and chimed with the clear and steady toll of students laying it out. Line by line. On subjects that mean something to them. Some poems that I heard were over 50 years old and I had no idea because it seemed like they came straight from the diary of these fearless fresh faces.
Each performer torched the stage with insights on the struggle and pain of being young. The cultural images of wealth all around. The eccentricities of Los Angeles. The empty homes, the shallowness, the loneliness that is high school.
I was on the edge of my seat. All night. (Full disclosure: while training at the Actors’ Gang we often sit on the edge of our seats to give our focus and energy to the performers on stage). I only saw one fool snapping his fingers in the audience. You see, these poems mandate foot stomping and shouts as a justified response.
The performance is just as fascinating at the choice of poems. There is a range of age and experience in the group. From program graduates- who are off at college- to younger “greener” members. On this night we witnessed the newest and youngest player perform for the first time. His selection was a remarkable original composition. One of his older poet performers asked “Why is he such a genius?”
If you attended this performance you would have witnessed both the group and individuals make new discoveries with each performance. The older members are confidant of their ability to grab an audience. They use polished gestures and have developed a few satirical characters for comedic effect. What the younger crew lack in swagger they make up for it with their choice of poems and sincerity to the words. This is the group’s strength and staple.
Their performances were almost anti performances. The emphasis of the language and the rawness of their presence was totally engaging. Actors’ Gang founding company member Ned Bellamy said after the show “For actors, If you don’t steal from them you’re crazy. Notice their hands. They were so relaxed. Just by their side.” Their focus and intensions were passionate and playful.
The night lacked a tedious theatricality one might expect from a high school group. It’s not a play. It’s an experiment for these students of language to see if they can get it all out and if we can hear it. While there’s may be the usual cadence of today’s spoken word, the youthfulness and perspective of the Get Lit! Players add shoot-the-moon high stakes that has been absent from my previous exposure to live lyrical expression.
There is an immediacy for each of them. Their influences are upfront. They are not pretending. One of the original poems that was performed was about a broken relationship of a mother and a father who shared custody of the son. The mother was in the audience and of course gave her son a ride home after the show.
Tim Robbins, Artistic Director and curator of the WTF?! Festival, spoke with the students before they went up. He chilled with them and tried to make them feel welcome to the theatre. The conversation skipped from where they lived to their involvement with the Get Lit! program. He then told them what it is we do at the Actors’ Gang. Tim urged these young students to seek out the truth. He admitted it can sometimes be hard to know what it is. But ultimately, a truth told to a few people has more power to change than a lie told to millions.
As the students listened in silence and they readied themselves for their impending performance, the WTF?! Festival became quite clear: as we navigate our way out of a politically Orwellian nation state where war is peace, we need to continue questioning ourselves and challenging each other to notice the connections, even the smallest ones. To perceive the ordinary though the extraordinary. And dance in the face of despair.
The Get Lit! Players agree. Collectively they performed the words of Sekou tha Poet: “I want to be life./ I want to make things grow, and move, and breath, and reproduce, and respond. / I just want to make things respond and react and rejoice and relax and relate and release and receive as soon as I recite.” I can’t help but smile about one of the poet’s recent Twitter posting “Chillin in the green room with Tim Robbins at the actors gang gettin ret for the show. Lovin life.” Lovin’ life indeed. Get Lit! comes back to the Actors’ Gang this Thursday, November 12. Tickets are pay what you can.
