hhelinsky's blog

By Jason Chimonides, professor of drama at Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Last night, I had the illuminating pleasure to read, with a very talented cast of student actors, Caridad Svich’s The Way of Water for a large audience of freshman Honors College students. The audience and actors entered instantly into an easy and engaging rapport with the play. The colorful exuberance of the characters, their distinctive locality and the specificity of their lives and worldview jumped off the stage and there was a strong identification with and affection for all of the characters: their struggles, their yearnings and the incremental and devastating discovery of their almost post-apocalyptic situation.

To me, as the director of the reading, I discovered that it is quite the hallucination to think that the people of the Gulf are somehow distinct from the Gulf itself.  I was raised in Tallahassee, FL, 45 miles from this calm and mystical water and I know first -hand that they are a unitary system.  Like bees and flowers. This basic interdependence, though the most painfully obvious fact, is somehow the most elusive thing to FEEL.  Not just to understand intellectually, but to experience.  In the way one experiences the BLUE in SKY.  And the rupture that this ecological homeostasis underwent as a result of the spill and its attendant miseries is yet another reminder that technological man, “Homo Colossus”, has, in many ways reached a dead end - and is in very grave danger of choking on its own pollutants.

In fact, as the play, (and history), make clear, it already is.

And the social and spiritual effects, the total ecological cost, evoke a tremendous compassion in me. What a snarl we all have to untangle. But, as this project evokes – there is an unyielding capacity and yearning in the human being (perhaps because we ARE 70 percent water), to move our world into greater accord with The Way of Water, which to me is a metaphor for the Ancient Chinese concept of The Tao: the mysterious, spontaneous intelligence of nature and its eternal capacity to rebalance itself. The universe, as the late philosopher Alan Watts once said, “always bounces.”

In the discussion that followed the reading, I was struck, as I frequently am, by the millennial generation’s capacity to see clearly. They are a generation who grew up online.  Their consciousnesses have been intensely shaped by a cataract of cosmically fragmented information.  Bits and bits and bits and bits and bits…

And projects like The Way of Water provide them with an opportunity to touch the earth again.  To return to the ground of their being and to paradoxically, see straight through the delusion of the media cycle, the BP propaganda, “Drill baby drill” and the tenacity of the Cultural Ego to want to beat nature into submission.  They get the message. Instantly. And in almost every case I’ve witnessed, intelligent, reflective young people find this re-membering incredibly refreshing.

Like a strong, exhilarating cup of espresso.

Still, to be perfectly honest, there is also a strong whiff of fatalism in their psyches, of an innate and protective disassociation, and I felt this in the comments of the students: “yes,” they seem to say, “This is incredibly messed up. DUH! On to the next viral tragedy…”

Consciousness is so fragmented.  And so is compassion.

They live a paradox.  Since the internet has given them a visceral understanding of interdependence, though they understand human costs, their empathy is weakened by innumerable exposures to colossal, global disruption.  Remember, these students were in third grade on September 11th, 2001.

They understandably feel overwhelmed.  They grew up saturated with symbolic depictions of large scale human folly – and are, as a result, perhaps, profoundly, overwhelmed by voluminous DATA.  The sheer scale of the symbolic world in which they are immersed is exhausting in the stimulation it confers and many feel, because of their close dance with technology, social media, etc. increasingly depersonalized because of it - under surveillance, bombarded, disillusioned, etc.

That’s where the power of The Way of Water comes in.

Man’s extremity is live theater’s opportunity. An immediate and precise chamber piece on the stage, like this one – about human beings  - which points directly to an ultimate interdependence, is, I believe,  like the flow of water over rocks.  Deep and immediate.   And it smoothes and shapes and hone us, one at a time.

Thanks for the opportunity to share in this project.

Jason Chimonides
Assistant Professor, IUP Dept. of Theater and Dance

The Way of Water by Caridad Svich was read at Indiana University of Pennsylvania on April 10th, 2012 at 7pm, sponsored by the IUP Honors College. 

by Valli Marie Rivera, Director

The reading was well received!  The audience congratulated the good acting and the staging. The audience about of 35 in our 75-seat theatre was engaged during and after the reading enthusiastic in talk back. The reaction in talk back was quite passionate and serious: about what's happening now in the Gulf, about not having a decent health insurance plan for the people who can't pay, about the cover-up with Corexit and how this can effect future marine life and create more health issues to the community.  About what the government is doing.  About what we can all do to make a difference with our environment. About who are you as a playwright and activist. About the multi-reading and participating venues. The audience agreed this was a great idea to create awareness and the keep the conversation going.  I invited the audience to go to NoPassport blog to continue conversation how the reading affected them or just express what's on their mind about the BP spill and it's consequences to the people and the environment.

The Way of Water by Caridad Svich was read at Vortex Theatre in Albuquerque, New Mexico on April 7th, 2012 at 2pm.

by Megan McClain, dramaturg

On April 20, 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon off-shore drilling unit exploded, killing 11 people. For the next three months nearly 5 million barrels of oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico, negatively impacting plant, animal, and human life.  The full extent of the catastrophe’s aftermath is still unknown.  Though the news media’s coverage of the spill has dissipated in the ensuing years, artists and activists continue to give voice to the lasting devastation of this event.  Addressing the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its position in a long line of environmental disasters, the Beyond the Horizon Festival presented by the UMass Amherst Theatre Department seeks to use performance to map our changing relationship to the natural world and offer models of community response to ecological crisis.   Developed by a interdisciplinary community of theatre artists, musicians, dancers, and environmentalists, the Beyond the Horizon Festival offers three original devised theatre pieces that use the power of performance to illuminate the interactions between humans and the environment. 

            The first piece, What Have We Learned, uses letters, dance, and song to explore how the BP Gulf oil spill has effected the lives of those in the Gulf and beyond.  To whom it may concern addresses how we struggle to communicate during times of crisis in a world pulsing with the din of suffering, disconnection, and corruption.  The final piece, Nightingale, imagines a post-apocalyptic society in which natural organisms are strictly controlled and shows what happens when one bird throws the whole system into shock. 

            Members of the Beyond the Horizon artistic team are also participating in a reading of Caridad Svich’s new play, The Way of Water, presented in collaboration with NoPassport Theatre alliance and press as part of a nationwide and international reading scheme.  The Way of Water interrogates the BP Gulf oil spill by exposing the continued negative effects of the disaster on the health and livelihoods of those in the region.  This network of readings across the country joins theatre artists in a larger conversation about the hidden and ignored human suffering of those exposed to contaminated water in the Gulf.

            Silent Spring author Rachel Carson once wrote, “In nature, nothing exists alone.” The same can be said of theatre.  Though theatre has been described as the site for exploring the human condition, that human condition is intrinsically linked to the conditions of all other life on this planet.  Theatre gives us a space to play out sites of connection and disconnection. It creates a place to reassess our destructive actions and celebrate the most beautiful wonders of the world around us.  Above all, it offers the chance to rediscover and announce what poet Mary Oliver calls our “place in the family of things.”

            The Beyond the Horizon Festival runs April 5-7 and April 10-14 at 8pm and April 14 at 2pm in the Curtain Theatre of the Fine Arts Center on the UMass Amherst campus.  The reading of Caridad Svich’s new play, The Way of Water, will be held at 4:30pm on April 10th at Food for Thought Books, 106 N. Pleasant St. Amherst, MA. For more information visit www.beyondthehorizonfestival.wordpress.com

Two of the participating institutions: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UMASS Amherst have used THE WAY OF WATER to respond to their school's mandates to initiate campus-wide discussions about water.  Take a moment to check out these articles published by UNC's University Gazette and The Valley Advocate: 

ACADEMIC THEME LAUNCHED ON WORLD WATER DAY. 27 March 2012

"The things that are wrong with water today are pretty big, and the pressures on water are huge. But it is within the grasp of human kind to use it as a tool for good," said Jamie Bartram, professor of environmental sciences and engineering at the Gillings School of Global Public Health and director of The Water Institute at UNC.

CITIZEN ARTISTS: A FESTIVAL OF DEVISED WORK RESPONDS TO ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER. 5 April 2012. 

The UMASS Theater Department has risen to the deans' challenge by creating three original works that "map and explore our changing relationship to the natural world and offer models of community response to ecological crisis."  Beyond the Horizen  is an exercise in "devised theater," explains dramaturgy grad student Megan McClain, the project's curator. The pieces were co-created by the participants---two dozen students from three of the Five Colleges---using research, found texts and their own words and ideas. This approach, says McClain, mirrors and extends the notion of interconnectedness in the campus wide theme.

We also appreciate Carnegie Mellon dramaturgy student Emily Anne Gibson initiated an article on TheatreManiaU. 

"All in all, this is a project I feel strongly about being involved in. I have a lot of beliefs about theater, but one of them is that it should provide a social commentary. And this most certainly does. I also think theater should create a conversation. And I believe that The Way of Water  will do just that. And I know, first hand, that theater must be communal---this reading series is a wonderful embodiment of that community, and when the play receives its world premiere, I believe that it will create a community out if its audience that can talk, argue, collaborate, and come to new understandings."

Dear Actors, Directors and The Way of Water participants:

In my conversations with Cindy Cooper, Managing Editor for On the Issues Magazine, she directed me to the research efforts of Jacqui Patterson. As you will see from her article below, women have been disproportantly affected by the BP Oil Spill. If you are playing the roles of Rosalie and Neva, we hope you find her article particularly moving.---Heather Helinsky, dramaturg

Gulf Oil Drilling Disaster: Gendered Layers of Impact 
by Jacqui Patterson

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Drilling Disaster of April 20, 2010 (the “BP Oil Spill”) is, as the news sometimes tells us, causing grave damage to the waterways and shores, marshlands and bayous of the Gulf of Mexico. Far more hidden is the devastation wrought on the women in scores of coastal communities.

My research and investigations in the Gulf region indicate that while all were affected, the women of the coast experienced differential impacts and unique issues during the disaster and in its aftermath. In this regard, the Gulf disaster fits in with the experiences of disasters worldwide, in which, across the board, women are disproportionately affected.

In the case of the Deepwater Horizon incident, women’s experiences were different from men in four main areas: 1) Care-taking and health; 2) Economic health; 3) Abuse in the home 4) Family stability.  In many ways, women were required to take on new family responsibilities in the wake of the Gulf disaster. From a gender perspective, these are many lessons to bring forward.

Challenged with Family Health and Welfare

In the aftermath of the disaster, people reported many health concerns: respiratory issues, digestive problems, skin reactions and other conditions. With these new health issues on the rise, women’s care-taking experienced a corresponding increase. As is typical in many families, women in the Gulf took on the role of caregiver when husbands, children or other family members became sick.

Furthermore, women faced risk to their own health, especially because of differential effects on reproductive health, as is frequently true in situations of environmental exposure. Veteran toxicologist Dr. William Sawyer, in his analysis of the risks resulting from toxic exposures arising from the Gulf Oil Drilling Disaster, pointed to Toluene and aromatic hydrocarbons as risks for women because they are known to cause spontaneous abortions and severe birth defects in humans and other mammals.

Mental health issues increased, and women reported having to be the pillars of stability and leadership in the family so that members could continue to function.

In addition, women became the spokespersons for families that needed to share their stories and advocate for justice. Recovery workers – most of those who were hired were male -- had to sign contracts saying that they wouldn’t “speak out” about their experiences as part of clean-up crews or other parts of the recovery, leaving the women to carry community voices.

Reliance on public assistance increased significantly in the region due to the disaster.  Women were left responsible for accessing public assistance -- whether it’s because women are viewed as being in charge of household matters, or because of gender based “pride” differentials.  As Mary McCall of Coden, Alabama, shared with me, “And then I’m trying to help fishermen without jobs. I would get in line to get groceries, but them -- being men -- they didn’t want to do that. They didn’t want to say ‘I’m going to stand in line for them to give me groceries’; I did it for (the men).”

Economic Access and Opportunities Shunted

Women’s access to economic opportunities was limited and their experiences in the workplace were compromised because of the Deepwater Horizon incident. The gender of workers in the affected region influenced the degree of economic devastation, the ability to find new work, the percentage of compensation for loss of work in the claims process and experiences in the recovery process.

Jobs that women occupied before the disaster were more vulnerable to being obliterated. Oyster shuckers, crab pickers and chambermaids who I interviewed in my investigations were predominantly women, and they lost their employment. Some boat owners were able to gain revenue from being a part of the “Vessels of Opportunity” program that utilized boats in the clean up, and hotels continued to operate even when occupancy was low. But, employees on the lower rungs of the employment ladder – especially women -- suffered the greatest impact to their earning ability.

Many of the recovery jobs involved manual labor, and women were excluded from these opportunities. At one worksite, managers reported that out of the 300 workers, only 10 were women. Women reported being trained and then not being hired when mass recruitment of crews took place. Several women reported their concerns and were only hired after the NAACP called contractors expressing concern for discriminatory hiring practices. Clearly, the Department of Labor needs to increase oversight in ensuring that contractors do not discriminate based on gender.

In addition, many women reported numerous accounts of workplace sexual harassment by both co-workers and supervisors on various clean- up operation sites.  Contractors must adopt zero-tolerance policies on sexual harassment in the workplace.

Women were also under-represented in the contracts awarded in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon Incident. An analysis of BP Supplier/Contractor Diversity data shows that a total of $181.4 million in small business contracts was awarded; women-owned businesses received only $4.9 million in contracts, less than three percent of the total.  In the future, agencies offering contracts must be intentional about outreach to women owned-businesses.

Please read Jacqui Patterson's article further by clicking on this link to On the Issues Magazine! There's more!

by Andy Seles & Joanna Goff

An explosion on April 20, 2010 aboard the Deepwater Horizon, a drilling rig working on a well for BP one mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico led to the largest accidental oil spill in history. Residents who live along the coast, all the way from Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana to western Florida continue to suffer acute symptons attributed to ongoing exposure to toxic chemicals being released from BP's crude oil and the toxic Corexit dispersants used to sink the oil. Thousands of deaths along the Gulf Coast region have been linked to this toxic damage. This devastation is deemed by many in the health and science field as the equivalent of Agent Orange in Vietnam.

In her recent essay Towards a Visible Theatre, playwright Caridad Svich wrote, "Theatre is a public forum. Writing for the theatre and live performance thus demands engagement with the world. To write a play is a civic act, or at the very least the articulation of a desire to take part in a civic dialogue with society. Broad questions of identity and human rights enter very much into the frame of a play's vision." Her newest play, The Way of Water, will be given a free staged reading at Rogue Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall on Monday, April 9 at 7pm. All donations at the door will benefit OCCUPY ASHLAND. The Way of Water deals with the aftermath of the BP oil spill; the play was released to groups around the globe to commemorate the disaster by humanizing the people and their suffering. In the play, two Louisiana gulf fisherman and their wives struggle with humor and grace for survival as their health, vitality, and livelihood have been severely disrupted by the toxic environment.

Joanna Goff, a teacher/actor/director, has assembled a cast that includes Trevor Mather, Fiona Fire, Thomas Letchworth and Jazmin Roque. Letchworth, who plays the role of the fisherman Yuki, recently stated, "The arts and the artistic process offer themselves up as tremendously powerful tools for social change. Through art people gain inspiration, hone creativity and develop passion, all of which are invaluable assets to the would-be activist. Art and creativity have the ability to cut through the barriers of race, class and location in a way that no other mechanism can. In this way the pen, paintbrush and body are truly mightier than the sword."

Eddie Lee, who was originially cast as fisherman Jimmy Robichaux, writes: "So why protest and activate socially? I believe this play demonstrates our attention to the world around us, and begin extending our support to one another. The Way of Water is populated by rich characters that help tap us into our humanity, and then invites us to walk in the shoes of those who face life in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico BP oil tragedy. This art, the Art of Theatre---among the many forms of creative expression---enables the greatest movement that any one can make: to move mind and heart, so as to build the most important thing that anyone could possibly create. Community. It is time we recognize the Arts for the power and value that they really are."

Fiona Fire, who plays Rosalie, explains her involvement: "For me playing Rosalie is a joyful burden. She has shown me my own anger and sadness with fresh clarity. Sharing this story allows us to embark on a very real grieving process. Any illusions we may hold that the spill happened "over there" or "to them" are quickly dispelled in the face of such honest storytelling. The destruction of the spill is felt by all, and it is our sacred duty to tell the truth, grieve, and heal together."

Caridad Svich is a US Latina playwright, translator, lyricist and editor. She received the 2011 American Theatre Critics Association Primus Prize for her play The House of the Spirits, based on the novel by Isabelle Allende. Her works have been presented across the US and abroad at diverse venues, including Denver Center Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Repertorio Espanol, 59East59, McCarren Park Pool, 7 Stages, Salvage Vanguard Theatre, Teatro Mori (Santiago, Chile), ARTheatre (Cologne), and Edinburg Fringe Festival/UK. Svich states, "Making a play is in and of itself a fragile game that involvesthe particular relationship between and among collaborators...a tough and tender affair that demands courage, a strong sense of humor and a great deal of commitment...a writer writes becase....Writers write because...a writer Rights."

Save the date for an evening of empowering theatre. April 9 at 7pm. Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 87 4th Street. For more information contact Andy Seles at andyseles@gmail.com or 541-727-2677.

"No one on the platform was injured, the company said, and there appeared to be no immediate danger to anyone on shore. But the volume of gas escaping from the well threatened to make the air poisonous and potentially explosive over a wide area around the platform, and posed a danger of significant environmental harm."

"The Gas Leak on Offshore Platform Forces Evacuation in North Sea." New York Times, 27 March 2012. Reported by Julia Werdigier and Henry Fountain.

"Total said two firefighting ships are on standby near the platform, about 150 miles east of Aberdeen, and others may be mobilised soon. Hainsworth said the company was "evaluating options" on how to put out the flare and how to stem the leak.

He said international well control experts have flown to Scotland to advise the company on the best course of action. Options include drilling a relief well and sending experts on to the Elgin to kill the leak from the platform. The company said it may take up to six months to drill an emergency relief well."

"Flare still burning on North Sea gas leak platform." The Guardian.  27 March 2012. Reported by Rubert Neate.

"Unlike the oil spilled from BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the Total leak is primarily natural gas that dissipates in the air, especially in the usually windy conditions of the North Sea. But the gas in the well is known as sour gas because it contains toxic, flammable hydrogen sulfide as well as gas liquids that have created small surface sheens. Drilling a relief well, one possible solution, would be difficult because any rig would have to keep its distance from the gas leak. “This is another instance in which we see that the oil companies are not prepared for the worst-case scenarios,” said Frederic Hauge, president of the Bellona Foundation,a Norwegian environmental group. The uncontrolled leak takes place amid controversy over how Britain should manage its aging offshore oil and gas fields. Just a week ago, British Chancellor George Osborne proposed about $4.8 billion in tax breaks to help oil companies dismantle old platforms and drill new wells. “Gas is cheap, has much less carbon than coal and will be the largest single source of our electricity in the coming years,” he said in his budget statement on March 21. He said the energy secretary would “set out our new gas generation strategy” in the fall."

"Total gas leak forces evacuations in British North Sea." The Washington Post. 27 March 2012. Reported by Steven Mufson.