Way of Water Blog

by Lisa Campbell, director

When I first was introduced to The Way of Water, I was completely unaware to the depth and impact the project would have. I knew The Way of Water would commemorate the 2 year anniversary of the oil spill, and I knew the play would be read across the country in April. When I read the script, I started to understand its potential impact. The actors and I (as director) started researching the lasting effects of the spill. We explored the background of the play and we approached the characters with the understanding that they could be real people. Although we are all students in a college in New York City, through our work with the script and outside research, we all came to understand the truth and relevance of their characters and their situation.

After brainstorming a bit with Ms. Svich and the Barnard Theater Department, I decided to include a panel discussion with the reading. Thus, we expanded the project to include those not just involved in theater, but involved in the scientific research of the spill. For our final reading, we were so lucky to be joined by Dr. Timothy Crone who had used video image analysis to estimate the rate that oil was leaking from the damaged well and determine the total amount of oil released. His early estimates were ten times higher than official estimates in the first few weeks of the incident. Eventually, government estimates increased to confirm the higher flow rates. We were also lucky to be joined by Ms. Svich for our panel discussion and reading. Thus, after a reading of the first act of the play, we held a discussion about the spill, inspiration for the project, and where we can go from here. Bringing together the theatrical and scientific elements of the project was illuminating for everyone involved in the production as well as the audience.

All of the feedback I received from the audience was positive, and people told me that while enjoying themselves and being entertained, they also learned so much about the spill and they were left with lasting images and ideas. Our reading and panel started a conversation between the audience, actors, playwright, and scientists, and I'm confident that this conversation will be an ongoing one.

I was very lucky to be involved, and I am glad to see that we are able to make a change. I hope this is just the beginning.

The Way of Water by Caridad Svich was read at Barnard College on April 10th, 2012 at the Glicker-Milstein Theatre, directed by Lisa Campbell.

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by Michael Thomas Walker, Producer

We gathered on April 29 at Mile Square Theatre in Hoboken to present a reading of Caridad Svich's The Way of Water.  Though the audience was small, the words that were spoken were mighty.  The actors, all Rutgers students, gave great performances.  All involved, Landon Woodsen, Abraham Makany, Lacy J. Dunn, and Blaire Brooks under the direction of Melissa Firlit, brought the characters to life and at times evoked audible gasps from the audience.  Because Caridad Svich teaches playwriting at Rutgers, we students felt compelled to join in her "scheme" to have her play read world wide in the month of April.  As an added bonus we had David Hughes, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers, join us for talk back after the show.  His insight into the global affects of the BP oil spill were enlightening.  We were scheduled to have twenty minute talk back and ended up staying much later into the evening because of the questions and interest from the audience.  In short, the reading was a huge success and provided a great opportunity for Rutgers students to participate in this world wide event.

The Way of Water by Caridad Svich was read at Mile Square Theatre on April 29th, 2012, directed by Melissa Firlit. 

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by Marilo Nunez, Artistic Director

When Caridad Svich asked Alameda Theatre Company to be part of the international reading scheme for her play The Way of Water, I was honoured and immediately jumped at the chance. I was interested in bringing environmental awareness to the forefront and in creating alliances with Latin American writers outside of Canada.

I delved into the research. I immediately connected to the world that Caridad had created and specifically to the four central characters, Jimmy, Rosalie, Yuki and Neva. Reading accounts of the health, ecological and environmental realities these people faced everyday made my stomach turn. I read and re-read the play and every time I did, my heart opened up to these four complex and human characters more and more. I began to feel their rage, their pain, and their frustration. We needed to inhabit these characters so that our audiences could feel the humanity of these people, feel the impact of the destruction. I was driven to bring awareness to us as Canadians about the force the environmental spill had (and is having) not only on the people who live “over there”, but on all of us. We need not look south to understand the impact the oil industry is having on the environment. The Way of Water is a political call to action.   The four actors who volunteered their time, Michelle Arvizu, Karl Ang, Andrew Moodie and Cherisa Richards, delved wholeheartedly into the play. Something magical happened as they began to read the words aloud. We were present and open to having the full force of these people come alive in the theatre and in our hearts. The power of their voices was palpable and we were all moved to tears. (And I hope to action.)   I felt, without a doubt, that Caridad had created a bleak world with a defined sense of hope. Hope for the future of the people who were (and are) directly affected by the event. And hope for the rest of us. There was a will, the will of the people and of the human spirit to create a world where we listen to one another, support and fight for each other’s right to live free of pain, distrust and anger. It was one of the best play readings that I had ever been involved in. And I thank Caridad for giving Alameda Theatre Company the chance to be able to be involved in an important international political experience.   I now want to be more involved in making people aware of the environmental concerns here in Canada. The tar sands and the pipelines that are currently destroying our natural resources, and our environment are areas that we as Canadians should be talking about more honestly. Here are some very disturbing facts (from Tarsandswatchatch.org):

• Greenhouse gas emissions from tar sands production are three times those of conventional oil and gas production [currently tar sands production emits 27 megatonnes per annum and is expected to rise to 108-126 megatonnes by 2015]. Thus, the tar sands are now poised to become Canada’s largest single emitter of greenhouse gas, compounding this country’s contribution to global warming.

• Oil sands plants typically use two to four barrels of water to extract a barrel of oil from the tar sands, but some extraction methods can use as much as 7 barrels of water. The amount of water needed for the tar sands is seriously lowering the water levels of the Athabasca River, the Mackenzie Valley watershed and other related water sources in the region.

• Many aboriginal groups are being left out of the process and run over in the race for development of the tar sands. First Nations in Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories have claimed that traditional lands are being destroyed for tar sands exploration and extraction, and First Nations are not being included, or properly compensated for their lost and destroyed lands and water supplies.

• Currently, 66% of tar sands oil is being exported to the United States, while over 40% of the oil used in Canada is imported to fulfill the needs of Eastern Canada. When the Keystone pipeline is built from Alberta through to the States, the tar sands industry will become increasingly reliant on US refineries for processing and Canada will continue the tradition of providing raw resources to the United States instead of processing it (and creating more jobs) for ourselves. The tar sands industry is ensuring the energy security of the United States while ignoring the energy needs of the rest of Canada.

We need to raise awareness about what will happen if we are not informed and do not do anything to stop the destruction of crucial resources in our country, all in the name of money and greed. The most important lesson I learned throughout was: the more knowledge we have, the better equipped we will be to stop events like the BP oil spill from ever happening again.   “Power to the people”, an axiom that lives full force in this play, stands out for me. Gracias Caridad, for your courage and perseverance to tell the truth.   The Way of Water by Caridad Svich was read on April 29th, 2012 at Alameda Theatre in Toronto, Canada where Marilo Nunez is the Artistic Director. Alameda Theatre Company produces Canadian theatre with a distinct Latin American perspective. We develop the work of Canadian Latin American playwrights and create professional opportunities for our artists. We mentor the next generation of Latino artists in Canada. We also look for creative ways to interact with artists on an international level, especially if they have a connection to Latin America.

 

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by Daniel Wilcox, actor

As an actor, quickly assembled readings are a way to work your instrument- making quick choices, connecting with actors you haven't been rehearsing with for long and trusting your impulses.  While reading for the role of Jimmy in The Way of Water was another opportunity to keep my engine up and running, what made this particular experience unique was not so much my  own work but more about where we were reading and for whom-- a theatre in London with a small but engaged mostly English crowd, whose experience with the BP catastrophe, let alone the backdrop of American back country and its complexities, were somewhat new.

During the break between parts I and II a cheery Englishman amusingly asked "what's a Hot Pocket?" in reference to the dialogue exchanged by the characters over the sad reality of that night's dinner.  As fellow American and actor/director Bryony Thompson and I chuckled and explained to him that it was comparable to a cornish pasty in the U.K, it wasn't until afterwards that this small exchange with a friendly and curious foreigner made me realize how important this play is.  The Hot Pocket question encompassed the importance of this experience---this was not just a play reading, this was an opportunity to give another culture some knowledge of our own and further expose the TRUTH--that big idea that is often covered like the gulf fish in the sludge of that terrible spill.  As a citizen I was blown away by the dramaturgy behind Caridads Svich's writing because as much as I knew about the BP spill, I realized how much information has been unsaid, even left out--namely the lives ruined in the creole community by the dispersant used during clean-up. This then was a chance for another part of the world to see, and I think we achieved that as people talked afterwards about how informative the facts behind the story were.

It was honor to read for Jimmy, a character who to me represents the complexity of America--its people, its politics, its cynicism, hope, corruption.  He is all of us, the good and the bad, the occupier and the dutiful soldier, the fighter, the defeated.  And that's the way it is.  No morality tale here, just the truth in all its misery and hope.  I came in to this project as an actor looking to work his stuff,  I left feeling like I had part in letting people in on the truth of a dire situation, a small victory, but a start.

The Way of Water by Caridad Svich was read at the Rosemary Branch Theatre in London on May 13th, 2012.

 

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by Ric Oquita

As a longtime admirer of Caridad’s work, I felt especially honored to have participated as an actor, portraying Jimmy, in the Berlin reading at the English Theatre directed by Jake Whitlen and accompanied by actors Nichola MacEvilly, Seamus Sargent and Katharina Sporrer.

It was an intense experience, given our roughly seven hours rehearsal together. We began with a conversation about the details of the oil spill, the aftermath and the current situation, to get a better understanding of its dreadful impact on the lives of the characters.

We read through the script, focusing primarily on keeping the images and humor in the text vivid. I was particularly interested in tracking when characters were taking a stand, withdrawing or vascillating from one moment to the next in regards to staying quiet or speaking out against the “Big Pigs”.

We had some time again to get on our feet and explore the physical life of the story. As a dancer, this is where I began to feel the language come alive and the ever present water and heat inform the musicality in the text. I kept the depths and impulses of the water close to me as Jimmy’s illness begins to surface and reveal itself physically.

My father was also very close to me in the process. I chose to draw on my father’s struggle with the onset of dementia as he fights to hold on to his memories, which often reveal themselves in dreams while he is awake. I see Jimmy also as a strong man fighting to hold on to his memories in a culture where amnesia is often celebrated.

40 people or so came out for the event. native German speakers for the most part who I felt were listening very intently to the story. Once the audience had gotten used to our voices and the richness of the text, their laughter came easily, especially after our intermission.

It also felt like, after intermission, we all felt the stakes burning in the room. There were moments of intense quiet, almost as if the audience was holding their collective breath, when everyone realized what was being lost. That happened for me anytime Jimmy surveyed the water and his property.

After the last moment, when Jimmy decides to protest, there was a breath and then a long, sustained applause from the audience. I'm certain actors in other readings felt the same lift in that last moment. It was joyous.

We were pleased with the reading and also felt a definite longing to live with the play longer. I wonder how the actors in other readings responded to that longing. For myself, the play went deep and my body needed a couple of days to recover from the experience. I feel that it has touched the actorvist in me, which I'd suspected had gone the way of water. It's been envigorating following postings from other participants on this blog. Thank you Caridad for your vision and for honoring, so eloquently, the people of Plaquemines Parish.

The Way of Water by Caridad Svich was read on May 13th, 2012 at the English Theatre Berlin in Germany.

Tags: The Way of Water Blog Posts

For actors still working on The Way of Water, watch this video posted on LEAN's blog. Jorey Danos, a clean-up worked on Vessel of Opportunity during the BP oil spill, talks about the symptoms of his health problems and the Gulf Detox Project.

---from R. Alex Davis and Heather Helinsky, dramaturgs

L.E.A.N. is the Louisiana Environmental Action Network.

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by Francesca Spedalieri, PhD student in Theatre, Ohio State University

Dress rehearsal. A small room in Central Ohio.

Our Jimmy, Matthew Yde, charges in:
"Do you guys know what day it was yesterday?"

Silence.
April 21, 2012.
Today.
The day after, two years ago.

Silence.
"Memories like sieves in this country."

We borrowed Caridad's words to plead that we may not forget.
To take responsibility.
Because we can pull the breaks.
And stop. And rest. And start again.
Differently.

Our thanks go to those who did not forget.
Who, every day, live what we have forgotten.
And to those who have the courage to pick up a sign and say
"Hear the people's wrath!"

The Way of Water by Caridad Svich was read at The Ohio State University on April 23rd, 2012, directed by Francesca Spedalieri, Ph.D. Student in Theatre. Cast: Jonathon Boyd, Ph.D. candidate in Theatre (Stage Directions), Alison Vasquez, MFA in Acting candidate (Rosalie), Matthew Yde, Ph.D. Theatre (Jimmy), Nicholas White, MFA in Creative Writing candiate (Yuki), Leela Singh, BA Theatre student (Neva).

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by Angenette Marie Spalink, PhD student in Department of Theatre & Film at Bowling Green State University

On Friday, April 27, 2012, at 8 PM, a group of students, faculty, and Bowling Green community members gathered at Bowling Green State University’s Wolfe Center for the Arts to participate in a reading of Caridad Svich’s new play, The Way of Water. This staged reading was conducted in collaboration with Ms. Svich and NoPassport Theatre Alliance and Press’s organization of multiple readings across the world to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the BP Oil Spill.

The reading was staged on the Grand Staircase in the lobby of Wolfe Center for the Arts. The audience was located on the side of the staircase, on amphitheatre-esq concrete tiers connected to the stairs that functioned as stadium seating. The readers were seated on chairs at the bottom of the staircase facing the audience. The readers consisted of three BGSU graduate students, Quincy Thomas as Jimmy Robichaux, Heidi L. Nees as Rosalie Robichaux, and Angenette Spalink reading the stage directions and two BGSU faculty members, Scott Magelssen as Yuki Skow and Sarah Chambers as Neva Skow.   Prior to the official reading, the readers gathered several times to read through the script and discuss the themes and ecological issues it illuminated. The staged reading was publicized throughout the university and local community and about thirty-five people attended. It lasted about one hour and forty-five minutes including a brief intermission. A talkback followed the reading.   About half of the audience remained after the reading to participate in the talkback. Judging from the audience engagement and participation in the talkback, both the reading and talk back were very successful. The talkback generated fruitful discussion concerning the effects of the Oil Spill on the characters in the play, and raised interesting questions regarding the ecological implications of the spill on both a local and global level.   Regarding the characters and plot, several people I spoke with afterward articulated how moved they were by the characters and their journeys. One person told me she was on the verge of tears during the scene where Jimmy and Rosalie are forced by the bank to leave their home. Additionally, a BGSU film professor commented that the staged reading provided a nice medium for the play. She noted that the minimalism of the reading enabled the audience to really engage with the themes and emotions of the piece and not to be distracted by production or scenic elements.   Another topic we spent significant time discussing during the talkback was the role of the media in relation to such disasters as the BP Oil Spill. Readers and audience members commented on the rapid pace and frequency at which media consumers receive news stories. Once these stories are received however, they quickly disappear when new stories emerge and replace them. We discussed this pattern and its effects on the continued coverage of the Oil Spill. Many of the talkback participants agreed that for those of us who live in the Mid-West, the Oil Spills lasting effects on the gulf coast’s many eco-systems and landscape is not something that acquires mainstream news coverage in our area.   Because we had discussed some of the lasting effects of the spill during our meetings, most of the readers were familiar with the recent issues that have emerged regarding the Oil Spill. Judging from the audience’s reaction, however, when we discussed these issues, it did not seem that many of them were aware of the recent discovery of shrimp mutation, the affects of Corexit on the people and eco-systems of the coast, and the general health problems people on the gulf have been experiencing since the spill.   The discussions of media and long-term repercussions of this disaster led to a conversation about alternate ways of producing and communicating information. We considered how knowledge and awareness could be generated through art and theatre, and if performance can be utilized as a mode through which to keep people aware and informed of issues taking place in the world.   We also talked about efficacy, if theatre and performance have the ability to create change or evoke action. Specifically, we discussed how The Way of Water could effect change by taking a macroscopic issue like the BP Oil Spill and making it geographically specific to a distinct location. The playwright takes a microscopic approach to this large-scale disaster by examining its affects on the day-to-day life of specific people in a geographically distinct place. The playwright confronts an immense disaster that is overwhelming and hard to comprehend and depicts its affects on the people who inhabit a particular landscape, thus giving the audience something tangible to perceive in the midst of this incomprehensible catastrophe. It reminds the audience that this horrible catastrophe affects all of us, as there is still so little we know about the long-term damage that will result. The Oil Spill’s permanent affect on earth’s eco-systems is a sobering reminder that we are in the midst of an ecological crisis, the root of which is anthropogenic in nature. Ultimately, the audience and readers concurred that the play presented themes that evoked dialogue regarding the relationship between the earth and those who reside in it.   The Way of Water reading and talk back was not only a success in terms of generative conversation, it was the first reading/staging to occur in a found space in the Wolfe Center and the feedback regarding the event was very positive. Many people stated how much they enjoyed the event and look forward to more of the same nature. Because this event was so favorably received, I believe our department will continue to conduct and participate in staged readings. Overall, I believe this reading was a success and presented an excellent opportunity for BGSU to participate in a commemorative remembrance of those affected by the spill, the chance to engage with a contemporary playwright, and served as a way to promote dialogue within the Bowling Green community regarding the lasting impacts of recent and current ecological disasters.    The Way of Water by Caridad Svich was read on April 27th, 2012 at Bowling Green State University on the grand staircase in the lobby of the Wolfe Center for the Arts. Tags: The Way of Water Blog Posts

I saw the reading of The Way of Water at the English Theatre Berlin, a world away from the poisoned coastline and the particular drama of being poor in America with its foreclosures and lack of health care and of a liveable safety net for its working class and poor. I found the play to be a remarkable achievement and so did the rest of the audience judging by the extended heartfelt applause. It's a beautifully detailed and powerfully written play. The actors (English-speaking ex-pats who live and work in Berlin) and their Berlin-based American director did a fantastic job of bringing the emotional and political power of the play to life. For the mostly German audience, this play must have been a very interesting case of being transported to an entirely other world. A world in which the BP disaster, brought about by greed and disregard, literally eats away at those who make their living from the water of the play's title. I wish Caridad all the best with continuing to reach audiences the world over with this story, so important and heartbreaking and yet full of humor and tenderness and love. I am very grateful that a playwright has put the working poor on stage with the dignity and humanity that is theirs. And the play brilliantly combines issues of ecology, health and economic realities.

Lydia Stryk, playwright

The Way of Water by Caridad Svich was read at the English Theatre Berlin on May 13th, 2012, directed by Jake Whitlen in Germany. 

 

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by Carl Lavery, Senior Lecturer in Drama, Theatre and Performance, Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK

When I think of The Way of Water, I think of the urban geographer Mike Davis' extraordinary essays in the book Dead Cities (2002), in particular the text 'Ecocide in Marlboro County'.

When I think of The Way of Water, I think of Karl Marx's notion of socio-sensuality, and the production - the metabolic production - of nature.

When I think of The Way of Water, I think of its sparse geometry, its rigorous, uncompromising angularity.

When I think of the Way of Water, I think of its linguistic rhythms and poetic beats - its politics of voice.

When I think of the Way of Water, I think of US socialism.

When I think of the Way of Water, I think of 4 young actors in Wales finding its meanings, walking its lines, tracing its shapes.

When I think of the Way of Water, I think of Lone Twin and of their fabulous ecologies of water, their clouds of interconnection.

When I think of the Way of Water, I think of my Dad who died from a lifetime of exposure to the toxic fuel tanks of Phantom fighter jets.

When I think of the Way of Water, I think of my Grandfather who died from lung cancer caused by the too easy use of asbestos in the Belfast Shipyard.

When I think of the Way of Water, I think of the great difference separating the 'assassin from the poet' (Deleuze and Guattari).

The Way of Water by Caridad Svich was read at Abertstwyth University Department of Theatre, Dance, and Film on April 22nd, 2012.

 

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by Josy Miller, PhD Candidate in Performance Studies

Caridad Svich includes two provocative clues in her introductory notes to THE WAY OF WATER that crucially guided our reading at UC Davis. While taking great care to clearly position the piece as a response to a particular historico-political event, Ms. Svich concludes her synopsis with a much broader invitation as to how we might understand the play. “It’s a play about poverty in America, rumors and truth, what is said and what gets written, and the quest for an honorable life.” The play does indeed emerge as a counter-narrative, as one of the contributors below has noted.  However, the ethical and existential quandaries posed in the piece speak far beyond the particularities of the BP oil spill. Through the rehearsal and production processes, the artistic team found our conversations continually returning to the question of how a person lives day-to-day with the knowledge that things – indeed that they - are not going to be okay.  Crucial, timely questions are at work in this piece: What are the relationships of our identities to spaces and places? How do people (and men, in particular) maintain a sense of self-worth in a capitalist society when they cannot make a living?  What is the utility of Beauty (and particularly Beauty as artistic creation) in a world that is unsurvivable?

The direction was primarily influenced by another of Ms. Svich’s notes, her framing of the piece as “poetic realism.” From the outset, her maneuvering of language between realistic and poetic attracted me as a tactic that could potentially allow a closer encounter with the profound existential problems of the play than conventional realistic dialogue.  The poetry interrupts empathic engagement and reminds the audience of the problems this single story points to, but cannot encapsulate.  Jimmy and Rosalie are evocative incarnations but Ms. Svich never allows us to get too attached to their realistic particularities.   In production, we attempted to extend the impact of these interruptions by incorporating movement alongside the poetic dialogue that gradually but visibly broke from the more realistic physical interactions that were sustained for the majority of the piece. (Actors performed the piece script-in-hand, but were fully choreographed).

Another particularly evocative question arose, as they so often do, from one of the central production challenges of the piece, the function and utility of objects. Particularly in a piece that is so environmentally concerned, how might – and how should – objects emerge from and reflect their environment?  In our production, the only scenic elements were projections of the oil slicks, abstractly gorgeous and actually horrific, and four black stools, which we inverted, turned on their sides, and stacked to become the pier, cooler, backyard chairs and so on. We found that simplicity in the staging of the play could perhaps work to uphold the play’s ethical confrontation with a culture of consumption that relies on the creation and transport of an infinite number of things.

Finally, we found the real power of this piece in its courage to move into abstraction, in both its form and its content, consistently complicating too simple answers.

The Way of Water by Caridad Svich was read on April 12th, 2012 at the University of California Davis Department of Theatre in collaboration with the EDGE Dance Festival.

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by Hank Willenbrink

On Friday, April 13 the University of Scranton Theatre Program in conjunction with Dr. Yamile Silva of the Department of World Languages and Cultures and the University of Scranton’s Task Force on Sustainability produced a reading of The Way of Water directed by Dr. Hank Willenbrink in the Loyola Science Center on campus.  Forty members of the university community attended the reading which featured five students:  Casey Kelly, Claxton Rabb, Kiley Lotz, Vanessa Relvas, and Tim McCormick.

For those of us in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the reading held a special significance.  This past fall, the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee pummeled the area leaving thousands evacuated along the Susquehanna River just south of Scranton.  Though disconnected in time and space from the site of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, this past September has been a harsh reminder of the way of water as our community continues to rebuild.  Also underscoring the reading was the continuing debate and unsteadiness in the community around fracking in the Marcellus Shale.  We are well aware of disasters here, both man-made and natural.

These concerns where present in the discussion, which followed the play.  During the open forum, a number of audience members expressed their displeasure at the handling of the Deepwater Horizon spill and recalled where they were when news broke out about the catastrophe in the Gulf.  Kiley Lotz, who read Rosalie Robichaux, shared a story about shaving her head, after hearing about the oil spill, and donating the hair to help the cleanup efforts.  Many expressed how powerless they felt in response to the size of the catastrophe and responded that the play had allowed them to reengage with those terrible days two years ago.

As a Jesuit university, the University of Scranton’s mission is dedicated to two pedagogical pillars—social justice and reflection.  Plays like The Way of Water are imperatives for us who teach at the University as they allow a broad reflection on larger social justice issues.  Questions about poverty, class, economics, and governmental assistance arouse in the discussion as well, as we all struggled with how such a disaster shows how quickly the fabric of a community can be undone by an irresponsible pilfering of natural resources by profit-driven machines.  While a number of members of the community recalled their fears and powerlessness, it was amazing to see how many had pitched in and, though they may not have shaved their head, gave generously to help the situation in the Gulf.  The play had the added benefit of being the first artistic performance in the University of Scranton’s new multi-million dollar Loyola Science Center—a space we chose to illustrate how the arts and sciences can reflect and expand upon one another in productive ways.

As I write this, new photos are showing up on the web from Greenpeace displaying the trauma of the spill on animals in the Gulf.  Amid these journalistic documents, it seems to me that the most proper way to deal with events like the BP Deepwater Horizon spill is to bring communities together to commemorate the great and, all too often, stupid things that we have done.  These moments prove instructive through the marking of an occasion as well as through the community-defining practice of artistic production.  

The Way of Water by Caridad Svich was read at the University of Scranton on April 13th, 2012, directed by Dr. Hank Willenbrink and the students of the Department of Theatre in conjunction with Dr. Yamile Silva of the Department of World Languages and Cultures and the University of Scranton's Task Force on Sustainability. 

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As reported by the Associated Press on April 30th, 2012, a pipeline owned by Exxon Mobil spilled 80,000 gallons of oil in the Point Coupee Parish, Louisana. Please let THE WAY OF WATER team know if you find any follow-up articles.

Washington Post's April 30th, 2012 article.

From NOLA.com.

Clip from the Rachel Maddow show as posted on the Gulf Leak Watch's blog.

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Follow this link to the May 7th, 2012 Huffington Post article with thirty-five photos from Greenpeace after the Deepwater Horizon disaster. 

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As reported by David Hammer from the Times-Picayune, a conversation between a BP employee onboard the Deepwater Horizon and an engineer in Houston that something "wasn't right" fifty-seven minutes before the explosion, but operations continued. Read further for Times-Picayune reportage...

Meanwhile, as reported by Mark Schliefstein of the Times-Picayune, the civil trial of the BP Deepwater Horizon has been scheduled for January 14th, 2013. Read more.

 

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by Jeffrey Freeman, Co-Founder/Artistic Director of Atomic Age Theatre  

My team approached the Way of Water essentially as a counter narrative. Accordingly, as we reconstructed Svich’s brutal portrayal of life in the margins, we had to deal first and foremost with why this story mattered to the now. Past suffering is not a justification for a work of art. To capture a moment of human betrayal cannot be our aim in recreating the voices of the voiceless. If we were simply to concentrate on the pain of the catastrophe, the story could not fulfill its full potential as combative truth to BP’s propaganda campaign. In fact, to emphasize the reality of the pain as opposed to the reality of the solution would be to play right into BP’s current narrative of the wound which is being remedied.

In other words, one of the primary struggles my team ran up against in promoting the event was getting past the pity party. Why is this the performance you need to see? Why is this going to be more than two hours of mourning? Yes it is very a human tragedy what happened. Yes, there are people who are still suffering and need help. But what needs to be elucidated, and what Svich pours all her considerable skills into proving, is that the problem is rooted too deep to focus on the pain. If there is a cancer, we can deduce the cancer from its symptoms, and yet without properly advocating surgery, all we do is acknowledge the impending demise of the patient.   My marketing designer Liz dropped a single jot of ink into the water and took a picture of it as it steadily split and insinuated itself into what was once clear. Pollution, thick and man-made turned the water a steady shade of purple as we snapped the pictures. Again and again the shutter click echoed across the still water becoming steadily infected at our hands. Was this a full circle in a sense? Re-publicizing the event? Washing infection through purity yet again?   Not by a long shot. This event is happening. This event is now and any perception that the water we swim in is clean and getting cleaner is a lie. In fact the infection is getting worse. As BP oil resumes and expands its offshore drilling, moving out of the bounds of our national jurisdiction but not far enough to distill the irreparable harm that would be done were the event to be repeated, the human priorities in the system are becoming clear.   This play was not a sit down. This play was a stand up. Thank you Caridad for tapping the potential of the grassroots theater, but as was the playwright’s intent, this is a seed for a larger conversation, and this grass roots network is just barely revving its wheels as a vehicle for social change.   ---Jeffrey Freeman, Emerson College BA Theater Studies: Acting, Minor: Postcolonial Studies, Co-Founder/ Artistic Director of Atomic Age Theater Co.   The Way of Water by Caridad Svich was read at Atomic Age Theater in collaboration with Emerson College and Emerson Peace and Social Justice on April 11th, 2012, directed by Jeffrey Freeman.   Tags: The Way of Water Blog Posts

by Matthais Jung, Director/Founder of Sustainable Awareness in Houston, TX

This performance hit home with me. Why? Because the driving force for me in life these days is the common health of my fellow human and the environment we share across the globe. It eats at me! It eats at me because so many are complacent or non-acceptant to the realities we are facing in our environment. We, as a society, as a world, are in dire straits. I see folk toss styrofoam cups to the side of the road, plastic bags roll in the wind as if it were normal, all the chemicals we dump into ourselves and into the drain, how is it possible to wake up from the allusion that this is ok. I get that the awareness of how things are is sometime a more complicated road to venture, but the reality is we have little time to squander. Our environment is a direct reflection of ourselves; we treat ourselves as we treat the environment that supports us, with utter negligence. It's not ok, the world is on the brink of being lost to our miss handling. It will take the brave and the honorable to rise up; it will take a movement much greater than any time in history. Our values are at the core of this, our integrity is at stake, and the reality of our children’s rights is being tampered with. Why is it ok that Exxon Mobil executives sit at the board of cancer treatment funds, raising over a billion dollars to find a cure and focus on "care" (treatment strategies), when it is very clear that carcinogens have everything to do with it. The cure is clear to me. Stop producing "products" that fill the air with toxins, stop draining the waste into the streams and stop feeding us all this bull shit!!! I am tired of the negligence; I'm tired of watching children and neighbors finding themselves filled with cancer and pure lies. The reality is we are stronger than this, we are more powerful than this, we do have the strength to provide a world class life style and not discard the lives of our fellow human. We have the ability to rise to a higher self and offer a world with plenty. But it will take the majority to sway the pendulum. It takes conversation, protest, outrage and even forgiveness; but change must be done with vision, accountability and all hands on deck.

The Way of Water by Caridad Svich was read at the Main Street Theatre in Houston, TX on April 30th, 2012, directed by Rob Kimbro.

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by Emily Anne Gibson, Dramaturgy, History, and English, CMU '14 

Last semester at Carnegie Mellon University, the dramaturgy department hosted Anne D’Zmura, who taught a course on devising eco-drama, and our professor Wendy Arons is highly involved with the subject. As students of the CMU dramaturgy program, Sara Faradji, Olivia O’Connor, and I were familiar with the concept of eco-drama even before we hosted the reading of Caridad Svich’s The Way of Water in mid-April. In her introduction to Readings in Performance and Ecology[1], our professor Wendy Arons writes: “Ecodramaturgy is theater and performance making that puts ecological reciprocity and community at the center of its theatrical and thematic intent.” The Way of Water is undoubtedly a piece that fits right into this growing theatrical niche.

What makes it successful, in our opinion, is that although it’s a story that involves facts surrounding the BP oil spill of 2010, The Way of Water is still, at its core, a play about people. As we discussed the play after the fact, Sara said she considered it to be “good eco-drama, as the factual environmental concerns are presented in a way that informs the reader about the reality of the BP oil spill while providing a compelling reason to sympathize with the human characters depicted in the play.” This is significant, because an important thing to consider when dealing with ecological issues in theatre is scope. The sheer size of the problems that came out of the Gulf oil spill is overwhelming, but by sharing stories, we share experiences and educate each other. The story of Jimmy and the other characters in The Way of Water speaks to the story of thousands of others.

In my mind, theatre is all about storytelling. There are different ways to go about it, and as Olivia pointed out, it “makes you think, how will we tell our grandchildren about this event? How will this event come to shape the history of the place, the realities of the land?” The Way of Water takes a shot at telling the human story that makes this catastrophic event tangible for us. “It connects us, as people, to events that can feel very alien,” Olivia continued. “The corporations, and even the environment…those things can feel like far-away intangibles. But the impact they have on lives and relationships: that’s something we can all understand.” Sara agreed, saying that “a play can essentially serve as an educational tool that allows one to understand a national crisis from a creative perspective that is not based on cursory discussions by talking hears on a national news network.” It brings the story, the consequences, home, and it forces each person who reads or sees the play to question how we can reconcile humanity with nature – after all, as we discover each time there is an ecological disaster, we are not separate from the world we live in.

The Way of Water by Caridad Svich was read at Carnegie Mellon University on April 16th, 2012. 

[1] Wendy Arons & Theresa J. May. Introduction to Readings in Performance and Ecology. Edited by Wendy Arons & Theresa J. May. New York:  Palgrave Macmillan 2012.

 

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by Peter A. Campbell, Associate Professor of Theatre History and Criticism

We have been lucky to have Caridad on campus a few times this year, as she was selected as a Schomburg Visiting Artist at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey, at the border of New York State and about 25 minutes drive from the George Washington Bridge.  My students were already familiar with her work, as she had visited several classes and did a talk on her translation of Blood Wedding, which was performed on campus in March.

When Caridad first gave me the play, in January, I was struck by the voices and their political power.  The tension in communication, the intensity of the relationships, in a time of tension and intensity.  The struggles to love under the pressures of life.  The universality of it.

But what happened in our reading was that the actors and the audience saw the specificity of these renderings, and especially of their place and time.  And that specificity allowed them to also see the specific political and social problems that the play addresses.

Mahwah means “meeting place,” and fulfills that definition in many ways.  Historically it has been a meeting place for armies in battle and in making peace; it is still a boundary line of sorts for the Ramapough Mountain Indian Nation and the states of New Jersey and New York.

But most resonant in terms of The Way of Water is that Mahwah is where the Mahwah River meets the Ramapo River, which runs through some of the most populous areas of northern New Jersey.   These rivers have a history of being polluted, most famously by a Ford plant in Mahwah that produced more than 6 million cars and dumped most of its waste in the river.  The Ramapo River downstream of the plant was designated a Superfund site in 1982, and continues to be polluted with lead, arsenic, and other chemicals that still seep into the groundwater and the river basin.  More recently, Hurricane Irene caused several oil trucks from upstream in Sloatsburg to be dumped in the river.  The entire basin, which eventually empties into New York Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean, remains highly polluted, and with every new incident of flooding there are warnings of polluted groundwater, parks, and playgrounds.

So our reading, then, in this context, had its own specificity.  We live in a place where the discussion of water and its safety is second nature.

The students reading the play, and those who made up most of our audience, were quite struck by the way that the play roots out political and public activity through the everyday lives and conversations of the characters.  The characters are genuine, idiosyncratic, unusual, poetic.  And powerful.  The actors were excited to be able to give them voice.  And the response from our audience was of shock and recognition, of the currency of the play and the issues at hand.  As one student audience member noted, the staged reading was a powerful tool in engaging the audience to think about the spill and its effects without being preachy or pedantic:

"It is a story about…people in helpless, life-or-death situations.  The drama was realistic and believable leading me to wonder how much research Svich put into her work.  Were the characters based on real stories that she had read about or seen on the news?  Even though it was only a reading, the actors were still able to deliver strong performances that enhanced the serious dilemmas of the four men and women.  The dialogue was naturalistic in the way that average people would talk about the spill and their problems. 

Despite my enjoyment of the material, I never became so completely immersed in it that I forgot about the big picture.  None of the drama enfolding in front of me would have occurred if not for a man-made disaster.  Instead of performing it as a full play, the four actors simply sat on stools and read from scripts…The lack of theatricality is a constant reminder to the audience of the play’s messages.  It never…allows you to forget about the spill and its effects.

I was also impressed by the knowledge I was able to obtain without realizing I was being taught.  As ridiculous as that sounds, I never knew of the hazardous effects of the chemicals that were used to clean up the area and disperse the oil.  A 16 year-old boy was killed in the play by these chemicals.  Again, by cleverly working this point into the never-unrealistic conversations, the play was able to inform without preaching, for which I was quite grateful.”

This was a special experience for our campus and our community, one that gave us the chance to learn about those distant but not so far away.  We are grateful to Caridad and No Passport for giving us the opportunity.

 

The Way of Water by Caridad Svich was read at Ramapo College’s Adler Theater Berrie Center for the Arts on April 10th, 2012. The cast included Christopher Kent (Jimmy), Vanessa Rappa (Rosalie), Frank Hughes III (Yuki) and Melissa Mugica (Neva). Directed by Peter A. Campbell with sound by Nick Cornwell.

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"The Way of Water"



Playwright Caridad Svich and Houston stage-director Rob Kimbro talk about Ms. Svich’s play The Way of Water, written in response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Theater companies across the country are presenting staged readings of the drama, marking the second anniversary of the nation’s worst environmental disaster in history. The local reading takes place at Main Street Theater’s Chelsea Market playhouse.

Caridad Svich and Rob Kimbro talk with St.John Flynn.

Tags: The Way of Water Blog Posts