A. Rey Pamatmat and an Opportunity to Lead

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I read a great article this morning that was a transcription of a speech by Playwright A. Rey Pamatmat. I include a link to the speech in my blog and show notes. In it Pamatmat describes his experience as an excluded person based on a number of things. He is part Asian, homosexual, and an artist. During his speech to a Humana Festival audience he says, “the things other people believed were limiting me—my ethnicity, my queerness, my open lack of shame about both—were actually the things that liberated me and made my artistic life possible.” That phrase alone speaks to why I started making my podcast.

As a long time arts teacher in K-12 schools, I found the kids who gravitated toward my classes had something to say. I believe everyone has something to say, but there are those (and this is strictly anecdotal) who have things they need to say. Furthermore, when it comes to people who are excluded from various parts of society, these kids have things to say that the rest of us need to hear. It’s why I continue my own drumbeat to create fresh work that sees the light of day. Because, as A. Rey Pamatmat says quite eloquently, teachers can, “subject… students to bigoted systems, possibly for the first time in their lives or… teach them about bigoted systems and how to handle them. The former shows them (and their peers witnessing their treatment) how to perpetuate bigotry when they’re leaders in the field themselves, while the latter gives them and their peers strategies for navigating and maybe even eliminating these challenges.”

This profound message comes in a time when many of us who regularly and thoughtlessly experience privilege see the conversations for equality on social media and wring our hands. We don’t know how to respond. And I’m not just talking about responding to LGBTQIA or issues of racial inequality. It’s not even a conversation about women versus men; or, the uphill battle people with disabilities face every day whether you use a wheelchair and can’t sit close enough to the stage to see the actors or you have an invisible disability that forces you to sit quietly while mental illness is misrepresented on stage. And we rarely even consider the frustration fat people feel when they can find few representatives in the theatre who aren’t punchlines.

The message for all of us working in performing arts is this: We have an opportunity to lead. We can lead each other in respectful conversations about our differences and what we each have to contribute to human culture. We can lead our audiences to a deeper understanding of humanity and oneness. We can lead our students and young artists to develop tools to handle and combat bigotry and perhaps even to eliminate it. And we should all be leading each other toward an understanding that each of us deserves dignity, respect and love.

For those of us who already enjoy access to audiences and opportunity, we have a responsibility to do some homework. Research ideas. Talk to people who struggle with your characters’ obstacles. Create work that celebrates difference. See shows about otherness and be open to conversations for equality.

This is probably where I should chastise my fellow artists who experience privilege and don’t participate in the battle to eliminate intolerance. But I am not a fan of the double negative. Fighting a “not” as in, “I hate the haters” is not nearly as powerful as living in the daily possibility for fairness. Mother Theresa once said, “I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there.” 

I am not suggesting that we all stop speaking out against prejudice. What I am suggesting is that we, as artists, begin to see our role as leaders. We should never gloss over the shameful behavior we see. But within that moment when you, as an artist, flip on the light and expose malice, injustice, hatred, and their subtler cousins you can make a difference. Lead your audience through the difficulties humans face through your storytelling ability. Create empathy in your audience members for the characters on stage.

I really encourage you to either read or watch Pamatmat’s speech because he is saying things we need to hear with the fluency of an artist. But more than needing to hear these things, we need to seek out these messages for the artistic growth they inspire. And finally, we need these messages for the social revolution they encourage that will ultimately bring peace and make us all better people.

Think of the exclusion of people who are different this way: Let’s say you’ve got this bank account and people pay you with direct deposit. You get paid mostly in American dollars. But every once in a while someone pays you with money from another country, Canadian dollars, Euros, or even Yen. Even though your bank accepts all of these denominations, you decide you don’t want to be paid that way so you tell all of these customers to pay American or forget it. We have lost a great number of important ideas because we don’t want to accept different denominations of currency. We are poorer for it.

There are a couple of things I often say on this podcast. One is that the audience is your last collaborator, the other is that stories create culture. If we, as artists, are not happy with the current state of the culture in which we live, then, by God, we have the most powerful tools ever created to change it. We tell stories. Stories create culture. Culture makes us who we are. 

Check out the blog, SallyPAL.com, for articles and podcast episodes. You, too, can be a SallyPAL. Sign up for a FREE Creator’s Notebook insert at SallyPAL.com/join. Next week come back to the podcast to hear my interview with Jenny Kokai, author of Swim Pretty: Aquatic Spectacles and the Performance of Race, Gender, and Nature. 

Thank you for following, sharing, subscribing, reviewing, joining, & thank you for listening. If you’re downloading and listening on your drive to work, or falling asleep to my whining and opining like my sister does, let me know you’re out there.

Storytelling through plays, dance performances, opera, concerts and other types of expression is the most important thing we do as a culture. That’s why I encourage you to share your stories because you’re the only one with your particular point of view. And SallyPAL is here with resources, encouragement, and a growing community of storytellers. I want to help you tell your stories… All the stories ever expressed once lived only in someone’s imagination. Now, go create, collaborate and elevate the culture!