a thinking, contributing member of society

I had a hilarious experience last weekend. I had just performed Mzungu Memoirs, my one-woman show about how a cross-cultural experience can affect one's perspective on one's own culture and worldview. It's a memoir about my semester abroad in Uganda and Rwanda and in it I ask questions of injustice and discuss the realities of genocide, while also laughing through the inevitably ridiculous details of cross-cultural misunderstandings. Needless to say, it is a rather reflective piece. It's a memoir for goodness sake.

So, I was stunned when an audience member raised her hand during the Q&A and said something to the extent of "was is weird to be in East Africa, as a theatre person, and have to, like, think about things? To have to, like, think seriously?"

Huh?

I immediately realized that it didn't matter what I performed to this audience member. It didn't matter if it was about Descartes or if I tap-danced to 1950s musical numbers. She heard "theatre" and assumed I was a non-thinking fluff.

Of course I didn't miss the chance to unleash a mini-lecture of how theatre is used- every day, all over the world- as a tool to fight human rights abuses. She got an overly smiley response about the role of theatre in Rwanda post-genocide and Uganda post-colonization. She heard about how theatre fought apartheid in South Africa and dictatorships in South America. The sad thing is, I don't know if she believed me. She still had the same tilt-of-her-head confusion at the concept of me as simultaneously a "theatre person" and a thinking, contributing member of society.

We're not all tap-dancing, jazz hands waving, lunatics! I swear! I may have pajama pants that say DRAMA QUEEN on them, but they are mostly facetious.

PS: Speaking of human rights- a professor showed this in class on Wednesday night and I loved it: