stacie chaiken
writer • performer
N E W S
Witness and Responsibility, moving forward
A new program, developed with the USC Shoah Foundation
An ongoing conversation about how artists interact with catastrophic testimony
It is deeply difficult for most humans to fully engage with testimony related to catastrophe or mass atrocity. The experiences survivors describe are inconceivable. We cannot breathe in the face of them; they are beyond our comprehension, unimaginable.
Artists — by virtue of their training — are able to stand in the face of unspeakable things and breathe. They make physical or visual or aural or graphic sense of their own experience of the stories they hear, in order to make works with which a broad audience can engage.
Engagement begets awareness, which is the beginning of transformation.
www.witness-responsibility.com
Read more about
Witness and Responsibility
on TCG Circle
“Chaiken’s beautiful writing
strategically proffers up pieces of
bone and tooth in a scintillating
anthropological dig.”
— Steven Leigh Morris/LA WEEKLY
writing about “Looking for Louie”
2 workshop presentations in NYC
Friday, May 24 at 3pm
the Lark Play Development Center
Saturday, May 25 at 5pm
I spent ten days in New York in May, working with Pam Berlin on the text for the play formerly known as The Dig. By the time we do the next workshop, we’ll have a new name. Many thanks to the friends and colleagues who came, stayed, and responded to the work with great insight and curiosity. Your input is how we know what we have created.
Next time out: September in LA. I’ll keep you posted.
