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Reflecting on Americanness

Posted by DCA Theater on October 11, 2011 in July-December 2011 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Halcyon Theatre

Submitted by Jennifer Adams, Associate Artistic Director of Halcyon Theatre

When Coya Paz and Halcyon Theatre started working together to create The Americans a year and a half ago, I joined as Assistant Director because Coya works in a style that I have never done before and I wanted to learn more about it, and because she was going out of town and would need a director to take over when she left. I knew a little about what to expect, but not much.

It was a fascinating process- the first part of the rehearsal process was so focused on each of us and people outside of the rehearsal room that it didn’t feel like we were rehearsing for a play. “Everyone stand on one side of the room. Now, think of the room as a scale from 1 to 10. Now, stand on the scale in accordance to the questions I ask. #1- How American are you?”

Throughout the weeks, I changed. My opinions became stronger. My social consciousness grew. I had a deeper understanding of what it meant to be from this country as opposed to living in this country, to be in America as opposed to being American. My growing frustration at the way that color influences people’s prejudice grew (for example, who is getting to get arrested by immigration, the Hispanic girl who is working in the restaurant or the Irish girl working at the same restaurant?), but also I developed a frustration at the labels that were thrown about to describe Americans that were obviously aimed at the White middle class, because I am white middle class, and I am not who was being talked about. It gave me a need to look at even more of the whole picture than I already was. Fortunately, I was in exactly the right place to learn and express my point of view!

And my words were put in the show! How strange and fun it felt when I heard the actors saying lines that had come out of MY brain! I’m not a writer!

When The Americans was accepted as part of the DCA Theater Incubator Series, I couldn’t be a part of it because I was directing another show. I got to attend one rehearsal, that’s it… I was so excited to see not only how much more had been added, but how the existing parts had been fleshed out and enhanced, and selfishly I was proud to see my words had been kept in many places.

I didn’t get to see the staged reading at the DCA Studio Theater, but I did get to see it as an inaugural production at the Arts Center, Logan Square – Avondale. It wasn’t produced by Halcyon in any way, which was such a strange and bittersweet feeling… it was the first time Halcyon has been a part of creating something and then watched and supported as it went on to be produced without us. I felt pride in what Coya had created and our role in it, pride at what the actors had brought to it, and very grateful to DCA Theater for having a place where work like that can be grown.

The Americans had a profound effect on the way I think about our society and the way that art can be an influence and an instrument in social change. I am so glad that I got to watch it bloom, through its first staged reading, through the Incubator Series, and into a thought-provoking piece of theatre that puts a mirror up to our lives and our perceptions about who we are.