It takes courage

Posted 8/21/12

The news comes in day after day, it seems. Mass shootings. Police brutality. Refugees denied access. War. It takes a person, or a group of people, to stand up and say, “enough is enough.” If we …

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It takes courage

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The news comes in day after day, it seems. Mass shootings. Police brutality. Refugees denied access. War. It takes a person, or a group of people, to stand up and say, “enough is enough.” If we are living in fear, then we need the antidote to fear. Courage.

Tannis Kowalchuk, the artistic director of NACL Theatre in Highland Lake, NY, understands the need for dialogue on the issues our world faces today, the need for change. For courage. She and NACL will present a play titled “Courage” next weekend at Apple Pond Farm in Callicoon Center.

The entire farm is used as a backdrop for the play, and audience members walk from outdoor scene to scene until the play’s culmination inside a two-pole circus tent. The show is based on “Mother Courage and Her Children,” written in 1939 by Bertolt Brecht. Kowalchuk said Brecht wrote the play in response to Nazi-occupied Europe, when there was conflict everywhere. The play “Courage,” which she is directing and acting in, follows Kowalchuk’s character—based on Brecht’s Mother Courage—as she walks toward a refugee camp to find her son. The format is especially timely given that there are currently 60 million refugees from conflict in the world.

Audience members are given a water bottle and a badge, treated like they are new arrivals to the camp. “It gives an immersive and visceral experience,” Kowalchuk said. The audience walks to the tent, and the long walk gives them the feel of the journey refugees must make toward safe haven.

Along the walk, they will meet various characters: Mother Courage’s children, a human smuggler, a church chaplain, the army (made up of stilt walkers) and the General Public, a character who makes heated speeches about restoring the country (reminiscent of Donald Trump). Everyone involved is a victim of “The Crisis,” a general term to identify a conflict or war, because Kowalchuk didn’t want to use the term “the war” as a reference to something specific. When the audience reaches the tent, they can sit down and watch the rest of the show, which I won’t spoil here.

Having seen a rehearsal, I will say that the ending is a dismal reminder of the wreckage that war brings. I asked Kowalchuk if people will leave feeling depressed. “The play is a tragedy,” she said. War brings death, and death is sad. Just as when the news comes in that there was another mass shooting, another black person killed by police, another bombing in the Middle East, we sit there and wonder, “What can I do?” After the play ends, there will be opportunity for conversation and local organizations will be there to talk about it.

Though it is about war, “Courage” is not anti-war. Kowalchuk says we’re all involved in the conflict; it’s not just soldiers. “We’re looking at it on a bigger scale,” she said. “We’re all vulnerable equally; we’re all victims of this thing we created.” Kowalchuk said the play looks at various themes, including war versus peace, compassion and resiliency.

“How do we act in a time of crisis? And act with courage?” is the key question asked by the play, Kowalchuk said. Brecht’s play takes the character of Mother Courage as a study of someone benefiting from war. She makes money by selling provisions to soldiers. However, in the end she loses her children, so who really wins? “It’s only the 1% that wins,” Kowalchuk said. “The rest of us lose.”

Kowalchuk developed this play as she has many other NACL original works. It started with an idea, and she worked with New York City composer Rima Fand, playwrights Mark Dunau and Melissa Bell, and dramaturg Mimi McGurl. From there, they developed a core of actors who came up with characters and actions. Then they structured different scenarios and built it piece by piece, adding stilt walkers and a women’s chorus. “We developed it organically through led collaboration,” Kowalchuk said.

What is courage? The players have had many a discussion to create a definition for courage. Kowalchuk said, “In the face of fear, courage is to do something that goes beyond yourself and what you thought you would do.”

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