DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | I.C. Notebooks 1

Transcribe
Translate

""Life & Time of Sigmund Freud""

THE FOLLOWING IS TAKEN FROM A SPEECH BEFORE THE HOUSE CURTAIN "LIFE & TIME OF SIGMUND FREUD" WRITTEN FOR MARY PEER. DECEMBER 1969

I feel that when theatre really connects with an audience of when a group of people really connect with one another that there are a lot of things involves. It's always a mystery, isn't it, when you have to stop and analyze it? I am now remembering something a little girl said to me about 4 years ago when I was her teacher. This child had a speech impediment and a very difficult time speaking at every stage of learning to say a word. I was tongue tied myself, and, so I was sympathetic with her. I could understnad part of the problem though in an instant. She wanted desperately to sing but she couldn't get into the school choir, cause of course she couldn't say the words and she couldn't make those sounds. You know, like that. So I said, well, that doesn't make any difference you know, you can, you can sing. She said, "I know I'd like to sing." So I said, well just go ahead and, you know -- sing. So then she did and then after a couple of yars of working with it she really developed an incredible thing with her voice and it was very moving to hear her sing. And eventually by gaining confidence in herself this way she learned in the same manner to talk. Two obstacles were removed, And then one day I heard her working with another child -- and this child was singing along with a Bob Dylan recording or something like that. And that little girl, who originally had the speech impediment said emphatically OH NO ! SHE SAYS, WHY DO YOU WANT TO SING THOSE SONGS? YOU KNOW. WHY DO YOU WANT TO LEARN MUSIC THAT WAY? You know she continued enthusiastically you can sing your own way. No; don't sing like the Beatles you know. Don't sing like Frank Sinatra. Don't sing like, you know. Sing your own way. And that's what interests me because last year when I was teaching in New Jersey at a private school and the director in charge was rehearsing a Shakespearean play that she insisted was the only proper kind of culture she kept demanding that this one child repeat one of the lines over and over again -- so as to say it her particular way. Bum te bum te bum tebum bum bumm. And the child said I know. But then the child would say her lines and she would go bum bum bum bum bum bumm. And the director getting more and more infuriated. It was some scene, believe me the director a messenger of culture saying no, no no can't you see, Shakespeare's trying to say this, and he's trying to say that the lines must be said the way I am saying them so that the audience will understnad, so say the words dear bum te bum te bum te bum bum bumm . And the child tried everytime the words would come out they came out bum bum bum bum that was extremely remarkable for a child in the 8th grade to know that much about herself and sure enough the child went right ahead and she played the part by uttering in her distinctive though thoroughly monotinous rhythm bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bummm but it worked it really worked because she connected with the audience in a way the other children couldn't imagine and it was because of knowing something special about herself something curiously distinctive and that was more important than the old story or more important than Shakespeare. After all. The child being suddenly more comfortable with herself made it possible therefore for the audience to respond authentically.

Saving...

THE FOLLOWING IS TAKEN FROM A SPEECH BEFORE THE HOUSE CURTAIN "LIFE & TIME OF SIGMUND FREUD" WRITTEN FOR MARY PEER. DECEMBER 1969 I feel that when theatre really connects with an audience of when a group of people really connect with one another that there are a lot of things involves. It's always a mystery, isn't it, when you have to stop and analyze it? I am now remembering something a little girl said to me about 4 years ago when I was her teacher. This child had a speech impediment and a very difficult time speaking at every stage of learning to say a word. I was tongue tied myself, and, so I was sympathetic with her. I could understnad part of the problem though in an instant. She wanted desperately to sing but she couldn't get into the school choir, cause of course she couldn't say the words and she couldn't make those sounds. You know, like that. So I said, well, that doesn't make any difference you know, you can, you can sing. She said, "I know I'd like to sing." So I said, well just go ahead and, you know -- sing. So then she did and then after a couple of yars of working with it she really developed an incredible thing with her voice and it was very moving to hear her sing. And eventually by gaining confidence in herself this way she learned in the same manner to talk. Two obstacles were removed, And then one day I heard her working with another child -- and this child was singing along with a Bob Dylan recording or something like that. And that little girl, who originally had the speech impediment said emphatically OH NO ! SHE SAYS, WHY DO YOU WANT TO SING THOSE SONGS? YOU KNOW. WHY DO YOU WANT TO LEARN MUSIC THAT WAY? You know she continued enthusiastically you can sing your own way. No; don't sing like the Beatles you know. Don't sing like Frank Sinatra. Don't sing like, you know. Sing your own way. And that's what interests me because last year when I was teaching in New Jersey at a private school and the director in charge was rehearsing a Shakespearean play that she insisted was the only proper kind of culture she kept demanding that this one child repeat one of the lines over and over again -- so as to say it her particular way. Bum te bum te bum tebum bum bumm. And the child said I know. But then the child would say her lines and she would go bum bum bum bum bum bumm. And the director getting more and more infuriated. It was some scene, believe me the director a messenger of culture saying no, no no can't you see, Shakespeare's trying to say this, and he's trying to say that the lines must be said the way I am saying them so that the audience will understnad, so say the words dear bum te bum te bum te bum bum bumm . And the child tried everytime the words would come out they came out bum bum bum bum that was extremely remarkable for a child in the 8th grade to know that much about herself and sure enough the child went right ahead and she played the part by uttering in her distinctive though thoroughly monotinous rhythm bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bummm but it worked it really worked because she connected with the audience in a way the other children couldn't imagine and it was because of knowing something special about herself something curiously distinctive and that was more important than the old story or more important than Shakespeare. After all. The child being suddenly more comfortable with herself made it possible therefore for the audience to respond authentically.