Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Spinning Plates

image found here, original source unknown
The past few months have been full of working on productions, working on readings, writing, reading, season planning, project proposing, and diving headlong into the work. I have some posts in the wings at a few other sites, so I will be sure to link to them when they go live.

Below are my notes for David Myers' stunning work-in-progress, Muzungu. Working on this reading with Doorway Arts Ensemble was challenging in the best way. The play asks big questions and does not offer easy answers. David's writing is undeniably powerful, but he is able to interweave lightness and playfulness into the piece, as well. I can't wait to read the next draft of this play. Many thanks to all involved for allowing me to be a part of it!

Muzungu by David Myers
Dramaturg's Notes

A young American travels to Rwanda, eager to offer the country his physical exertion and good intentions. When he develops a complicated relationship with a Rwandan masseuse, they discover intense emotional baggage that ties them together.

Matthew visits Rwanda as a tourist -- a member of a mission team -- and is noticed everywhere he goes due to the color of his skin. He stands out as a muzungu -- a white person. Mattie is a survivor of the Rwandan genocide. She has worked as a masseuse for over a decade at the hotel where Matthew stays. Although Mattie may not seem as immediately identifiable as a displaced individual as Matthew, she too, is an outsider. The city is not where she was born and raised. It is not where she belongs.

As observers, Matthew and Mattie look at Rwanda through different lenses. Matthew sees a land full of promise and potential, while Mattie sees the country's brokenness and detritus.

In Muzungu, playwright David Myers traverses the complex landscape of motives of doing good, loyalty and betrayal, and what it means to be an outsider, whether as a tourist or in your own country.

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