Hello Alamo!
Last Wednesday, I was helping out a friend and felt like focusing on that. Apologies to my 2 readers!
I’ve wanted to write about Rebel Music Theater for a hot minute now, but I’m trying to line up interviews to do the posts and the troupe justice. In the meantime, I want to put down my foundational understanding of art’s role in sustaining a community.
We are going through a lot. We have a country in distress, a state on fire like most summers, and a local government fighting against us some days. It invades me sometimes, and I know it must for you too. Everything can seem hopeless. Why even bother?
Joy. The good things in life worth staying for.
Maybe it’s your pets, your partner, your kids, your fandom, nature, spite.
Finding meaning in the little things can be hard, especially when everything else feels like it’s on fire.
For me personally, one of those “little things” is theater. My ADHD really loves all kinds of music (as I listen to classical to focus on this post), so naturally I gravitate to musical theater. Can it be a little campy? Some songs lacking actual depth? Jarring to break out in song when you’re caught up in storytelling? Absolutely it can be, but that’s part of the fun. For me and many fellow queer people, that enhances the joy. Life is goofy, messy, sad, dramatic, controversial, and yet it’s all celebrated in musicals.
(Yes, there’s a level of media literacy and self-reflection that needs to go into this, but that’s for a different post.)
Art forms are healing. Creating them and interpreting them remind us of our humanity. They express fear, anger, joy, humor, grief, and the full spectrum of human emotion. This can be really pertinent for people outside of the status quo who aren’t always accepted for their reality. In such a conservative city that, yes is improving, but still largely expects its citizens to conform to what has always “worked,” art forms that acknowledge humanity beyond those ideals are revolutionary.
For all this struggle to be worth it, we have to hold on to these “little things.”
Yet again, I would like to remind you that the blog’s inbox at CommWorks24@gmail.com is open for art submissions, poetry, short stories, photography, etc.
Until next week,
Salud!
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