[Nfb-editors] Food for Thought: Presenting Our Message asTheater

[Mike Freeman]

Tina:

You may well have an idea there.  However, I confess that I'm a bit dubious.
With all due respect to Jerry whittle's plays, I'm uncertain whether a play
can convey the sort of subtle thinking and dilemmas that we face every day
-- such as whetehr the failure of an employer to provide access technology
constitutes discrimination against a prospective employee (I do not think
this is necessarily so although current law makes it ambiguous since it
calls for "reasonable accommodations") or whether the absence of certain
things we, the blind, would find useful such as tactily-identifiable
currency  constitutes discriminatory treatment.  I'm sure a play could be
designed to convey such things -- after all, we have Shakespeare as a model
of how to convey moral dilemmas -- but the play would be too long to fit in
the time allowed or the young audience would put up with.  Braille Is
Beautiful had an enviably simple message; the sort of thinking I wish to
stimulate is much more complicated.  WE used to discuss such questions
endlessly while listening to recordings of banquet speeches, presidential
reports and other touchstones of NFB literature.  But people don't seem up
for that sort of mind-stretcher these days.

But I admire you for thinking out of the box.

Mike


-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-editors-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-editors-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Tina Hansen
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2011 9:52 PM
To: newmanrl at cox.net; Correspondence Committee Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Nfb-editors] Food for Thought: Presenting Our Message
asTheater

Personally, I'm still learning the ropes, but I know that maybe it's time to

actually have our plays recorded professionally, and maybe it's time to have

our members write original skits that present our message. I'm thinking that

we could offer these as audio drama or as video, but write it in such a way 
that everything is conveyed in the main dialogue so that the sound track 
could stand alone. And, some of our own members could act in these skits 
alongside professional actors or community theater groups.

I know that some people on this list are troubled because they feel that our

young people are apethetic or that they don't care. Yet, some young people 
are actually very creative, caring, compassionate and hard working. I 
believe that we need to find those young people who do care about these 
issues and allow them to use their abilities. They understand the social 
networking side of things, and they understand their culture.

Some people feel that because everything is being "dumbed down" that we 
should cave in. It shows me that some people have limited experience.

Part of the problem is that our culture is on overload, and that people are 
retreating as a protective measure. We need to show people why our message 
is still important, both to those in the organization and those who have not

yet joined.

There are plenty of members who could write this stuff, and I'm sure that 
with some help from those creative young people, we could come up with 
something good. Audio theater productions need not be overly elaborate, but 
they do need to be credible and strike a balance. They need to entertain 
while they inform. Also, it's possible to be engaging while keeping it 
short; we'll just need to work on how to do it.

And how about this? If we find someone who has a lot of questions, we might 
even be able to ask them to help out in a segment, and we use that as a 
teachable moment. If anyone remembers the Braille is Beautiful program we 
did some years ago, that program offered a nice mix of real NFB members and 
friends who showed the audience about the beauty of Braille. Maybe we could 
do something like that.

So rather than complaining, let's all let our imaginations fly as we find 
ways to be creative and have fun while being serious. Thanks. 


_______________________________________________
Nfb-editors mailing list
Nfb-editors at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-editors_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
Nfb-editors:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfb-editors_nfbnet.org/k7uij%40panix.c
om