All the lights on: reimagining theater to include everyone | Michelle Hensley | TEDxMinneapolis
-
0:40 - 0:42So when I was in my twenties,
-
0:42 - 0:46trying to figure out how I wanted
to spend the rest of my life, -
0:46 - 0:48I knew that theater was my passion,
-
0:49 - 0:51but there were some things
about it that troubled me, -
0:51 - 0:54especially when I looked out
in the audience. -
0:54 - 0:59Theater audiences are pretty much
white and upper middle class, -
0:59 - 1:03and I really didn't want to spend my life
making art only for wealthy people. -
1:04 - 1:07I really didn't want to leave anyone out.
-
1:07 - 1:09My grandfather came to mind.
-
1:09 - 1:14He was a farmer in Iowa
who lost his land during the Depression. -
1:14 - 1:17He was really smart,
but he never went to college. -
1:17 - 1:21And I never saw him without his overalls
and his seed corn cap. -
1:21 - 1:26And when I imagined him walking
into most of the theaters I'd been in, -
1:26 - 1:29I thought he would feel
pretty uncomfortable -
1:29 - 1:32and think things were maybe
a little pretentious. -
1:32 - 1:36I also really wanted to find
an audience that cared. -
1:36 - 1:38I was living in LA at the time,
-
1:38 - 1:40and LA is not a town about theater.
-
1:40 - 1:42It's about film and TV.
-
1:42 - 1:46And most of the people who go
do so very grudgingly -
1:46 - 1:49because they have a friend in the cast
or they are casting agents, -
1:49 - 1:53and they're all checking their watches,
wishing they were somewhere else. -
1:53 - 1:55I had a play that I loved,
-
1:55 - 1:59"The Good Person of Szechwan,"
by Bertolt Brecht. -
1:59 - 2:04It's about a prostitute who gets
a bag of silver from the gods -
2:04 - 2:06as a reward for doing a good deed.
-
2:06 - 2:11And it's about her wanting to help out
all her friends who were also poor, -
2:11 - 2:14but stay financially solvent herself.
-
2:14 - 2:18And I thought people without much money
would really care about that story. -
2:18 - 2:21They would probably
really understand her struggles. -
2:21 - 2:24But I knew there was no way
they would go into a theater. -
2:24 - 2:27And really, the price of the ticket
is the least of it. -
2:27 - 2:32There are a whole host of cultural
assumptions that scare people away, -
2:32 - 2:36like feeling like they won't know
how to dress or how to behave. -
2:36 - 2:39And people really just feel
like they won't fit in. -
2:39 - 2:40So I decided,
-
2:40 - 2:45instead of expecting people
to come to me, I would go to them. -
2:45 - 2:49We thought we could find some people
without much money in a homeless shelter. -
2:49 - 2:51So we found one in Santa Monica.
-
2:51 - 2:53And we designed a little set
-
2:53 - 2:57that we could hang up
on a clothesline with clothespins, -
2:57 - 2:58and we started to rehearse.
-
2:59 - 3:04We were really scared
because it's like a 2 1/2-hour-long play, -
3:04 - 3:05and there are 35 characters,
-
3:05 - 3:07and we only had 7 actors
playing all the parts. -
3:07 - 3:10And then on top of that, we wondered,
-
3:10 - 3:15"Who are we to tell people
that live their lives in poverty every day -
3:15 - 3:17anything about that?"
-
3:17 - 3:21But finally, opening afternoon
at the shelter arrived. -
3:21 - 3:27And finally, about 30 people
congregated around, very skeptically. -
3:27 - 3:29But I like to tell people
-
3:29 - 3:33that that audience of 30
was the biggest one of my life -
3:33 - 3:37because once they got
that we were not there to preach to them, -
3:37 - 3:40we were not trying to tell them
how to get off drugs -
3:40 - 3:42or how to be a better person,
-
3:42 - 3:45we were just trying
to tell the story as best we could. -
3:45 - 3:50Once they got that,
they just opened up their hearts. -
3:50 - 3:52I don't know how else to explain it.
-
3:52 - 3:54They started shouting out
advice to the characters. -
3:54 - 3:58They'd be like, "Oh, honey.
You stay away from him. He's bad news." -
3:58 - 4:00(Laughter)
-
4:00 - 4:03And there is nothing
more thrilling for an actor -
4:03 - 4:06to have an audience member
care so much about your character -
4:06 - 4:08that they'll shout out advice to you.
-
4:08 - 4:09(Laughter)
-
4:09 - 4:12And they did know more
about the world of the play than we did, -
4:12 - 4:16but because they were so honest
and so vocal in their responses, -
4:16 - 4:19we could listen and learn from them.
-
4:19 - 4:20At the end of the play,
-
4:20 - 4:22I remember a janitor,
-
4:22 - 4:26who'd been standing at the back
of the room, watching whenever he could, -
4:26 - 4:29came up to me,
and he looked me in the eye, -
4:29 - 4:30and he said,
-
4:30 - 4:33"Thank you for treating us
like we have brains in our heads." -
4:33 - 4:35And I took that to heart.
-
4:35 - 4:37I have never forgotten it.
-
4:37 - 4:40Because while I believe
that our non-traditional audiences -
4:40 - 4:43give us more than we can give them,
-
4:43 - 4:48what we can give them
is respect for their intelligence, -
4:48 - 4:49for their imaginations,
-
4:49 - 4:53and for their very hard-won
life experiences. -
4:53 - 4:57Respect that is so often in short supply
-
4:57 - 5:00in the lives of people
who live on the margins. -
5:01 - 5:03(Applause)
-
5:05 - 5:06Thank you.
-
5:07 - 5:11I had never experienced
an exchange like that in theater, -
5:11 - 5:13and so I was hooked.
-
5:13 - 5:19And so I decided to set out on a journey
of taking the big stories of theater - -
5:19 - 5:22Shakespeare, Greek tragedy,
Beckett, American musicals - -
5:23 - 5:25to people who've never seen it before.
-
5:25 - 5:30And we have learned some amazing things
about theater as a result. -
5:30 - 5:32Not long after "The Good Person,"
-
5:32 - 5:36I had a child, and I decided
I didn't want to raise her in LA. -
5:36 - 5:40So I started looking for a place
where we could afford a house, -
5:40 - 5:42we could use the public schools,
-
5:42 - 5:44and where there was
an excellent theater community. -
5:44 - 5:45And guess what?
-
5:45 - 5:49There's kind of about one city
left in this country like that. -
5:49 - 5:52(Applause and cheering)
-
5:55 - 5:58I just want to say that the Twin Cities
-
5:58 - 6:01are the healthiest place
to do theater in this country -
6:01 - 6:04because you can afford
to live here as an artist -
6:04 - 6:08and because the community
is so generous and kind. -
6:08 - 6:10So now, 25 years -
-
6:10 - 6:12(Applause)
-
6:13 - 6:15So now, 25 years later,
-
6:15 - 6:17my theater company,
"Ten Thousand Things," -
6:17 - 6:18does three shows a year.
-
6:18 - 6:23But we take each play
to six or seven correctional facilities -
6:23 - 6:26that could be men's, women's or juvenile.
-
6:26 - 6:29We take it to nine or ten
low-income centers. -
6:29 - 6:33So that could be homeless shelters,
housing projects, detox centers, -
6:33 - 6:38adult ed centers, Indian reservations,
small towns in rural Minnesota. -
6:38 - 6:42And we do four weekends
for the paying general public. -
6:42 - 6:47So we take each play to every kind
of human being imaginable. -
6:47 - 6:50And we work with the best actors
in the Twin Cities, -
6:50 - 6:52people that you see regularly
-
6:52 - 6:56on the stages of the Guthrie
or the Jungle or Penumbra. -
6:56 - 6:58And I guarantee you,
-
6:58 - 7:02most of those actors would tell you
that they have become much better artists -
7:02 - 7:04because of our non-traditional audiences,
-
7:04 - 7:08as I know I have become
a much better director -
7:08 - 7:10than had I followed the conventional path
-
7:10 - 7:12and tried to climb the ladder
at a regional theater. -
7:17 - 7:20I'm here to tell you that theater
-
7:20 - 7:26and, I believe, every art form
and really every human endeavor -
7:26 - 7:32is absolutely richer when you figure out
how to include everyone. -
7:32 - 7:34(Applause)
-
7:39 - 7:42One of the things that starts to change
-
7:42 - 7:47when you know that everybody
is going to be in your audience in theater -
7:47 - 7:49is the kind of stories you start to tell.
-
7:49 - 7:51If you look on Broadway right now
-
7:51 - 7:54or in a lot of the big regional theaters,
-
7:54 - 7:56you'll find that many
of the plays being done -
7:56 - 8:01fall under the category
of rich people being mean to each other. -
8:01 - 8:03(Laughter)
-
8:03 - 8:05So an inmate or a homeless person
-
8:05 - 8:07isn't going to be
very interested in that story. -
8:07 - 8:09And quite frankly,
I don't know why anyone is. -
8:09 - 8:14Those stories are really
very narrow and very small. -
8:14 - 8:18We need big stories that wrestle
with fundamental human struggles -
8:18 - 8:23like jealousy, betrayal, revenge, desire -
-
8:23 - 8:27stories that include people
from all economic classes. -
8:27 - 8:32And we need stories
set in another time and another place. -
8:32 - 8:36Because just as we wouldn't do a play
set in a suburban ranch house, -
8:36 - 8:39we also don't do plays
about contemporary urban poverty, -
8:39 - 8:43because, again, our audiences
know more about that than we do, -
8:43 - 8:45and they live it everyday,
-
8:45 - 8:48so they don't really want
to sit around and watch more of it. -
8:48 - 8:49(Laughter)
-
8:49 - 8:53But a made-up world creates
this level playing field -
8:53 - 8:55where we can all enter as equals.
-
8:55 - 8:57No one can be an expert
-
8:57 - 9:01because we're all
making it up together, on the spot. -
9:01 - 9:04So I want to tell you
about the first time we did Shakespeare, -
9:05 - 9:07who is a playwright
that meets all those criteria. -
9:08 - 9:10I had never directed Shakespeare before,
-
9:10 - 9:12but I was reading "Measure for Measure,"
-
9:12 - 9:17which is set in brothels and taverns
and palaces and courtrooms. -
9:17 - 9:19And it's about justice and injustice
-
9:19 - 9:21and being judged unfairly by others,
-
9:21 - 9:23and I thought,
-
9:23 - 9:25"If I can just make this story clear."
-
9:25 - 9:28And may I add, most of the time
when I go to Shakespeare, -
9:28 - 9:30I don't understand
what's going on onstage. -
9:30 - 9:33But, I thought, If I could
just make the story clear, -
9:33 - 9:37I think my audiences would really like it.
-
9:37 - 9:40So - and I want to just say
I didn't change the language. -
9:40 - 9:45Clarity in Shakespeare has to do
with being able to feel in your gut -
9:45 - 9:48what one character
is trying to do to another. -
9:48 - 9:52If that's clear, then the meaning
of the words is also very clear. -
9:52 - 9:54So anyway, our first performance
-
9:54 - 9:56was at the Dorothy Day Center
for the Homeless -
9:56 - 9:58in downtown St. Paul,
-
9:58 - 10:04and we had a very experienced
Shakespearean actor playing Lord Angelo. -
10:04 - 10:07And there's this scene
where this young nun, Isabella, -
10:07 - 10:12comes to Angelo and pleads for him
to spare her brother's life. -
10:12 - 10:16And then Isabella leaves,
and Angelo starts lusting after Isabella. -
10:16 - 10:19He's left alone on stage, and he says,
-
10:19 - 10:21"What's this, what's this?
-
10:21 - 10:24The tempter or the [tempted],
who sins most?" -
10:25 - 10:28And there was a homeless woman sitting
right next to where he was standing, -
10:28 - 10:30and she looked up at him, and she said,
-
10:30 - 10:33"Well, I think it's your fault, shithead."
-
10:33 - 10:34(Laughter)
-
10:37 - 10:42And then, there was this guy
standing in the back of the room, -
10:42 - 10:43and he shouted out,
-
10:43 - 10:45"Ah, just go ahead and fuck her."
-
10:45 - 10:47(Laughter)
-
10:47 - 10:51And yep, the whole audience
erupted into laughter, -
10:51 - 10:54and the actor said
his bowels just fell to the floor. -
10:54 - 10:56He said, "Oh, my God.
I've totally lost this audience. -
10:56 - 10:58What am I going to do?"
-
10:58 - 11:02And then he realized all he had to do
was say the next line, -
11:02 - 11:05which is "not she, not she, but it is I."
-
11:05 - 11:08And it was a perfect response
-
11:08 - 11:10to what the audience
had just shouted out to him. -
11:10 - 11:14And that's where we have
what we call our Shakespeare epiphany. -
11:14 - 11:16Shakespeare wrote for the groundlings.
-
11:16 - 11:18He wrote for those people
-
11:18 - 11:21who paid a penny to be a able
to come and stand in front of the stage. -
11:21 - 11:24And they shouted stuff
out at the actors all the time. -
11:24 - 11:26Shakespeare didn't write for an audience
-
11:26 - 11:30that was just wealthy and educated
and quiet and polite. -
11:31 - 11:32And ever since then,
-
11:34 - 11:37Shakespeare has been
one of our very favorite playwrights. -
11:37 - 11:39Because he wrote knowing
-
11:39 - 11:42that people from all economic classes
were going to be in his audience, -
11:42 - 11:45just like they are in ours.
-
11:48 - 11:51So, I think you can start to see
-
11:51 - 11:57how doing theater this way
would start to make you a better artist. -
11:57 - 12:02Because our audiences live their lives
at the same extremes, -
12:02 - 12:03many of them,
-
12:03 - 12:07the same extremes of human existence
as characters in Shakespeare's plays -
12:07 - 12:10or in Greek tragedies.
-
12:10 - 12:13And actors have to dig much deeper
-
12:13 - 12:16to be sure that they
really match the truth -
12:16 - 12:19of the audience's experience
of the situation. -
12:19 - 12:22If you are going to be doing Richard III
-
12:22 - 12:25for an audience that includes some guys
that have probably killed people, -
12:25 - 12:27you better know what you're talking about.
-
12:27 - 12:30(Laughter)
-
12:30 - 12:34Because it's the first time
our audiences have seen theater, -
12:34 - 12:38they demand that we be
very clear, very urgent, -
12:38 - 12:42very truthful and very lively
in everything that we do. -
12:43 - 12:44Another thing that happens
-
12:44 - 12:47when you know you're going
to have everyone in your audience -
12:47 - 12:51is that your casting becomes very diverse.
-
12:51 - 12:55I want everyone in my audiences
to be able to see themselves on stage -
12:55 - 12:59in ways they've never been able
to see themselves before. -
12:59 - 13:04So we have Marian the Librarian
and Harold Hill in "Music Man." -
13:04 - 13:08We have Stella and Blanche
in "Streetcar Named Desire." -
13:08 - 13:12And we have Queen Titania played by a man
-
13:12 - 13:14and Bottom played by a woman
-
13:14 - 13:16in "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
-
13:16 - 13:17I guarantee you,
-
13:17 - 13:21actors as well as audiences
take great delight -
13:21 - 13:24in being able to play
major parts in stories -
13:24 - 13:27that they have traditionally
been left out of. -
13:27 - 13:30The joy radiates off the stage.
-
13:31 - 13:33Another great discovery we've made
-
13:33 - 13:37is that you don't need
a lot of stuff to do theater. -
13:37 - 13:39We don't use a stage.
-
13:39 - 13:42All we need is a big room
-
13:43 - 13:48that is big enough for us to make
a circle of chairs about 15 feet across, -
13:48 - 13:50and we perform right in the middle.
-
13:50 - 13:51We couldn't use a stage
-
13:51 - 13:55because that would really limit the number
of places that we could perform. -
13:55 - 13:57The principle of
Ten Thousand Things' set design -
13:57 - 14:00is "Yeah, but do you want to carry it?"
-
14:00 - 14:02(Laughter)
-
14:04 - 14:10Actors and myself
have to load and unload the van, -
14:10 - 14:14haul stuff up stairways, down hallways,
squeeze into elevators. -
14:14 - 14:15So we work really hard
-
14:15 - 14:20to figure out what is the least amount
of stuff we need to tell the story. -
14:20 - 14:25And audiences love being invited
to use their imagination. -
14:25 - 14:27It's so much more fun
to, like, like hold up a hula hoop -
14:27 - 14:29and go, "This is the moon,"
-
14:29 - 14:32instead of having some like 20,000 dollar
laser high-tech re-creation -
14:32 - 14:34of the moon onstage.
-
14:35 - 14:40I really believe that theater works best
when there are lots of empty spaces -
14:40 - 14:43for our imagination to fill in, right?
-
14:43 - 14:46So this is Don Quixote
in "Man of La Mancha." -
14:46 - 14:47(Laughter)
-
14:47 - 14:48Yeah.
-
14:48 - 14:52And here we have Seymour
in "Little Shop of Horrors," -
14:52 - 14:55with the giant man-eating plant.
-
14:55 - 14:56(Laughter)
-
14:56 - 14:58Yep, that's his hand.
-
14:58 - 15:01All he does is to stick it
through the metal loop in the flower pot, -
15:01 - 15:02and it talks to him.
-
15:02 - 15:04Audiences love it.
-
15:07 - 15:13So, if you don't need buildings
and fancy sets and elaborate costumes, -
15:13 - 15:18suddenly, your money is free
to pay actors fairly. -
15:18 - 15:19(Applause)
-
15:19 - 15:21That doesn't happen
very often in this world. -
15:21 - 15:23(Applause)
-
15:24 - 15:29Your money can reward
the human creative energies involved. -
15:29 - 15:33When actors feel respected
by being paid a livable wage, -
15:33 - 15:37that energy comes across on stage too.
-
15:38 - 15:40Another thing
is that we don't need lights. -
15:40 - 15:45We just use whatever fluorescent lights
are on in the room because we have to. -
15:45 - 15:47But wonderful things happen as a result.
-
15:47 - 15:51First of all, the actors
can see the audience, -
15:51 - 15:55which usually they can't in a dark house,
like I can't really see you now. -
15:55 - 15:59And the opportunities for playfulness
are dramatically increased. -
16:00 - 16:03And there's no place to hide.
-
16:03 - 16:06If you are standing
like two feet away from an inmate -
16:06 - 16:08that is getting bored and restless,
-
16:08 - 16:12as an actor, you figure out
how to dig in and adjust -
16:12 - 16:15and make that scene
more interesting on the spot. -
16:15 - 16:20Also, when all the lights are on
and the audiences are seated in the round, -
16:20 - 16:22they can see each other.
-
16:22 - 16:25And this is especially cool
when we perform at low-income centers -
16:25 - 16:28where people from the general public
can come as well. -
16:28 - 16:30Because there,
-
16:30 - 16:34you will often get a corporate CEO
sitting next to a homeless guy. -
16:34 - 16:36And the homeless guy
will laugh at something, -
16:36 - 16:40and the CEO will go,
"Oh, yeah, that's funny. I see." -
16:40 - 16:43And then, the CEO will laugh at something;
-
16:43 - 16:46the homeless guy will go,
"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it." -
16:46 - 16:49Now, how often does it happen in our world
-
16:49 - 16:52that someone of extreme wealth
and extreme poverty -
16:52 - 16:55sit next to each other as equals,
-
16:55 - 16:58engaging with their imaginations together
-
16:58 - 17:02in a story about the struggles
that human beings share together? -
17:02 - 17:05Not very often in this world.
-
17:06 - 17:10And one last thing happens
when you do theater this way. -
17:10 - 17:12It's like 20 and 30-somethings love it.
-
17:12 - 17:17It's not this far off,
remote, stuffy, formal thing. -
17:17 - 17:20It's intimate, it's immediate, it's raw.
-
17:20 - 17:22It surrounds you.
-
17:22 - 17:25Like someone said,
it's like mainlining theater. -
17:25 - 17:29It's a really fun way to watch theater.
-
17:30 - 17:34So, what does all have to do
with the world outside of theater? -
17:35 - 17:38I hope you will take this
as an inspiration -
17:38 - 17:43to discover for yourselves
the riches and rewards that await -
17:43 - 17:46when you dedicate yourself completely
-
17:46 - 17:51to figuring out how to include everyone
in whatever it is you do, -
17:51 - 17:58people of all economic classes and races
and genders and all life experiences. -
17:59 - 18:01Don't expect them to come to you.
-
18:01 - 18:04If you can't figure out how to bring
what you do to them, -
18:04 - 18:07then you are going to have to spend
a lot of time building relationships -
18:07 - 18:10so that they will learn to trust
that you're for real. -
18:10 - 18:13You are going to have to find a way
to meet them as equals -
18:13 - 18:18and open yourself with humility
to listen deeply. -
18:18 - 18:23When you do, you will find
that your assumptions are shattered, -
18:24 - 18:28that your usual way of doing things
is radically altered -
18:28 - 18:32and that your world is profoundly changed.
-
18:32 - 18:36Find a way, figure out
how to include everyone. -
18:37 - 18:40Figure out how to do it.
-
18:40 - 18:43Your life will be so much richer
-
18:43 - 18:46in the things that really
matter in this world. -
18:46 - 18:47Thank you.
-
18:47 - 18:50(Applause)
- Title:
- All the lights on: reimagining theater to include everyone | Michelle Hensley | TEDxMinneapolis
- Description:
-
Michelle Hensley describes the motivation behind starting her theater company, Ten Thousand Things, which takes award-winning professional theater - Shakespeare, Greek Tragedy, Brecht - to audiences who live on the margins in shelters and prisons and immigrant centers as well as to a savvy theater-going public. She highlights the discoveries the company has made about theater by doing it this way, and she makes a strong case for the radical and positive change that can happen to any human endeavor when inclusion becomes a priority.
Michelle Hensley is the artistic director of Ten Thousand Things, where she has directed and produced over 60 tours of award-winning drama to nontraditional audiences in prisons, shelters and housing projects as well as the general public. Many of these productions make the local critics' Top Ten Lists. A McKnight Theater Fellow, Michelle was named the 2012 Star Tribune's Best Artistic Director. She received the Francesca Primus Prize from the American Theater Critics Association for outstanding contribution to the American theater by a female artist. She is a founding member of the Minnesota Theater Alliance, serves on the boards of the Theater Communications Group and Howlround, and in March published her book, "All The Lights On: Reimagining Theater with Ten Thousand Things."
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 18:55