Latest / The Imperfect Impulse w/Bree O'Connor / S3 Ep 1 Pose Questions Instead of Answers

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S3 Ep 1 Pose Questions Instead of Answers · The Imperfect Impulse w/Bree O'Connor

0:04
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Imperfect Impulse with Bree O'Connor.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Bree O'Connor.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: I hope you can forgive my breathiness and a little bit of my scratchiness
0:17
SPEAKER_00: and pitching way up right now.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: I still have some residual issues with my throat and with my chest due to
0:26
SPEAKER_00: the wildfires last week.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: We are...
0:30
SPEAKER_00: Moving forward the best we can and I am committed to getting this episode out
0:35
SPEAKER_00: on time on Thursday so you're just gonna have to deal with this voice.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: What I wanted to start out season three episode one,
0:46
SPEAKER_00: can you believe we've made it this far, is didactic work.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: I mean, certainly we do have room in all art for teaching and for providing lessons
1:01
SPEAKER_00: on social issues, what have you.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: And there's nothing wrong with that.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: I think that's a perfectly fine motivation for telling a story.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: However, we have to be careful about how we approach the story.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: I recently went to a reading of a play and the cast was stellar
1:24
SPEAKER_00: and there were amazing moments that were had by actors truly connecting
1:30
SPEAKER_00: to each other and to the text.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: However, I felt like the text didn't trust itself.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: It felt like the author really wanted us to understand their point.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: And rather than allowing the story to illustrate these issues,
1:52
SPEAKER_00: the playwright came out and told us over and over and over again.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: Which, as an audience member, I found condescending and irritating.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: At some point, the actors...
2:09
SPEAKER_00: Now this was clearly scripted,
2:11
SPEAKER_00: but the actors broke character to speak with each other as actors
2:18
SPEAKER_00: about how things were moving with the characters in the play.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: And they stepped out of character a few times during the narrative
2:26
SPEAKER_00: to discuss how comfortable or uncomfortable
2:30
SPEAKER_00: the actions these characters were taking were making them as actors.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: Even though it was skillfully done by wonderful actors, I started to check out.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: And after I watched the reading,
2:46
SPEAKER_00: and I had been through a good two and a half hours
2:49
SPEAKER_00: of essentially being told what I should think,
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SPEAKER_00: and even though I have to say just on its face,
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SPEAKER_00: I agreed with everything the playwright had to say,
3:00
SPEAKER_00: but The fact that the playwright didn't trust the play to carry
3:06
SPEAKER_00: the message made me both bored and frustrated because I was not invited to
3:14
SPEAKER_00: a conversation.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: I was being told.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: I was being preached at.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: There was no room for me to discover anything.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: There was no room for discovery at all.
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SPEAKER_00: It was really a recreation of the playwright's thoughts and feelings on the topic
3:35
SPEAKER_00: and not room for much else.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: I think this is both a hallmark of inexperienced writing,
3:42
SPEAKER_00: but also there's a prevailing feeling amongst artists who tend to only associate
3:49
SPEAKER_00: with other artists that it is somehow a Virtuous and important for them to break out
3:57
SPEAKER_00: and quote tell their truth and that their truth is more important and more truthful
4:04
SPEAKER_00: than anyone else's truth and therefore throughout the narrative
4:08
SPEAKER_00: that truth has no challenge.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: There's no room for argument or other perspectives or opinions.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: And they might do some lip service and create a character that embodies some sort
4:24
SPEAKER_00: of challenge to the writer's perspective,
4:27
SPEAKER_00: but they tend to cast that person as the evil or misguided person in the play
4:33
SPEAKER_00: that it's clear we're supposed to hate.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: And then it's not really drama, it's melodrama.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I have a certain affection for 1890s melodramas.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: It's nice to know who the bad guy is and to boo as he twiddles his mustache,
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SPEAKER_00: but it's not Particularly inventive or life-changing.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to walk away from that experience having learned too much about yourself.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: And I think that when we present the audience with a prescription
5:13
SPEAKER_00: for how they should view the issue or the material or the characters...
5:19
SPEAKER_00: And we do not trust them to have room to think or feel for themselves.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: Then we are putting the audience in a passive position.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: And we're not challenging them to engage.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: We are essentially handing them the story.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not sure that's what an audience wants.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: Now, at best,
5:46
SPEAKER_00: your audience could agree with you and feel good about agreeing with you
5:51
SPEAKER_00: and walk away feeling validated.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: That's the best case scenario when you are providing material of this nature.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: But do they carry any kernel of this issue or this play with them an hour
6:08
SPEAKER_00: after they've left the theater?
6:10
SPEAKER_00: It's a good question.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: Is that your audience will feel so alienated and disregarded that they'll leave
6:20
SPEAKER_00: the theater with a thorn in their side and a pebble in their shoe.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: And not in a way that makes them really consider the issue from your perspective,
6:31
SPEAKER_00: but will almost undoubtedly place them in opposition to your perspective.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: And they'll dismiss it out of hand because they've been dismissed themselves.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: It's not a fun place to be as an audience member.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: In every generation,
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SPEAKER_00: there is a certain subset of artists who are really excited about shaking people up
6:57
SPEAKER_00: and waking them up and making them see and often want to do it by putting up
7:04
SPEAKER_00: a mirror to them and making them see how awful they are.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: And shoving it down their throats.
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SPEAKER_00: And I would just ask the question, how would that make you feel?
7:15
SPEAKER_00: Has yelling at someone ever changed their mind?
7:19
SPEAKER_00: Has anybody ever taken a huge haranguing and then turned around and said, you know what?
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SPEAKER_00: I'm going to change my position.
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SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do a complete 180 just because you yelled at me that way.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm not so sure that's an effective communication technique.
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SPEAKER_00: I mean, if your intent is simply to purge yourself of these emotions,
7:42
SPEAKER_00: well, then mission accomplished.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: Did you change anyone's way of thinking or provide them with insight
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SPEAKER_00: that they could take with them outside the theater?
7:54
SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: It's important to take care of your audience.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: The basis of an artist and audience relationship is trust.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: Even if you're providing your audience with an Unreliable Narrator,
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SPEAKER_00: that at least you've promised them a good puzzle,
8:13
SPEAKER_00: a good time, as they try and figure out what this Unreliable Narrator really means.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: They may not trust the narrator, but they need to trust you.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: They need to trust that you will give them what they need to meet the story halfway.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't mean presenting them the full idea on a platter.
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SPEAKER_00: Essentially,
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SPEAKER_00: you've brought them to the end of the play in the first five minutes
8:40
SPEAKER_00: and now they've got to sit through the next two damn hours.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I get it.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: You've already said it.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: You're just going to lay it out for me now.
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SPEAKER_00: There's nothing for them to do.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: This is what happens when we as artists approach the seed of our ideas with answers
8:59
SPEAKER_00: and not questions.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: If we want our audiences to challenge their own beliefs, we have to challenge ours.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: And we have to be vigorous about it.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to Black Panther.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: That's a great example of where the protagonist and antagonist both are coming
9:20
SPEAKER_00: from valid arguments.
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SPEAKER_00: That's what makes Black Panther so interesting and And we really want T'Challa
9:29
SPEAKER_00: to be right,
9:30
SPEAKER_00: but we have some real difficulties if we're allowing our empathy to reach through
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SPEAKER_00: the story and we end up struggling with that conflict.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: And that is good storytelling.
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SPEAKER_00: That is a question, not an answer.
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SPEAKER_00: It draws us into the story and asks us to really figure out what we believe
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SPEAKER_00: and trusts us to come up with some kind of answer.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: And that answer may not satisfy you as the playwright or you as the audience member,
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SPEAKER_00: but it's that journey that you take with you.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: It is that thought that lingers and causes you to think about it years later.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: Even simple family dramas can start with a question.
10:27
SPEAKER_00: How can one forgive a close family member who has betrayed them?
10:32
SPEAKER_00: Should we forgive?
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SPEAKER_00: What happens when we don't?
10:37
SPEAKER_00: What happens when we do?
10:39
SPEAKER_00: Are we excusing bad behavior?
10:41
SPEAKER_00: Once you ask one question,
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SPEAKER_00: it becomes a snowball of all kinds of other questions and
10:49
SPEAKER_00: when you start asking those questions, You awaken a conversation with your audience.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: And the more you ask and don't have answers yourself, the braver they're going to be.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: They're going to bring themselves into the narrative.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: They're going to work extra hard to understand the characters and figure out
11:15
SPEAKER_00: who they believe in.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: They even challenge themselves to love somebody who's difficult to love
11:21
SPEAKER_00: or hate somebody they don't want to hate.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: I mean, those are really complicated things that make us really question ourselves
11:31
SPEAKER_00: and how we move about in the world.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: That is the power of story right there.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: And I believe a skilled storyteller will ask more questions than they answer.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can walk away from...
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SPEAKER_00: An artistic experience feeling that you've decided something for yourself
11:53
SPEAKER_00: but you've been modeled the process of self-examination and that
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SPEAKER_00: that is what we have been coming to the theater to do for thousands of years.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: That's how we have evolved to engage with story,
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SPEAKER_00: and if we ignore that impulse in the human spirit,
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SPEAKER_00: then I think we end up alienating our audiences.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: Way to start the third season.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Once again, yes,
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SPEAKER_00: this is my crazy voice right now, and hopefully we'll be in better shape next week.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: But put a stop to this right now before my voice goes away completely.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm happy to be back and I have loads more questions for you throughout this next season.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait for us to have this discussion.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: If you think I'm wrong,
12:55
SPEAKER_00: you think I'm right,
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SPEAKER_00: you have some pushback, you have questions for me, feel free to comment and share.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: Let's kick up some dust, my friends.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: It's time.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: That's it for me this week on the Imperfect Impulse.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: Please check our show notes.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: We've got some things coming up that I'd like to let you know about.
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SPEAKER_00: We will talk to you next week on the Imperfect Impulse.