Why Theatre?

Theatre is a place we come to build values—not just individual values, but community values. Theatre is not isolationist, but meant for neighbourhoods. Live theatre requires an audience, a community of live, thinking people of disparate views. It is a place to imaginatively address our differences and disagreements, in a safe structure apart from dire consequences. Theatre invites us, not merely to watch, but to witness. It is a place to challenge our assumptions, to deconstruct and reconstruct values, so theatre is about questions beautifully asked, not answers. It is the job of the audience after the play to work toward answers. This is why it's essential to discuss plays, in order to sort and build community values. 

This year, 10x10 will provide opportunities for groups of us to see plays and engage in talk-back sessions afterward, to help build our community of 10x10 and also the larger community of Thunder Bay. Our first talk-back will follow an NTLive satellite broadcast of Treasure Island (on either January 22 or the encore on February 21). 

All the arts help us to build and refine community in different ways; the art of theatre is core to how we treat each other, how we choose to make peace or war.  

Let us think now on the nature of silence

On the act of regarding another

That is not the other

But rather another

fellow being on this earth.

[from On the Act of Regarding Another: Some thoughts on live performance, silence and fragility by Caridad Svich, 2014]  

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