The following piece is stitched together from AriDy’s own words about their work, their project as an artist, and their process. We started with one question, which was, “What does a ‘creative methodology’ mean and/or look like in your work? Of course, this lead to other related questions like: How does research shape your work? How do you know when to begin? The answers to all these (and more) are found in the following essay.
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
I feel like I have enough research when I feel immersed in it and then can start to operate. So, with this project, with Why Ya’ll Hate Earth So Bad?, I’ve come at it from there. I’ve done a lot of interviews with people at High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) who then gave me article recommendations. I was reading a lot of what they were giving me. Now, I’ve moved into interviewing more artists connected to Princeton and a couple more researchers. I went to a really amazing lecture on systems making–and the unmaking of systems–that was headed by a famous participatory design expert who kind of innovated the idea of participatory design.
We were talking about it a little, and I thought, “Is the play a participatory design process?” Afterwards, I was asking him questions about what that means. And a lot of what he said was really reverberating with me. From that conversation alone, just from going to this lecture and then listening and talking to this person, I realized… actually the play is a participatory design process. How does that shift the format in significant ways? (Which it absolutely has.) I have an interview set up with him next week to talk more about participatory design and the ways they incorporate that into creative world making. And then tomorrow I’m talking to someone about community playmaking. Michael Garcés, who has done a lot of work with Larissa Fasthorse… They have done some really, really amazing work around community play making in indigenous communities. I’m going to be talking to him about how you do authentic and “in integrity” play making with local communities. And how you do it in a way that’s not extractive and is affirming, which is really important to me. The HMEI interviews really confirmed for me that the environmental science people… Some of them think that science will save us. And the other ones are becoming very disillusioned about whether or not science can save us at all. And they all have questions about what role capitalism will play.
Theater really does ask you to be present in the moment with the people who are creating this world, and thus become a kind of collaborator.
The HMEI interviews really confirmed for me that the environmental science people do not agree on anything. It was funny listening to the students versus the professors and the professors versus the PhD doctoral people who are becoming professors but aren’t professors yet. Some of them think that science will save us. And the other ones are becoming very disillusioned about whether or not science can save us at all. And they all don’t know about capitalism. I was just like, “This is great and also fascinating!”
The more I talked to them, the more I figured out, “Yeah, this project is not about the science.” Even though I’m really excited about the science, the project is more about the humans existing within our current context. What everyone seems to agree on is… the way community and society functions right now cannot be the way we exist in the future. Some of the people I interviewed think capitalism can continue to exist but would have to exist very differently. And other people are like, “We’re going to see a complete societal collapse.” Recurrently, people would say very different things about the possibility of science helping us. But what everyone seems to agree on is that the way community and society functions right now cannot be the way we exist into the future.
In terms of human society, we have experienced many apocalypses. There have been many end of worlds.
But what everybody agreed is what we’re doing now isn’t going to be what we’re doing in the future. And that’s really what the play is about: what we’re doing now isn’t the reality our descendants are living in. What does it look like for them to be living in the world that they’re living in? And how are our actions creating that world? And also, how could our actions change what that world looks like if we actively choose different actions? The interviews I’ve done so far really brought me to that deep revelation of: yeah, there is no consensus or even authority about what we should do next. There’s just a general understanding that something must be done and that it must be drastic and society wide. With that in mind, how can the play not be about what we have to do? How can it not be advice or expertise? How can it instead be about how do we do what needs to be done? And be less finite and more open and more of an invitation into “Things are absolutely going to change. What do ya’ll think we should do about it?” Rather than, “Things absolutely have to be changed and so you need to be recycling!!!”
Also… I’ve been experiencing a huge uptick in environmental plays and requests for environmental plays as people become very anxious about the climate. And, I think one of the failings I’m finding in the genre is when people are like, “And the solution is to reduce CO2 by doing this.” We find out, one, you’re wrong. And then, two, the advice falls flat because people are like, “Okay, but I’m not a Fortune 500 company.” Or they’re like, “What about the Fortune 500 companies?!?!”
I was thinking, “How do I avoid that?” I don’t want it to be dictatorial. I don’t want it to be like, “You’re failing at doing this thing.” I want it to be: the world’s going to change no matter what. How can we shape it? I’m very Octavia—talking about lineage. There’s very much an Octavia Butler approach in the ways that I think about playmaking, for sure. Because I think it’s an embodied craft. Asking people to be active in the shaping of change.
There’s something really gorgeous about making healing accessible.
I’ve been doing activist work officially since I was 15.I’ve been doing activist work officially since I was 15. I’ve been doing community-oriented work before that. Lobbying work and organizing work… That’s so much part of my life. And then I’ve been writing since I was eight. So, those have been two really huge parts of my life, my entire life. I used to work at a climate organization, and that really informed me being deeply invested in climate. But I think writing wise, I’ve always been really interested in the surreal, in the creation of worlds that provoke us in the end to think about community. Increasingly, especially in the last year and a half, I’ve been really interested in what it means for theater to be an embodied practice where, even when audience members are just watching something, we are asking them to come and watch something. Even when it’s digital, you’re asking people to be present in a moment, even if it’s a recorded moment, in a way that I don’t think television does. Television isn’t like, “I need you to be present for Outlander.” You don’t have to be in the moment with that.
But theater really does ask you to be present in the moment with the people who are creating this world, and thus become a kind of collaborator. I’m interested in that aspect of theater. What does it mean to ask this performance to be a thing we’re truly doing together? And so, a lot of what I’ve been working through is: how to do that? Well, [how] to create a strong enough container that everyone feels comfortable and useful in creating—co-creating—together and how to make it actionable. Not just like we’re doing this together right now for this brief moment of time, but for it to actually feed into strategy and capacity building for environmental justice or aid in the communities that the show is happening and what that does to the show. I’m really excited about the idea Why Do Ya’ll Hate Earth So Bad? will be completely different depending on where it is because the descendants’ world will be completely different depending on where you are. The climate crisis that New York is going to face is the same, but also different than the climate crisis that California is going to face. Those descendants are going to have different complaints.
Really it’s about dreaming.
And so…. How can the play really be more of a container than just a formalized narrative? So much of the methodology has been about listening and asking how can I also fold that into the creation of the play. I am really influenced by people like Toni Cade Bambara, who I think was always working at that intersection and Audre Lorde. And, present day, [I] love Erika Dickerson Dispenza and Jillian Walker and a.k. payne. The thread I’m finding between my colleagues who I really respect and feel like I’m in lineage with is this idea of theater being about connection and relationship and not just the exploration of a narrative from the protagonist or the attacking of a plot. What does it mean to be in relationship with each other and with the audience, with the world? And digging into that deeper and deeper and deeper, from all levels, from all genres. Those are the works I’m most interested in. I feel like this play, or this “not-play” as I’ve been calling it, is really about the mechanics of relationship. And the biggest influence is definitely What to Send Up When it Goes Down by Aleshea Harris.
I briefly worked on that play, and I’ve watched it so many times. I think Aleshea Harris is one of the most brilliant writers in our canon. And I forget what night it was, maybe closing, but I remember [thinking], “People train for years to do the kind of healing work everyone in this room is doing right now.” And there’s something really gorgeous about making healing accessible. You can pay $30 to go see what you think is a play and actually be in a healing space around the constant cycle of grief that we’re being subjected to. And it can be super accessible. That’s what I am really interested in. How I can create a piece, that obviously won’t be identical to What to Send Up, but is working in that lineage for sure. That is about imagination. That is about healing to some extent, but really it’s about dreaming.
When I was working in climate space, I was really frustrated with the amount of pessimism and urgency in a way that didn’t always feel good to me. A lot of “If we don’t do this now, everyone’s going to die!” And, one of the things I loved about the interview I did with Dr. Kevon Rhiney is the idea of this moment in time not being the only apocalypse. In terms of human society, we have experienced many apocalypses. There have been many end of worlds. The one that always comes to mind for me is slavery. The Holocaust is an end of world. The genocide that’s currently happening in Palestine is an end of world. There are multiple peoples who have experienced the end of their world. And, it’s been devastating. And it’s been to the creation of the world that we’re currently living in. So, the end of this world, which is built on so much death, could actually be a doorway to the creation of something better, actually, for all of us.
The climate crisis is horrible. And, at this point it is going to kill a lot of people. And that is a really horrible thing. And it is the natural conclusion, the natural result of a world that only invests in extraction and dehumanization. So, when we actually talk about fighting against the climate crisis, what we are talking about is an unmaking of this world. And how that can be intentional rather than unintentional. Because when it’s unintentional, we just see what’s happening now, which is everybody freaking the fuck out and nothing changing.
If people who care could move into a genuine, intentional unmaking of this world, what would that look like? That’s what I’m really hoping the piece can be. It’s rooted in everything I’ve been hearing from people. And will continue to be rooted in that as I continue to do these interviews. But I think it’s in some ways too, it’s becoming its own methodology of, “How can this community create a work that allows us to imagine not just a fictional world, but our actual world, a world for us and our descendants?”
Extended Play is a project of The Civilians. To learn more about The Civilians and to access exclusive discounts to shows, visit us and join our email list at TheCivilians.org.
