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Sammy, Blog post 4

I found Fires in the Mirror to be one of the most engaging pieces of theater that we have watched so far. I was so immersed in Anna Deveare Smiths characterizations and variations of the different characters that I found myself almost distracted by my admiration of her as an actor. I felt like it was a callback to some critiques that we spoke about earlier in the semester- if theater is too satisfying to watch and if we are in traditional roles as spectators, an audience may not be unsettled enough to work for change in the issue area that the performance raises awareness of. However- to be fair- we only saw a few short clips of the piece, and so I didn't have the experience of seeing the full arc of the show.

The idea of more polished performance as an avenue social change made me think of the Laramie Project as an example. (The Laramie Project information linked here https://www.matthewshepard.org/the-laramie-project/) I was in Laramie in high school, and I had never really thought of it as a performance for social change-- we talked a lot as a cast about the current relevance of homophobia, prejudice, and hate crimes, but the idea that even a more traditional show can be activating change by bringing new perspectives to the audience was a new frame for me.

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