Portrait Of Juan De Pareja Meaning

[Vikki Nagindas]

Eventhough most HowlRound readers will likely have some relationship with Disgraced, as the 2013 Pulitzer Prize winner and the most produced play in America this season, I will provide some context and a brief summary for those who are not as familiar:

Regardless, the national context in which the play has been written has definitely left me and some of the audience members questioning whether it is possible for him to speak to universal truths while referencing race and religion.

So, in this context, where 90 percent of the time we hear about Islam or Muslims is when we hear reports of terrorism or hate-crimes, and where seven out of the ten most produced plays in American are largely white, Disgraced has a potentially impactful contribution to the discussion about Islam in America, with a pivotal role as one of the only plays portraying a Pakistani man as the main character.

Deeply disturbing play. I agree we need more plays with Muslims as main characters. No one accuses "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?" of being racist because of its horrible portrayal of a white couple. But this play, standing alone, is hard to take as a portrayal of Muslims. After all, both of the Muslim characters felt a tribal thrill at 9/11. On 9/11/01 in Denver, I joined hundreds of Iranian-Americans in a silent vigil for peace at the State Capitol. All of them were horrified that this had happened. The play also left me with a lot of despair. The main character tries to free himself from the negative aspects of his religion, then beats his wife. It's an origin-is-destiny theme. That's a fine premise for a play, but what was really depressing was the talkback, where a Muslim-basher said Amir was the only one who accurately portrayed the Muslim faith as a crazed, violent, wife-beating, jihadist cult. People like that can way too easily use this play to solidify their bigotry, and yes, that is very depressing. Having said all that, it's a great play. Deeply troubling. Thank you Arlene for giving voice to some of my concerns.

I am glad to hear you are being so vigilant about what you present in your stages and that you are seeking advice from the community. Definitely keeping a balance between 'policing' or 'ensuring all representations of a certain group of people are positive' and being aware of the impact of what we put in our stages within the context of nation-wide racial relations can get tricky.

I'd love to see a proper study done on reactions of the audience, categorizing them by racial/religious identity - maybe as an email-based follow-up to subscribers? And initial reactions vs. a few days later - my opinion on it has varied quite a bit already and I just saw it this evening in at the San Jose Stage. There was a talk-back with a local Imam present, which was awesome.

This is a great idea. Data and feedback gathering for theatre can be so instrumental to the decisions we make yet, funding and capacity limitations often get in the way of such projects being achieved.

Saw the current production at the San Diego Repertory Theatre on Friday, October 21, 2016. The acting was excellent. As I was leaving the theatre, I was astonished to hear so many Islamophobic comments. It was as if the takeaway for many people was the following:

1) Islam can only be practiced as an intolerant, fundamentalist religion and can not be moderate or compatible with secular values as is possible with Christianity and Judaism.

2) A man raised with Islamic roots will eventually show his true self and be a violent, misogynistic oppressor.

I felt real dismay. San Diego is a refugee hub. People from Syria and Iraq are arriving every day. I'm sure the San Diego Repertory Theatre has no intention to fan the flames of prejudice. But it felt like that was happening. Also, the violence in the play was staged with great brutality--not only multiple blows with the fist but kicks with the feet--the kind of violence that could kill.

I have heard multiple recounts of similar reactions from different audiences in different theatres, which partly prompted my article. Yes, talk balks can be an effective way for theatres to amplify the conversation around the work, I am sad San Diego Repertory Theatre didn't host one after every show, but then again, I can understand if they ran against capacity issues.

Dear Arlene, in your fabulous essay you ask who is this play for? It is for me. Your essay and the heated debate on Disgraced compelled me to write a response which is published in Arab Stages, an online journal. I hope you will have a chance to read it. I look forward to your thoughts.

Wow Torange, this is such a thoughtful article. Thank you so much for sharing and apologies for this huge delay in my response. Apparently Disqus stopped notifying my email when comments came through so I am just now seeing this. But I digress.

If an Asian-American or African-American member of the theater community were to write an essay arguing that a play by, say, Quiara Alegra Hudes* or Roberto Aguirre-Sacsa* was racist in its depiction of Latinos and/or Latino culture, what would your reaction be?

This is a good question. I guess it would depend on what the full argument is and it would depend on which of Quiara's or Roberto's plays they were talking about. I am not as familiar with Roberto's work, but Quiara has very different Latino characters across her plays, so it would depend on which one they were referring to and why it would be deemed a racist representation.

But you wouldn't question the moral right of an Asian- or African-American to argue that the way a Latinx theater artist is portraying Latinx characters is racist? Or argue that said Asian- or African-American doesn't know enough about the topic to be making critical comments about a subject that touchy?

The longer answer is:

1. I have encountered recently several situations where assumptions are made about PoC's social justice awareness simply because they are PoC. As Latina woman living in the US for the last 8 years, I actually didn't really acquire an awareness or vocabulary about social justice, racism and implicit bias until basically 4 years ago. I have been called out in my own biases many times by white people and I have welcomed them.

2. I do not think Disgraced is a racist play. That was my initial reaction to it. I do think it is a play that can reinforce very harming stereotypes about the Muslim community and that producing houses should be aware of the potential impact of the play and hold those conversations wisely and respectfully.

3. There are members of the Muslim community that both agree and disagree with my assessment of the play. Here are two articles as an example from people who are way closer to the Muslim community than I am with differing points of view. That's what makes theatre so important, the opportunities it provides to understand our differing opinions, points of view and how our own experiences inform them.

I think it's a racist, misogynistic play. One friend (a man) had to remind me (shame on me) that the most punished person on the stage is the white woman beaten bloody in front of us by the Muslim man. Sure, it's well written in the sense that I wasn't bored by it. Most blame goes to the producers for choosing a button-pushing, violent sensibility over another, more humanely expressed one that surely exists in our great theatre landscape.

Obviously violence is never acceptable, but it does occur to me that the two options - Amir losing his temper and hitting Emily once before stopping himself versus Amir hitting Emily repeatedly and eventually drawing blood - paint differing portraits of the character of Amir and have different effects on the audience.

The script reads: "All at once, Amir hits Emily in the face. A vicious blow. The first blow unleashes a torrent of rage, overtaking him. He hits her twice more. Maybe a third. In rapid succession. Uncontrolled violence as brutal as needs to be in order to convey the discharge of a lifetime of discreetly building resentment."

In the production I saw, he also kicked her once she fell to the ground... When she pulls herself up, we see that she is bleeding. The script reads: "Emily emerges into full view, on the ground, her face bloodied."

What I loved about the play is that it spoke unspeakable things within a cultural space pretending to care about people while we are silent about the savagery of our foreign policy and vapid domestic agendas. So much of what is getting produced does little to advance our understanding of what we are as a civilization. And that speaks a bit louder than the plays actually being produced. Since primarily white people are controlling most of the money and cultural space on behalf of a monied class who obviously will not brook too much truth speaking, this play stands out for just a moment. However, it occurs within the paradigm of a popular culture that requires strong ethnic men to be emasculated, humiliated, killed, or simply deprived of being figures of power or moral authority in stories for mass consumption. It would be useful to see work that speaks to the inequity and/or inspiration of the manner in which racism continues to be maintained by "our" self appointed enlightened culture brokers.

Thanks for writing this, Arlene! I've been interested in seeing "Disgraced" for a few years but there haven't been any productions remotely near me (and I would prefer to see it before reading it...if possible).

Your intervention here raises many important questions that we need to be asking in regards to representation, diversity, and inclusion. As you show, the conversation is nuanced, difficult at times, and there aren't many cut & dry answers.

I would love to hear more from people who have seen a production of the play!

So appreciate the thoughtfulness of this essay! I think the value of theatre is the diversity of reactions/perspectives that may result. But because of the power of theatre, these are good questions in terms of the ethics of what the consequences of impact may be. These were my thoughts after seeing the show: ""Disgraced" by Ayad Akhtar, directed by Kimberly Senior, at the Seattle Rep. When an audience audibly gasps at multiple moments throughout a play, you know it's hit a chord. Thought-provoking, terrifying and terrific, this play pulls no punches. Its power comes from its disturbing portrayal of the internal turmoil, internalized oppression and even self-hatred that is the result of being a person of color in this country. While this doesn't represent every POC's story..., the questions of self-doubt due to race are palpable. Is it possible to really ever know someone? Or will there always be a gap between what is assumed about you due to your race, and what you really are? As long as the construct of race exists, we'll never be able to see people for who they really are, or ever have the freedom to be our true selves. Warning: this play can be traumatizing to watch, but that's because it's a disturbing depiction of post traumatic stress syndrome resulting from America's racial civil war. Though "post" is a misnomer since POCs are dealing with the ramifications of race on a daily basis. In particular, this play portrays the crumbling of the internal psyche of a model minority trying to live up to the myth that structural racism has put upon us with devastating effects. Seeing this play is only half the experience. Talking about it after you've seen it, is the vitally important part. A question POCs ask me during racial equity trainings is why would white people work to dismantle racism when they benefit from it? This play depicts why. There is no benefit in the long run. Racism ultimately destroys us all. So shouldn't we work together to destroy racism?"

3a8082e126