Victory is OURS, or, East Grand Forks Takes First

In my attempt to equate arrogance to fear, I forgot to boost my own self worth by mentioning the recent victory of the East Grand Forks High School Competitive Show, "Us and Them" by David Compton, and directed by yours truly.

Last Saturday was the first round of contest, and we took home first place honors, by unanimous decision of the judges, in fact.

The play is an absurdest-epic theatrical look at nationalism and the concept of "if you're not with us, you're against us." I swear I didn't chose the play based on my politics, and was very careful not to direct it with any bias one way or another. To be sure, I failed. :-).

The play begins with a narrator, who, on a bare stage, is expecting someone. Two groups of travelers both enter, and lay claim to the same land. Eventually, they chose to share the land, not by joining together, but by dividing the land with a line. After all, good lines make good neighbors, and good neighbors make good lines.

Eventually, they determine the line is not suitable, and begin to build a wall, which grows higher and higher. Especially since it has to be strong enough to keep livestock from breaking through, and high enough to keep chickens from flying over. This continues until each side is obstructed from the other. After all, good walls make good neighbors, and good neighbors make good walls.

Well, as it happens, thoughts run wilder than any livestock, and suspicions fly higher than any walls, and the two groups begin to display distrust for each other. Eventually, they both decide to climb the wall, and see what the other is up to. As this happens in sync, they both discover the other, spying, and after a rousing game of accusation, they rip down the wall, and war ensues. After the battle field is cleared, both abandon the land, blaming the problems on the wall.

The recorder lets us know that this is not new. It happens the same way every time - whether the wall is religion, politics, territory, history, et al. She wonders aloud, "will we ever learn?".

Ha.

The play is shocking not only in its content, but in the fact that it is staffed, quite successfully, with high school students, who get it. I couldn't be prouder of them. First place is an honor, and they are reveling in their arrogance this week.

In any case, a lesson worth learning, and the play is only 20 minutes long. We'll be performing publicly on the 6th of February at 7:00pm with a two other plays in an evening of one acts.

That's all. Horn tooted.

Peace::Ben::Team CulturePulse