Drama Boreale - Åbo Akademi

scenarios of temptations that are common at this age level; true stories of adolescences’
addiction and invitations to problem-solve in dealing with people.
Having looked at the Stage Pages, I am back to the lived experience of the performance,
the here and now. I take field-notes, keenly aware of Burrows’ words on the
“phenomenally evanescent, relentlessly moving, ever changing” reality of theater, so
different from the stable Stage-pages which I hold in my hands.
10 9:50. I glance over the attendance list, seeing a mixture of high schools and middle
schools listed, with nearly 600 attendees. The set consists of a single microphone
stand and microphone in the middle of the stage. A single bottle of water sits on the
floor, a few feet in-front of the microphone. A screen makes up the backdrop, the
bottom half is covered in gory, drawn faces – the withdrawn, dead eyes of the zombies
from horror flicks. A reddish-orange light illuminates the pictures, brightest on the
bottom right corner and fading as it moves across. There is a large white face in the
center, eyes and drawn cheek bones denoted by black lines. Otherwise the face is pale.
It appears back lit with soft white lights. Across the top of the screen, on large, red,
block graffiti letters, is the word “Hooked,” A set of speakers on tall stands sits on
either side of the stage. Hip-hop music emanates from these speakers, not as loud as it
would be in a club. Rather, the volume is medium – can be clearly heard, but not so
loud as to drown out the buzz of conversation in the room.
The audience seem to be between 7 th grade and 12 th grades, 12 – 18 years old. The
dress is casual: jeans, t-shirts, sweatshirts. About 1/3 of the audience in this audience
includes Blacks, Hispanic/Latino(a), and some Asian. It is now a little after 10am, and
kids are still settling in.
10:05. The lights dim. Immediately, enthusiastic cheers, applause, and shouting
emerge from the audience.
The lights go down completely. The eerie white face on the screen glows with that
eerie sickly-green color of glow-in-the-dark materials. Again, the audience cheers
rowdily. An actor takes the mic, and begins with a percussion scat. The audience
calms and quiets down. The actor begins by talking about zombie movies, how
zombies have changed over the years. In the old movies zombies stumbled and
wobbled, not really walked after their prey. An old video of the stumbling zombie is
projected on the white face of the back screen, illustrating the spoken words. But
today, zombies don’t stumble, they run… run after their prey with an endless craving
for flesh. This too is illustrated with video. “Craving flesh as much as air.” Then, he
begins a hip-hop riff. The kids clap with the rhythm, and call out: “hey! Hoooo! Hey!
Hoooo!” He sings: “The flesh is crystal meth 11 .” The audience response, Julia notes,
feels more like we are at a hip-hop concert than a theater performance.
The actor, playing the role of Stan, easily evokes laughter and responses from the
audience. He speaks of pain… “low expectations are easy to fill.” Stan speaks of his
father’s heart attack happening in a sleazy hotel with his mistress. Stan speaks of how
he had to spend every other weekend with his father and his father’s girlfriend
because “some judge said it was so.” “Pops was always on me about everything.” The
text conveys the pain of being misunderstood, of feeling lost; the struggle of growing
up in a broken home, parents’ divorce, searching for one’s own identity in the turmoil.
10 This performance was attended by both Julia Panke Makela and myself. This abbreviated
vignette is taken primarily from Julia’s field-notes.
11 Methamphetamine is an addictive stimulant drug that strongly activates certain systems in the
brain. Street methamphetamine is referred to by many names, such as "speed," "meth," and
"chalk." Methamphetamine hydrochloride, clear chunky crystals resembling ice, which can be
inhaled by smoking, is referred to as "ice," "crystal," and "glass."
(retrieved from http://www.theantidrug.com/DRUG_INFO/drug_info_meth.asp)
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