Clybourne Park - A Human Experience

If you can afford the time and expense to see a play, see Clybourne Park. This performance shows the art of theater at its best and is superior to a movie, because we experience the content on stage more real and closer to our heart. I could have read three books on how people deal with things that are uncomfortable and I still would not have gotten what I experienced with this entertaining, generational story. Namely, seeing the irony in an entertaining way how judgments, categorizations and assumptions are deeply dehumanizing. That the teeter totter of valuing our feelings versus others feelings when it comes to human ambiguity triggers like race, white privilege, sex and gender bias leaves us powerless. We can only resort deflecting with political correctness or being offended when these topics come up instead of finding the real cause of our discontent, to learn and make this world better place. I realized that one part of this ambiguity is only because we have not clearly defined where the boundary is between recognizing our differences and creating harm. This is a deeply human experience that a theatrical production can deliver. Thank you to the fearless script by Bruce Norris and Direction by Matt August of this phenomenal cast for making me think, self reflect and enrich my life. On stage thru June 24th.

Multimedia artist, author and educator Michaell Magrutsche has written three art books and SelfAwareArt.com.