The GreenRoom Fellowship
For a long time now, I’ve known theatre would be the thing I spent my life doing. This summer, I had an opportunity to study, grow, and create with an incredible group of theatre artists. Weeks later, there is still so much learning and growth that I’m processing and integrating, and I’m excited to share more with you all as I go. For now, let me share what I said at the program’s Closing Session.
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Hey y'all. My name is Keira Kowal Jett, and I use they/them pronouns. If you’re unfamiliar with pronouns, I recommend you look it up online.
When I initially thought about speaking with you all tonight, I was apprehensive. For most of my life, my art has served the people around me. Folks in positions of power have placed high premiums on my art as status, as service, as proof of worth. As a young person, my safety hinged on being the calmest, most sensible person in the room, and that extended to my art; technical prowess was safe and rewarded. Expression, not so much. (I played a lot of scales as a kid.) I have a visceral memory of being in third grade, in the cafeteria, watching the other kids do a play. They were singing songs of joy, of longing, of excitement. I wanted to join them so badly it physically hurt. But it was clear in my head: this is not for me. I cannot do that.
In recent years, my art has been coerced in to being only about social justice - about diversifying the canon, or breaking stereotypes, or educating people who still haven’t learned to treat us with dignity and respect, again with the emphasis on being calm and sensible. And to be clear: there is a new world coming, and art must be part of that work. AND, as I grow and gain perspective, I’m learning that my art needs to serve me as well. I am part of my community! My art has been reduced to being sensible, practical, functional. But when you think about musical theatre, those things don’t go together! The stories we love the most do not fit into that box. They are raw, emotional, and deeply, fully human. I have spent too many years masking my experience of humanity.
Over the last six weeks, going through this process with these people has allowed me to begin taking off that mask. Their vulnerability signals to me that I am safe to be vulnerable as well. And when I step into my authentic emotional experience, I signal safety back, creating a feedback loop where beautiful things can happen. I’ve gotten to play and cry and rage and rejoice more in the last six weeks than I have in the last few years, both in the theater and outside it. I can never go back to the way I was approaching art - cold, technical, afraid. Because allowing myself the full breadth of emotions grants permission to the people around me to be human too. That's what art should do in the first place, and what I want to do in any creative endeavor I take - remind us of our shared humanity and leave us feeling less alone. Thank you.
Here is a link to the live performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9t0rTkG6DE&list=PLvoY95Tl4Vi_5Yx393dVsjjikem_8n8If&index=1