12 December, 2024

The Talkback: Part 2

This piece is a more detailed account of a specific negative talk-back that occurred, and is continuation from more universal theatre talk back experiences. For those thoughts, Part 1: is HERE.


Helpful background
 
Now, as for what happened tonight after The Merchant of Venice. The producers advertised this particular evening as "Pride Night—" and welcomed the audience to stay to discuss the themes of "Othering" in society, the play itself and in our production. 
 
For those who may not be familiar with the piece, a quick background: 
The Merchant of Venice is a play written around 1594 by William Shakespeare and listed as a "comedy." The play centers around three main protagonists who are all "Others" in the hetero-normative, Christian, male society of Venice: Antonio is a queer man, Portia is a woman, and Shylock is a Jew. The play has long been considered extremely controversial for the portrayal and ultimate fate of it's "comic villain" Shylock-- who goes after the Christian Antonio (whom he despises for his blatant bigotry of Jews) in court when he fails to meet their iron-clad money-lending agreement promising that should Antonio fail to meet the terms, Shylock may exact "a pound of flesh" from Antonio, ostensibly killing him (for he has Antonio's heart in mind). 
Yet, despite Shylock's legal "correctness," Portia—dressed as a man and serving as the loophole-finding lawyer for the case—Antonio is spared, and ultimately stripped of his property and life, only to be saved in the end if he agrees to give up all his worldly goods and, of course, be converted to Christianity. 
 
My take: Honestly? It is a play about some rather horrible people doing some truly horrible things. And along the way there are some great laughs, fun subplots, and some of Shakespeare's most iconic and beautiful poetry and prose.  
 
In short: it's complicated.

Our Production

Now MoV has much more than Jewish themes— it also has the othering of women and LGBTQ+ people. Not to mention the total lambasting of countless nationalities and cultures in the smaller parts of the original text. 

Our production—for better or for worse, not my call—eliminated the queer themes utterly, which I felt was a missed opportunity. It also largely diminished my role as Portia and did little to illuminate her lack of agency, her blinding intelligence, her loneliness and really any redeemable part of her humanity. (I hear you asking and yes, sure: it wasn't my favorite take on this play, and not my favorite acting experience, but I'm not in charge. That's the deal we sign as actors! Sometimes an actor has to trust, commit fully to a director's vision as an instrument of and extension of their artistic expression and suppress one's own preconceived notions and ideas. That's the gig. And globally: I applaud anyone for taking a bold "swing" and really trying something). 
 
With these two arms of the triumvirate diminished, our production did, however, focus almost exclusively on Shylock: on ancient and contemporary Antisemitic tropes, on the way we treated Jews then, and continue to today.


Tonight

After the show, we sit down, a moderator is present and highly qualified to speak on the subject of the evening, but does not have journalistic credits. They do not set any ground rules, they do not create a "container" for how this is going to go. I am immediately concerned because the subject matter is so intense, and it is obvious that audience members are experiencing high emotions.
 
An older man took up an enormous amount of airtime speaking for over 5 minutes about his background as a Eastern European Jewish immigrant, then proceeded to express his "disappointment and outrage" at our production. He used inflammatory language. He was clearly angry and directing a great deal of his anger in my direction.
 
I interrupted him (as politely as possible) in minute 5, noting that no one else—not the moderator nor the producer—was putting an end to a speech that was clearly going off course. I stated calmly that I "didn't hear a question." He replied, impassioned: 
 
"How can you do this?"  

It went downhill quickly from there. 
 
I won't get in to the minutia of his words, I will ask you to trust that this was not a conversation, and his comments and his tone were inappropriate.  His feelings are of course, valid, but there is an appropriate  audience, time, place and manner in which to express them.  And my feelings were valid: it was perfectly reasonable to become defensive when asked—as an actor—to personally "defend" a production I did not direct or produce.
 
It needed to be shut down long before it was dealt with. And there was no need for it to ever arrive at such a confrontational place to begin with, had infrastructure been in place.
 
I will own my part: I became defensive, in my fear and anger I "puffed:" I rattled off facts, figures and basically barfed the encyclopedia at on onto these men— to prove something. My intelligence, my worthiness of respect; to show that they had underestimated and belittled me? I don't know exactly. I'm still figuring it out in the aftermath. I was also defending myself because I felt unsafe! No one was stepping in and meaningfully coming to our aid! I was terrified that there was no infrastructure in place from our moderator or producers to help the exposed actors navigate this moment. As the conflict escalated, both ushers and audience members left. 

But where the conversation turned ugly for me was when this man, and another older man sitting beside him (also outraged) vociferously attempted to "teach" me—not the men—about Jewish history. They spoke directly to me, looked me in the eyes and used demeaning language to do so. I believe used tone and language that insinuated that I was too young, too goyishe, and too female to possibly understand the nuances of 5000 years of Jew-hatred.

So, allow me to be clear, gentlemen:

1. I am Jewish.
I understand that I may not "look Jewish" you.
Your assumption of my exclusion says more about you than it does about me.

2. Yes, I am a woman. 
I understand that 10 minutes ago, I was dressed in nothing more than a pink bikini (and looking ravishing-by the way) and that possibly leads you to believe that I am an intellectual lightweight whose beauty is her only asset. But my attractive, apparently "youthful," hyper feminine woman-ness makes me NO less capable of academic rigor, dramaturgy, context, nuance, curiosity, or for a deep and secure grasp upon my Peoples' history, Theatrical history and of history itself.
 
Just because I am a beautiful woman does not mean I am a stupid one.

Do not assume that you "must" "TEACH ME" anything. (Yes, sir, I am speaking to you who felt it necessary to teach me about The Rothschilds in front of an audience.)

3. Censorship is a society-killer. 
Also? Yes, this play is officially a "comedy" and yes, it is problematic. But to quote Professor James Shapiro author of "Shakespeare and The Jews"
“I have tried to show that much of the play's vitality can be attributed to the ways in which it scrapes against a bedrock of beliefs about the racial, national, sexual, and religious difference of others. I can think of no other literary work that does so as unrelentingly and as honestly. To avert our gaze from what the play reveals about the relationship between cultural myths and peoples' identities will not make irrational and exclusionary attitudes disappear. Indeed, these darker impulses remain so elusive, so hard to identify in the normal course of things, that only in instances like productions of this play do we get to glimpse these cultural fault lines. This is why censoring the play is always more dangerous than staging it.”

In essence: we must be willing to see.
Censorship in art achieves nothing.
 
4. Producers and Moderators, please protect your actors and creatives
This is a professional engagement. We might love our work, but a labor of love is still labor. And our time, safety and dignity should be respected by implementing safeguards before and during audience engagements. It is respectful. To all.

5. Never assume: onstage and off. 
Finally, this talk-back revealed through it's "failure" precisely the reason we were gathered:
The assumptions we make about Others based on a myriad of preconceived beliefs, prejudices and assumptions. I—like millions—exist at the cross-section of many identities. None of them should be questioned, tested, proven, explained or even educated-about against my consent. Particularly in a public forum.

We are, all of us, capable of prejudice, bigotry, rage and hatred.


Equally, we are, all of us, capable of great compassion, empathy, curiosity and courage.
I welcome you to—whenever possible- align yourself with the latter.

Take care of yourselves, your communities and one another.
And to all a good night.



31 comments:

  1. That’s right Al. That’s right. Take care of YOUR communities. Well said Mimmy❤️

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  2. OMEYN. 🔥

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  3. Al… eeek. Sending your incredible self lots of love.

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  4. CarolineMay 14, 2025

    Anyone who can’t see the immense depth and intelligence in you is blind. You are incredible, Al, sending love always 🤍

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  5. Love you❤️

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  6. Oh damn. I love when this AL comes out. Go baby Go!!!!

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  7. You’re amazing

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  8. I love you so much! And you are beautiful and so strong even you should not be strong. You did answer them so well and so SMART. YOU educated those who needed to be educated! We, I LOVE you! And thank you for allowing me to talk next to you tonite!

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  9. I’m furious. And endlessly proud of & inspired by the fierce woman, human & Artist you are ! I also want to say, I agree w/ @iamannharada -your production needs to have your backs- providing a moderator , & someone prepared to draw boundaries . NOT YOUR JOB! Love you Al, & I’m so sorry you had to go through this 💖🙌🔥🌟 Also 🤬😡

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  10. Yes Al Yes 👏👏👏

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  11. I’m so, so sorry to read this, and to hear about yet another way such bigotry has been expressed. Your post is brilliant.

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  12. Grllll. Bring back COUTH!!

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  13. Everything you said is spot on, and this sounds Infuriating. I’m sorry you were put in this position.

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  14. Omfg, classic. Hate talk backs like this. It’s a cold comfort but I try to remember these men (because realistically it’s almost always men) have a sad little hole inside them where rests the certainty of their own irrelevance. 💙 to you and don’t let the Well Actually’s of the world get you down.

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  15. Makes my blood boil and glad you stood up against that 💩 so articulately. You are a light. ❤️

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  16. Your moderator let you down completely. I might have excused myself politely. After an amazing performance you have nothing left that you need to prove at a talkback.

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  17. Grrrrr. This is not ok. When you combine misogyny with a disrespect for actors and Internet culture (where everyone’s review is important), how are we supposed to get through a talkback???

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  18. Wow. Yes. Preach!

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  19. They picked the wrong one, how dare they. Not all of us read, reflect, share and inspire the way that you do. Shame on them.

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  20. Let me guess…was it a man who spoke to you in a despicable, demeaning, patronising way??? You’re amazing btw… #notallmenBUTITISALWAYSMEN

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  21. I love and cherish you so much. You are one of the most incredible people I know. F*ck that shit.

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  22. Fucking nightmare. But at least one that serves to sharpen how you feel about shit. Especially yourself. Which is not shit. Way to speak out, Sister.👏👏👏

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  23. They should be f*cking embarrassed . Nobody f*cks w Al

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  24. Do not come for Al unless she calls for you! Trust me I know your pain and I am so proud of you every day of my life. How fucking dare they. And ALSO— it is irresponsible to put your company in a position where they have to defend ANYTHING, much less personal identity. Get a moderator. Set some rules. Fuck this horrible audience engagement bullshit.

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  25. I’m always grateful when actors take the time to attend a talkback after a performance. The experience has always been a positive one. I’m sorry you had to endure what transpired last night, but “Brava” for calling attention to this bad behavior. Love you, Al! ❤️

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  26. Beautiful and brilliant you are! Well said!! 👏🏻💗

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  27. Oh! This makes my heart ache for you! I’ve been part of uncomfortable talkbacks like that, and it is Rough! You continue to amaze me & are beyond rockstar status. Thank you for this very important message.

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  28. I love you, your beauty, your talent, your knowledge, your passion, and mostly your kindness! ❤️

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  29. StephanieMay 14, 2025

    had to put my phone down and clap

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  30. How very dare they.
    Thank you for calling them out, if not by name than by type;
    I’m so angry on your behalf and I stand with you firmly.

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