You’re in it because I put you in it
New York, USADecember 9, 1995
Prague, Czech RepublicOctober 28, 1994
Robbie McCauleyPlaywright, director, actor
My work comes out of performance and I’m basically an actor.
Which comes from my own reality.
Which comes from having grown up in apartheid United States. I’m from Georgia originally.
I first went to Prague to perform a play called “Sally’s Rape” which deals with dialogue about racial issues, and is about my great-grandmother who was raped on the plantation.
It was not just my family’s story: it was part of our history.
Jeannie Hutchins and I performed the play as a duet all around America and this was our first time doing it abroad.
ROBBIE and JEANNIE enter with cups of tea on saucers. They walk in conversation with each other, aware of the audience.
ROBBIE:Somebody said it was about cups.
JEANNIE: Somebody else said it was about language.
ROBBIE:What do you think it’s about?
JEANNIE:Well, that one person said it was about you and me. And I know it’s not about me, but it’s about you and I’m in it.
ROBBIE:It’s my story, and you’re in it because I put you in it.
JEANNIE:Fair enough.
ROBBIE and JEANNIE (to audience, alternating the lines ): And we can’t have a dialogue by ourselves. So you’re in it. Don’t worry, I won’t jump in your face or down your throat. We’ll feed you.
(They pass out cookies and apples, improvising about “loaves and fishes” and about how food eases tension, may help you talk)
We’ll use hand signals, lead like camp directors, divide you into groups. One…
One of them points out sections of the audience.
Two… Three.. Well, it doesn’t matter what section you’re in, it just matters who you are, and you can change your opinion as time goes on.
Sally’s Rape (Znasilneni Sally) by Robbie McCauleyperformed in English by Robbie McCauley and Jeannie Hutchins with simultaneous interpretation in Czech by HanaSyslova, produced by the Fund for New Performance/Video in Prague on October 28, 1994 at the Zizkov Theater, on October 31 at Studio Labyrint, and on November 2 at the National Theater (Divadlo Kolowrat).
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