“Imagine waking up tomorrow and finding all acting and actors have been banned in your country, a particular country or indeed worldwide. Every actor is now out of work and there is no film, no TV, no theatre, no voice overs, no street performance – zip.
Take a moment to get your head around that yawning and gaping absence: Channel A now runs a 24-hour news feed. Channel B runs 24 hour sport. Channel C runs silent nature specials. Channel D runs silent commercials. Channel E runs politics. Channel F – aquarium screen saver? Channel G – virtual fireplace?
Regimes have attempted and succeeded in the past – and many still are today – attempting to silence anything that makes them uncomfortable, that supports free-thinking and reflection, that stands for cultural enrichment and which in any way deviates from the tight and narrow bandwidth of that regime’s/government’s strict parameters and rigid beliefs.
But a rigorous cultural and arts contribution should make its society uneasy and uncomfortable. Art should reflect the worst and also the best of ourselves. Art tracks our demons and reminds us of our angels. Art should shock us and wake us up from our habits, limiting or archaic beliefs and conditioning. Art should be dangerous: without danger and provoking in an audience a (medium) sense of fight or flight, we’ll all remain only within what we know. We won’t, as a species, expand, grow, understand and connect in ways that generate our future existence and sustainability. Art is the portal to all that’s possible for humanity’s future…”
