SUMMER RESIDENCY SHOWCASE 2023

Rob Lutfy works in theatre, mixed media, and community making. Folk artist seems apropos. A chaos container? An amplifier? Maybe just a world maker. He believes in the power of presence and nuanced spaces of “both and.” He believes the collective is where healing lies, not the individual. He mostly directs theatre at places like Milwaukee Repertory Theater, The John F Kennedy Center, Cygnet Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, The Theatre at Boston Court, etc.  He has won some awards for the shows he has directed. He thinks it’s strange to talk about himself in the third person.

Jean F has been a process in ritualizing a stranger. A ritual is activated by a group of people, so thank you for being here. I’m interested in how ritual functions without religion. What are the perimeters? Who gives permission to create a ritual space? Maybe we just agree that a space is sacred. I am interested in the mythologies we carry with us about people that have passed on. It feels like we are defined by other people. What someone meant to other people. It so often becomes: here is this woman. Daughter. Step-mother. Friend.

How do you talk about someone without talking about the people around them? Is it more respectful or disrespectful? Is it okay to just say Jeannie liked cinnamon buns? I wish I could tell you Jeannie’s favorite color. Her favorite food, her favorite movie, book, street, friend, weather, place to vacation, flavor of ice cream. But maybe we can take a moment here. Imagine what those things might be. Because they probably changed, endlessly.

No one is one straight answer.

Maybe it’s enough for us to think about the things she might have thought, wanted. By asking ourselves what Jeannie loved, it fills her out in our minds in a way that a fact about her life never could. So does it even matter if it’s real or not? Because then she becomes real for us, right?