I just had to say...
A small selection of the unsolicited emails I've received from anonymous audience members:
5/07
"I'm not sure this is the right email to be sent to, but i'll send it anyway.
I went to the Black Rep earlier today with my school, to see a play called, The Etymology of Bird. I just wanted to let you guys know that this play was remarkable. I've been to many plays and this by far is the best one i've seen. I feel that the flow of this play is perfection, especially in teenagers eyes. I'ts urban, new, and exciting to watch. The cast were amazing with gifted talents. I actually didnt feel like I was watching a play, it felt like I was just a little bird watching everything go on, like I was there. I'm most definetly telling people about this play. It made me die laughing, it made me say "awwwww", it made me cry, feel angry, but most of all,I got the opportunity to step into peoples shoes and realize the emotions all were going through.
I just want to say, thank you for letting us see this amazing play."
4/07
"I just wanted to thank you for giving us the opportunity to see Etymology of Bird this morning. I was profoundly moved by your production of this gorgeous, painful work. I was deeply affected by the gutsy, passionate, honest performances by the cast in tackling a work that so forthrightly explores this kind of loss. For the first time ever, I felt like I understood what it means to be a mother robbed of the life of her child, understood what it means for a community to grieve the unjust loss of someone communally loved. And to be on the other side of that loss, to be the perpetrator, to expose the haunting the follows the mis-taking of innocent life, when all you have sought is to protect a community in which you are not welcome. That complexity of this generously presented and needful work simply broke my heart and left me helpless to a flood of tears.
Thank you, thank you for sharing this play with us. Thank you for committing to present work that is not only relevant socially, but supremely urgent in what it explores of both the beauty and dilemma of living in a multi-faceted human community. This morning's experience was an inspiration that with linger long with me, and very gratefully so."
5/06
"I've just come home from tonight's performance and found it powerful, stunning, convincing, and ultimately tragic....I really loved the 'K Mart' character and all his vulnerabilities/potential/'magic'... so beautifully portrayed...and the terrible, confused taunting and ambivalence he suffered from the others (also brilliantly performed).... Actually, I feel at the moment somewhat done in by 'Done.' I'll certainly continue to think about it and the dynamics and struggles it expresses. Thanks again and congratulations to all!"