Dramatic Need presents The Children’s Monologues directed by Danny Boyle, featuring Ben Kingsley, Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rose Byrne, , Lucian Msamati, Gemma Arterton, and others.
Dramatic Need went and interviewed children in South Africa, asking them to speak about their happiest or saddest day. Then, the aforementioned actors performed them in London while the authors of the stories performed them simultaneously in South Africa.
This is the kind of work I want to do. I want to make theatre that literally connects nations. The conversations I keep hearing in the theatre world are all essentially the same. A lot of people are worrying about how technology is going to kill the theatre, instead of asking how we can use the advances of the internet and greater global connectivity to seek out more stories to tell, more lives to change.
I believe in the voices and spirits of children. I think we need to take their wisdom and ideas seriously, politically and artistically. Children have short attention spans, so if a story isn’t good or isn’t being told well, you lose them immediately. So that forces you to search for the strongest idea, the most dynamic staging, the most compelling performances.
I have a big, BIG idea that I want to pursue in the near future, but I can’t really talk about it until it has some actual steam behind it. Until then, we should all start taking some cues from Danny Boyle and Dramatic Need and start thinking globally.
Reblogging myself, just this once because this video is important.
