{"id":9,"date":"2012-03-20T14:24:24","date_gmt":"2012-03-20T18:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/?p=9"},"modified":"2019-01-10T10:54:21","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T15:54:21","slug":"keyword-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/2012\/03\/20\/keyword-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Keyword: Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><a id=\"top\" name=\"top\"><\/a>What role does violence play in human society? What role can the arts play in the search for an answer?<\/h2>\n<h4>By Corinne Steinbrenner; Photo by Graham Edmondson (\u201913)<\/h4>\n<div class=\"sidebar-story-box\">\n<div class=\"pillarNews\">\n<h3>IN THIS STORY<span> <\/span><\/h3>\n<div class=\"content\">\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#events\"><strong>Sidebar:<\/strong> Upcoming Events<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#new\"><strong>Sidebar:<\/strong> Also New at CFA<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#crowbar\"><strong>Sidebar:<\/strong> Attacked with a Crowbar<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#video\"><strong>Video:<\/strong> Contemporary Perspectives Lecture: Enrique Chagoya<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Jack leads his band of war-painted hunters in a rhythmic dance. As more boys join the circle, their stomping and chanting become louder, more fervent. \u201cKill the beast. Cut his throat. Spill his blood. Kill the beast. Cut his throat. Spill his blood.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re midway through act two of the School of Theatre\u2019s adaptation of William Golding\u2019s 1954 novel, <em>Lord of the Flies<\/em>, the tale of a group of British schoolboys who devolve into a tribe of savages after being marooned on a lonely island. The mood in the small black-box theatre is tense; even audience members who read <em>Lord of the Flies<\/em> in high school and know how the scene plays out are holding their breath.<\/p>\n<p>By the time the boys disperse, they have, indeed, killed\u2014not the unknown beast that haunts their dreams, but Simon, one of their own.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe play really dropped in for us, as a group, when we got to the staging of Simon\u2019s death,\u201d says Jake McLean (\u201912), who acted the part of Jack, the ringleader. \u201cWe all stepped out of that first day thinking, \u2018Wow. That\u2019s scary.\u2019 We felt what it would be like to participate in such an act.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After being cast as Jack, McLean began talking with his professors about techniques for cooling down, \u201cshaking it off,\u201d at the end of a rehearsal or performance. \u201cIf you\u2019re doing a comedy and it brings you joy, you want to carry that into your life,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t want to carry around murderous, angry, twelve-year-old.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Playing Jack, who transforms from head choirboy to head hunter, was \u201cquite a journey,\u201d says McLean, \u201cand I began to realize that a lot of his transformation comes out of fear\u2014fear of disapproval and fear of the unknown. One thing that we discussed a lot with Jack is that whenever there\u2019s a problem, he doesn\u2019t think logically how to solve it. He just goes, \u2018Okay, we\u2019re going to go out and kill something now.\u2019 That\u2019s how he copes with things, with violence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Lord of the Flies<\/em>\u2019 exploration of violence is the reason it was chosen as part of the School of Theatre\u2019s 2011\u20132012 lineup. This academic year is the inaugural year of the College of Fine Arts\u2019 \u201ckeyword initiative,\u201d which encourages CFA\u2019s three schools to center their annual programming on a specific word. This year\u2019s keyword: violence.<\/p>\n<h3>Catalyst for Conversation<\/h3>\n<p>Dean Benjam\u00edn Ju\u00e1rez hopes that CFA\u2019s annual keyword efforts will strengthen ties among CFA\u2019s three schools and spark conversations across campus. \u201cWe are trying to build a two-way dialogue with schools and colleges throughout BU, inviting our community to feel, think, and act around themes that are relevant to all of us,\u201d he says, explaining that CFA is including experts from throughout BU in roundtables and lectures associated with CFA performances and exhibitions.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an idea that has succeeded on other U.S. campuses. Since 2006, the University of Southern California has sponsored a university-wide arts initiative called Visions and Voices that explores the university\u2019s core values (\u201csearch for truth,\u201d \u201crespect for diversity,\u201d etc.) through performances, film screenings, lectures, and workshops. In 2007, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill launched Carolina Creative Campus, a program that uses the arts to catalyze campus discussion around a specific topic. In its first year, UNC chose the theme \u201cCriminal\/Justice: The Death Penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reed Colver, who helped organize the UNC program, says that first theme turned out to be far more relevant to UNC than anyone expected. Partway through the academic year\u2014just before a planned performance of <em>Dead Man Walking<\/em>, a play about a convicted murderer awaiting execution\u2014UNC\u2019s student body president was murdered. Because of the sensitivity of its subject, Creative Campus organizers considered cancelling the play, but they ultimately decided, says Colver, \u201cWe need to continue to provide the space that we\u2019ve been providing for dialogue about these issues.\u201d The structured discussions held in conjunction with the performances, she says, \u201cgave students, faculty, and staff a chance to talk through and process, within a fairly safe environment, what was happening in our day-to-day lives.\u201d Creative Campus became a perfect example of art\u2019s power to build community and to help explore and explain the human condition.<\/p>\n<h3>Choosing Violence<\/h3>\n<p>The idea of using violence as CFA\u2019s first keyword came during a visit to the gym last winter. \u201cI was on the elliptical machine at the Y,\u201d says School of Theatre Director Jim Petosa, \u201cand the news reports about the shooting of Representative Gabby Giffords came on the air. It was such a stunning moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The extensive news coverage of Giffords\u2019s attempted assassination prompted Petosa to choose violence as a theme for his School\u2019s coming year of theatrical programming. When he shared the idea with Ju\u00e1rez, the dean was so enthusiastic that he proposed extending the theme across CFA. \u201cAnd then it became this notion of a keyword, which is different from a theme,\u201d says Petosa. \u201cA keyword actually suggests a Google way of thinking\u2014cloud-based thinking\u2014which is a much more generous way of examining the potency of a given word.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Petosa and colleagues chose a range of plays for the School of Theatre\u2019s exploration of violence\u2014from <em>Monster<\/em> (an adaptation of Mary Shelley\u2019s <em>Frankenstein<\/em>) to Shakespeare\u2019s bloody revenge story <em>Titus Andronicus<\/em>. Fittingly, considering the event that inspired this examination of violence, the School is staging two plays that deal with political assassinations: <em>Execution of Justice<\/em>, the story of Dan White, who assassinated San Francisco\u2019s openly gay city supervisor, Harvey Milk, and <em>Assassins<\/em>, a Stephen Sondheim musical that explores U.S. history through the eyes of people who either assassinated or attempted to assassinate U.S. presidents.<\/p>\n<p>For its keyword programming, the School of Visual Arts invited controversial painter Enrique Chagoya to give November\u2019s Contemporary Perspectives Lecture (see sidebar). While on campus, Chagoya made a series of small prints for the School inspired by Francisco Goya\u2019s famous series, <em>The Disasters of War<\/em>. Visual arts professors leading junior and senior seminars are also incorporating the theme of violence into their course discussions this year.<\/p>\n<p>Because opera so often deals with the extremes of human behavior, Opera Institute Director Sharon Daniels had no trouble selecting violence-themed operas to include in her 2011\u20132012 season, including Francis Poulenc\u2019s <em>Dialogues of the Carmelites<\/em>, the story of 13 nuns sent to the guillotine during the French Revolution. BU Symphony Orchestra Conductor David Hoose also found he had plenty of material to choose from. \u201cUnfortunately, violence is so omnipresent in our culture and our world,\u201d he says, \u201cthat it\u2019s something composers have responded to through a lot of music history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hoose says that applying a keyword or other unifying concept to a season of programming is a wonderful idea that more arts organizations should consider. It\u2019s particularly tricky, however, in a teaching environment. \u201cThe music that the orchestra plays or the chorus sings, that\u2019s their curriculum,\u201d he says, so while a keyword must be provocative enough to ignite conversation, it must also be broad enough to allow faculty to choose music, plays, and exhibits that will meet the educational needs of their students.<\/p>\n<p>With these parameters in mind, CFA students and faculty members are already deep in discussion with professors and administrators from across BU, working to choose a fitting keyword for next year\u2019s explorations.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sidebar-story\">\n<h3 class=\"sidebar-header\"><a id=\"events\" name=\"events\"><\/a>Sidebar<\/h3>\n<h2>Upcoming Events<\/h2>\n<p><strong>BU Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Chorus at Boston\u2019s Symphony Hall<\/strong><br \/>\nDavid Hoose conducts the Boston University Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Chorus in Rachmaninoff\u2019s <em>The Bells<\/em> and Shostakovich\u2019s Symphony No. 11 in G minor, \u201c1905.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>When:<\/strong> April 2 (watch it online at <strong>CFA\u2019s Virtual Concert Hall<\/strong>)<br \/>\n<strong>Where:<\/strong> Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston<br \/>\n<strong>Tickets:<\/strong> $25 general admission<br \/>\n<strong>Box Office:<\/strong> 617-266-1200 or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bso.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">www.BostonSymphonyHall.org<\/a><br \/>\nWhile it\u2019s ostensibly a celebration of the 1905 Russian Revolution, many believe Shostakovich\u2019s symphony is actually a denunciation of the Soviets\u2019 brutal crackdown in Hungary in 1956. \u201cFor me, it doesn\u2019t matter which it refers to,\u201d says conductor David Hoose. He first led the piece in 1989, after the protests in Beijing\u2019s Tiananmen Square, and for his young performers, \u201cit was about then, about that moment in their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dialogues of the Carmelites<\/strong><br \/>\nA poignant look at the French Revolution through the eyes of a young aristocrat who enters a Carmelite convent in Compiegne to deal with her pathological fear of life, only to witness the revolution unfold around her. Based on the true story of the 13 sisters of Compiegne, whose defiance of the revolution\u2019s dictates led to their martyrdom at the guillotine.<\/p>\n<p><strong>When:<\/strong> April 12\u201322<br \/>\n<strong>Where:<\/strong> Boston University Theatre, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston<br \/>\n<strong>Tickets:<\/strong> $20 general public; $15 BU alumni, WGBH members, Huntington subscribers, students, and senior citizens<br \/>\n<strong>Box Office:<\/strong> 617-933-8600 or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bostontheatrescene.com\/index.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">www.BostonTheatreScene.com<\/a><br \/>\nStage director Sharon Daniels still vividly recalls attending <em>Dialogues<\/em> for the first time: \u201cI don\u2019t remember ever in my whole history of going to opera being so moved by something that I just jumped out of my seat,\u201d she says of the opera\u2019s grim but thrilling conclusion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Assassins<\/strong><br \/>\nThe legendary Stephen Sondheim explores the hearts and minds of America\u2019s most famous assassins, including John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald, in a stunning satire of the anarchic political violence that tragically persists at the core of our culture.<\/p>\n<p><strong>When:<\/strong> May 4\u201310<br \/>\n<strong>Where:<\/strong> Boston University Theatre, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston<br \/>\n<strong>Tickets:<\/strong> $12 general public; $10 BU alumni, WGBH members, Huntington subscribers, students, and senior citizens<br \/>\n<strong>Box Office:<\/strong> 617-933-8600 or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bostontheatrescene.com\/index.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">www.BostonTheatreScene.com<\/a><br \/>\nThis piece of musical theatre\u2014a quintessentially American art form\u2014explores a whole range of emotions and motivations, says director Jim Petosa, from \u201cpolitical zealotry to downright crazy obsession.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#top\">Back to top<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"sidebar-story\">\n<h3 class=\"sidebar-header\"><a id=\"new\" name=\"new\"><\/a>Sidebar<\/h3>\n<h2>Also New at CFA<\/h2>\n<p>In addition to his keyword initiative, Dean Benjam\u00edn Ju\u00e1rez is introducing new elements to the CFA curriculum that are aimed at graduating more well-rounded artists. Among them is a new course, CFA 510: Arts Leaders Forum, featuring weekly guest lectures on the challenges of leading arts organizations. This spring\u2019s list of lecturers includes Adrian Ellis, executive director of Jazz at Lincoln Center; Jill Medvedow, director of Boston\u2019s Institute of Contemporary Art; and David Lammy, a member of the British Parliament and former UK minister of culture.<\/p>\n<p>Also new this year is CFA\u2019s Freshman Experience, which introduces students to the artistic offerings within the College and throughout greater Boston. Each semester, every CFA freshman attends one arts-related event in Boston accompanied by a faculty member and a small group of classmates. Students are required to choose experiences that fall outside their area of expertise: when School of Visual Arts Associate Professor Batu Siharulidze, for example, led a tour of the foundry that produced many of Boston\u2019s landmark bronze sculptures, his group was composed almost entirely of theatre students. \u201cThey showed us the molds and the different processes,\u201d says theatre arts major Jessica Diamond (\u201915). Sculpture wasn\u2019t something she paid much attention to before, Diamond says, \u201cBut now, after seeing all the work that goes into it, it appeals to me a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#top\">Back to top<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"sidebar-story\">\n<h3 class=\"sidebar-header\"><a id=\"crowbar\" name=\"crowbar\"><\/a>Sidebar<\/h3>\n<h2>Attacked with a Crowbar<\/h2>\n<h4>By Susan Seligson<\/h4>\n<p>Enrique Chagoya is known in the art world for his satiric paintings, prints, and illustrated manuscripts reflecting a world in dizzying political and cultural flux. His work has always had an unapologetically irreverent edge, but his worldwide reputation was ignited one fall day in 2010, when a Montana woman took a crowbar to <em>The Misadventures of Romantic Cannibals<\/em>, a multi-panel lithograph with a suggestive image of Jesus, on exhibit in Loveland, Colorado. Chagoya visited the School of Visual Arts in November to give the annual Contemporary Perspectives Lecture, during which he showed a video about the attack and its unexpected aftermath. The following is an excerpt from an interview Chagoya gave on campus before his lecture:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: You\u2019ve been invited to BU as part of a keyword initiative focusing on violence. Would you say this is the dominant theme of your work?<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>A:<\/strong> Violence is just one of the themes that applies to my work, but I would say the dominant theme is conflict. Violence is only one expression of conflict. I think conflict will always be part of human history because we are a very diverse, rich, and complex network of societies. The resolution of conflict is the way everything evolves. However, the resolution of conflict does not have to be violent. In fact, violence exacerbates differences, polarizing opposite views, and it only delays the resolution of conflicts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: What were your feelings at the time of the Loveland incident?<\/strong><br \/>\nThe incident was a result of context. I showed the same work at the Denver Art Museum in the same traveling exhibition some months before and nobody complained. It was also exhibited twice in solo exhibitions in the Bay Area and in Washington, D.C., and in none of those places anybody complained. It was a surprise to me to see how local politics and a local situation became global (it was time for elections and the work was shown in a conservative town).<br \/>\nI made <em>The Misadventures of Romantic Cannibals<\/em> in 2003 after the pedophilia scandals in the Catholic Church had hit the news, and eight years later I almost forgot I did that book. The vast majority of my work does not even include any religious content, so it was weird to have so much attention addressed to one old work.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: Did the Loveland Museum incident affect your art?<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>A:<\/strong> The incident made me realize how context may affect what can be shown anywhere&#8230;.I still include in my art whatever goes through my head without any self-censorship. However, I realize I may not be able to show it in places that are not open or cannot provide protection to free expression.<\/p>\n<p>View full Q&amp;A on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/today\/2011\/cfa-hosts-enrique-chagoya\/\">BU Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3><a id=\"video\" name=\"video\"><\/a>Contemporary Perspectives Lecture: Enrique Chagoya<\/h3>\n<p><object id=\"buniverseplayer\" width=\"550\" height=\"355\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" data=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/buniverse\/interface\/swf\/player.swf\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/buniverse\/interface\/swf\/player.swf\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"viralbu.videoid=10C9wTqU&amp;viralbu.loc=3\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/buniverse\/youtube\/?v=10C9wTqU\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/buniverse\/data\/thumbs\/3254\/d89135d868defb29b5914cecb18f505a440e54ef_581602078\/thumb_l.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"310\" \/>Watch this video on YouTube<\/a><\/object><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#top\">Back to top<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What role does violence play in human society? What role can the arts play in the search for an answer? By Corinne Steinbrenner; Photo by Graham Edmondson (\u201913) IN THIS STORY Sidebar: Upcoming Events Sidebar: Also New at CFA Sidebar: Attacked with a Crowbar Video: Contemporary Perspectives Lecture: Enrique Chagoya Jack leads his band of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6143,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6100,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions\/6100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}