In listening to the narratives of the Congolese, I came to terms with the extent to which their bodies had become battlefields.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the struggles and trauma faced by the Congolese people, illustrating their bodies as symbols of conflict and suffering.
Lynn Nottage's quote reflects a deep understanding of the physical and psychological scars left on the Congolese people due to ongoing violence and conflict. By emphasizing that their bodies represent actual battlefields, it conveys the idea that personal narratives are intertwined with larger socio-political issues, encouraging listeners to acknowledge the profound impact of war on human lives.
In practice
In a speech about the impact of war on civilians, this quote can emphasize the profound consequences of conflict.
People probably have different philosophies about this, but I think that when you're first shaping the play and trying to find a character, the initial actors that develop it end up imprinting on it - you hear their voices; you hear their rhythms. You can't help but to begin to write toward them during the rehearsal process.
There were not a lot of women in the theater department - it was really run by men, and so the message was that women can be onstage, but women can't really be backstage.
The person whose work introduced me to the craft was Lorraine Hansberry. The person who taught me to love the craft was Tennessee Williams. The person who really taught me the power of the craft was August Wilson, and the person who taught me the political heft of the craft was Arthur Miller.
I was repeatedly told that there isn't an African American woman who can open a show on Broadway. I said, 'Well, how do we know? How do we know if we don't do it?' I said, 'I think you're wrong.'
Once working people discover that, collectively, we have more power than we do as individual silos, then we become an incredibly powerful force. But I think that there are powers that be that are invested in us remaining divided along racial lines, along economic lines.
It's incumbent on us to reach beyond the confines of the institutions that traditionally produce art and find new ways to get it to the people.
If men make war in slavish observance of rules, they will fail. No rules will apply to conditions of war as different as those which exist in Europe and America...War is progressive, because all the instruments and elements of war are progressive.
The wars don't end when you sign peace treaties or when the years go by. They will echo on until I'm gone and all the widows and orphans are gone.
I know that war is very cruel and that life is harder when you aren't able to live in the place you called home.
In the account book of the Great War the page recording the Russian losses has been ripped out. The figures are unknown. Five millions, or eight? We ourselves know not. All we know is that, at times, fighting the Russians, we had to remove the piles of enemy bodies from before our trenches, so as to get a clear field of fire against new waves of assault.
I pray for no more youth To perish before its prime; That Revenge and iron-heated War May fade with all that has gone before Into the night of time.
The natural formation of the country is the soldier's best ally
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.