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.
But they (the infantry) had no use for boys of twelve and thirteen, and before I had a chance in another war, the desire to kill people to whom I had not been introduced had passed away.
Women are so much a part of war, even if they tend to see another side of it. To say they don't understand war is ridiculous.
From now on we shall bomb Germany on an ever-increasing scale, month by month, year by year, until the Nazi regime has either been exterminated by us or - better still - torn to pieces by the German people themselves.
In war you lose your sense of the definite, hence your sense of truth itself, and therefore it's safe to say that in a war story nothing is ever absolutely true.
Smell that? You smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
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.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.