Our Mission
Sometimes theatre can change a life…
…in ways that classrooms, books, and professional help cannot. Sometimes the experience of a play drops into your life like a stone thrown into a pond. The ripples travel inwardly resonating in your mind. The ripples also travel outwardly as you bring the experience of the play to your family, friends and communities. We are about making ripples across the world.
We salute individual teachers and students who felt our ripples and in turn asked for permission to translate our plays into their native languages. That’s how our plays have appeared in the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Korea, Australia, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and Canada. You have taught us that the multiplicity of languages indicates there is a universality of experience that we all share.
Sometimes the ripples come back to us in a gentle wave…
“i loved the movie [Bang, Bang, You're Dead]. thank you. I get picked on a lot and one time I actually did make a hit list. my friends caught me writing the names down and told. thank you so much. i have a different view on violence now.”
–rebekah 14 Oct 2002
“I have heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play
Have by the very cunning of the scene
Been struck so to the soul that presently
They have proclaimed their malefactions.
……The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.”
–William Shakespeare, HAMLET
…And sometimes the ripples come back to us like tsunamis:
“Your play [BANG BANG YOU’RE DEAD] really depicts the truth about what goes through someone’s mind when in a situation of overwhelming depression brought about by school pressures. About twelve years ago I was expelled from high school after it was discovered that I was carrying a loaded .38 caliber gun and about thirty rounds of ammunition. My intent was to remove myself from the pain that so many had caused me, but not before I had taken the lives of those who cheated me of the fairness that I so much deserved. My plans were never carried out (thank god), and I was forced to receive counseling. Today, I no longer have animosity towards those who tormented me, but I do wish they could have understood what they were doing was wrong. Your play is a teaching tool that helps to educate future antagonist not to continue the brutality.”
–JK 11.11.02
Some ripples leave us breathless:
“…All the doctors that my son has seen have told me they cannot help him if he doesn’t want to help himself. He just sits there and watches. He will never tell you how he is feeling. I have never heard this child speak of any feelings or emotions. He walks around as if he had no conscience…By now you are probably wondering what all of this has to do with the play you wrote, right? Well, after all of these hard time, my husband, my son, and my daughter, and myself sat down together and watched the movie BANG BANG YOU’RE DEAD…From the moment the movie began until the last credit rolled, there was dead silence in the room. Then…I saw my son stand up and walk over to my husband and I. He just stood there quietly for about 15 seconds and then he just burst into tears and gave us the biggest hug we have ever felt in our lives. We all just stood there for a while crying and holding each other. Then my son looked at me and said, ‘I’m sorry mom…”. I believe in my heart of hears that this program helped to save my son’s life. I do not know where he would have been in a year or two if he would have continued on his road of destruction…You have helped save the lives of hundreds of other children whether they are in front of, or behind, the barrel of a gun.” –GL
These ripples make us know we are having an effect in the world.
We couldn’t make a ripple without the drama teacher. The drama teacher links our credo to young actors and audiences. The drama teacher usually brings that first experience of theatre to the young, coloring their view of theatre perhaps for a lifetime.
IcarusPlays honors and organizes itself around the drama teacher who embodies our credo:
Theatre can heal.
Theatre can change a life.
|
William Mastrosimone |
Michael Fisher |
Did you know?
ca·thar·sis
Pronunciation: \kə-ˈthär-səs\
Function: noun
Inflected Forms(s): plural ca·thar·ses \-ˌsēz\
1. purification or purgation of the emotions (as pity and fear) through art
2. purification or purgation that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension