Funerals mean breaking ground – to dig a hole in order to bury the dead.
But for Theatre Fairfield students, their ground-breaking performance, “A Cry for Peace” on Thursday was meant to get our heads out of the holes we have so conveniently buried them in.
“Let us acknowledge the value in this opportunity to be fully conscious – to be fully human,” said Gary Pelletier ’09, actor and co-creator of the event, during his introductory monologue. “Open your eyes, hold your body up the way nature intended and receive our words and our energy and our faith. Breathe deeply and grieve.”
Participants of the event acted as mourners and observers in a procession through the Hope Trail, a path lined with flags along the sidewalk to represent those lost during the Iraq War, from both Iraq and United States. The walk was led by actor and co-creator, Sarah Gatti ’10, while four pallbearers and Pelletier followed the crowd with a casket.
Gatti led the procession to the Oak Room patio, where Anne Krane ’09 could be heard singing as the participants and observers gathered. It was here that Pelletier, Gatti and other Theatre Fairfield members held the performance.
Pelletier proceeded over the ceremony while Gatti recited five eulogies dedicated to various things lost as a result of the Iraq War. Among Gatti’s characters was one of a mother whose son gave his life for his country.
“I can’t imagine bringing a child into the world and having it taken on someone else’s terms,” Gatti said in a talkback after the performance. “I had to rehearse it 12 times before I could stop crying.”
After each eulogy, something of importance was placed in the casket as a metaphor for what has been lost.
Once the performance concluded, the audience followed Gatti as the pallbearers carried the casket down into the lower level of the Barone Campus Center. Here, actors and audience gathered for refreshments and a talk back discussion about the Iraq War and the emotions brought forward by this theatrical ritual.
Kristin Villanueva ’09, representative of Students for Social Justice, explained what each flag on the Hope Trail represented. The eight red flags represented the 4,011 American soldiers killed in Iraq thus far; each flag represented 500 soldiers.
The 1,300 white flags represented Iraqi citizens killed; each flag represented 500 deaths. The 4,000 yellow flags represented Iraqi refugees killed, including those who tried to flee; each flag represented 1,000 deaths.
“I think we don’t give much airtime to the war anymore because of this sense of fatigue,” said Gisela Gil-Egui, a communications professor. “In order to move us, we need these emotional types of shock to awaken people, and I hope any other initiative on campus takes this creative approach.”
As part of a capstone project for their peace and justice studies minor, the group, which consisted of Theatre Fairfield’s Pelletier, Gatti, Laura Marciano ’08 and new media major Emily Arouth ’08, enveloped their performance in the theme of humanity.
“That is why all the performers were barefoot and why we put petals in the casket and poured in water instead of actual gasoline,” said Marciano. “We wanted to evoke a response from humanity.”
With compliments to the performers and comments as to the emotions brought forth, those participating in the talk back even opened up by sharing their personal connections to the Iraq War.
Elizabeth Thompson ’09, who performed in the protest, told the group about her friend, a marine, who had two tours of duty in Iraq, the first time for eight months, the second for six months.
“When his troop and him went through the desert, they wore mask to cover their faces to keep out the dust. They were made by Harley-Davidson and they had a skull on them,” said Thompson. “One time they had to go into a house and kill a lot of people and they used the masks to scare a lot of people, and it was just sad to hear that had to happen,” she said with tears in her eyes.
“We have somehow justified the lost American lives during 9/11 by massively killing hundreds and thousands of Iraqi citizens,” said Marciano. “This war has been going on for five years and many American soldiers that I have interviewed for my research believe they have no real mission but to kill as many Iraqis as they can in order to be able to go home. What kind of world are we living in when this kind of human destruction is taking place, and with no explanation?”
“‘A Cry for Peace’ shows how we can burst the ‘Fairfield bubble’ by taking action on our campus that speaks to issues important across the globe,” said Jocelyn Boryczka, program director of peace and justice studies and a politics professor. “It’s time for us all to collectively remember its impact on this generation, which includes the students at Fairfield today, and start talking about how we can build hope in the future.”
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