10,000 MOOR
GRADUATE SCHOOL WORKSHOP - CONCEIVED, DIRECTED AND DESIGNED BY NIGEL SEMAJ
-
-
The following is the proposal submitted for my graduate school workshop of 10,000 Moor:
When I read through Titus Andronicus for the first time I did not see the vulgarity in which Shakespeare’s scholars have noted it to be. Instead I saw a love story, a violent one, but a love story indeed. In this play we have three parents who are searching out to right an injustice that has been done on their own families. Upon reading further, I saw my own mother in Tamora. I saw that there are no limits to what my own mother may do for my own well-being – or even the limits she would go to right the wrong if I was killed. I have been reading a book on violence that discusses the just why men do violent deeds. In reading this book along with my studies of Titus I have found an something interesting. Psychologist James Gilligan proposes that men perpetrate violence in an attempt to right an injustice to them, others, or specific group of people.
In this search for justice, this does not make the perpetrator good nor bad. The injustice may seem small, but what is small for us, is monumental for the person who feels wronged. I want to talk about what justice is and what it means, and I think Titus Andronicus is a great exploration of what justice is. I want to look at what it means for a black man to seek out justice in a violent nature, one that has been thrust on to him, a nature that maybe wasn’t his to begin with but has been molded to him. Is Aaron’s change of heart for his son his way of protecting him from that same molding? Is the reason for Aaron’s violent streak his search to right an injustice? Aarons story is one filled with deep pain, and darkness; a story that turns to love when he meets his son for the first time and the first thing he must defend is a threat on his life because he is black. Aaron continues the rest of the play doing what he can for his son, a story of love, and story to right of the biggest injustices today. The treatment of black people for the color of the skin. I want to explore love and justice, and the role violent plays when those two things are wronged and messed with.
