Wright or wrong

"Different, not deficant"

I watched Rev. Wright's message last night and then again this morning, and his main point was that just because a culture is different doesn't mean that it is deficant (and I'm probably not spelling this word right so please forgive me). He then began giving insight into black liberation theology and how the black church has been a fuel and refuge for the black community. However, now we have people who are not familar with the black church critizing what is said because they only hear a 3-min soundbite instead of the entire message. Which got me thinking about how religion fuels these cultures that we have talked about. I know that we touched on the religious practices of the indiviual cultures, but I don't think we really hit on just how these religions plays a role within the community and in turn how it affects theatre. True we did cover this a bit with Nigeria because you almost can't talk about Nigerian theatre without it's connections to Yoruba. During the time of the internment camps did the Japanese turn to their religion in a way that the black community does whenever there is a major crisis. Even doing And the Soul Shall Dance I did not find any links to a religious thought. It seems that each character was either trying to connect themselves with either Japan or America.
After talking about our differences Rev. Wright then went on to say that we need to reconciliate each religion, each race. When he said that I wanted to respond to him and say that is what we are trying to do in the theatre. I think that theatre is a way for us to reconciliate our differences and truly learn from one another. Look at Suzuki and Bantu who invite other cultures to come and learn with and from them. Or even here at home with this workshop or that workshop. I think as theatre artist, and I'm gulity of this, don't realize the power we have in this country and throughout the world to get people together. But sometimes I think we realize it. One way to get people talking is by having talk backs, but I prepose that instead of giving people the option of leaving right after the show, you take out the curtain call and go right into an open discussion. True some people won't like, but we should still make the effort to reach out to them shouldn't we?