Finding the Water Holes

I am reading Anne Bogart’s new book AND THEN, YOU ACT: Making art in an unpredictable world. She begins her introduction with a story about the South African writer Antjie Krog. She describes meeting a nomadic desert poet in Senegal who described the role of poets in his culture:

“The job of the poet is to remember where the water holes are. The survival of the whole group depends on a few water holes scattered around the desert. When his people forget where the water is, the poet can lead them to it.”

Bogart writes: “What an apt metaphor for the role of the artist in any culture. The water is the history, the memory, the juice, and the elixir of a shared experience.”

Playwrights know where the water holes are and they can lead us to them with their stories, language, and dramatic imaginations. I have always believed that a contemporary theater must aggressively go to the edges of society and tell stories that no one else will tell. To involve people at the deepest level, we tell them stories. Stories fulfill a profound human need to grasp the patterns of living . . . not merely as an intellectual exercise, but within a very personal . . . emotional experience.

To do this we must engage our audience with the power of story. We must engage their emotions. And the key to their hearts is a story.

—Ed Herendeen