“The Collision of Different Ideas and the Emotional Muscle of Empathy”

If you haven’t seen Oskar Eustis’s TED talk, it is probably worth your time to do so. Eustis is the Artistic Director of the Public Theater and one of the most passionate and authoritative voices for the positive social and cultural impact of theater. He begins his talk, “Theater matters because democracy matters.” His thesis is that theater can be both a metaphor and practice for the art of dialogue.

It is a three-point argument, but we will focus on his second point, as it pertains to the theme of this blog. Essentially, it boils down to the power of dialogue across difference. More specifically, Eustis touts theater as an exercise in empathic listening:

“I'm not asking you to sit back and listen to me. I'm asking you to lean forward and imagine my point of view -- what this looks like and feels like to me as a character. And then I'm asking you to switch your mind and imagine what it feels like to the other person talking. I'm asking you to exercise empathy. And the idea that truth comes from the collision of different ideas and the emotional muscle of empathy are the necessary tools for democratic citizenship.”

This is an encouraging thought. Theater, at its best, does help us flex our empathic listening muscles. But the next logical question is, “How do we take this skill into our real lives?” In case you have not noticed, our society struggles at listening respectfully to those we disagree with. This is not only apparent anecdotally, but well researched and documented, including at this blog. If theater works against our subconscious tendency towards hyper-partisanship, what conscious steps are we taking to bridge these divides?

Although dwarfed by the attention given to those amplifying vitriol and incivility, there are many folks doing the harder work of building community in a culture of demonization. Peter Coleman and the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution at Teachers College at Columbia University have been compiling a list of organizations and resources dedicated to the objective of respectfully bridging ideological differences. Thoroughly researching and exploring these resources will take some time, but I have begun working through the list and will be reporting my findings to you here.

In the meantime, why not exercise our empathic listening by enjoying some theater in self-isolation? I was mentioning to my students that, as disruptive as the COVID-19 crisis is and will continue to be, it has compelled many artists and arts organizations to provide exceptional streamed offerings. Below are just a few.

• State of the Arts NJ has dozens of episodes available for streaming.
• The Show Must Go On! is a YouTube channel that broadcasts full-length Broadway musicals every weekend for 48 hours. So far they have all been Andrew Lloyd Webber shows, but we shall see...
• Lincoln Center has launched an "At Home" portal with daily streaming offerings from artists and organizations regularly seen on its various stages.
• Broadway World has been streaming live videos featuring, among other things, conversations and performances by Broadway stars at home.
• Met Opera will be offering a free student stream of an opera performance each week. They are also offering free Artist Chats via Zoom every Wednesday at 4pm.
• Stars in the House streams live performances daily at 2pm and 8pm by Broadway stars from their homes to support The Actors Fund.
• Eric Holtan, Music Director of one of the finest choirs in the country, True Concord, has been creating fantastic thematic playlists of choral performance videos.
• Maria Popova (in my opinion, far and away the finest curator of art and ideas on the internet) is producing her annual Universe in Verse, a beautiful and unparalleled marriage of poetry and science, on April 25th as a virtual gathering.
• No one is doing more important work towards fostering dialogue across difference than journalist and podcaster Krista Tippett. Her On Being Project has created a Care Package for Uncertain Times, a series of conversations, meditations, and poems chosen specifically for this moment.
• As always, Google Arts and Culture is a godsend, but never more than now. There is so much great content on that platform that it is almost overwhelming, so I have been enjoying their Cultural 5, a daily set of five smallish experiences they provide right on their homepage. My favorite example today was “The Roots of Ramen.”

There are many, many more options available, but these are some I have experienced and can vouch for. If you have the time and inclination, please consider taking the time to enjoy them while they last. We need this kind of connection to the universal and eternal nature of humanity now more than ever.