April 06, 2022
Page 7
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
Jon Batiste tops Violence Inside Out
Grammys
Continued from Page 6
work through how to perform
with kindness toward each other.
Fight directors have been an
essential part of stage work for
quite some time, and intimacy
directors, who work to help the
cast observe appropriate bound-
aries for depicting intimacy
with respect, care, and full con-
sent, are likewise coming to be
seen as essential to responsible
theater work. Portland Play-
house engaged a fight director,
an intimacy director, and a cul-
tural competency consultant,
with an eye toward surfacing
deeper consciousness around
the care needed to present vio-
lence and intimacy responsibly.
Directors Tina Packer and Bri-
an Weaver sought to approach
the work in a humanizing way,
evincing recognition that pre-
senting violence involves a
sort of intimacy that deserves
awareness and care.
The results can feel a bit
meta, breaking the fourth wall
between audience and perform-
ers. But I was not wishing for
more of what we would term
“realism” in the presentation
of this material, particularly in
Portland Playhouse’s intimate
space in the King neighbor-
hood in what was once a Black
church. Why do we think it is
more realistic to present vio-
lence as though it is real, while
not acknowledging significant
parts of its toll on those who
experience violence in life, on
those who portray it, and on
audience members watching it?
Maybe that is the wrong kind of
real; many, perhaps most actual
experiences of violence sim-
ilarly tend to come with mini-
mization of its impacts, and it
could be argued that artistic de-
pictions facilitate that by hiding
or minimizing impacts as well.
Might it actually be more real-
istic (and certainly responsible)
to depict violence in a way that
acknowledges and accounts for
some of its impacts? This pro-
duction, aided by the excellent
work of its committed cast and
crew, made me hold that ques-
tion in a new way—and made
me think differently about films
like “The Power of the Dog”
too. In my book, that’s a good
reason to see this production of
this violent play. You can see it
at Portland Playhouse through
April 10.
Darleen Ortega is a judge
on the Oregon Court of Ap-
peals and the first woman of
color to serve in that capacity.
Her movie and theater review
column Opinionated Judge
appears regularly in The Port-
land Observer. Find her review
blog at opinionatedjudge.blog-
spot.com.
Jon Batiste poses with his Grammy awards for best American roots
performance and best American roots song for "Cry," best music
video for "Freedom," best score soundtrack for visual media for
"Soul," and album of the year for "We Are." (AP photo)
(AP) — Olivia Rodrigo made
an impressive Grammy debut,
Silk Sonic claimed two major
awards and Jon Batiste had the
most stunning victory of the night
winning the top prize at Sunday’s
Grammy Awards.
Batiste won five Grammys
Sunday including album of the
year for “We Are” pulling off an
upset in a category filled with
tough competition from Rodrigo,
Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift and the
combined talents of Tony Bennett
and Lady Gaga. After his win, the
multi-genre performer honored
the artists he beat, telling the au-
dience that “the creative arts are
subjective. Be you.”
“I just put my head down and
I work on the craft every day,”
said Batiste, who won for his
song “Cry,” the video for “Free-
dom” and his work with the Trent
Reznor and Atticus Ross on the
soundtrack for “Soul.”
Silk Sonic — the all-star
union of Bruno Mars and Ander-
son .Paak — took home awards
in all four categories it was nom-
inated in, including record and
song of the year.
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