Director’s Notes
As an artist with vision loss, I’ve become obsessed with the way we use disability as a metaphor for willful ignorance and cruelty. As an American with privilege living through a worldwide pandemic, I’ve become overwhelmed by the way our society uses hatred and perceived scarcity as a means of inflicting unnecessary loss and pain. Tone a Blind Eye was conceived out of the desire to imagine what might happen if we centered our attention on those who have historically been excluded from power. It asks us to consider: What happens when societies ostracize people? Why do we blame the most marginalized for our suffering instead of those in power? How do we define monstrous behavior? Are we complicit in the suffering of others?
The international fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel seemed a perfect starting point from which to consider these questions with its witch isolated in the woods who feeds and then feeds on children, parents who passively send their children to their deaths as a means of avoiding personal starvation, and children who somehow return home to these very same parents. While this production has no answers, it asks us to listen to the lingering effects of exclusion instead of imagining we can undo it as easily as uttering “happily ever after.”
COVID-19 protocols for filming
Designed in consultation with HWS administration and implemented after running an anonymous poll to ensure that all company members were comfortable with the plan
Tone a Blind Eye was shot in a 2450 square foot space. 5 tech/design/directing staff, all of whom are fully vaccinated and wear masks, and 1 actor per night were present for shooting. Actors went without masks during shooting only. At all other times they were also masked.
A fallen tree trunk with a circular growth with two notches to the sides, looks like a magical creature staring out at the viewer. (Photo Credit Heather May)
Resources
From Europe during the Great Famine, to Pennsylvania during the Great Depression, to Germany during the Nazi regime, all the way to present day during the COVID-19 Pandemic and looking forward to a dystopic future, the stories in Tone a Blind Eye deal with a range of topics — and the subsequent feelings that come with them. Thinking about topics surrounding hunger, genocide, homelessness, loss of work, trans and queer issues as well as devastating climate change, you may be asking yourself what more you can do stop the cycle of unnecessary suffering.
Below you will find links to learn more about each of these topics, and ways to help.
Hunger Relief/Resources:
Hunger: Geneva’s Center of Concern
Finding a Food Pantry in Another Community: FoodPantries.org
Genocide Relief/ Resources:
Genocide: Anti Semitism: ALD.org
Genocide Relief: Doctors Without Boarders
Housing Assistance/ Resources:
Housing Assistance: National Coalition for the Homeless
Housing Assistance: United Way
Worker’s Aid:
Worker’s aid: The Restaurant Workers Community Foundation
Climate Change:
Climate Change: Check out this article with multiple resources!