I attended Goshen College's fall mainstage, “A View from the Bridge” by Arthur Miller, directed by Tamera Izlar, in order to broaden my experience and view on diversity and racism. I'll provide a summary of it, and give my thoughts.
This was a 2 act play, with an intermission in the middle. The play was written and set in the 1950s, in New York, and the plot focuses on a small family of Italian immigrants living there. Eddie Carbone (played by Phil Stoesz) lives with his wife Beatrice (Vanessa Jones) and 18 year old niece Catherine. At the beginning of the play, Eddie, who works hard for a living, invites his two cousins, Rudolpho and Marco, who just illegally immigrated over, to live with them to work in the U.S. Catherine and Rudolpho quickly begin to have feelings for each other, and express a wish to marry. Throughout the play, Eddie struggles with his dislike of Rudolpho, and talks with a Lawyer twice to see if he can stop them from marrying. He also becomes dominating and violent in the house. As a last resort, he turns his cousins in to the immigration office, so they will have to be deported. Marco becomes so angry that he spits on Eddie, and later on the two square off in a fight. The fight escalates and at the end of the play, they both pull knives, and Eddie is stabbed to his death, and Marco is taken away by the police.
Going into the play, I expected it to deal with issues of race, as well as politics, because I heard that it dealt with the red scare of the 1950s. After viewing it, I was surprised that it didn't seem to be about these subjects, as much as just a story about the father and his family. However, I think it did provide some interesting looks into poverty and diversity. For one, the family suffered from lack of outside connections, specifically connections to people not of Italian background. They could have been helped by having friends from the U.S., to help them adjust and get more used to life in the U.S. This could have helped Eddie, especially with his dealings with the lawyer and the law. Another thing that this play dealt with was the hard life of immigrants, partly due to the problem of not having connections. It is not necessarily something they can help a whole lot, as longtime U.S. citizens may want to keep their distance. However, also, having to work hard jobs long hours is hard on people, and this probably contributes to domestic disputes like those showcased in the play. Also, having to send money back to people in a different country makes it hard to get invested in life in the U.S.
Many of these issues are relevant today. Though today there are not very many italian immigrants, there are many Hispanic immigrants, legal and illegal, and so it is good to be aware of this, especially those of us planning to work in schools. I think as a teacher, it can be very important to make a conscious effort to relate to all students equally, and I think sometimes, because of unconscious tendencies, teachers should work especially hard to engage hispanic students and help them relate both to the teacher and to other students. Teachers should be available to respond to students' personal problems, and be willing to listen. In several education textbooks, including "Meet me in the Middle" I read that teachers should be seen as approachable, and I think it's definitely harder for students who are from a different country to approach teachers.
So mostly, what I took away from the play is being mindful of the issues of immigrants, and trying to connect to people who are in a tough situation.
