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Waiting for Godot in New Orleans: A Field Guide, edited by Paul Chan (Creative Time Books: 2010)
Waiting for Godot in New Orleans: A Field Guide describes the 2007 “public art” project of producing Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot on the streets of post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. Artist Paul Chan, the non-profit organization Creative Time, and The Classical Theatre of Harlem were the major instigators of the project, the official title of which is “Waiting for Godot in New Orleans: a play in two acts, a project in three parts,” referring to the play and the “shadow” fund developed to accompany the project and benefit the city.
Known for his social activism as well as his highly acclaimed art, Chan combined both these passions for the concept. Creative Time jumped at the opportunity to work with Chan on such an ambitious social venture, as did The Classical Theatre of Harlem, with Christopher McElroen directing the New Orleans productions.
Waiting for Godot in New Orleans: A Field Guide, a 300-page account, establishes that the massive undertaking involved more than just traveling to New Orleans and putting on a show. Community was everything to the project. The hundreds of people involved in Chan’s idea wanted to know as much as possible about New Orleans’ people and their struggle. Engaging the community through conversation, workshops, and seminars, the team not only contextualized the play, but also gained a greater understanding of the unique and legendary city and developed lasting relationships with its people.
The book opens with clippings from newspapers about the hurricane and the toll it took on New Orleans. It then proceeds to an article by Kalamu Ya Salaam about the history and culture of the black population in the city. Chan’s, Creative Time’s Nato Thompson’s, and McElroen’s reflections on the goals and challenges of the project follow.
The play was staged after months of preparation in two locations: the decimated Ninth Ward and Gentilly. More people showed up for the production than there were seats, a brass band played in the audience, and a gumbo dinner followed the show. The book includes several production reviews, even mixed ones, but they all acknowledge the fittingness of the play’s message and the choice of setting.
Also included are descriptions of the theater-of-the-absurd play “Waiting for Godot.” With a small biography of playwright Samuel Beckett’s life, the concepts behind his work, and literary criticism of the play, even those who have never seen it grasp the play’s story and implications. Susan Sontag’s article about her own experiences directing “Waiting for Godot” in another devastated area, besieged Sarajevo in 1992, also contextualizes the play and this particular production.
Documenter Cauleen Smith, another individual Chan asked to join the project, created a science-fiction interpretation of New Orleans’s destruction known as The Fullness of Time. Testimonies of New Orleanians who assisted her as well as Smith’s own account and her notes make up an entire chapter of the book.
Everything in Waiting for Godot in New Orleans: A Field Guide is accompanied by photographs of the play’s advertisements, props, and the production itself, as well as conceptual drawings, documents of set arrangements, handwritten notes, and sketches. In fact, on June 30th, the same date as this book’s release, a display about this project opens at the Museum of Modern Art as part of a larger exhibit of “public art.”
The book ends with fascinating interviews of native New Orleanians. They impart their personal stories as well as their views on the project, which were originally wary. Apparently, the endeavor seemed like just another organization coming in to take pictures and offer help without really listening to the locals. But Chan and his team wanted their project to be different. They wanted to understand what these people had gone through.
The book goes into great depth about this three-year undertaking. Readers do not only learn about the project, but they also gain a better understanding of New Orleans and the effects of Hurricane Katrina, thanks to interviews with its citizens and details of how the city has transformed. Ultimately, readers recognize that Waiting for Godot was an appropriate choice for New Orleans: its commentary on humanity can be depressing or optimistic, depending on how you want to look at it.
Waiting for Godot in New Orleans: A Field Guide can be purchased here.
Photos courtesy of Creative Time.
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[caption id="attachment_7343" align="alignnone" width="560" caption="The play."][/caption]
[caption id="attachment_7346" align="alignnone" width="560" caption="Book cover."][/caption]
