First in a series of blog posts by Associate Artist Jelena Djukic as part of her internship with the company
It’s been more than a year. More than a full year since our lives got shattered and never really got their pieces back together.
Not yet.
Since I can remember, I’ve always loved stories. Hearing them, telling them, inventing them, playing them. My imagination helped me escape dark times and my desire to play led me to acting. That’s how I can fully express myself, though emotions. I’ve seen its magic, I’ve experienced it, and I think it’s a very powerful weapon.
We are suffering a collective trauma. This past year, we lost loved ones. We lost our jobs. We felt isolated, helpless, powerless, hopeless at times.
And as an artist…well. We can safely say that our industry is among those that suffered the most, but our hearts suffered even more. To be dedicated to theatre is to believe it is essential to a well-rounded society. We need to tell our stories. We need to see ourselves through fiction, to process, to mourn and even to find solutions, but most importantly, to dream and to hope.
Those are my convictions and in the past year, I started thinking maybe they weren’t shared by that many people.
And then, this opportunity arrived from TDHT. Like the light getting through a crack (Leonard Cohen), it made me see that I was not alone, that people were still out there, fighting for art to happen. Now, I’m filled with hope again and I want to help rebuild our society the best way I know: by telling stories. I truly believe theatre is a ‘weapon’ of mass construction. Now that the pandemic seems to be releasing its tight grip on us slowly, I see opportunities to do better. I want to thank Tableau D’Hôte for giving me one. I hope to find new ways of being an artist, a shaper of a society I want to live in, more equal, more inclusive, more kind. And to keep telling stories, no matter what comes our way.
