08 May Because If You Can Walk, You Can Work!
Garret Groenveld is the next up in our Rough Reading Series! His reading of The Hummingbirds is scheduled to be read on May 14th and May 15th. It got started at PF when Garret was a Resident Playwright, and has developed over this past year!
For this week’s blog post, we’ll be taking a ‘bird’s-eye’ view at The Hummingbirds from our Marketing Intern, Deepika Ambalal!
Reading The Hummingbirds, I was left with a bunch of thoughts running through my head. Unemployment is something that many, many people in the United States are dealing with right now, and it’s coming down to taking any and every opportunity one can get. It no longer matters what the job, but more so having a job.
“I thought I was going to do something quite dangerous, and instead I get the great honor of giving people work. It may not always be the best job for them. It may not even be safe for them to do. But it’s a job. There are so few jobs these days, and so much needs to be done.”
-The Hummingbirds
The Hummingbirds uses two characters, working as Unemployment Agents, helping unemployed people find jobs. He highlights the difficulty when it comes to finding a 50 year old woman a job:
“I’m sorry, I don’t know exactly how a 50 year old woman of 115 pounds will work as a bouncer of a roughneck drinking establishment. But it sounds like an adventure- to be sure!”
Throughout the play, the phrase, “because if you can walk, you can work” is constantly repeated. It is interpreted in many ways, but for me, it means that working is always an option if you are healthy enough to do so. It’s very difficult in this economy, but not impossible.
“When you are young you make decisions, difficult ones, and you struggle to make them. You chose what your life will be. Some of these decisions are made for you. If they end up going against you- I’d call those disappointments. What job you tried to get, which job you didn’t get, and how you go about the getting, and if you don’t get- what do you do then?”
These words resonated with me – and made me think – a humorous bittersweet little reality pill. I am graduating this month, which is something to celebrate, and working as an intern for Playwrights Foundation – which is awesome.
The play is really great, and made me think. Graduating soon. Unemployment. It really hit home. Reading this play has made me realize it’s going to be hard in the real world – on the one hand – but on the other hand, the irony of just finding a job after spending so much time and (money) on a good education is troubling.
The Hummingbirds brings out contradictions and humor in a theatrical way – and for me – it’s a MUST SEE!
“I witnessed a swarm of hummingbirds attack a civilian. Several of us ran forward and tried to swat them away. Didn’t do much good, I’m just not tall enough. Such a nuisance. Lucky I got out with just one small puncture to my upper arm!”
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