May 19, 2020: Tradition!

Who has the right, as master of the house,

To have the final word at home?

(Boom!)

The papa!.....The papa!

I'm a big Randy Rainbow fan these days, and I really liked the video he just released, where he rewrites the lyrics to "Tradition," from Fiddler on the Roof, under the title "Distraction."  It's a nice, satiric stab, if you like that sort of thing. And I do. 

But I liked it for reasons above and beyond the satire. I liked it because it got me thinking about the original song, and about Fiddler itself. 

I had the pleasure and privilege of choreographing Fiddler three times, and I can talk about its layers for longer than you want to listen. I've been thinking about it all day, and about how it relates to our current situation, where the roles we had a couple of months ago have been disrupted, and where we've had to bend, and bend, and change.  

Poor, dear Tevye thought he had the final word at home, but his daughters rebelled, in ways small and large, and then times changed, and ... he didn't have the final word at all. The mamas, the sons, the daughters, the rabbi, the matchmaker - all knew their roles. The Jews of Anatevka had a community, and  that community was part of the larger society... and then the pogroms came, and they had to pull up stakes and disband that community, and start all over again. 

Who has the right, as leader of the classroom, 

To decide it's time for school?

(Boom!)

The teacher! ... The teacher!

But not so much, right now. It's the parents. And that's a new role. And it's hard to do if those parents are still The worker...! But it's also hard to do if they are suddenly The furloughed! Or The jobless! 

How many people had a clear role - The dentist! The boss! The server! The cook! The singer! The pilot! The cleaner!... and now that role is suspended, or gone? Twenty per cent of us, so far?

How many people had multiple roles - the boss but ALSO The daughter!, visiting an aged parent three times a week, but now they can't even get in the door?  

If I bend that far, says Tevye, if I give up every tradition, I will break.  

And yet the world demands it. The world changes, and we change with it, however reluctantly, however gracelessly. 

I feel as if, in the past week, I've turned some sort of corner in my reaction to the pandemic. I don't like it, but I am not spending as much energy mourning or disgruntled, or talking about how this is not how things SHOULD be. I don't wake up wondering if it's really happening. It doesn't take me a moment to orient myself. 

The dreams are still weird, but they are not terrifying. There was one where I was auditioning for a show, and all I really wanted was to be dismissed from the audition - thanked, and told I could go home now. But instead, they kept me there, sending other people home, and then giving me another bit to try. The number of folks in the theater dwindled, and finally, almost against my will, I was cast. 

I think that's how a lot of us feel right now - we didn't really want this role. But it's ours.