Artistry and Activism: Catherine Filloux and 'How to Eat an Orange'

In this episode of 'Art Heals All Wounds', I explore the transformative power of art with playwright and activist Catherine Filloux, focusing on her work that highlights human rights and the stories of survivors. Catherine discusses her upcoming one-woman play, 'How to Eat an Orange', inspired by the life of artist and activist Claudia Bernardi and her experiences during the military junta rule in Argentina. The episode delves into the themes of storytelling, the importance of remembering as a revolutionary act, and how art can serve as a map towards healing and human rights advocacy. Catherine also touches on her other upcoming project, an off-Broadway musical titled 'Welcome to the Big Dipper'. The discussion emphasizes the role of art in addressing trauma, fostering connection, and promoting social change.

00:00 Welcome to Art Heals All Wounds

01:04 The Power of Art in Human Rights: Catherine Filloux's Journey

01:40 Claudia Bernardi: Art, Activism, and the Dirty War

02:19 Behind the Scenes of 'How to Eat an Orange'

03:02 Supporting the Show and Engaging with the Community

03:16 Catherine Filloux: A Deep Dive into Her Work and Inspirations

08:16 Exploring Time, Memory, and Art in 'How to Eat an Orange'

11:01 The Intersection of Art and Forensic Anthropology

13:33 The Genesis of 'How to Eat an Orange': A Story of Chance and Destiny

21:12 Remembering as a Revolutionary Act: The Importance of Survivor Stories

27:39 Looking Forward: Catherine's Upcoming Projects and Final Thoughts

28:59 Closing Remarks and How to Support the Show

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Pam Uzzell: Do you believe art can change the world? So do I! On this show, we meet artists whose work is doing just that. Welcome to Art Heals All Wounds. I'm your host, Pam Uzzell.

[00:00:35] What is something you do that keeps you going? Your fuel. The thing that makes your work seem like play. For me, one of the things that keeps me going with this podcast is meeting the artists and creatives who come on this show. Their stories about what inspires them, or what bothers them, or even what catches their attention, and then learning about the creative work they've created in response.

[00:01:04] On season four, playwright and librettist Catherine Filloux came on the show. Catherine's commitment to telling stories of survivors and dedicating herself. to the cause of art that promotes human rights is something that I've thought about a lot since talking with her then. Catherine rightly points out that these survivors, many of them women, are creating so much.

[00:01:30] Catherine's work is based on the idea that it's never too late. There's always a way forwards when we focus on human rights. When we talked in season 4, Catherine mentioned that she was working on a one woman play about the artist and activist Claudia Bernardi. Claudia Bernardi is a survivor of the military junta rule of Argentina from 1976 to 1983.

[00:01:58] Over this time period, over 30, 000 Argentine citizens disappeared, victims of the so called Dirty War. In 1984, Claudia Bernardi joined a forensic anthropology team in their efforts to exhume mass graves and document violations of human rights. Claudia Bernardi's work, as an artist and activist is extensive and during the season where we're talking about Connection, I'm having Catherine back on the show to talk about how she and Claudia connected on a project in Northern Ireland where Catherine was inspired to write her play titled, How to Eat an Orange, about Claudia's life and work.

[00:02:45] This play opens in New York at the La MaMa Theater on May 30th and runs through June 16th. I'll be putting links in the show notes with more info so that you can see it if you're in the New York area at that time. You want to know how you can really help me keep this show going? Follow me on your favorite listening app.

[00:03:07] So easy, right? And if you really want to give the show a boost, leave me a five star rating or review. Hi Catherine, it is so great to have you back on Art Heals All Wounds. You were here, I think it was season four and a lot of people listened to your episode and it was an amazing episode, but for anyone who didn't hear that, can you tell us who you are and a little bit about your 

[00:03:36] work?

[00:03:38] Catherine Filloux: Yes, thank you so much, Pam. It's wonderful to be back, and I have to say that that was the first podcast I think in a series of podcasts I did last, about a year ago, and this, and yours was the first, and I really, really enjoyed it, so I'm happy to be back. Uh, yes, I am a playwright, And a librettist, which means I write the libretti for opera, and an activist.

[00:04:10] And my work is primarily, as a playwright, is primarily focused on writing about human rights. And I am the child of immigrants, and French was my first language. 

[00:04:25] Pam Uzzell: Yes. And one thing that I thought was really interesting about your story is that you always had a little bit of the outsider's perspective, which, you know, I, I found that having, being a little bit of an outsider creates amazing artists and you are definitely an inspiration with the work that you do.

[00:04:49] And when you were on before you talked about this upcoming play that you'd written, and it's about to [00:05:00] be produced and be shown, that's for a film, but be performed. 

[00:05:04] Catherine Filloux: I think it could be shown as a, they always say in playwriting, show not tell. So I will go with showing. 

[00:05:13] Pam Uzzell: Okay, and I think I even said at that time, before that goes on, please come on and tell us about it.

[00:05:19] So please do now tell us about this play that's going to be in New York. It's in the end of May through the beginning of June. Is that correct? 

[00:05:27] Catherine Filloux: Yes. Thank you for being so, uh, steadfast in In your promise, uh, because it's so lovely to have the idea to revisit something that we spoke about. Yes, it will open on May 30th and run through June.

[00:05:45] And it is called How to Eat an Orange. And I was quickly going to say before about being an outsider that that is interesting that you mention that outsiders are good artists, uh, and I was going to say that I think maybe in general, I could say this. I, I don't know that being an outsider has certainly been a painful thing to be.

[00:06:17] And that I think the pain of that, and I'm sure it's the case for, for outsiders maybe in general, is informative. So, How to Eat an Orange used to be called Under the Skin, and it is a one woman show about a friend, somebody I know, called Claudia Bernardi, and Claudia is a visual artist from Argentina. And also an activist and a community, uh, art, uh, conceiver who conceives community art projects.

[00:06:58] And I would say that for me, it's important to frame Claudia as doing all those things in a prism. P R I S M, in which I don't know that you can describe any one of them without describing the others. And then there is also Claudia, the person. So it is her story to a certain degree, but it is not a biography, uh, it is about circumstances

[00:07:32] that made the story what it is, and it travels through time from Argentina before the military junta, and then through that, and it also goes to the United States where Claudia moved. It covers it. going back in time to her grandmother, and also to her sister, and to our meeting, the two of us, which happened to be in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

[00:08:09] Pam Uzzell: Yes, and I have so many questions. I'm trying to figure out which one to ask first. I read the play and you talk about all these different time periods and there's very much a feeling of layering of these time periods. It's not a story told chronologically at all. And I'm wondering about your choice. You could have done a very straight forward play about all these different time periods.

[00:08:43] But you didn't, so I'm wondering about that choice. 

[00:08:47] Catherine Filloux: Yes. I think it might have been a bit informed by something I learned before when I wrote a play that is called Three Continents and that is somewhat autobiographical. And I found that to tell that kind of a story, I needed to adopt the idea, which I do believe in general, in, and that is that time moves completely fluidly between the present,

[00:09:27] the past, and the future. And so I think that maybe even instinctively, I immediately moved towards that idea that I had come up with in, in Three Continents in telling this story. And so I think you're asking why that kaleidoscopic look And I think that there are some iconic moments in the story that [00:10:00] are part of the plot that need to be layered in, in a certain way.

[00:10:10] And that, without giving a spoiler, that because of the nature of what happens in this story. It is important that it be told in this manner. 

[00:10:27] Pam Uzzell: Yeah, it's, it's an interesting thing about time and particularly its function in a story. And our expectations often when we hear a story, we want there to be a happy ending.

[00:10:39] But if we think about our own lives and the way that the past, the present, and the future Interplay for us, I think your play is a much greater representation of how we actually experience time in our own psychological and emotional lives. So that's interesting. And the other question I wanted to ask you is that when in reading the play, it looks like they're going to be some also like a bit of a multimedia portion of it.

[00:11:14] Can you talk about those portions and what they are and their function in the play? 

[00:11:20] Catherine Filloux: Yes. So, we did a virtual workshop of the play before, and we wanted to use projections, and we started working with Milton Cordero, who's a projection designer, and of course with our director, Elena Araoz. will be, both of these people will be doing the production.

[00:11:46] And so this layering came from the painting aspect of Claudia and the photographs that are part of her story. And then, uh, some, uh, visions that have to do with forensic anthropology that have to do with her sister, Patri, who is a forensic anthropologist and Claudia's relationship with Patri as they are uncovering mass graves, specifically one in El Mozote, El Salvador.

[00:12:31] And that all of this is collaged together in a way, and that since we are talking about a visual artist, there is an element of the way that the artistry of the play is portrayed. 

[00:12:50] Pam Uzzell: Yeah, I found, and I don't want to give spoilers either, but I found that intersection between the art and the forensic anthropology to be particularly powerful.

[00:13:03] And what you're talking about, you include little details from the massacre that happened at El Mozote that, you know, it's the little details that stick in your mind and help you to remember the larger event. I'm not going to say what that little detail is. It has to do with another character who's in there, but that's the only hint I will give.

[00:13:24] That overlap of those two people coming at to an event with different perspectives was really interesting. So here was the other question I have just because I'm curious, I would love to hear more about your meeting Claudia and then what the two of you were doing in Belfast and how that led to you wanting to write a one woman play.

[00:13:55] And this is as much about, you know, I do want to highlight a little bit the type of work that you've done, which would bring you into a meeting with someone like Claudia. So can you tell me just that little story from your life? 

[00:14:11] Catherine Filloux: Absolutely. Yes. So as a writer who has traveled to conflict areas around the world, which I've done in a circumstantial way, because one project has led me to another, I was invited by Pauline Ross, who ran the Derry Playhouse in Derry, Northern Ireland, to do a project.

[00:14:38] And just by chance, I ended up in an apartment on what Claudia and I now recall being Malone Road in Belfast, where suddenly, Pauline is like, Here's Claudia Bernardi, and here's Catherine Filloux, and kind of, you're gonna be [00:15:00] roommates. And so, of course, we had many balancing acts. And one was, we were now living together, and we were going to do a project on Ardoin Road, which is an area of the Troubles where there's a Protestant school and a Catholic school across the street from each other.

[00:15:23] And Claudia was going to work with the children to make a mural where the two children's work would be combined. And then we had the idea of doing a soundscape that would go along with the mural. And so one of the primary projects that we were doing was that one and then also I had been asked to work with strictly Protestant women nearby on a writing project.

[00:15:55] So every day we would go to our job. And we, we would do that. And along the way, we would listen very much. And, and Claudia and I realized this was happening every day we would hear one side of the story and then the other side of the story of, of what was happening or what had happened in Northern Ireland.

[00:16:18] And we were witnesses to something. And so that project went on for, we, we were there for a month. And each night we would have dinner and I learned, I am not a great cook by any means, but I do make salads and we had the salads and I learned that Claudia did not like olive oil, but very much liked vinegar.

[00:16:46] So going on that premise, we would, we would eat and she would tell me stories and I honestly would. think to myself and tell her, this is incredible. And along the way, as we got further, I said, this would be a wonderful one person show. And I know the perfect actress to play you, but I said this in complete jest.

[00:17:09] And, and then Claudia would say, Oh, a uni personal, because that's the way they say it, a uni personal. And I was like, yes, a uni personal. And, and then, then by chance, way later during the pandemic, I found out that this very actress, Mercedes Herrero, was living 20 minutes from Claudia in Virginia of all places.

[00:17:34] So this reality became true, and I wrote the play for Mercedes and the three of us clearly met and it became kind of a triumvirate and an act of friendship, I would say. So that was the wonderfully unexpected story of how it came to be. 

[00:17:59] Pam Uzzell: Wow, that's wonderful. And while you were telling me that you reminded me of, despite the gravity of the subject matter of what Claudia lived through, there's a very, very kind of funny and charming story about vinegar, which again, I'm not going to give it away.

[00:18:21] But it's a moment where It's about the utter honesty and innocence of a child, the way that their mind works, which I really loved in your play. So I'm really curious about the title. and the role of how to eat an orange. That's the question that we sort of start with and end with in this play. And I'm wondering about that choice as well for you.

[00:18:45] Catherine Filloux: Yes. Well, as I said, it was under the skin before, and we, for a variety of reasons, changed it. And again, without giving anything away, there's a reason why Claudia eats oranges the way she does. And it really is, it functions in the play as kind of a key or a code in which the answer to this eating of the orange also ties into some of the things that Claudia and her sister did when they were children that might seem somewhat innocent, but highly questionable, given what, what their poor father had to say to try to encourage them perhaps to take another path that ties into the orange as well.

[00:19:50] And oddly enough. is also tied into the idea of destruction because [00:20:00] there's an aspect of the play, definitely, that has to do with destroying. And so I think that all those things are linked together and create the bookends of what this play is. And then, really, a lot of this play is based on chance and destiny, because I also have a huge allegiance and relationship with oranges, and, I mean, my mother grew up in Oran, in Algeria, and her father and her would go to a place where Father Clement made the hybrid Clementine.

[00:20:48] And then, by chance, my great great grandmother, who is from the tiniest, rural, peasant part of France, her name was Clementine, which is very unlikely for that to happen. So oranges enter very much into the landscape. 

[00:21:11] Pam Uzzell: So interesting. . You know, when you were here before you talked about how important it was for you to tell the stories of survivors and you said something to me, which I've carried with me

[00:21:26] ever since that 'remembering is a revolutionary act', and I'm glad you're back because I want to hear a little bit more about what, in particular, is so important about hearing survivors who have gone through atrocities, which some of your work really points out things that are atrocities which we might not even name as atrocities.

[00:21:52] So I'm, I'm so curious to know for you, especially, what is, what is it that compels you to tell these stories? 

[00:22:03] Catherine Filloux: Yes. So, I think the key, when we talk about remembering is a revolutionary act, is, for me, I have listened to survivors now for 30 years, and I have heard stories that have changed my life and also given me such enormous hope for humanity because I am so deeply inspired by the people and I would say the majority of them are women who have managed to create lives and be on the forefront of moving forward in ways that are astonishing. And I right now say that I cannot do anything but work in the way that I always do with an urgency that is to say we cannot forget.

[00:23:11] We have to honor never again. And when I mentioned pain as an outsider, pain and, and survival. are things that I don't believe can be dismissed. And I think that that's an area where Claudia, when we came together in Belfast and worked and listened to children who on both sides of the road knew everything about peace.

[00:23:44] They knew everything, and that we must honor that, and that I think Claudia and I continue to do so in our work, and I think the area that I feel hopeful is that human rights is a wonderful guide for how we can move forward as human beings. And so remembering is a revolutionary act is important because, you know, much of my work has been about PTSD.

[00:24:22] And I started working on plays about that when PTSD wasn't the popular acronym that it is now. And yes, remembering can be re triggering and it takes a huge toll, but people do it because of the idea of never again. And one of my heroes, Raphael Lemkin, who I wrote a play about, who invented the word genocide and then created the genocide convention, he believed in never again.

[00:24:57] And I believe in it. And [00:25:00] I will not allow the idea that, you know, it's too late or that we can't find a way. 

[00:25:11] Pam Uzzell: That's very powerful. That's very powerful to hear because I often fall into the trap of it's too late or looking at wow, look at all the damage that's been done. We'll never get out of this, but I think you're right.

[00:25:30] There's always a way forward. Even if the way back is completely collapsed, finding the way forward and yeah, focusing on human rights as the map to doing this is really powerful. 

[00:25:47] Catherine Filloux: I like that word map. I think map is completely right. Yes. And I, and I think if you come see this play, I think, you know, the issue is talking about a play is, is not necessarily very valuable.

[00:26:04] I mean, I think one has to just come and see something. And I think the play and, and of course, all of the components. are proof. I really think that they're proof of what I'm talking about. So, so don't take my word for it. Come see the play. 

[00:26:24] Pam Uzzell: Uh, yes. Can you share with people where they can find out information

[00:26:31] about how to come see the play? 

[00:26:34] Catherine Filloux: Sure, yes. Uh, so it's playing at La Mama, which is a theater in New York City that is historically wonderful. It's in the East Village, and it opens on the 30th of May, and it runs through June. And if, all you have to do is just go to La Mama, How to Eat an Orange, and you can get tickets.

[00:26:58] And, um, yeah. 

[00:27:02] Pam Uzzell: Well, and also, please let people know where to find out more about you because your, your website for me is sort of a treasure trove of different projects you've been involved in different times when you've been either interviewed or in conversation with other people. So where can people find out about you and your work?

[00:27:22] Catherine Filloux: Thank you. Yes. So my website is simply www and my name, Catherine, and the last name Filloux dot com.

[00:27:33] And if you go there, you can also write to me. Feel free to do so. I would love to hear from anybody who wants to write. 

[00:27:39] Pam Uzzell: Before we leave, is there anything else that you wanted to add, Catherine? 

[00:27:46] Catherine Filloux: I just wanted to quickly also mention another project that I have. I have an off Broadway musical that will open in November, and it's called Welcome to the Big Dipper, and it is a musical with the composer Jimmy Roberts, who is a beloved collaborator, and also a friend, and he composed I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, which is the longest off Broadway musical besides The Fantastics.

[00:28:22] It ran longer than any of those. So yeah, I'd love for people to get a chance to come listen to that as well. 

[00:28:30] Pam Uzzell: Ah, that's wonderful. Well, thank you for coming on again and talking about How to Eat an Orange. I'm so excited that this is going to be performed, staged, shown yes, , whatever we wanna say very, very soon.

[00:28:47] So congratulations on that, and thank you for sharing what was going on for you to do this work. 

[00:28:53] Catherine Filloux: Thank you so much, Pam. It was a pleasure.

[00:28:59] Pam Uzzell: You're listening to Art Heals All Wounds.

[00:29:25] Thank you to Catherine Filloux for sharing the background of her new one woman play, How to Eat an Orange. I've got links up in the show notes where you can find out more about this play and to get tickets for it. And of course, I'll share a link to Catherine's website so that you can learn more about her and also to Claudia Bernardi's website.

[00:29:47] One thing that Catherine said during our conversation is that while, yes, outsiders do often become artists and produce some incredible work, that the experience of being an [00:30:00] outsider can be so painful. I really appreciate this reminder from Catherine, that the final product of our creative work isn't the point.

[00:30:11] The point is increasing a sense of belonging in our communities. 

[00:30:17] Do you have a story to share about the role of art or creativity in your life? I'd love to share it on the show. Just go to my website, arthealsallwoundspodcast. com and leave me a voicemail. And if you feel so inclined, you can also leave me a donation on my website.

[00:30:36] This show is completely independent, no sponsors, and a labor of love. Any donation you leave helps me pay for the expenses to keep it going. Thanks for listening.