Clybourne

Today as I was walking down the street, listening to Five for Fighting on my iPod, and thinking about all of the homework I still had to do a completely random thought occurred to me that may have otherwise never come up.

A few weeks earlier I had seen the play Clybourne Park put on at the Steppenwolf theatre, a wonderful production in my eyes, and to get there I had driven downtown and back from the highway in my friend's car.

What I did not notice, sitting quietly in his back seat talking about the things going on in our lives that I only just realized today walking down the street is that the street that you turn on to get into the Steppenwolf theatre is called Clybourne street. (The street name is the same as the name of the play)

This realization is important because it gave me a hint into the personal experience of the writer, after re-reading the playbill it seems as though he himself grew up around the area of the Steppenwolf, and as his play had so much to do with social location I felt that his information on the area he was writing the play about was probably important as well.

The writer's social location worked into the fabrics of his play, informing every action with a very Chicagoan tone, which points to the fact that social location really effects all aspects of society, not just those written down, but those that encompass day to day interactions.

Everyone is effected by social location, it is an inherently human value, but what really intrigues me is how that translates into action. In Clybourne park, you see an evolution of action, and it is really interesting how the author's location shapes it.