Edited by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg & Janet Tallman

“Do You Want to Hear What I Heard? Theatre as a Tool to Address Gossip, Silence and the HIV/AIDS Pandemic in Lesotho.”

Skeletons in the Closet?

It was a simple exercise, but it changed everything. When I asked my students at the National University of Lesotho in southern Africa to write a monologue starting with the phrase, “I have a skeleton in my closet,” I had no idea what might emerge from that hidden place. Not only was I giving them permission to put down on paper the most egregious examples of gossip-worthy behavior they’d ever witnessed, heard about, or been victims of, but I was also giving them permission to pretend that whatever they wrote had nothing whatsoever to do with them. More