BWW Blog: Social Justice Season

Hello again, BroadwayWorld! As theatre artists, we have the ability to touch our audiences, to take a stand and to make a statement. Honestly, in times like these, it really feels more like our duty. A lot of people are really scared, or angry, or frustrated, and while theatre cannot fix everything single-handedly (as awesome as that would be), it can at least help people feel better and bring more awareness to important issues.

This year, my school's theatre department really took this idea to heart, and we built our entire season around the theme of social justice. Our first show, Mosaic, was a devised movement-based piece, which I had the honor (and terror) of assistant directing. At the start of rehearsals, we sat in a circle with the entire cast and made a list of words that connected to various social issues. Words like "anger," "power," "alone," and "hope," gave inspiration to the various vignettes of our show.

Because of the nature of this show, everyone involved had a hand in creating the different scenes. Any ideas were taken into consideration, whether they came from a member of the cast or the creative team. If there was an issue that someone wanted to bring awareness to, we tried our best to find a place for it, whether it made up its own scene or not. The play's opening, for example, centered around homeless youths, which was really important to one of our cast members.

With this show, we mostly wanted to shine a light on a variety of issues and establish empathy within the audience, and based on all of the reactions and comments we received, we succeeded.

With A Raisin in the Sun, our second show of the season, we were able to continue the conversation on our campus, and even share it with theatre students from outside our college at Region II of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. It's always interesting (and maybe a little bit sad in some ways, too) to see how much older plays still resonate with modern audiences, but wow, does this play resonate. I somehow failed to read this play until actually working on it (blasphemous, I know), so when we started rehearsals, I was seeing it completely fresh. The fun thing ("fun thing") about a classic play is you get to see how much or how little has changed between then and now. They confront you with the connections.

In February, we opened a new play, America, The Play: a Play About America, which was written by one of our professors. Now, I did not work on this one, but I saw it twice. Out of the different shows this season, this one was definitely the most outright instructive play. Basically, if someone went to every show of our season, if they somehow managed to not learn anything by this point, this show was going to make sure they did.

Theatre can be a really powerful instrument for change, if we use it correctly. So why shouldn't we, whenever we can? When you put on a socially-conscious piece, you start a conversation within your company first, and then that conversation expands to your audience and even people they might know who did not see the show. If the piece moved them enough, they'll tell their friends and the message can spread even further. It will stay with them, and maybe one day, it will inspire them to act.

Photo Credit: John Pankratz