Acting Out Against Racism
What does it look like to be an anti-racist in today’s society and at Principia College? You would expect faculty and students to research that kind of question through political science, sociology, ethics, law, or public-policy projects. But theatre as a research tool? That’s exactly what an intrepid group of students, recent graduates, and facilitators explored this summer in a workshop hosted by the Theatre and Dance Department.
“Fostering an Anti-racist Community at Principia” was one of the College’s five Summer Research/Creative Assistant Programs taking place on campus during the summer. Led by Professor Chrissy Calkins Steele (chair of the Theatre and Dance Department) and four recent alumni who served as facilitators, the 10-day workshop explored the question: “How do we foster an anti-racist community at Principia?”
“One of the things that is really powerful about theatre is walking in someone else’s shoes,” Steele says. “What does that really feel like? It was an education for all of us, and the conversations have been powerful and eye-opening—that’s the power of theatre.”
The 14 participants included eight student and alumni actors who took to the stage of the Black Box Theatre in Davis-Merrick Center for the Performing Arts. The workshop was structured around the techniques of Brazilian playwright and politician Augusto Boal whose pioneering “Theatre of the Oppressed” brought the voices of marginalized Brazilians to the forefront in the 1970s. Two of Boal’s practices were used to bring the actors and audience together to engage the topic of anti-racism—“image theatre” and “forum theatre.”
For “image theatre” vignettes, the actors would put themselves into “frozen pictures” related to real issues they have encountered at Principia and elsewhere. Audience members could then rearrange or even join in the tableau to recast the scene into a more positive, anti-racist outcome. The “forum theatre” scenes allowed the audience to “freeze” an ongoing active scene to explore practical alternatives to situations where racism comes to the surface.
Voicing Solutions
“It gave me more of an impetus to do my own research and to continue this exploration because this is just a catalyst to start exploring this more—exploring racism in America and in the world—and how I can act against it,” says Zoë Wade, who stayed on campus after graduation to be part of the workshop.
“This was accessible for everyone,” Steele notes, “even if they weren’t theatre majors. . . . There was such a sense of ensemble and trust among the participants, which allowed us to have these really deep conversations.”
The group would take an idea from these conversations and “get it up on its feet” through setting scenes and playing roles. For example, one of the participants (who is from Africa) grew up thinking of Jesus as white. “We created an image of a white Jesus, and we started manipulating that image and changing who was playing Jesus. It helped us to have a conversation about how Christians see Jesus,” Steele says. “That was fascinating. It was really powerful to move from conversation to the stage.”
“We have people from different backgrounds, countries, cultures, ethnicities,” says Lessly Amwikato, a senior who was one of the actors. “And we all came here to (not immediately find solutions but to) find strategies that can enable us to be better allies against racism in the U.S., specifically, at this moment.”
Translating the workshop’s takeaways into concrete changes at the College is still a work in progress, but Steele and the participants are already thinking about ways to share some of their work more broadly—like replicating some of the scenes at the College’s upcoming New Student Orientation.
“I think this is the groundwork for what needs to be done at Principia,” says sophomore and workshop actor Chris Ajuoga. “And now that we are aware, the next step is to do something.”