1. Content: What is the issue, need, idea or opportunity addressed by this project?
a) The project addresses the complexities of racial injustice, police brutality and the stories of movers and shakers of the civil rights movement and their place in both US history and present day America.
2. Form: What medium and techniques were used to embody the content?
b) The play is modeled, stylistically, after Boal's Joker System, which includes a Joker and a chorus in addition to the characters to tell the story. It creates a environment where different ideas relating to the subject matter of the play can be presented and debated. "The ultimate goal is to raise questions, offer multiple points of view and encourage dialogue." The group also tackled this difficult material by borrowing from popular theater "in the fashion of San Francisco Mime Troupe and Teatro Campesino.
3. Context: What are the circumstances and setting that frame our understanding of this project?
c) The students that helped create this work were young Latin Americans in the Los Angeles community who could relate to the oppression and racial injustice that their play was discussing. They used their own understanding of historical figures and events in conjunction with their own perspectives and reactions to those people and events to create a bridge between historical injustices and oppressions people face and how they directly relate to the same oppressions people face today.
4. Stakeholders: Who can affect or be affected by this project?
d) I imagine anyone could feel affected by this work. As human beings I believe we all have some instinctive empathy toward our fellow humans when faced with the realities of the racism, brutality and hate minorities face today and have faced in the past. The people who could really affect the work could be children of other races and socio-economic background who could offer their personal experiences with racism, etc. Another group of people who could REALLY affect this play and its message are racists. They could contribute an entirely different perspective as the oppressors themselves and offer a glimpse into racism through the eyes and opinions of a racist.
5. Audience or communities engaged: For whom and/or with whom was this project created?
e) This project was intended to engage the young Latino students (who helped develop and perform the piece) in discussion and analysis of the racial issues that inspired the work and help them draw connections between the racism in the past and present. The greater Los Angeles community is relevant to the work as well.
6. Engagement strategies: How were the stakeholders, audiences, and community members engaged in this project? How were the goals of the project advanced?
f) Through research, personal story sharing and group discussions facilitated by a mentor/playwright, students and performers engaged very closely with the subject matter. Thanks to the Joker System of playwriting, the piece lent itself to questioning, offering several points of view and encouraging dialogue amongst spectators and the student community who helped Mady develop the piece. The goals of the project were advanced through collaboration and open communication and exploration of the historical characters and events.
7. Resources: What tangible or intangible resources were used to pursue the project's goals?
g) The group used historical figures & their stories, historical events and personal stories as the framework for their piece in addition to the Boalian Joker System and some popular theater techniques.
8. Goal: What are the project's objectives?
h) The project's objectives were to create a dialogue relating to racism in the US - historically and in present day using the Joker System of playing. They wanted to tell the stories of unsung African American heroes, while also incorporating their own "curiosity, dismay, outrage, confusion, fear and inspiration" evoked by this difficult subject matter.
9. Outcomes: What were the results and the impact of this project? Did they match the goals?
i) I believe the group's goals were met – the students were given the opportunity to explore their own opinions and confusions regarding race issues, and began asking profound questions like the example given in the text… if faced with the same reality as Claudettte Colvin, a student named José asks "If I were on that bus, where would I have to sit?" The historical figures and events they researched got them asking critical questions in regards to the complexities of racism and how it affects them as humans in today's world of oppression.
10. Values: What were this project's guiding values and/or core beliefs?
j) They were aiming to discuss matters of racial equality within a historical and present day context. They wanted to approach the subject matter from several different perspectives and with the intention to use the play as a catalyst of open dialogue and opinion sharing in a controlled environment.
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