"Some of Them Were Real-World Problems": Examining Racialized Identities in a School Theater Residency

• In Event: Methods, Histories, and Outcomes in Drama/Theater Education

Abstract

Recent student walkouts and public protests, each designed to highlight community issues and elicit change (Ajasa & Beckett, 2021), reflect an increasing commitment by adolescent youth to name and fight inequality like racism (Lee, Defresne, Relyea, 2021). Our paper examines how theatre-making experiences embedded in a high school residency provided youth opportunities to examine sociopolitical implications of their racialized identities as part of a collaboration between a community-based theatre organization and an urban school district. Through moments of ensemble work, writing for performance, and improvisational exercises, youth critically considered race, identity, and the larger world across lived contexts (school, home, community). Our findings add to literature on anti-racist theatre education while furthering discourse on culturally relevant approaches to education.

Authors

• Betsy Maloney Leaf, University of Minnesota
  Presenting Author

• Bic Ngo, University of Minnesota
  Presenting Author