Voices from Roosevelt: Community-Based Devised Theatre as a Youth Rite of Passage

For youths, rites of passage mark a transition from passive to participatory roles in the formation of individual and group identities. The transition from passive to participatory roles also represents a cornerstone of community-based theatre practice. Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, for example, emphasizes moving individuals from spectators to participatory “spectactors” in both theatre and their outside lives. Some groups, such as the Jamaican Theatre of the Oppressed group Sistre, use these methods as the basis for the creation of performances as well. In such a way, community-based work can be a type of devised theatre, the practice of creating new theatrical works in a group rather than producing previously written plays or commissioning a new script.

When practiced with youth, the community-based method of creating and performing a theatrical piece can function as a rite of passage into their larger community. Voices from Roosevelt, a community-based devised performance at Roosevelt High School in Portland, Oregon, provides one example. Rite-of-passage approaches have shown some effectiveness with youth and other populations in moving to places of participation and empowerment. In this essay, I look at devised theatre involving youth, and propose involving the community in the process of devising as a way to make the process function more effectively as a rite of passage. Details concerning the creative process of Voices illustrate its function as a rite of passage moving students from a passive to a participatory role in the creation of their school’s identity. Student reactions to the process support its value and also suggest important considerations for the effective use of community-based (or any other) theatre as a rite of passage.

Theatre, Youth, and Rite of Passage

Adolescence is a key time of transition. Youth face the change from a child to an adult role within their extended families, neighborhoods, and other groups. Perhaps the largest difference between these roles is the level of engagement by youth in the formation of the identities of these communities, moving from their child role as primarily receivers of group identities to an adult role as participants in the co-creation of those identities. Such empowerment as co-creators does not necessarily follow simply with an increase in age or passing a certain numerical threshold, though those thresholds may provide youth with more legal agency. There are often personal, social, and even political forces arrayed against youth (and adults) taking agency in the formation of individual and group identities. Given this, techniques may be needed to help youth with this transition. Attempts to create and utilize rites of passage for transitional purposes have shown some degree of success, both with youth and other populations. Of the applications with non-youth groups, the use of rites of passage with domestic violence victims, in particular, focused on transitioning to a place of empowerment. All the applications show markedly better results than the usual approaches to substance abuse remission (a remarkable 73 percent success rate),¹ empowerment of domestic abuse survivors,² and African American adolescent male academic achievement and school behavior (an average GPA increase of 45 percent and comments from teachers, counselors, and parents regarding improved student behavior).³

For many, including myself, the experience of being involved in a theatrical production during youth has acted as a rite of passage. For example, recent practice involving LGBT youth in devising theatre has shown success moving participants to a more active role in the creation of their individual and group identities. The effectiveness of such approaches as broad rites of passage can be blunted by isolation of the process from the rest of the community. Increasing cultural fragmentation and individualization can pose issues for any community-based activity, even within more specific groups such as the LGBT community. One example is devised theatre interventions with Australian LGBT youth that impacted those youth individually and as a group but showed little impact within their surrounding community.⁴

Involving the community in the process of creating devised theatre with youth can address the effects of this fragmentation...