Staging Social Justice: Collaborating to Create Activist Theatre

Pushing without Shoving: Ethics of and Emphasison Target Participation in TSJ Institutes

137 Pushing without Shoving: Ethics of and Emphasis on Target Participation in TSJ Institutes Bryan C. Moore The 2006 Theatre for Social Justice Institute with Fringe Benefits, the University of Iowa (UI), and the Iowa City Community School District (ICCSD) focused on issues of cultural competence and racism in local high schools. Participants in the Institute collaborated to create a Forum Theatre play to be performed for faculty, staff, and administrators as the keynote presentation of the ICCSD Martin Luther King, Jr. Professional Development Day 2007. The play presented problematic situations that could arise in a high school setting so that the audience could consider and practice how to resolve or prevent similar problems in the future. Many of the Institute participants, including high school students and staff members, also performed in the play. Early in the planning stages for an Institute, Fringe Benefits staff members emphasize the need to include participants of diverse genders , ethnicities, ages, cultures, disciplines, fields of expertise, and positions of power, as well as participants who can share personal experiences with the specific discrimination issue that will be addressed in the Institute. They also urge participating organizations to include representatives with diverse viewpoints about that social justice issue. Fringe Benefits asserts that the participation of this kind of diverse coalition of individuals is needed in order to create the most accurate, engaging, and effective theatrical depiction of a situation possible (Norma Bowles, personal communication). A perfect balance of diverse representation within an Institute is, however, an ideal that is not usually feasible. Moreover, sometimes the specific participant diversity goals that are established and/or the particular recruitment strategy that is implemented for a collaboration Bryan C. Moore 138 can draw in individuals with unworkable, conflicting agendas or insufficient motivation for participating. Balanced Representation For their 2006 collaboration, Fringe Benefits, Darwin Turner Action Theatre (DTAT), UI, the Iowa Theatre Department, and the ICCSD Equity Office drafted a project Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which included participant recruitment targets. The MOU stipulated that the ideal Institute “team” should comprise high school students and teachers, Educational Equity staff, and UI theatre students, as well as the play director, project coordinator/producer, individuals with legal, counseling, and diversity expertise, and allies with experience in education, activism, the arts, and/or parenting.1 Another important goal identified was diverse racial/ethnic and gender representation. Together, the partners discussed strategies for fulfilling the various diversity targets, or quotas, outlined in the MOU. In order to help ensure the specified broad and diverse participation , the UI faculty member who served as the project liaison required DTAT members and UI graduate school directing students to participate in the Institute. Additionally, the ICCSD, through its equity director, recruited students, faculty, and staff through general memos and personal contact. The partnering organizations recruited over thirty participants who represented, to varying degrees, the groups of individuals specified in the MOU. While there were a sufficient number of students from UI and the high schools, few ICCSD faculty and staff participated. There were also relatively few white males. As I reflect on this Institute, which I co-facilitated with Norma Bowles, many questions arise regarding the potential (and actual) obstacles created by establishing quotas: Should there be any participant -diversity goals in the first place? What if the people who might be most willing and able to devote the time and energy needed for an Institute do not fit neatly within the established demographic markers? What other factors play into assembling an effective team? What are some of the possible risks and benefits of mandating participation? In trying to ensure specific target representation, might we risk encouraging or compelling less-than-committed individuals to participate while missing out on the involvement of other interested parties? Might the project suffer as a result? An evaluation of these questions, along with the choices made and their impact, will help support the Pushing without Shoving 139 work already being done by Fringe Benefits and point toward strategies that might more effectively address representation-related issues in future Institutes. Should Projects Like This Set Participant Diversity Goals? As many of the Institute plays address cultural oppression, diverse cultural representation is necessary within the Institute, thus creating the need to set quotas. But racial quotas—often used in educational institutions and businesses to promote equal representation and to mitigate the effects of institutional and historical racism—are controversial and are considered...