Performance art has the potential to play an enormous role in increasing the visibility of marginalized groups. When an audience member observes a character in a play, they can relate their personal experiences to the character’s experiences, making them feel less invisible in their own identity. In addition to affecting how someone sees themselves, shows can allow audience members who do not belong to marginalized groups to be exposed to different people and ideas, which can encourage patrons to change the way they view those people or ideas. On a larger scale, theater can facilitate progressive discourse among a community of people, leading to real change in how a whole community sees a marginalized group.
Ms. Laura Desmond, the Middle and Upper School Theater, Dance, and Film Chair, emphasized her department’s commitment to promote inclusivity and belonging. She said the theater departments has “made a concerted effort to expand the stories that we tell. We want everyone to see themselves on stage. Whether or not they can see their exact story, we want them to see some part of who they are represented on stage.”
A few years ago, the theater department chose to stage a musical called “Anything Goes.” Over this past summer on the Instagram account RivSpeaksOut, students who were in the musical described how white students had “yellow face and [made] fun of the Asian accent.” After significant backlash, the theater department decided to change many parts of the show. Ms. Desmond explained how this incident sparked a change in the theater department to prioritize inclusivity and belonging: “that started the thought process for us...showed us that it [visibility] was something we needed to focus on.”
Through their curriculum and the shows they produce, the theater department has proven that they are committed to making everyone feel seen. For example, in one class project called “Casting Yourself,” Ms. Desmond tasked her students with finding a monologue they identified with. Junior Ben Ghatan, who participated in this project last year, chose to find a monologue that related to his Iranian heritage. Ghatan reflected on his experience with this project, saying, “what was really interesting was that usually you are trying to embody a character, but in this [project] you are expressing a part of your own identity.” Through projects like “Casting Yourself,” the theater department embraces the identities of their students and gives a platform to a diversity of writers.
Through the production of socially progressive shows, students who do not take theater classes are able to see the efforts of the theater department to represent marginalized groups.
Ms. Lexie Frare, a teacher in the Theater, Dance, and Film department, said that when deciding which shows to put on, one goal of the theater department is to “ensure that the shows we are choosing start conversations about belonging.” Last fall, the theater department staged The Laramie Project, a play based on the true events of how a community in Laramie, Wyoming reacted to the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student. By focusing on the hate crimes towards Matthew Shepard, the play explored the struggles of the LGBTQ+ community to feel included in a heteronormative society. Junior Maya Fernando, who played a priest, an academic advisor, and the governor in The Laramie Project and is the leader of the Queer Straight Alliance (QSA) at Riverdale, remarked on what specifically The Laramie Project did in making the LGBTQIA community feel seen: “I think a lot of times the queer community can just be viewed as extremely separate [from the straight community], like it is kind of these two different things that never meet, or if they meet they are next to each other, but there is never this sort of intermingling, which is actually the truth of community. So, I think that The Laramie Project did a great job of showing how queerness affects a community and it did not separate the two.”
In addition to producing The Laramie Project, the theater department has chosen even more shows that shine light on the struggles of marginalized groups. Last spring, Hairspray, a play that discusses issues pertaining to the civil rights movement, was presented to the Upper School. The fall play this year, which will be performed virtually, is She Kills Monsters, a play about an older sister’s attempt to gain a deep understanding of her younger sister, Tilly, after she dies in a car crash. According to Ms. Frare, the director of the play, through the journey to understand Tilly, a girl who was seen as a nerd and who was not quite sure of her own gender and sexuality, the play touches on “LGBTQIA themes, themes of bullying” and the “idea of belonging.”
In response to these shows, dialogue is facilitated by the theater department across many mediums. For example, after shows it has become common for the cast and crew to hear audience member’s reactions to the show and answer their questions. Ms. Frare has also played a role in extending discussions beyond the theater through her work as a member of the Community Engagement Team (CET). Led by Ms. Phyllis Dugan, the CET, creates lesson plans, curriculum, and professional development to strengthen the Riverdale community on both an institutional and interpersonal level. Ms. Frare has taken advantage of her unique role as both a member of the CET and theater department by preparing lesson plans for advisories that “are meant to continue the conversations” initiated by the shows.
Through their successful efforts in broadening the stories told and the voices represented, the theater department has set a great example for other departments to learn from.
