Without appealing to the curtain for justice in “notes on the ground”

The lights darkened in the Newhart family theater, while a hush fell over the public. Above the stage, sneakers wearing a ceiling – a haunting memory of lost life for a education system that has never offered them a chance.

“Notes in the field”, directed by Deron Williams, is a piece related to the black experience in education and an indictment of social programs that fail the most vulnerable.

Between February 13-23, two rotary distributions, called gold and brown teams, took over the challenge of telling stories extracted from the real life reports of the school pipeline. Production, initially a monologue by Anna Deavere Smith, has taken new dimensions with added music and color castings.

Williams said throughout the process of producing the show, the word “intentional” continued to refuse. The discomfort of the public was intentional. The gross and unfiltered filming of the police brutality and the report of the news presented in the piece were intended. The choice to make the actors play different races and genres while talking in a variety of accents was intended.

The show started with a video with killing Freddie Graysoil jars from lying sites, by kindness Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Ala. And a video about Shakara – a student pulled off his neck desk and thrown on the floor by a police officer because he used his phone during the class, according to the class Los Angeles Times.

The whole production was designed to force a confrontation with reality, said Williams. The choreographer and director of movement, Tanji Harper, said that “notes in the field” is not a passive experience – it is meant to challenge, to disturb and to affect the public.

Williams and Harper said they added musicality to the show to continue to do the experience of the visceral public. Harper said that some participants, especially the youngest generation, do not have the attention to stay for two hours and to process brutally resumed stories. She said through music and dance, they can experience the story at a more visceral level.

“People are uncomfortable in their chairs when the mirror is held in some things they have ignored or are clearly aware and are cognitive dissonant,” Harper said. “Your heart is also drawn because of the emotional pieces of the chosen music and the movement that was given.”

With Colorblind casting, some white and Asian actors depict black characters, whom Harper said he invited the commitment. Because the scenes were monologues, the actors spoke directly with the participants.

Harper showed Alex de Foy, a fourth year of economy and a member of the gold distribution, who played the roles of a psychiatrist and Bryan Stevenson-Avocat and a social justice lawyer. The portrayal of Foy of two black characters, explaining the history of the line to the public, left spectators speechless, according to Harper.

“Change how you get the information and especially if you hear them in someone else’s skin,” Harper said. “The viewing of Alex depicts a young black man and speaks in the vernac that he used to listen to everyone -now and they could see the son.”

Erinn Grendahl, a fourth year of theater, was a member of the Maronii distribution, singing both a black pastor and a congressman. Grendahl said it was an experience of opening the eyes to see the public reactions of the public, being a white woman depicting black male characters.

The member of the gold distribution, Jermaine Hayden, a black student, played the same parties as Grendahl. Grendahl said that based on the black actors of his team helped him to overcome the challenge of playing characters not from his own race.

“I argue that there is no color casting, but rather, there is an intentional choice to be made by the creative director, or by their directive team,” said Grendahl. “It is an examination of how people process the information, from a color person or a color character, coming from a person of color, versus, as I understand from a white person.”

The production was also modeled by the political climate in which it was repeated. Jermaine Hayden, an important the theater of the first year, said she used the play to channel her anger behind 2024 elections.

“The day after the elections was our first rehearsal,” Hayden said. “Everyone was very emotional and for me as an artist, I felt the best way I could put my emotions in the way I felt that our country is treated in art.”

With the new presidency, many marginalized groups woke up under the attack. This reality weighed a lot on the distribution and tried to appear through the delivered monologues and the interpreted dances.

Harper choreographed a number called “This is America”, and Hayden said that the strongest time comes when all actors collectively raise their hands in the air. Distribution – some without previous dance experience – had to learn together how to express the struggle through movement. Hayden said the goal is to emphasize solidarity every step.

Beyond the repetition of the lines and the practice of dances, the distribution used time behind the scenes to educate themselves. They entered the history of ostracization in the education system, exploring the way in which the marginalized voices were silenced by generations. The purpose was not just to perform – it was to understand.

Harper said that the true understanding of these varied stories can only come from embodiment. It was not enough to hear these stories or to see them at a distance – the distribution had to live them.

“When you walk in someone else’s story and you have to tell her and live or express her, you will feel it other than when she has only told you or when you see that it happens,” Harper said. “We become so desensitized in the amount of violence we see everywhere – we almost expect evil.”

Conscious alone is not sufficient, according to Williams. He said that the inclusion of a colorblind distribution and images from the real life of police and racism around marginalized children cause the crowd to think. Williams said that seeing gross images, viewers can feel that the division established against the marginalized communities is intentional, and the information they have learned is false.

“Historically, we know that the easiest way to conquer anything is to divide people,” Williams said. “We do not look further on what is stated that it makes us easy to bite each other, especially those who are underrepresented to fight each other when the real attack comes from those who try to maintain this white supremacistic system. ”

Williams said there is a difference between being ally and being a co-conspirator. An ally is someone behind the comfort of social justice, but a co-conspirator is placed on the first lines based on their privilege.

“We are where we are because we have too many allies and there are not enough co-conspirators,” said Williams. “People like to be comfortable in the place where they are located. But you become a co-conspirator only when you are willing to give up that place of comfort and walk in that realm of discomfort. “

Williams said that “notes on the ground” makes people currently uncomfortable on their seats for two hours – but inspire discussions afterwards.

Hayden said that, besides the conversations, the show will arouse, it gives students a chance to remember the name of black lives that have been lost.

“This show does not look at the future, but looks at the past,” Hayden said. “A large part of the movement is to say their names, what we do exactly what we do. We raise the stories of these people who, unfortunately, were killed by the police and who were confronted with much injustice. “

“Notes from the field” covers the injustices over two hours, but that was not enough. Injustices happen especially in the current surrounding political agitation Dei initiatives. Williams said this is a moment to learn and act on social justice outside the class.

In addition to looking at the past, Williams said it is important to consider the problems present. At a time when Debates on free speech Domaining the university campuses and public discourse, Williams said there is a tension between principle and practice.

“We are in a system that speaks of freedom of expression, but indeed it does not respect the freedom of expression at the same time,” said Williams. “We hope that, listening to this – seeing this – students get a better understanding to be better people and think beyond themselves and all those who are less lucky.”