The focus of my project will be to explore the role that theatre has played and continues to play in anti-racism, social justice, and liberation for groups of color. Throughout my high school career, I have developed very strong interests in both theater and social justice. Participating in performing art classes, chorus, plays, and musicals at LREI has allowed me to find an unexpected love for the performing arts and being on stage. However, through joining and leading affinity groups and taking electives that focus on race, gender, and sexuality, social justice and advocacy have become a big part of who I am. Therefore, I thought Senior Project would be the perfect opportunity to intertwine these interests and create a project where I could explore both theater and social justice at the same time. 

I believe that looking at what role theater should play in social justice is incredibly important. Throughout my life, I have rarely seen myself represented in theater, TV, and film. I rarely saw people who looked like me or who had similar experiences to me. Though there has been great progress in making sure that marginalized groups are represented properly and positively, there is still so much work to do. Not only do people of color deserve to see themselves and their stories represented on stage, but they also deserve to be represented behind the scenes. The people behind the scenes are the ones who cast actors, write plays, musicals, TV shows, and movies, do lightning and set design, etc. We must make sure these people are equipped to tell accurate and unstereotypical stories about minorities. Lastly, I want to see myself represented in the audience. Theater is oftentimes extremely expensive and therefore inaccessible to communities of color and lower-income people. I want my project to help me learn about the work many artists and activists are doing to eliminate these issues and make theater anti-racist and a more inclusive community.

Through my project, I intend to fill the experience, academic, and service buckets. For the experience bucket, I will be in an apprenticeship under Adam Hyndman, a Tony award-winning producer, performer, director, and activist. I will be shadowing him during meetings relating to the multiple organizations he is involved in, such as Broadway for Racial Justice and The Pipeline Theater Company. I will also be volunteering and helping out with any new projects or organizations that he is in the process of creating. 

For the academic bucket, I will be engaging with texts and other pieces of media that will teach me more about the history of theater, the history of racism in theater (minstrelsy), the representation of people of color in media, and anti-racism. Hopefully, this will allow me to better understand the exact problems that exist in theater regarding racism and find ways in which the Theater community can try to fix these issues. This paired with my work with Adam Hyndman will make for a meaningful learning experience. 

For the service bucket, I plan to give my time to organizations such as Tassel, a non-profit organization that focuses on changing the lives of rural Cambodians through English education, and God’s Love We Deliver, an organization that cooks, packages, and delivers meals to people in need. 

I think it would be impossible to have a very clear and concrete idea of what success looks like for my Senior Project. Learning about anti-racism and about how racism and white supremacy seep into all areas of society, like the performing arts, is not something you can package into a “project”; it is a life-long process and learning experience. I hope my Senior Project will inspire and motivate me and my classmates to continue to keep social justice and advocacy as a priority in our lives as we move on to college and adulthood.