Skip to main content

Katelyn Flores The Roof is on Fire

1. CONTEXT: What were the circumstances that framed the meaning and process of this project?
 Youth were being portrayed in a negative light in the media, the youth of Oakland felt like they didn’t have a voice and like they weren’t being heard 

2. CONTENT: What was the issue, need, idea or opportunity addressed by this project?
This project gave youth of Oakland a chance to speak their minds.

3: FORM: What is the medium that was used to address or embody the content?
The medium that was used to address this content was youth in cars speaking about their lives on a rooftop of a parking structure.

4. STAKEHOLDERS: Which are the groups or individuals that invested in the process and outcomes of project?
Youth of Oakland, Suzanne Lacy and Chris Johnson who are artist and teachers at the California college of arts and crafts in Oakland, Annie Jacoby media specialist. 

5. AUDIENCE: For whom was this project conceived? 
The community of Oakland 

6. ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES: How were the stakeholders, audiences, and others engaged/connected to the project?
The students were connected to the project by being the voices of Oakland youth talking about controversial topics while the audience walked around to groups of students and listened to what they had to say but weren’t allowed to interject anything. Suzanne and Chris organized the entire event allowing the students to have a voice. Annice Jacoby media specialist made sure the media was there to film, record, interview participants 

7. GOAL: What are this project's objectives?
To allow the students to have a voice in controversial subjects that were happening at the time 

8. VALUES: What were the project's guiding values or core beliefs? How were they expressed in the process?
youth were being portrayed in a negative light in the media, the youth of Oakland felt like they didn’t have a voice and like they weren’t being heard. they were being expressed by students having real conversations with each other about what they were facing in society. 

9. RESOURCES: What tangible and intangible resources were used to pursue the project's goals?
The resources used were rented cars, 7th floor of new federal building parking garage, high school students, media outlets. months of planning, posters/advertising, ~ $100,000 donated money and services. 

10: OUTCOMES: What were the results of this project? 

Awareness of youth perspective on real issues, breaking stereo types in the media 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Rachel Tibbetts - What a Riot

Schutzman starts off this reflection with an excerpt from the play she created. The opening lines serve to give recognition and context to the subject matter by immediately dedicating the show to Rosa Parks. This is an extremely effective strategy to introduce the tone and subject matter of the piece. The addition of Claudette at the end was the “icing on the cake” to the introductory excerpt. Raising questions and therefore instantly opening up a dialogue. Schutzman approached the students by asking questions while also letting them choose the person/people they wanted to learn about and also depict in the play. I think entering a school with something to teach is the idealistic approach to interacting with students; when students are in class they are expecting to be taught and ask questions. This is the exact approach Shutzman used. This allowed her to familiarize herself with the student community and find their interests, question...

Katharine Means What a Riot! Response

In 2005 Mady Shutzman was invited by CalArts CAP to write a play for the teenage participants Plaza de la Raza arts center in East Los Angeles to perform. At first I was intrigued by this, as my limited knowledge of Boal and Theatre of the Oppressed techniques has been around the participatory games, activities, and techniques used to build community. I know some about Forum and Legislative Theatre, but had little conception of what a TO play would look like. Shutzman's piece, UPSET! , was modeled using Boal's Joker System. There is a character called the Joker who probes the characters and audience during the play with the "ultimate goal to raise questions, offer multiple points of view, and encourage dialogue". Shutzman used this form as a "means to incorporate the teens curiosity, dismay, outrage, confusion, fear, and inspiration in relation to the subject matter of the play within the play." The teens decided upon Rodney King and Claudette Colvin (a youn...