Acting the Change:Practitioner Profiles of Theater as Alternative Forms
of Community Organizing in Upstate New York
Christian TurnerDepartment of City and Regional Planning
Cornell UniversityDecember 2013
In dedication to the Auburn Players
“Nothing will change until we change - until we throw off our dependence and act for ourselves.” Myles Horton, The Long Haul
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Introduction to the Project 3
II. Cast of Characters: Practitioner Biographies 4
III. Theater as an Organizing tool for Community Change 9
IV. The Performance of Privilege: The Role of Whiteness in Organizing 18
V. Transformation, Healing and Personal Empowerment in Theater 27
VI. Conclusion 36
VII. Works Cited and Further Readings 39
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Introduction to the Project
This thesis captures the stories of people who are doing both traditional and nontraditional
forms of community organizing in Upstate New York and explores common themes across their
different community engagement approaches. As part of the food justice movement in Detroit and
the anti-fracking movement in Ithaca, New York, I have discovered that community change happens
not only through traditional forms of community organizing1. As I will show, many types of people
deeply involved in community change are not considered community organizers. I had the
opportunity to interview six practitioners working on social justice issues in upstate New York cities.
In conversations with these men and women I have witnessed an unclassified, informal type of
organizing at play — moving communities to be more democratic, equitable and whole. In this
thesis, I hope to share what I see as an emerging form of nontraditional community organizing and to
expand the definition of ‘community organizer’ through theater.
Practitioners John Borek and Doug Rice’s work to build the Rochester’s Multi-use
Community Cultural Center (MUCCC) shows how a public art space can bring artists and
community members together to discuss and perform the traditional canon of theater and explore
issues of social justice. Dream Freedom Revival (DFR), the brainchild of practitioner Kevin Bott,
demonstrates how theater can be used to engage Syracuse community members in wrestling with
democracy. Michael Tritto’s creation of the Buffalo teen theater workshop through Schiller Park
Community Services demonstrates theater’s ability to encourage exchange and understanding across
cultural, socioeconomic and geographic differences. Practitioners Isaac Silberman-Gorn and Jillian
Kubiak represent more traditional forms of organizing with their roles as professional organizers in
Citizen Action New York and PUSH Buffalo, respectively. The Phoenix Players Theater Group 1 For a history of community organizing in the U.S., see Betten, Neil, Austin, Michael J. and Fisher, Robert. (1990) The Roots of Community Organizing,1917-1939. Philadelphia: Temple UP. For more on the theory and practice of community organizing, see Coles, Romand.(2005) Beyond Gated Politics: Reflections for the Possibility of Democracy. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.
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offers a glimpse into the personal and communal healing, self discovery and transformation possible
with theater.2
These practitioners are diverse in their background, mission and location, yet they illuminate
how theater can be a powerful organizing tool. Each of them has come to terms with the difficulties,
inconsistencies and ambiguities of their context through creative practice. For most of the
practitioners, theater has been a valuable tool through which they address issues in their
communities. Their stories will be used to highlight the role of performance in personal and
communal change.
Part three, “Theater as an Organizing tool for Community Transformation”, discusses
specific ways that the practitioners are using the environment of theater to raise social issues and
invite their communities to engage and organize for change. Part four, the “Performance of
Privilege: The Role of Whiteness in Organizing” demonstrates how the practitioners have had to
grapple with the social norms surrounding their appearance. Finally, “Healing and Personal
Empowerment in Theater,” tells the story of the personal reconciliation and redemption possible
when drama is used a form of collective liberation in the prison system. The profiles show how
theater plays an integral role in the practitioners’ work, making it relevant and inspirational to all
forms of organizing.3
II. Cast of Characters: Practitioner Biographies
Isaac Silberman-Gorn
2 The story of each practitioner’s organizing work is elaborated upon below in Cast of Characters: Practitioner Biographies
3 For more on the history of community organizing in the U.S., see Fisher, R. (1994). Let the people decide: Neighborhood organizing in America . Social Movements Past and Present. Cengage Gale. Twayne Publishers
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Isaac Silberman-Gorn grew up in the Albany area and has a Bachelors in Environmental
Studies from SUNY Binghamton. He has been organizing for three and a half years and has been
doing it professionally for one and a half years with Citizen Action, a community organizing group
that has been in Binghamton for over 25 years. Silberman-Gorn learned about fracking in the
summer of 2010 through friends who were involved in the movement. It seemed natural to begin
organizing against fracking in Binghamton because his community was targeted for potential drilling.
He has grown to believe that fracking is the most pressing fight to his community’s livelihood and
one he might have a role in shaping.
Throughout Broome County, NY, Silberman-Gorn’s role is to offer support to existing efforts
wherever he can. He is a major player in New Yorkers Against Fracking, a coalition of over 200
grassroots organizations with organizers in major cities all around the state. He tries to approach
organizing as a method of empowerment through PLOT (Progressive Leaders of Tomorrow), a
training program for young organizers. Part of Silberman-Gorn’s organizing is making communities
more resilient to the specific tactics of companies they are organizing against. He organizes social
and media events for canvassing and political action in the fight against natural gas drilling.
John Borek
John Borek was the first member of his family to attend college, when he enrolled at
Columbia to study English. Before helping create the Multi Use Community Cultural Center
(MUCCC), Borek owned a bookstore, was a stockbroker for Morgan Stanley, ran a restaurant, was
the president of Rochester’s 19th Ward Community Association and was a community liaison for the
Rochester school district. Throughout these career changes, Borek has been involved in every aspect
of theater and currently makes a living as a legislative aide to Rochester politician Adam McFadden
and a as community advisor at the University of Rochester.
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The Rochester Multi-use Community Cultural Center (MUCCC) emerged as the
collaboration of Doug Rice and Borek. A long time friend, Rice invested a large amount of his
personal finances into converting a late 19 th century church into a black box theater. After the theater
was created, Borek began helping to run the theater with Rice and the two of them pieced together a
vision for the theater. One and half years after the opening, MUCCC has presented over 150
performances of over 200 works by 70 different performing groups. It has thirty artists in residence
who play a collaborative role in the direction and upkeep of the theater. This is all done on a budget
of forty thousand dollars a year. Borek has deep gratitude to his wife Jacqueline Levine, who at every
turn, when he encountered failure, inspired him to continue.
Michael Tritto
In response to the terrorist attacks in 2001, Tritto concluded that his theater teaching career
was not connected enough to the community. He desired to shift his career away from teaching
towards organizing. In 2008 he became the executive director of the Massachusetts Avenue Project
in Buffalo, NY that ran an urban agricultural program. In the 2008 financial crunch, Tritto asked the
board to lay him off in order to keep on other part time staff members. Getting willfully laid off from
the Massachusetts Avenue Project gave Tritto the opportunity to search for other nonprofit work. He
began training through the Camellio Foundation and VOICE Buffalo. He soon discovered Schiller
Park Community Services (SPCS) and eventually became the organization’s director.
Now in his 4th year, Tritto’s goal for the underfunded youth center was to raise awareness
about the organization’s existence and encourage more kids from the neighborhood to become
involved in the center’s programs. He has initiated an after school program for kids in kindergarten
through 8th grade, a nine-week summer program and a theater program which he developed for thirty
teens from Buffalo and Cheakowaga, a neighboring suburb.
Jillian Kubiak
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Jillian Kubiak majored in political science in college and began campaign organizing in New
York and in Los Angeles. After returning from college, she moved into the Nickel City Housing
Cooperative in Buffalo, a co-op house with 14 other people. She was working a minimum wage job
and got involved in social justice issues through her housemates who also introduced her to PUSH
Buffalo. PUSH is a membership-based community organization that organizes to improve and
increase affordable housing in West Buffalo. PUSH also develops a weatherization program and rain
gardens which employ members of the community while improving it. It blurs lines by doing both
organizing and community service.
After getting accepted to an AmeriCorps position at PUSH, Kubiak went to organizer
training which sparked her interest in becoming a full time organizer. She then applied for an
organizing position at PUSH and has been there for more than a year. Currently, Kubiak is the
community development organizer at PUSH. Her role has three functions. She sits on the
Community Development Committee, a group of community leaders and PUSH staff which
coordinates between the PUSH and the community. She is also the lead organizer in a foreclosure
campaign to pass legislation to slow the foreclosure rate on Buffalo’s West side. Connecting with her
political background, Kubiak has also been part of the Buffalo Civic Engagement Table, a group that
tries to allow 501(c)(3) non-profits to have a greater influence in policy changes in the city. Kubiak’s
role is to provide leaders with the tools they need to build as much power for their community as
possible.
Kevin Bott
Kevin Bott moved his family to Syracuse in the summer of 2010. He got his first nine-to-five
job in Syracuse after completing his doctoral work at NYU and working with formerly incarcerated
men for several years. Bott began by researching Syracuse and tried to create something that would
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build upon the city’s history and geography. He discovered the influence of the Haudenosaunee
people who had the oldest living democracy on American soil, a people who he believes provided a
template for American democracy. Similarly, Bott found a tradition of Evangelical tent revivals in
the 19th century in Central and Western NY. He soon made the connection that he could do a tent
revival for freedom and democracy.
Dream Freedom Revival (DFR) is an interactive play exploring social justice issues in the
form of a tent revival. Bott plays the preacher and conducts the event, with the help of a cast of actors
and musicians, like a church service with a different message each night like natural gas drilling,
economic concerns, education and women’s rights. Building on the work of Agusto Boal, Bott gives
his audience a chance to share their stories on the issues during each performance and afterward
actors and witnesses have a public discussion on the content. Bott believes that if DFR can get people
to experience their freedom and demonstrate that a community can be outrageous, it gives permission
for other people to think outside of themselves and act to change their community.
Phoenix Players Theater Group (PPTG) Actors
The Phoenix Players Theater Group was founded by inmate Michael Rhynes and Clifford
Williams (who moved from Auburn in 2010) at the Auburn Correctional Facility, a maximum
security prison. Other founding members include David Bendezu, Efraim “De” Diaz, Michael Shane
Hale and Kenneth Brown. Rhymes, a ‘lifer’, had a vision about the Harlem renaissance happening in
prisons and wanted to use theater as a rehabilitation program. He reached out to the Director of
Volunteer Services, David Roth, who found and suggested Stephen Cole, a retired Cornell theater
professor and healing arts practitioner as a facilitator for the group.
Cole began working with PPTG to use theater as a therapeutic model, a sanctuary where
creative people can go and not feel ostracized. He then introduced Bruce and Judy Levitt, Professor
in the Department of Theatre, Film, and Dance at Cornell University and adjunct professor in the
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Department of Theatre Arts at Ithaca College, respectively, to the group. The three of them meet
weekly with PPTG to engage in different acting exercises. The PPTG players have been able to host
performances for family and friends in which they share stories from their childhood, act out their
own original works and perform adaptations from Shakespeare.
III. Theater as an Organizing Tool for Community Change
Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed has for decades been a model of how drama holds the
promise of transformative learning and collective empowerment4. A quintessentially
collaborative effort, performing arts take horizontal approaches to issues, where everyone has a
voice and a role. In democratizing approaches, Boal’s theater has helped entire communities to
value the insight and nontraditional ideas of each of its members. John Borek and John Rice’s
Multi Use Community Cultural Center (MUCCC) in Rochester echoes Boal’s legacy as an
example of social justice at work. MUCCC is a welcoming public space where the staff
encourage artists of every walk of life to perform. The theater is inclusive, decision making and
responsibility are shared, and MUCCC encourages dialogue on community issues. It is a place of
inclusion in a segregated city. The theater hosts over thirty ‘artists in residence’ who come from
diverse social, ethnic and economic backgrounds. Borek tells us,
Artists are often handicapped; they don’t have money, a support
system, or access to facilities. Entry into the art world in some way, shape
or form requires money, and MUCCC is antithetical to that. To our best
effort, MUCCC will not turn people away because of financial need. Art
should not be created because of influx of money; it should be done
4 Playing Boal: Theater, Therapy and Activism. (1994). Cohen-Cruz, Jan and Schutzman, Mandy, Eds. London Routledge 1994
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somewhat communally. This is a communal attempt to help individual
artists realize their personal visions. The theater is created in that spirit.
Borek and Rice, having extensive theatrical experience, are poised to help struggling
artists. Understanding that finances are a key shortcoming for up-and-coming artists, MUCCC
seeks to address a common and recurring dilemma. By working with artists from all economic
backgrounds, Bork hopes to humanize an art world that has the potential to be cut-throat. As
MUCCC meets the artists halfway, it instills a sense that the artist’s work is valuable not because
they can book the house or because they have a large following. Instead of valuing the artists for
their talent, MUCCC shows the artists have self worth simply because they are artists, simply
because they are people. By working with economically disadvantaged artists, MUCCC is going
against the grain of much of the entertainment industry.
MUCCC does not simply reject dominant trends of ‘money equals power’ in the art
world; MUCCC can only exist as an alternative because it embraces something else: community.
Aside from being an inclusive space, Borek and Rice have tried their best to allow it to be
honest, transparent and collaborative. Borek explains:
We are not structured; we are spontaneous. We don’t run workshops;
we ask people to help one another. If artists work together, they will be
generous enough to help each other. People will ‘do tech’ for one another,
read each other’s plays, help with casting and other artists’ productions. We
try to avoid hierarchy as much as possible. Among the thirty artists in
residence, there is shared responsibility in maintaining the theater and putting
on productions. We individually clean the theater including the bathroom
before every performance. It’s a labor of love.
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Borek recognizes that an alternative approach to theater cannot be done individually. By
not engaging in technique-focused workshops, MUCCC prompts the artists to work
collaboratively. Collaboration is essential as the theater and the artists truly depend on one
another to continue. There was a passion of social justice and a tinge of personal pleasure in
Borek’s voice as he emphasized the horizontalism in their endeavor, “We try to avoid hierarchy.”
Borek finds great satisfaction in seeing the artists flourish. He has been part of bringing together
a community of people who have one another’s best interests in mind.
Borek’s artists are willing to help one another because of their potential for
empowerment through common cause. The inclusion and encouragement of other artists gives
confidence to community members to take their first steps as artists and remains a place for
seasoned artists to continue performing original material. MUCCC is not only a physical
building, but a multi-generational hub for artists of all different stages and passions to
collaboratively perform and act politically to form a community. The theater is not for the
community, but of the community.
As a tool for community organizing, MUCCC transcends its own significance as a theater
space and becomes a center for community change as well5. It creates a safe place for performers
to address issues in the community. For example, one of many original productions, Dream,
Visualize, Create, was spearheaded by a public school English teacher who stages original plays
by his students about gender differentiation. The pieces prompted new community attention to
the topic through the students’ voices. While Borek does not fallow traditional community
organizing strategies6, MUCCC remains a valuable and instrumental hub for community change.
5 For more on community change, see Bobo, Kimberley A., Kendall, Jackie and Max, Steven (2001) Organizing for Social Change. Seven Locks Press6 For more on Community Organizing Traditions in the U.S., see Alinsky, Saul. (1971). Rules for Radicals. Random House. And Chambers, E. (2003). Roots for Radicals: Organizing for power, action, and justice. New York: Continuum.
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MUCCC continues as a safe and collaborative community that empowers artists to pursue
diverse performance media and encourages dialogue around social justice issues in greater
Rochester.
Michael Tritto has for the past four years been seeking a similarly safe and collaborative
community through teen theater. The Schiller Park Teen Theater in Buffalo is a joint effort of
teens from the inner city and the neighboring suburb of Cheakowaga. In the Schiller Park Teen
Theater workshop, teens are taught to create an original public performance written by all the
participants. In learning acting techniques, playwriting, and production skills, Tritto gives teens
the tools to examine their own perspectives on life and to translate them into a live performance.
Out of their unique set of talents in music, dance and design students collaborate and
aesthetically represent their view of themselves and others onstage. In discussing the program,
Tritto explains,
We’re providing safe havens to kids to do positive work. There is
absurdity and chaos that exists in life in general, but is especially prevalent in
low income neighborhoods. Through the theater program, you see kids flourish
and avoid self destructive patterns. The art is a great equalizer because it is
more about personal development. It is usually not competitive, but
collaborative. It is a nurturing community.
In the lives of the youth Tritto works with, the unpredictability and insecurity in day-to-
day life is taxing. Calling the theater program a ‘haven’ sheds light on the protective force that
the theater can be in the lives of teens. A community in a world of chaos, the theater program
stands in contradiction to the trials and injustices that might surround the participants. Having a
safe space where teens can come to act out a different narrative than one of marginalization and
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segregation can be amazingly transformational. Being part of a theater program is an alternative
to the way most youth spend their summers. The aims and methods in the acting process are
similarly nontraditional. The teens are given full artistic license to collaboratively imagine the
final performance. In the theater program there is the opportunity for teens’ imagination to
create an alternative to the life of struggle and division they may have experienced.
The process of collectively writing theater pieces fosters intergroup dialogue and
provides a safe space for teens to explore issues of inequality. Putting on a show of their
choosing, the teens address geographic, ethnic and socioeconomic divisions and break down
stereotypes through writing and performing. Michael believes trust and mutual understanding are
established among the teens as they challenge and correct misconceptions of themselves and
others. Tritto tells us,
There is something really important about kids growing up with kids
from a very different background. The urban-suburban partnership came about
to help kids realize at an early age that they have so much in common with
other kids across the board and it’s an attempt to counteract negative stories
and stereotypes. Kids are willing to drop stereotypes if they have an experience
that disproves those biases. Art is one of the best ways to help kids build
relationships quickly as they work creatively together. As society is becoming
more economically segregated, programs which cross that social divide will
help future adults realize that the divisions in society are unnecessary, artificial,
and damaging to everyone.
Though they come from disparate communities in the suburbs and inner city, teens in the
Schiller Park Theater Program are able to build trust and find mutual understanding in the
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exercise of writing and performing pieces that reflect their lived experience.7 In writing material
for the pieces, the youth discuss their experiences and discover what is shared among them
rather than what divides them. Tritto emphasizes that the teens are often surprised at how much
they have in common. In acting together, the teens come to know and understand the ‘other kids’
from different parts of the city. Soon they have a face, a name, a personality. The stranger can
become a friend.8
Acting allows us to put on and take off masks as we play different roles. In this exercise,
we get to see what masks or roles we assume during our everyday life. Acting together helps us
examine and critique what shapes the way we view ourselves and others. As the teens build
relationships in the Schiller Park Theater Program, they are able to deconstruct the stereotyped
roles they held about one another and themselves. It allows the teens to realize the divisions
among them are not valid, but socially constructed. Tritto hopes the theater program encourages
teens to work against the damaging divisions in our society. The final performance is an
opportunity for the teens to act out the reconciliation they have shared and inspire their families
and communities to do the same. The collaboration of the Schiller Park Teen Theater confirms
that acting can help us heal. Society does not need to be segregated. We can overcome past
histories of mistrust and distance as we learn to value one another.
Similarly, Kevin Bott’s brainchild, Dream Freedom Revival (DFR), provides adults with
the opportunity to reflect on their values through performance. DFR is a politically agitating
performance group that addresses society’s crisis of democracy in Syracuse, NY. Through songs,
7 For more on children’s theater, see Etherton, M. (2004) Theatre for Development: the empowerment of children who are marginalized, disadvantaged and excluded. Theater and Empowerment. Boon and Plastow, Eds. Cambridge University Press pp. 188-2198 Leonard, Robert H. (2006). Cornerstone Theater Company: Love and Respect at Work in the Creative Process. Performing Communities. New Village Press.
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speeches and skits, DFR spurs the performers and audience-participants to engage with issues
around democracy and ultimately broader society9. Whether the subject matter is women’s rights,
access to healthcare or local food, DFR engages in personal and community topics of social
justice. Bott recounts,
From the beginning, the DFR was intentioned to be participatory. I was
skeptical of just doing a single issue art piece because I believe the underlying
issue challenging our society is democracy. People need to recognize that there
is a crisis in democracy. Then we can address specific issues within that
framework. Feeling like everything that could possibly shock an audience has
been done, I tried something that might actually wake people up — having
regular people talk. I wanted real, live people that would talk about their lives.
Bott and the other DFR members resist a tendency that theater can fall into having too narrow a
focus. Simply broadening the issues discussed through the theater only demonstrates there are
many issues. It doesn’t explain the issues or get at the root cause of the issues.
Today, “democracy” has come to be a watered down word. By framing social problems
as sub-issues in the context of a larger crisis of democracy, Bott demonstrates the
interconnectedness of the problems. Figuring out how to frame many smaller, but very real
concerns in the context of a larger problem allows DFR actors to empower themselves and their
audience to think holistically about why injustices occur.10
9 For more on the history of radical theater, see Drain, Richard (1995).Twentieth Century Theatre: A Sourcebook. Routledge, Boston, MA and Sainer, Arthur (2000). The New Radical Theater Notebook. Applause Theatre & Cinema Books.
10 Leonard, Robert H. (2006). Los Angeles Poverty Department: Theater as an Act of Citizenship. Performing Communities. New Village Press
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Bott understands the struggles of performance art in a culture of desensitizing media.
Through DFR, Bott critiques traditional theater which lulls the audience into the story NS allows
us to forget reality for a time. Bott wanted a form of theater that shook us out of the stories being
told to us so we might look critically look at our circumstances.11 He imagined that an audience
would only be engaged if they were part of the drama themselves12. In the theater tradition of
Agusto Boal, Bott explains,
DFR provides a platform for people to engage in issues in their
community because in the middle of the piece, there is a time where the
audience is invited up to ‘testify’. These improvised testimonials allow for an
open ended exchange of stories by community to community members. From
the first performance, testimonies were raw and emotional. It became about
people sharing a piece of their story; it was moving to the audience.
The personal testimonial time of each DFR performance allows the audience to respond
to the acts as they happen, giving insight and nuanced meaning to subject matter.13 There is no
one better acquainted with real world problems than the audience themselves. Having real people
talk about real issues keeps the show grounded and relevant. Bott understands that hearing the
person beside you share how their life is personally affected by the drama unfolding on stage is
deeply moving. Instead of passively receiving, the audience members of DFR become co-
creators of their experience.
11 For readings on Bertolt Brecht, see Brecht, Bertolt, and Willett, John. (1964.) Brecht on Theatre; the Development of an Aesthetic. New York: Hill and Wang, Print. and Brandon, J. M. (2010). Bertolt Brecht. Theatre Topics, 20(1), 77-78.12 For more on radical theater history see, Acting Together: Performance and Creative Transformation of Conflict (2008). Cohen, Cynthia., Varea, Roberto and Walker, Polly, Eds. Vol.1 &2. New Village Press. 13 Cohen-Cruz, Jan (2010) Self -Representing: Testimonial Performance. Engaging Performance, Theater as Call and Response
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The actors of DFR are similarly affected by the testimonials of the audience. They have
the license to use the energy, insight and engagement of the audience to color the rest of the
performance. In this way, the show is always evolving and growing to incorporate new insights,
stories and perspectives.
Bott’s tag line is, “Come for the fun, stay for the freedom.” The drama on stage allows
people to begin talking about the issues. The real change oriented conversation happens when the
barrier between actor and audience is removed. After the show ends, the actors are eager to begin
engaging in meaningful dialog. Bott hopes that, “People can come into the DFR’s space in order
to realign their civic values in the same way we go to church, synagogue or temple to realign our
spiritual values.” He feels that if people are dancing and celebrating after the show, it encourages
them to want to stay and talk. If DFR can get people to experience their freedom and
demonstrate that a community can be outrageous, it is permission for other people to think
outside of themselves.
Following each show, there is a ‘church social’ in which people are invited to share a
meal, have conversations and continue to build community. No longer actors and audience, the
room is simply full of people who know they have many concerns and struggles in common and
have been stirred to discuss their passions over a meal. In every church social time, Bott and the
other players have witnessed meaningful and healthy dialogue of the issues that were brought up
in the theater.
A repeated theme in Paulo Freire’s work, the post show dialogue presupposes equality
amongst participants and allows us to question what we know and together create new
knowledge.14 Because of the informal and non-hierarchical church social, people attending the
14 Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin, 1996. Print.
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show are genuinely able to wrestle and reflect on their values with others. Though novel in his
approach, Bott is wise to believe that a realignment of values occurs communally. The majority
of western religious services or ceremonies hinge on people collectively engaging in acts of
reorientation or change. If pressing issues in the US are embedded in a social crisis of democracy
as Bott claims, we can only begin to address them together.
IV. The Performance of Privilege: The Role of Whiteness in Organizing
The identity of whiteness and the dynamics it brings to community transformation work
emerged as a notable theme among these practitioners. In each case, the practitioner is leery of
their privilege and wants to act in a manner that can check the power dynamics of being a white
person in a position of leadership or attention. In their own way, the organizers have to come to
terms with the politics of color for themselves and with the people they are working alongside.
Bott wrestles with his privilege as the creator, visionary and lead actor of Dream Freedom
Revival by seeking to bring people together. Kubiak and Silberman-Gorn recognize privilege
and strategically take a back seat, encouraging and empowering other organizers to take
leadership roles.
Kubiak had to overcome her whiteness as stumbling block that kept her from being
legitimized by people she was organizing. Silberman-Gorn views his privilege as part of his duty
to raise up other voices to the best of his ability and nurture talent of people who have been
historically underrepresented in environmental organizing. Each practitioner engages in an
ongoing struggle of questioning assumed roles, challenging socially constructed dynamics of
power and confronting inequalities in privilege.
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Bott came to terms with his privilege through the interactions of his fellow actors while
scripting the social justice oriented shows of Dream Freedom Revival. Being both fun and
serious, DFR realizes the issues they address are multifaceted and may at times be light or
weighty. Bott makes every attempt to allow the performance space to be as inviting as possible
to engage the subject matter. Coming from diverse backgrounds, the performers are able to
present the issues with their particular insight on the social justice issues. With several
viewpoints represented on many issues, all types of people attend DFR performances. Despite
the inclusiveness of the group’s membership and the audience, DFR has had to confront
inequalities of power and privilege. Bott recounts:
For a year I struggled internally with my role in the group. It’s an
interesting position to be the white man in charge. As tall, white, PhD
educated, heterosexual—the whole list of privilege—I made sure I had an
inclusive way of framing the show for people and leading people to feel
welcome in the space. The group met and even talked specifically about
my role in the production, discussing how each person’s talents need to be
part of what we do. Artistically, my character Ebenezer, plays the ‘fool’
and usually has a lesson taught to him by the other characters so that I am
undermining the privilege by making myself the lower status. Even our
solos and speaking time are divvied up in a way that breaks down racial
and gender norms.
Bott recognizes he has been gifted with talent and vision to initiate DFR and uses his
privilege to bring people together. Bott saw he might be a stumbling block to the real diversity of
the group and therefore its audience base. If people could not feel welcomed in the performance
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space, they will not engage with the material. The audience may stay reserved and view the
spectacle rather than becoming part of the drama. He and the rest of the actors had to address
how to not perpetuate the societal norm of having the white guy run the show. It allowed for an
intergroup dialogue of how power roles play out in the microcosm of a small acting troupe.
Through discussion, the actors raised issues of inequality and designed the show to contradict
norms. Though it may seem contrived at first glance, ensuring people of color and women were
given speaking parts and solos was the first step in addressing the structural racism that might be
present in the show.
Seeing the stereotyped white male become humbled as he learns about topics like the
educational system allows the audience to question power roles. In conjunction with group
discussion, Bott uses his talents to lead the group while challenging privilege through his
character Ebenezer. If Ebenezer is routinely the person who learns the lesson, it confronts the
conception of the white male as the authority figure. In a show where society is critiqued and
roles questioned, the audience is empowered to think critically about how the issues are actually
in their lives.
Bott’s present aim is to transition out of a position of leadership. He is imagining how he
can move into a role with less performance and more rehearsing, organizing, and conceptualizing
the group’s direction. This season, he is coaching the cast to build characters that may be able to
‘MC’ a show by themselves instead of his character Ebenezer. By taking active steps to lessen
his role as the center of focus during the performance, Bott is demonstrating to the other cast
members and the audience the importance of combating traditional roles of privilege. Bott has to
balance the importance of having people with intensive performance training take leadership
roles in the group while allowing everyone in the project to have the sense of responsibility. His
20
actions show us the importance of questioning our assumed roles and challenging the status quo
when it perpetuates histories of oppression.
Isaac Silberman-Gorn, a community organizer in Binghamton has also questioned his
role as a white male in his activist work and found his privilege is best used to empower others.
Silberman-Gorn is organizer for Citizen Action NY, a grassroots membership organization. He
focuses on environmental issues around hydraulic fracturing. Though he works to counteract the
progress of environmental degradation, Silberman-Gorn believes social justice issues to be
deeply linked with environmental ones.
Because he never received a formal skills training, Silberman-Gorn encourages young
organizers to take time learning the basic skills of organizing. In order to subvert socially
constructed dynamics of power in community organizing, Silberman-Gorn helped develop
Progressive Leaders of Tomorrow (PLOT). He does this through cultural competency and anti-
racism training, focusing on the root of racism and privilege.
The aim of PLOT is to create skilled, on the ground organizers who have the connections
and tools to engage in meaningful organizing in their community. PLOT recruits community
members from diverse ethnicities. They are taught to organize around issues and learn hands on
organizing skills in a six week training. Examples of the weekly training include learning the
story of self, anti-racism training, media training, and strategy charts. Silberman-Gorn explains,
I try to keep gender and cultural norms at the forefront of my mind in
organizing. Focusing on the root of racism has come as an added challenge.
With PLOT, I am able to “lead from below” and teach others the skills I’ve
learned as an organizer — skills they need to make a difference. The success
has been somewhat mixed. PLOT is, at its heart, about building lasting
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relationships that will be strong in the face of resistance against the gas
industry. In this regard, Citizen Action has been successful in helping
communities become more resilient to the specific tactics of the gas companies
they are organizing against.
Silberman-Gorn’s experience with PLOT reveals to us that even though his work is
environmentally focused, it must also address structural racism. He uses PLOT to address racism
and suggests that all types of organizing will have to recognize structural racism. PLOT teaches
young, would-be-organizers that all justice issues are interrelated environmental justice. This is
because the organizing is about ‘building lasting relationships.’ Anti-racism training is not only
significant for the personal maturity of PLOT trainees. It will help them when forming
relationships across cultural and socio economic divides, where there will be implicit power
dynamics. Lasting relationships cannot be built with an issue focus. Lasting relationships in
organzing will be ones that that are maintained by undoing all types of social injustices. By
linking injustices in society to inequalities in relationships, Silberman-Gorn’s work speaks to the
interconnectedness of the environmental movement and racial justice.
‘Leading from below’ reveals how Silberman-Gorn recognizes his privilege as a white,
male organizer and desires to encourage and equip young leaders of marginalized groups to take
a stand on environmental issues. Silberman-Gorn tells us:
Historically, environmental organizing in the US has been mostly led
by white people. Communities of color are often targeted for local
undesirable land uses or ‘lulus’. It must be in people’s best interest to join
the organizing movement. As an organizer, I have a unique position to raise
people up and amplify the voices of those who are marginalized.
22
Acknowledging the historical trends around environmental organizing shows us that
Silberman-Gorn reflects on his work as a moment in a larger tradition of organizing. He grapples
with the fact that people from his socioeconomic and ethnic group have traditionally been the
prominent voices in environmental justice. Still, Silberman-Gorn wants his organizing work to
undermine that trend. It is echoed in his words, to “amplify the voices of those who are
marginalized.” Amplifying the voices of the oppressed will have a two fold mission. It will
counteract the reality that marginalization in society has kept oppressed groups of people from
taking part in the environmental movement. It will also address injustices surrounding the
environmental movement which fall disproportionately on the marginalized.
Silberman-Gorn realizes his privilege allows him to be in such a position to lead others
through PLOT training and organize around the issue of fracking. PLOT is one of his attempts to
challenge his privilege, to empower others through teaching interpersonal skills and knowledge
of organizing tactics, and to critically think about justice issues. Instead of ignoring his privilege,
Silberman-Gorn actively seeks to work towards horizontalism in the way he interacts
communities he does not come from.
Though his whiteness may be a component of why he is in a position of power,
empowerment is the attitude with which he tries to constantly approach organizing. Silberman-
Gorn’s work to address dynamics of power and privilege while training environmental
organizers in PLOT speaks to the interconnectedness of social issues. Effective community
organizing will have to actively deconstruct institutionalized roles of power and include people
from all walks of life.
Jillian Kubiak is another community organizer like Silberman-Gorn who had come to
terms with her privilege and whiteness in her first year in organizing with PUSH, a neighborhood
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based affordable housing organization in Buffalo. Though Kubiak now lives in the same
neighborhood where she organizes, her whiteness was initially a point of contention with
community members. She recounts,
I understand that I’m from a suburb and I didn’t grow up in
downtown. A few times my position has been questioned because I don’t
represent the community in my appearance. I have even been publicly called
out on being in a leadership position in an organization that is largely
representative of people who look different from me. But after the first year, I
have noticed that it has become less of an issue as I am seen out, walking the
streets, and viewed less and less as an outsider. I’m in the same fight as
everyone else in the community and I am committed to this neighborhood
and this fight.
Kubiak’s experience highlights how whiteness plays a role in how organizers are
perceived by community members. Kubiak acknowledges she grew up in a suburb of Buffalo, a
fact that is evidence of the socially constructed dynamics of power that led to segregation.
Interestingly, segregation by privilege is a root cause of the issues she is addressing in organizing
for affordable housing. In part, her privilege as a white person affords her the opportunity to
move to a neighborhood that is not her own and work on a social justice issue like affordable
housing.
Kubiak's story raises the question, “How are organizers legitimized?” At first she was
seen as separate from the people with whom she now organizes. Her leadership role was
challenged which caused her to question her privilege. Though it may have been a difficult time
of questioning her privilege, it showed Kubiak how community support may legitimize or
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undermine the work of an organizer. Though she was fully employed by PUSH, she was not
fully able to step into the role as an organizer until he had established trust in her community.
Kubiak experience echoes Silbernan-Gorn’s point of leading from below as a process of
establishing trust with community members. Simply by being out and visible in the community
Kubiak gained credibility. In the eyes of others in West Buffalo, Kubiak is no longer organizing
for the community but within the community.
As her privilege was initially a stumbling block in gaining the trust of member in her
community, Kubiak found it also kept her from relating to her community. She admits that not
growing up in the inner city has at times kept her from fully relating to people. While deeply
sympathetic, she feels a degree of separation when talking with pregnant teens in her
neighborhood who have dropped out of high school at fifteen. Kubiak was forced to overcome
the discrepancies in lived experienced if she wanted to organize people in her neighborhood. In
confronting inequalities in power and privilege Kubiak has come to legitimize her role in PUSH
because West Buffalo is her community now; she has established her life there and does not plan
on going anywhere.
In coming to understand how to utilize her whiteness in organizing, Kubiak
acknowledges, “I know my face can give me a great deal of credit in some circles and none in
others.” Here Kubiak lets us in on an interesting moment where the aim of combating racism in
her work has to be sidelined in order to successfully complete an organizing action. When the
opportunity or challenge arises to speak to an authority in power such as a judge or police
officer, Kubiak understands that the color of her skin carries a great deal of clout.
Because racism and the privilege associated with being white still dictates treatment from
authorities, she is able to take advantage of the condition of injustice Though it is hopefully not a
25
simple product of her skin color, Kubiak has been able to diffuse tense situations with police or
city council members. Knowing it is a product of racism; PUSH may be more effective in
navigating complicated political hoops if she seizes the opportunity to play her privilege card and
to diffuse the opposition of authorities.
Though institutionalized racism is prevalent in her work, Kubiak make every effort to
combat stereotypes of white people traditionally being in positions of leadership in organizing.
She says,
I take a back seat role at events. I always have the community
leaders speak in front of the crowd. Leaders from the community facilitate,
serve as masters of ceremony, introduce speakers and speak at rallies,
community forums and public discussions.
Like Silberman-Gorn, Kubiak is guided by a desire for equality and empowerment. She is
seeking equality in organizing for access to affordable housing. Moreover, she encourages
members of historically marginalized groups to take leadership roles and become the
spokespersons for their community. Kubiak’s efforts to challenge traditionally race-based
leadership roles require that she leverage her privilege when needed while organizing toward a
world where equality might be a reality.
Organizers Bott, Silberman-Gorn and Kubiak needed to address how their leadership
roles are tied to the privilege of whiteness. They discovered that the social issue they personally
experienced as privilege in whiteness also played a role in the issues they were acting against.
Each found that the power they gained because of appearance was simultaneously a contributing
factor in the inequalities surrounding their areas of organizing: democracy, environmental justice
and access to affordable housing. While their approaches to reconcile their privilege as white
26
people in leadership looked different, each sought to deconstruct their power and empower
others around them.15
V. Transformation, Healing and Personal Empowerment in Theater
This section of the paper demonstrates the possibility for personal and shared
transformation through theater. While all the practitioners interviewed spoke of the personal
transformation they had undergone in their work, this section focuses specifically on the work of
six men in maximum security prison. The stories presented here come from an evening I was
able to spend with six members of the Phoenix Players Theater Program (PPTG) at the Auburn
State Penitentiary in May, 2013 and from personal interviews for a documentary taken October
2011 to July 2012. The PPTG players tell a story of monumental personal and collective healing
that occurred, and continues to exist through acting. The scope of their transformation is relevant
to community organizers and those wishing to see personal and collective change in their
community.
In the three hours I spent with them, the PPTG players taught me that theater helps us
heal from past wounds through the steps of trusting, acknowledging, confessing, reconciling, and
redeeming. Once we come to a place of self discovery and find direction, we are able to share
what we have discovered as we teach others, and to ultimately counteract oppressive social
structures and norms.16 Beholding the story of the Phoenix Players Theater Group in Auburn
State Penitentiary gives flesh to the actuality of theater as a catalyst for personal and shared
transformation. Michael Rhynes, co-founder of PPTG explains,
15 Johnson, Allan G. (2006). Privilege, Power, and Difference. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.16 Challenging the Prison Industrial Complex: Activism, Arts, and Educational Alternatives. (2011) Hartnett, Setphen Ed. University Illinois Press
27
What we are looking for is a community that is peaceful enough
that we can look at ourselves from the point of view of somebody else. We
realized we don’t want to be actors; we want to engage in humanity. We
want to be able to rehabilitate ourselves and give ourselves therapy. We
were looking for a place where we could heal, not just an acting program.
Just being actors isn’t good enough for us; we had to learn who we are.
Unlike other forms of ‘self-help classes’ offered in prisons, PPTG is rehabilitation that is
self-initiated, self sustained and aimed explicitly at healing. Bruce Levitt and Stephen Cole,
Cornell professors who serve as drama coaches to the group, draw from decades of
professionally teaching acting as a form of transformation. Their techniques take the actors
through exercises that help them gain perspective and engage in their own humanity. Many of
the acting exercises Cole and Levitt take the players through are aimed at self-discovery. They
have introduced the players to different scenarios, roles and techniques that allow the men to tap
into their emotions and personal histories.
In discussing how PPTG different from other prison rehabilitation classes, PPTG member
David Bendezu relates,
It is not a normal prison class. There aren’t set rules and steps to
follow. It is freeform. You don’t know what to expect. It is more therapeutic,
and it is more honest. In prison everything is still, and you become still if you
don’t allow something like PPTG to help. We are brick walls just walking.
PPTG helps you walk. It is emotional and fills you with emotion. It is a
spiritual self rehabilitation.
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Diverging from mainstream higher education classes, PPTG is completely prisoner
initiated and conducted. The class’ content is dictated by the prisoners. As Bendezu explains, the
prisoners are using acting to counteract the people that prison would have them become, ‘brick
walls walking’. This powerful image speaks to the solitude, rigidity and unemotional
environment of prison. Self initiated, the actors desire to use acting to therapeutically understand
themselves and the world of the prison around them and to counteract the oppression they
experience on a daily basis.
Establishing Trust
The players have found that establishing a community of trust was the first step in
allowing the men to begin reflecting, personally and collectively, on their lives. Both Bendezu
and Rhynes emphasize how their personal transformation with the other payers in PPTG was
predicated on trust. Each of them joined the group with preconceived notions based on their
interactions with other prisoners at Auburn. They first needed a circle of kindness, patience, open
mindedness and capacity to tap into emotions.
Bendezu knew none of the other actors before joining PPTG and found difficulty
engaging at first. He tells us, “I was shy. The group has allowed me to realize that I can trust
certain people if I let them get to know me first. And I let them trust me by getting to know me.”
Rhynes, who believes he was wrongfully imprisoned because of the betrayal of people he
trusted, furthers the point. He recounts that PPTG helped him first begin to trust himself. From
that place he was able to begin to trust others. The player’s attention to the centrality of trust
underscores how central it is in personal freedom and how difficult it is to cultivate in the hostile
environment of prison. Once trust was established, personal acknowledgement and confession
followed.
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Acknowledgement and Confession
Cole and Levitt taught the actors about the different defense mechanisms they had for
dealing with pain and rejection. Understanding common coping strategies allowed the players to
acknowledge their own strategies and to examine how they have played out in different
situations where they experienced pain and rejection.
One technique to encourage acknowledgement and confession involves the actors
juggling many tasks simultaneously. As an exercise, Levitt might have the players act out of a
particular coping mechanism while reciting a text they have memorized and simultaneously
interact with other players in an improvisational scene. Often in this hyper creative and reactive
situation, the actors begin sharing and expressing emotions and thoughts that would otherwise
remain concealed. After the exercise, each player reflects on the scene and how they personally
responded to the multiplicity of tasks. This and a myriad of other exercises slowly allow the
actors to begin the process of personal acknowledgement and group confession.
From this place of clarity and vulnerability, the men were able to continue their self
discovery. Each of the actors spoke to the transformation that flowed from personally
discovering who they truly are and being able to live in that freedom after they had
acknowledged their past to the group. Another player in PPTG, Kenny Brown, perceives, “These
these guys in PPTG helped me get over that hump and expectation of trying to be something
great. We are not just trying to be great; we are trying to be ourselves.”
Brown recognizes that his self discovery was made possible by the freedom he felt at
being accepted in the group. It required that he cast of the notion that he could be someone other
than who he was. Once comfortable, Brown was able to learn more about himself and others.
After embracing himself in the security of the group, Brown was able to explore himself.
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Acting exercises with the group taught Brown about different psychological components
of the mind. He acknowledges,
I wanted to learn why I act a certain way, why I respond to different
things. I have learned that each of us has some ‘barriers of the mind’ within
our psychological makeup. Understanding what triggers my barriers allows
me to reflect and control how I respond to different situations. I think this
has been one of the most important things I have learned and I want to
apply it when I leave the facility.
Brown’s deep gratitude in being able to understand different ‘barriers of the mind’ shows
how much he may have understood after joining PPTG. The environment of trust and acceptance
he found in PPTG gave him the freedom to critically think about his life and the barriers he
psychologically constructed to deal with pain and rejection. From a new place of clarity about
himself, Brown gained the perspective to actively reflect on his day to day actions. Through
careful and critical reflection, Brown began claiming control of his life and actions.
For some players, the process of reflection and self discovery moved beyond reconciling
ways of thinking and emotional patterns and culminated with the act of addressing what brought
them to Auburn Prison. Hale, a founding member of PPTG believes theater awakened his ability
to reconcile his past. In taking off what he regards as the mask that allows him to survive in
prison Hale tells us,
PPTG has empowered me to start taking steps to dealing with the
fact that I have taken a life. Part of that process is reclaiming my humanity.
That is hard because I feel extremely vulnerable. I don’t have a social mask
behind which I can hide.
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Hale’s story of transformation involved first acknowledging and addressing his past.
From that place he was able to see the barriers he had constructed to deal with his history. Once
named, he began reconciling and overcoming the events of his life and healing from these
wounds by learning how to ‘take off his mask’. Hale articulated this transformation in a moment
of personal clarity and human brilliance, as follows:
Imagine you have a diamond, you take it to a jeweler. They are
doing everything they can to it, but it just doesn’t come out right. What
PPTG has shown me is that all of us have diamonds, and all of us are also
jewelers. We have hands, we have a mind, we have a heart, and we have
two feet. And we are able to place that diamond in the most perfect way
to release its incredible brilliance. I can say that I feel as if I have learned
how to be a jeweler in a sense, I am still placing it. That is very
empowering. It has shown me that everyone has that same brilliance and
potential.
It is significant that Hale chose to use a diamond as the metaphor for each person's
brilliance: it shows the multifaceted nature and unique capacity of each person. Hale’s diamond
metaphor offers several insights to the personal and communal healing possible when we can
discover ourselves. As jewelers, we are in charge of discovering our own brilliance and can rely
on no one else for personal transformation. PPTG encouraged the prisoners to be their own
jewelers in self discovery; the prisoners themselves know how to best share their brilliance. The
acting exercises took Hale to a place of self discovery that showed him his own brilliance and
gave him power over it as his own best jeweler. Note how Hale felt he is still placing his
diamond, speaking to the sense that we are all on a journey to self discovery — a process, not a
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destination. Hale’s story encourages us that the brilliance he discovered within is not meant to be
his own, it is shared.
In the self discovery that Hale is his own jeweler, he and the other players had a growing
conviction to share their brilliance. Part of the healing process for the actors was showing one
another how they are growing. In their group of transformation, each person had the ability to
witness and bear witness to each other’s growth. A collective witness of the personal change of
each member legitimizes and confirms how they are healing17. Hale tells us, “It is amazing to
walk out of there back into the prison mindset and it is amazing how you find yourself changed
and able to ease the suffering in here a little bit more.”
The actors furthered the process of healing by sharing their stories and lives with others.
Bendezu shared what he learned in PPTG with other inmates, sometimes at a personal risk to
himself. Bendezu describes,
In prison, not everyone is sociable; you have to be very careful
about what you say and how you say it when you share with somebody
about what you just learned. Everyone is trying to protect themselves. I do
try to have conversations with guys and sometimes you can see people’s
faces brighten and see that you are having a positive effect on people.
Brown furthers this point,
Before, I didn’t really interact with other offenders. Unless I met
someone at work or at religious service, I didn’t really interact with them.
Now I tend to talk more to the youth about positive things, trying to get
17 Herman, Judith. 1997. Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence--from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror. Basic Books, New York
33
them involved in being aware of their own emotions. If they just reflect on
some their surroundings, they can understand themselves better.
Hale similarly speaks to this,
We go to this space, like Michael says, a sanctuary, and we are able
to fill up with positive energy that embraces us as we are in that moment.
When we return to the block, there is a certain intangible energy, call it the
ripple effect that goes out from us.
Each of the players strongly wants to share and see the effects of their transformation
with those closest to them. They want to share their personal transformation because it has been
such a positive force in their lives and they believe it can have a similar effect, a ripple effect in
the lives of other prisoners. Wanting to share, relate and seek the healing of other inmates is
starkly counter to dominant prison culture of defending one’s self and masking any signs of
vulnerability. We can see the deep transformation each inmate has undergone through acting.
The players also want to share stories of their transformation with family and friends on
the outside. Those who do have family they are in contact with say that their families are the
ones who have noticed and commented the most on the player’s individual changes. Brown will
be going before the parole board in 2015 and believes once out, he will share everything he has
learned with his friends and family. Even when out, he wants to remain in contact with PPTG
and start another group for young adults, helping them learn about themselves as he has.
Aside from the inspiration and hope that comes from conversing with the players about
their individual struggles and transformations, there is also hope that the work these men are
doing can on a small scale counteract oppressive social structures and norms at work in the
prison industrial complex. Both Hale and Brown imagine what Auburn would be like if more
34
inmates were able to take part in the transformation they have experienced as part of PPTG.
Hoping for the transformation of men around him, Hale considers,
Everybody has a mask. With the arts, it’s helped me to put my mask
aside and find out who I really am first. I can be and act out of who I
really am. And hopefully that will help them take off that mast, that
gangster, that warrior, that drug addict, all of that negativity that’s out
there, find themselves and live life in a different way.
For each member, PPTG was a unique way to find personal transformation and seek
healing and reconciliation with their past. In the safety of the acting group, they were able to
discover what kind of mask they wore and gain the courage to take off their mast in the presence
of others. Their acting helped them better understand their interactions with others. The group
moreover allowed its members to gauge their personal development and gain encouragement in
the relationships they have with one another. The freedom they found in each other helped them
to share their brilliance and rebuild community together in the confines of prison.
The PPTG story can be transferred to community organizing when viewed through the lens
of what is personal and shared, private and public. All stories shared in the personal interviews had
similarities; here were personal experiences shared by others and performed or acted out in public.
The story of transformation for men in PPTG alternatively happened on a personal level, was shared
with the group, but has remained private, behind prison walls, locks, and gates. The most striking
revelation when talking with the PPTG players was their deep desire to be heard, to be public, to
have people on the outside know their story.
Here we see the dilemma of public acts of transformation being stifled in the prison system.
Imprisoned for life, a few of the PPTG players will never actually be allowed to contribute and live
out their personal discovery and transformation in society. The prisoners encounter the tension of
35
desiring their transformation to be seen, recognized and legitimized but they have no way of seeing
an outward reception of their personal work but for the rare performances where friends and family
were allowed to attend.
The story of transformation of the PPTG players models a parallel story of transformation for
individuals and organizations on the outside who seek personal and collective trust, clarity,
confession, reconciliation and redemption through the arts. The type of healing and transformation
that the men in Auburn have undergone as they engage in role playing and improvisation can be an
effective organizing strategy. The system in which these men live their daily lives, the prison, is
fundamentally institutionalized oppression. Yet the players are still able to collectively find solace
and peace in their acting. How much more can we who are living in a fluid, negotiable, transient and
malleable context find ways of counteracting oppressive structures and live lives that shift society
toward justice.
VI. Conclusion
The profiles of practitioners from upstate New York cities shed light on an emerging role in
nontraditional community organizing: the theater organizer. It is my hope that their stories help
expand the definition of ‘community organizer.’ Historically, that title, ‘community organizer, has
described the work of organizers of large social movements, like the Civil Rights Movement, 18 or the
voices of organizers of broad-based community organizing groups such as Saul Alinsky19, Ed
Chambers20, Michael Gecan21 and Myles Horton22.
18For more on organizing in the Civil Rights Movement, see Payne, Charles. (1995) I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle. Berkeley. University of California19 A succinct summary of Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) organizing can be found in Coles, R (2006). Of tensions and tricksters: Grassroots democracy between theory and practice. Perspectives on Politics, 4(3). Princeton University Press. P. 547-561 .20 Ed Chambers, Alinsky’s successor, was the executive director of IAF, shifting the organization’s model to be one of training local leaders. More on Chamber’s work can be found in Chambers, E. (2003). Roots for Radicals: Organizing for power, action, and justice. New York: Continuum21 A lead organizer for East Brooklyn Congregations, Gecan has continued to adapt the IAF form of organizing to new generations of organizers in his work, Gecan, M. (2002). Going Public. Boston: Beacon Press.22 Myles Horton was the founder of the Highlander Foundation, a center for adult education and empowerment in Tennessee. For more on Horton, see Horton, Myles, Judith Kohl, and Herbert R. Kohl. (1998). The Long Haul: An
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The work of practitioners Isaac Silberman-Gorn and Jillian Kubiak echo those established
community organizing traditions. Kubiak’s work with members of her community sought more
sustainable and affordable housing and led her to question traditional roles of power in community
settings. Similarly, Silberman-Gorn was able to articulate and act out his mission to train and
encourage a new generation of traditional organizers to fight against natural gas drilling through the
PLOT organizer trainings.
Nevertheless, as the other practitioners interviewed have shown us, there are still other
informal roles of community change that might be considered organizing. If organizing seeks
community transformation by counteracting social norms and oppressive structures, the profiles of
my practitioners demonstrate how theater can become a form of organizing for personal healing and
community change. Theater can be used in organizing by staging injustices publically and drawing
attention to social norms that are antithetical to community building.
Using theater for community building can take many forms that range from the politically
agitating work of Bott to the personal and group healing in Phoenix Players theater group at Auburn
Prison. As the practitioners interviewed have shown, small scale but meaningful change is possible.
Change requires critically thinking, reflecting, talking, speaking out, and acting in a way devoted to
change the system or status quo.
As evidenced by the work of the PPTG players, theater as a tool for organizing can be
personally transformative and healing. Personal acts of performance allowed actors to come to a
place of clarity as to who they are, what the world is, and what they can do to live more justly,
wholly, and fulfilling. We see in the example of the PPTG actors that theater can allow us to
critically examine our personal history, our place in society, and the effect we have on our
surroundings.
Autobiography. New York: Teachers College.
37
While theater encourages personal self discovery and transformation on an individual level, it
also occurs in the communities of change. Bott asked the Dream Freedom Revival actors to craft
characters that wrestle with the issues that are larger than themselves, like the power and privilege of
whiteness. DFR actors engaged with the issues as they had to collectively script a performance that
presented thought-provoking issues. Once the issues were worked out through their acting, they were
freed to agitate with others in their community to engage in theatrical acts of personal reflection and
transformation. Individual transformations led to collectively taking stances on social justice issues
and performing them. This encouraged others to engage in challenging the circumstances.
Tritto’s theater work involved undoing stereotypes and healing deep social wounds across the
socioeconomic, ethnic and geographically segregated youth in Buffalo. The Schiller Park theater
program created a bridge between communities who were distrustful and distant both geographically
and socially. A symbol of unity for these disparate communities, these collaborating youth put on a
public production highlighting their personal transformation and the group’s collective journey
towards unity and social reconciliation.
Through the process of interviewing my practitioners, I learned that community change is
realized through more avenues than traditional community organizing had provided. In my
interviews with practitioners I was astonished at how each of them used theater for social justice. I
was unfamiliar with theater as an organizing tool, and I had never imagined theater in an organizing
context. I had conversations with other peers in organizing who similarly said they had not used
theater for organizing. I hope to encourage all organizers to explore how theater can humanize the
issues surrounding their organizing work.
The stories of these practitioners have helped me to discover a wealth of literature on theater
for political change.23 Their work in using theater to build community prompted me to question if the
23 Acting Together: Performance and Creative Transformation of Conflict (2008). Cohen, Cynthia., Varea, Roberto and Walker, Polly. Eds. Vol.1 &2. New Village Press.
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existing body of literature on community organizing is complete, or whether approaching community
building through theater can augment traditional organizing styles. Though the practitioners’ theater
performances took many different styles, occurred in unique venues and included diverse groups and
topics, they were all oriented toward healing, growth, learning and community change.
Works Cited and Further Readings
Acting Together: Performance and Creative Transformation of Conflict (2008). Cohen, Cynthia., Varea, Roberto and Walker, Polly, Eds. Vol.1 &2. New Village Press.
Alinsky, Saul. (1971). Rules for Radicals. Random House. And Chambers, E. (2003). Roots for Radicals: Organizing for power, action, and justice. New York: Continuum.
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