3 Men, 3 Women (With doubling; mixed race cast)

Synopsis: In this work, a group of writers are working in an office building, dealing with the trials and tribulations of an average work day. The first act culminates in a sudden and shocking twist where one employee, Gloria, shoots and kills many of the workers there. The play continues a few months later with two of the survivors meeting and discussing their own personal writing projects about their experiences; which turns into an argument about who gets the rights to publish the story. The third act follows another survivor and his attempts to move on, and away, from the experience, but the story follows him and continues to ask the question of who owns the rights to this tragedy.

This play looks at not only violence in the work place but also profiting off of tragedy. This work also delves into micro-aggressions, with the subtle racial undertones of the script. This play could be done with students as young as seventh to eighth grade or anyone older as well. This work can be used in an educational setting as well as a community theatre. The only consideration when using this work with younger audiences should be some of the language used throughout the script.

Pre-Read Activity - Process Drama - Time: 1 Hour 30 Mins.

Have the whole class sit in a circle. The facilitator will act as the CEO of a film company. You are asking the students to take on roles in the film company or roles within the community to discuss if a movie should continue to be made about a fictional tragic event. This process drama aims to have students think about what they believe in (or what other people could believe in) regarding profiting from tragedy. This exercise should serve as a pretext to the work later done in class with the play. This exercise is more for the facilitator to understand where the group of students are with the themes of the play, and also to get the students engaged in the themes that are about to be presented. The following should be said as an introduction to the process drama:

"You are a committee of film makers. Maybe you are the director, a writer, a producer, an actor, etc. You have been asked here to discuss an upcoming film with the CEO of the company. The film centers around a tragedy that fairly recently shook your community. This tragedy was a mass shooting that took place in a local government building. Over two years has passed from the event, however your company has been receiving an outpour of letters from the community. Most have been highly critical of the film, saying that it is too soon to make money off of the event. However, some people have written in that they are in full support of this movie, stating that it will help them move past and help them grieve. Right now, the movie is slated to be a full dramatization of events. Your job here today it to figure out if this movie is going to continue with production. The movie is about half-way done with filming, but production has been halted. You have been given this half-day off of work to figure this out. In a minute, the CEO of the film company is going to come in and begin to facilitate a conversation with you all. Take a minute to think about your character. You could be anyone on staff, I just ask that, as always, you respect what has already been said. If someone claims ownership of the director, please do not negate that and change your role in your head to an assistant or someone else altogether. I’m going to go get the CEO while you think of who you will portray in this process drama."

The process drama would then continue with the facilitator as the CEO. As with any process drama, it is impossible to predict where the conversation might lead. After the students have reached an agreement, or as close to one as you will get, they should decide if they would like to continue with the movie production or not. Then, have the students write either a letter to the fictional CEO. Students could also do a journal entry as themselves, saying what they really believe based on the work done in the drama and in their own life.

1. What are your initial reactions to Gloria? Did this play effect you in any surprising ways?

• Did the shooting surprise you?

2. The play talks a lot before the shooting about references, i.e. “just kill me”. Could this represent the immunity we have to gun violence as a whole in daily life? Did you pick up on all the gun references? Do you think violence is so instilled that we don’t react when seeing/hearing it until it smacks us in the face?

• What does say about our culture?

3. What do you think of people profiting from tragedy? The art world is guilty of it all the time, arguably it runs off of profiting from tragedy. When it is not your personal tragedy, who has the right to it?

• Does anyone have the right to profit from it?
• Should we “profit” from it?
• Is it really so bad to tell stories?

4. With regards to a few of the articles (below) dealing directly to the U.S. stance on gun control policy, do you think that this play would read outside the US?

• Article 1 Article 2
• Different responses to bombing and terrorism. Brussels airport attack was on Belgian news for months, not a new event, not the same cycle
• Cycle of gun violence, news, and people
• Cyclical nature of play

5. Gloria is the name of the play, like the book. What do you think of that, given that their comments about the perpetrator getting the “fame”?

• Think about the definition of Gloria
• Play is still about Gloria?

6. Why do you think it is still important to discuss playwrights of color who aren’t necessarily writing directly/in your face to race and to their racial experiences? Micro-aggressions are presented a lot in this play, did you pick up on them?

• Jacobs-Jenkins is dealing with race but on a different level than some other plays
• What about race in this play? What does the racism presented say?

Bibliography

Sources for Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. (2017). Biography Reference Bank (Bio Ref Bank)

Johnson, C. T., & Stocks, J. (2016). ON RACE: A CONVERSATION WITH BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS. Dramatist, 18(5), 38-44.

The Paris Review. (2015, May 28). Retrieved from Youtube

Sources for Neighbors

Healy, P. (2010, February 02). New Play Puts an Old Face on Race. Retrieved from New York Times

Isherwood, C. (2010, March 09). Caricatured Commentary: Minstrel Meets Modern. Retrieved from New York Times

The Public Theatre. (2010, January 27). Retrieved from Youtube

Sources for Appropriate

Brantley, B. (2014, March 16). In 'Appropriate,' Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Subverts Tradition. Retrieved from New York Times

Guiducci, M. (2017, February 01). Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Broaches Race and Family in Appropriate at the Signature Theater. Retrieved from Vogue

Sources for An Octoroon

Lunden, J. (2015, February 16). One Playwright's 'Obligation' To Confront Race And Identity In The U.S. Retrieved from NPR

MacDowell. (2017, June 07). Retrieved from Youtube

Roach, J. j. (2016). The Octoroon by John Bell. Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, 15(2), 1-8.

Sources for Gloria

Barna, B. (2017, January 03). Patriots Day Is Hollywoods Latest Effort To Profit Off Tragedy. Retrieved from Nylon

FBI. (2013). Active Shooter Events in the United States from 2000 to 2010. Active Shooter Events and Response.

Jones, C. (2017, January 19). Branden Jacobs-Jenkins says 'Gloria' is not personal — really. Retrieved from Chicago Tribune

Knoll IV, J. L., & Pies, R. W. (2016). Mounties, Cowboys, and Avengers: The Cultural Script of Gun Violence. (cover story). Psychiatric Times, 33(1), 9-13.

Lopez, G. (2017, October 02). America's unique gun violence problem, explained in 17 maps and charts. Retrieved from Vox

Mcginty, E. E., Webster, D. W., Jarlenski, M., & Barry, C. L. (2014). News Media Framing of Serious Mental Illness and Gun Violence in the United States, 1997-2012. American Journal of Public Health, 104(3).

Scott, A. K. (2017, October 03). One mass shooting every day: Seven facts about gun violence in America. Retrieved from Telegraph

VOX. (2016, February 22). Retrieved from Youtube

Sources for War

Brantley, B. (2016, June 06). Review: ‘War,’ a Deathbed Drama About Identity by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Retrieved from New York Times

Soloski, A. (2016, June 07). War review – complex play prompts the question: what is it good for? Retrieved from The Guardian

Yale Repertory Theatre. (2014, November 14). Retrieved from Youtube

Sources for Everybody

Brantley, B. (2017, February 21). Review: In ‘Everybody,’ Mortality Loves Company. Retrieved from New York Times

Signature Theatre New York, (2017, March 08). Retrieved from Youtube

Stasio, M. (2017, February 21). Off Broadway Review: ‘Everybody’ by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Retrieved from Variety

Web page compiled by Katie Teays (2017)