Overview of Culminating Project

The overall vision for my culminating project has shifted and evolved through multiple ideas throughout my course of study at NYU. My focus and interest, however, has stayed the same. The first iteration and outline for this project was developed under the guidance of Dr. Nancy Smithner in the Doctoral Proposal Course in Spring 2021.

We have witnessed the consequences of growing white nationalism in America, including the insurrection of the capitol on January 6, 2021, and the growing popularity of white supremacist hate groups, especially within rural communities. These white supremacist ideologies exist everywhere in America, but oftentimes go unchecked in insular, hegemonically white, rural communities where “less diversity, more poverty, less population change, and less education” (Medina et al., 2018) converge, raising the likelihood for hate groups to thrive. According to Wuthnow (2018), these same factors have contributed to a hollowing-out of these communities which at one time saw themselves as the moral backbone of America, and this has led to a feeling of being “forgotten” in mainstream American society. These feelings of rage push these already remote communities into further isolation, stoking the flames of white supremacy and hatred for others on the “outside” of these rural areas.

My own experiences growing up in rural America reflect a lot of this research. I grew up in rural northern Vermont in a primarily working class, mostly white, community. Growing up in this area was an insular experience. There were not a lot of opportunities to learn about culture, art, experiences, or lifestyles outside of the hegemonic norms of the community. I experienced a lot of examples of white supremacist ideologies, racism, xenophobia, and homophobia from family members, friends, teachers, and other members of the community. All of which were just considered “the norm” in these spaces, and were never questioned. I was also raised in a primarily evangelical Christian community that reinforced these norms. For me, theatre and the arts were the one place I could learn about cultures and people outside of this insular community, and develop empathy and understanding of the world. As a queer person growing up in this community, theatre was my way to find personal growth in a place that was not designed for me. I am forever grateful for the place my own theatrical upbringing has had in my life, and it inspired me to begin my career as a theatre educator.

If we know the benefits of educational theatre, then I wonder what is the cause of this lack of representation of theatre programs in rural communities? Of the programs that exist, however small, what are some best practices they are using to reach their students? How do they work to improve empathy in their students and revert some of these hegemonic cultural norms in their communities? How can these rural theatre programs become more intentionally anti-racist in their practices, curriculum, and pedagogy? Do these ideas even matter to teachers and community members involved in these programs? These wonderings have led me to my central research questions: Based on the experiences of teachers, parents, administrators, and community members, what are the successes and challenges of high school theatre programs in rural, working class Vermont? In what ways do these educators and advocates report that their programs work to teach social empathy and combat white supremecist ideologies within their communities? Vermont was chosen as the geographical focus for this study because of my own connections with the communities of Vermont, and my proximity to the drama teachers there.

Since June 2021, under the guidance of Joe Salvatore, I have been conducting a pilot study with the aim of creating an original documentary-style video verbatim performance piece with the working title "Hidden Talent: Building Anti-Racist Theatre Programs in Working Class, Rural Communities." The main research questions for this project are: Based on the experiences of teachers, parents, administrators, and community members, what are the successes and challenges of high school theatre programs in rural, working class Vermont? In what ways do these educators and advocates report that their programs work to teach social empathy and combat white supremacist ideologies within their communities? As of October 2021 I have conducted over 20 interviews with drama teachers, parents, former students, and community members involved with high school drama programs in rural Vermont. I have asked them about their experiences with racism and xenophobia in their communities, successes and challenges in the programs with which they are involved, what aspects of their program they would call anti-racist (if at all), and what they believe they would need in order to make their programs more intentionally anti-racist.

Following the methodological approach taken by Joe Salvatore and the Verbatim Performance Lab (VPL), I have recorded audio and video of these interviews and completed field notes detailing the participants' physical space, appearance, and noticeable gestural patterns. I have transcribed sections of the interview that are relevant and resonant with my research questions and created "scored transcripts" (Salvatore, 2020, p. 1047) of these sections including all breaks in speech and filler words. In the coming months I will code the transcripts for themes, and compile them into a script. I plan to have a rough draft of a script completed by January 2022.

I conceptualized Hidden Talent as a pilot study towards the larger work of developing a more anti-racist pedagogical framework for rural, working class high school theatre programs. In Spring 2021, I was awarded the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development Student Research and Creative Project Grant, and with that funding I can push forward to fully produce this project. Throughout the interview process I have made contacts with community arts organizations and schools in rural Vermont, as well as the Vermont Drama Council, to show the finished piece to teachers and community members and host workshops to facilitate conversation around the possibilities of anti-racist theatre teaching within these communities.

This study will be an arts-based, participatory inquiry that will investigate the experiences of teachers, parents, administrators, community members, and former students involved in rural high school drama programs in Vermont in an attempt to understand the successes and challenges of teaching theatre in a rural setting, and to ascertain to what extent these programs help fight white supremacist ideologies within these communities, if at all. This study will explore the needs and goals of those committed to working with rural drama programs within these communities, and will use the documentary-style verbatim performance piece as a catalyst for generative, solutions-based discussions with these participants. I will incorporate both the data from creating the verbatim performance and the workshops to facilitate the creation of an anti-racist pedagogical framework for rural high school drama programs.

Projected Timeline

January-February 2022: Read through of completed script in VPL Open Studio, incorporate edits

March-May 2022: Cast and Rehearse Verbatim Performance, Formulate Workshop to accompany performance

June-July 2022: Film and Edit Piece

August-October 2022: Showings of Verbatim Piece, Talkbacks, and Workshops with community

Here I want to highlight several experiences, courses, and skills I have developed to help me accomplish the goals of this study.

• The Ethnoactor & Verbatim Theatre course (Fall 2020) - interview, creation of scored transcripts, analyzing speech and gestural patterns, creating a verbatim investigation

• Methods and Materials of Educational Theatre Research (Fall 2020) - coding data, ethical practices in research, organization and presentation of data, framing arts-based practices in research

• Creating Ethnodrama & Documentary Theatre course (Spring 2021) - developing a research question, interview protocol, selecting material, creating an ethnodramatic script

• Research Intern, Verbatim Performance Lab (Fall 2020) - conducting background research in the field towards the creation of verbatim performance

• The Teaching Artist course (Fall 2020) and experience as an artist-facilitator - creation of engaging workshop plans and discussion questions to lead to generative conversation, facilitation strategies and

• Teaching Assistant for The Ethnoactor & Verbatim Theatre course (Fall 2021) - coaching actors in verbatim performance

• Understanding Diversity, Teaching Pluralism Through Theatre course (Spring 2021) - discussions of power and privilege in the context of gender, race, sexuality, and ability; using art to incite and catalyze change in communities through artist facilitation

• Radical Pedagogies & Arts-Based Organizing (Study abroad course, NYU campus Los Angeles, upcoming January 2022) - the use of arts-based strategies for organizing, political activism, direct action, and policy incentives framing justice and resistance at the center