Acting the Change: Practitioner Profiles of Theater as Alternative Forms

of Community Organizing in Upstate New York

Christian Turner

Department of City and Regional Planning Cornell University

December 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

2

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

3

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

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.

4

Citizen Action New York and PUSH Buffalo, respectively. The Phoenix Players Theater Group

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

5

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.

6

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 19th 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

7

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

8

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

9

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

10

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.

11

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

5 For more on community change, see Bobo, Kimberley A., Kendall, Jackie and Max, Steven (2001) Organizing for

Social Change. Seven Locks Press

12

organizing strategies6, MUCCC remains a valuable and instrumental hub for community change.

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

6 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.

13

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

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

14

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

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

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. 188-219 8 Leonard, Robert H. (2006). Cornerstone Theater Company: Love and Respect at Work in the Creative Process.

Performing Communities. New Village Press.

15

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,

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

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.

16

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

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

10 Leonard, Robert H. (2006). Los Angeles Poverty Department: Theater as an Act of Citizenship. Performing

Communities. New Village Press 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

17

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.

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.

18

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

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

14 Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin, 1996. Print.

19

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.

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.

20

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

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

21

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

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.

22

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

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

23

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.

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

24

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

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.

25

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

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

26

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

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

27

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

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

15 Johnson, Allan G. (2006). Privilege, Power, and Difference. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

28

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,

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

16 Challenging the Prison Industrial Complex: Activism, Arts, and Educational Alternatives. (2011) Hartnett,

Setphen Ed. University Illinois Press

29

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.

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

30

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.

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.”

31

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.

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,

32

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.

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

33

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

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,

17 Herman, Judith. 1997. Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence--from Domestic Abuse to Political

Terror. Basic Books, New York

34

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

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.

35

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

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

36

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

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

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 California

37

the voices of organizers of broad-based community organizing groups such as Saul Alinsky19, Ed

Chambers20, Michael Gecan21 and Myles Horton22.

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.

19 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: Continuum 21 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

Autobiography. New York: Teachers College.

38

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.

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

39

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

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.

Betten, Neil, Austin, Michael J. and Fisher, Robert. (1990) The Roots of Community Organizing,1917-

1939. Philadelphia: Temple UP.

Brecht, Bertolt and Willett, John. (1964.) Brecht on Theatre; the Development of an Aesthetic. New York:

Hill and Wang.

Brandon, J. M. (2010). Bertolt Brecht. Theatre Topics, 20(1), 77-78. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Bobo, Kimberley A., Kendall, Jackie and Max, Steven (2001) Organizing for Social Change. Seven

Locks Press

Challenging the Prison Industrial Complex: Activism, Arts, and Educational Alternatives. (2011).

Hartnett, Stephen Ed. University Illinois Press

Chambers, E. (2003). Roots for Radicals: Organizing for power, action, and justice. New York:

Continuum.

Cohen-Cruz, Jan (2010). Self -Representing: Testimonial Performance. Engaging Performance, Theater

as Call and Response

23 Acting Together: Performance and Creative Transformation of Conflict (2008). Cohen, Cynthia., Varea, Roberto

and Walker, Polly. Eds. Vol.1 &2. New Village Press.

40

Coles, Romand. (2005). Beyond Gated Politics: Reflections for the Possibility of Democracy.

Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.

Coles, Romand (2006). Of tensions and tricksters: Grassroots democracy between theory and practice.

Perspectives on Politics, 4(3). Princeton University Press. p547-561 .

Drain, Richard (1995).Twentieth Century Theatre: A Sourcebook. Routledge, Boston, MA

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. 188-219

Freire, Paulo. 1996. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin, Print.

Fisher, R. (1994). Let the people decide: Neighborhood organizing in America . Social Movements Past

and Present. Cengage Gale. Twayne Publishers

Gecan, M. (2002). Going Public. Boston: Beacon Press.

Herman, Judith. 1997. Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence--from Domestic Abuse to

Political Terror. Basic Books, New York

Horton, Myles, Judith Kohl, and Herbert R. Kohl. (1998). The Long Haul: An Autobiography. New York:

Teachers College.

Johnson, Allan G. (2006). Privilege, Power, and Difference. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

Leonard, Robert H. (2006). Cornerstone Theater Company: Love and Respect at Work in the Creative

Process. Performing Communities. New Village Press

Leonard, Robert H. (2006). Los Angeles Poverty Department: Theater as an Act of Citizenship.

Performing Communities. New Village Press

Payne, Charles. (1995) I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi

Freedom Struggle. Berkeley. University of California

Playing Boal: Theater, Therapy and Activism. (1994) Cohen-Cruz, Jan and Schutzman, Mandy, Eds.

London Routledge

Sainer, Arthur (2000). The New Radical Theater Notebook. Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. Print