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Do You See What I'm Saying?
Dr. Amy Sarno and Dr. Darren Kelly
Beloit College (Fall 2007)

Required Texts:

• Kuppers, Petra and Gwen Robertson. The Community Performance Reader. New York: Routledge, 2007.
• Rohd, Michael. Theatre for Community, Conflict & Dialogue. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1998. ISBN 0-325-00002-6 Paperback.
• Course packet with additional readings are on reserve in the library.

Required Equipment:

Bound journal for recording thoughts, rehearsals, and ideas. Also to keep track of current events and research that you do.

What Am I Doing Here?

Right here, in Beloit, Wisconsin, is the site of the only known community housing built exclusively for African American workers in the state. The four apartment buildings are in the process of being restored. As part of this restoration, Kelly, Sarno, class participants, and community members will work together to preserve the spirit of this site. Initially, the course will focus on the historical and socio-cultural development of the Flats with special attention to industry and migration in the United States generally, and Beloit specifically. During this time, the students will also participate in workshops on such topics as observation skills, listening/interview/recording techniques and facilitation skills. In the second half of the class, students will join community members in mapping exercises and story exchanges to develop a form of reminiscence theatre that will be used as the groundwork for a larger education and outreach program for the Fairbanks Flats Revitalization Group.

The goals of this course are: 1) to familiarize students with the historical significance of Beloit; 2) to introduce students to basic community-based creative practices used for urban renewal; 3) to develop research and production skills necessary for community-based performance; 4) to explore issues of class and race as they pertain to both the individual and community; and 5) to develop collaborative learning skills.

Course assignments include: producing a “Reactions Charrette”, writing a 3-5 page “My Place” response paper, leading an opening exercise, collecting and transcribing an oral history, keeping an ongoing journal, participating in the group facilitation, and collaborating on a final collaborative performance created in a small group situation. You will also be required to attend class regularly (which will have a significant impact on your grade). But, you just can’t be there; it is imperative that you participate in all class discussions and class activities.

Grading System

Essentially, you will be grading yourselves in consultation with the professors. Every other Wednesday, you will be turning in an evaluation form of your work through that particular week. For every written and performance assignment, you will be required to return an evaluation sheet of your own work and to give yourself a grade. At the end of the semester, you will be asked to tabulate your own grade based on the personal evaluation forms and the grades you have given yourself on your projects. You will propose your own letter grade and justify that grade in writing. In the personal interview with the professors, you will propose your grade and together we will come to consensus about your grade. No student will receive a grade until consensus between the professors and student is reached.*

* In the case that consensus can not be reached, the student will receive an incomplete or an appropriate grade as deemed by the professors.

Attendance

We promise that we will be in class and on time. We expect that all of you will be in class and on time. Our basic philosophy is that if we aren’t all in class together, then we can’t learn from each other. This course is student directed and if you aren’t there, you are not only interfering with your own learning, but also the learning of others. Thought is collaborative, so please engage in collaborative behavior.

There will be a sign-up sheet on the door. Please sign in when you enter. When the class starts (on time!), the sheet will come down. If you enter after we have taken the sheet down, Darren and Amy will mark you as tardy.

Remarkably, both Amy and Darren’s personal pet peeve is tardiness! Tardiness forces everyone in the room to pay attention to you. Both Amy and Darren feel people who are repeatedly late are engaging in selfish behavior. Let’s work together in an environment that breeds teamwork. Let’s be able to depend on each other — when we say we’re going to be somewhere, let’s be there.

In terms of the way we will grade you for the final meeting, we will allow each person to have two absences for school fieldtrips, illness, death, psychological days — whatever. After two absences, we will calculate your grade to lower ONE FULL LETTER GRADE for every absence after two. We’re both serious about this rule.

In this class, tardies are even more challenging because there will be many days that we will have guests come to talk or that guests will be a part of the classroom environment. On top of that, everyday a student will be in charge of leading the opening exercise that sets the tone for the day. We all need to be present for those rituals. Darren and Amy have decided that we will allow each person to have THREE LEGITIMATE TARDIES FOR THE WHOLE SEMESTER. These “legitimate” tardies will not affect your grade. Every tardy after the three legitimate tardies (regardless of the reason or legitimacy) will equal ONE FULL LETTER GRADE deducted from your final grade. A tardy is defined as being late from the point the sheet comes down to 10 minutes. If you are anymore than 10 minutes late, do not enter the classroom until the break. You will be counted as absent for the first hour.

In the final consensus meeting about your grade, we will NOT overlook absences or tardies. They will count.

Fine Print about absences…

• Please note that there is no such thing as an excused absence. If, however, you do have an emergency that will put you above and beyond the allotted absences, please get a note from the Dean of Students that documents the reason for your absence to the professors as soon as possible. Please keep in contact with the professors while you are away so that an agreement can be made to accommodate your situation. Without documentation, you will be held to the absence policy.
• If you have field trips or athletic trips that are planned during the semester, please note that those will count for absences. The professors will not “excuse” or ignore those absences. Please plan accordingly.

PARTICIPATION

This is a self-directed class and it is also a performance class. If you don’t say anything, then we won’t have a very fruitful discussion. If you don’t try something new, the professors and other students aren’t going to tell you what to do. It is our hope that this class will help you be more creative. While Darren and Amy have more experience at theatre for social change, we still don’t have all the answers. Invariably we will come across a question that we will have to work creatively to answer. Please be willing to listen to each other and try everyone’s suggestion rather than waiting for one of the professors to solve the problem. In this classroom, we are all learning and we all know something! It is essential for your grade that you participate in class to the fullest of your ability.

Confidentiality

When you are involved in creative enterprise like community-based performance, you will sometimes have to take on roles, sing, or dance the “funky chicken”. Doing these things may be hard for some people to do or they may be taking a risk that in the end doesn’t work for one reason or another. We must remember that in order to create new ideas, it is important that people feel safe to step outside of their “safety zone” without fearing that there will be consequences to their real day-to-day life.

For this reason, one of the rules of the room is confidentiality. What happens in class or in the rehearsal room or in an interview or in a group session stays in the group. Outside of our group, you are not to talk about how Joey bawked like a chicken or how Cindy Lou broke into tears because an old lady called her mean. Individuals outside the classroom don’t understand the context in which our activities take place, so protect our work and our privacy. What happens in class stays in class. Period.

If for any reason it becomes apparent that confidentiality has been broken, Amy and Darren will investigate the situation and take serious action. It is possible that we could require a student to drop the class for a breach of confidentiality.

The “We Wills”

On the first day of class, we will collaboratively set a list of how we will function in this class. The “We Wills” will act as policy in this class. If you violate any item on the list, you are subject to your colleague’s requests. Please respect the “We Wills” throughout the semester.

Late Work

Late work can’t be accepted in this class because of the tight deadlines and the responsibility you have to your peers. If you do not have an assignment ready, then you don’t get the benefit of the class. It is not fair to ask either the professors or your peers to give you feedback after the assignment is due. No one will be expected to assist you after deadlines.

Plagiarism

The professors and your peers expect that all of your papers, homework, and creative projects stem from your own thoughts and research. That means you must cite all sources for any work that you turn in (please use an accepted style format — MLA, Turabian, or APA are acceptable). Also, when doing homework assignments, “working together” and getting the exact same answer in the exact same language is unacceptable. Any assignments that appear plagiarized will be given a zero and all students involved will be asked to meet with the professors and reported to the Dean of Students. If you have any questions as to what plagiarism includes, please see your student handbook or ask one of the professors.

Sidenote: Please remember that Wikipedia is not a legitimate source…

Proofreading

Please, please, please proofread. When Darren and I are reading lots of papers, it slows us down to deal with typos, misspellings, and bizarre grammar. So that we can return things in a timely manner, please use SpellCheck and review your work BEFORE turning it in. After three errors on one page, Amy and Darren will probably give up trying to read the paper and that will probably have an impact on our final impression of your work. And, depending on the situation, we may not be able to review your work a second time if you make adjustments to a typo-ridden paper.

Darren strongly suggests that you give yourself the opportunity to review your work at least two days prior to its due date so that you can fully think through your ideas and hone the thoughts before handing it over to us. Amy LOVES that idea. The moral of the story is that both Darren and Amy love well-written and edited papers.

Clothing:

Dress for maximum freedom. Daily you will be lying on (and sometimes rolling on) the floor. Wear flexible shoes or remove shoes for exercises.

Treatment of the Room

The room in which we create, discuss, and ponder in is a precious space. For this reason, it is important that we preserve its sanctity. For this reason, the following are important ideas to heed:

• Do not enter the room talking and gossiping. Enter the room in preparation for work. Use the hall for communing and talking about things that don’t concern the project that is being created within.
• There will be no eating or drinking in the room, unless the food and beverage is part of a class exercise. Please eat and drink in the hallways.
• Please remove your shoes upon entering the room.
• Every time you move something into the space, strike it when you are done with it.
• Treat the space as sacred. Don’t drag stuff, leave your trash around, or make a mess of something
• If you see trash in the room or if the center space is not clear when you enter, be a good Samaritan and clear the space or pick up the mess. If you see someone else doing this, then chip in and help. (I know you’re not anyone’s maid, but it’s better to create a sacred space than gripe about it!)
• If you need to stand on a chair, use the chairs with vinyl seats – the maroon chairs are audience seats and audience members don’t like to sit on the dirt from the bottom of your shoes.
• Class will always start with us gathering in a circle on the floor. So, don’t just throw yourself into a chair against the wall, come directly to the circle. Darren and Amy shouldn’t have to ask you to do this.

Physical Contact:

Do You See What I’m Saying? is an artistic class. Students are learning how to experiment with sound and movement. Part of learning these techniques stem from the performer’s use of the body. If the body is not in the correct position, something else may be communicated that the performer does not intend. Oftentimes, the performer is unaware of the physical use of his/her body—but the teacher or another student may be able to point out challenges to the student through physical contact. With the use of a simple touch, the actor can be reminded of the position of his/her body or musculature. Therefore, the teacher reserves the right to use appropriate touch for the purpose of teaching this material to the best of his ability. It is the student’s responsibility to inform the teacher immediately if any touch feels uncomfortable. The teacher’s responsibility is to immediately change or discontinue physical contact. In all circumstances, the greatest respect of all parties shall be upheld.

Description of Assignments

In terms of percentages, the following is how the assignments break out:

The Journal — 50%
Participation/Performances — 30%
Written Work — 20%

Participation and performances section includes: the Reactions project, the final performance, class participation, the facilitated workshop with the community, class discussions, the opening exercise, and rehearsal/group collaborations.

Written work includes: the “My Place” response paper, the oral history interview/transcript, written self critiques, and participation in the script writing.

Individual opening exercise:

Each student will be expected to lead one class exercise, which will occur at the beginning of class. During the first week of classes, all students will be assigned one day during the semester to prepare the opening exercise.

There are a number of reasons for such exercises. Firstly, most exercises require different forms of body movement which loosen up and energize one’s body- they provide each participant the opportunity to shake-off any daily physical and emotional stress and thus, frees up the body and mind for the class ahead. Secondly, these activities facilitate cohesiveness within the group. Thirdly, many of the activities can be used and adapted for performance purposes.

A lot of a facilitator’s work is invisible. Therefore, the object of this assignment is to make each student aware of processes that underscore the facilitation of a given exercise. Furthermore, the assignment allows each student to practice facilitation in a safe, controlled and supportive environment.

Theatre exercises do not happen by accident but by design. It is dangerous to read, witness or participate in an activity and assume that you can repeat (facilitate) that exercise with a different group of people without preparation. Exercises are chosen for particular purposes i.e. you need to be aware of that purpose in order to facilitate it properly and so the group can fully benefit from it. You need to be aware of your group. Can each person do the exercise? Maybe a person in the group has a disability that would make the exercise impossible to complete. In this case, maybe you could adapt the exercise or choose a more appropriate one. Consideration should be given to how well the members within a group know each other. For example, if the members of the group do not know each other, they may be hesitant to do exercises that require bodily contact.

Theatre / group activities are usually a lot of fun but they need to be controlled. You must ensure that all participants are fully aware of what they should do i.e. the rules. This is very much the case when working with young people! Sometimes the expected outcome of an exercise will not materialise as you might have expected. As long as the exercise is safe and enjoyed, its development by the group can be positive, and thus, whilst keeping control, be prepared to be flexible. An exercise might not be successful for many reasons. There could be a problem with the group dynamic and discussing what went wrong can be quite beneficial for the group. Sometimes an exercise will not be successful because the rules were not clearly outlined, the space you were working in. was not appropriate or worse still, the objectives of the exercise was not clear to the facilitator.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:

Read Michael Rohd's Theatre for Community, Conflict and Dialogue. It's published by Heinemann and has a publication date of 1998. The paperback ISBN is 0-325-00002-6. You may also wish to read Augusto Boal’s Games for Actors and Non-Actors (1992); it is shelved at 792.028 b63g in the College library.

Choose an activity you feel confident to facilitate and consider how the activity fits in with the class objectives. Become intimately aware of the objectives of the activity, its rules, as well as the materials and space required.

Before class you must have typed-up the activity that you will facilitate, your aims and objectives and how you wish to facilitate. Just as two chefs may have the same ingredients, they each bring with them their own flare for cooking; it is the same with facilitators. After class you must write-up your reflections on the exercise, for example, was it successful, was the outcome different to what you had envisaged, were you scared, did you enjoy the experience, if it didn’t meet your expectations why was this the case? If you were to do the exercise again, what may you change or add? Following this assignment make sure you place your typed work into your class journal.

Class Journal
Due Date: Darren and Amy may pick up the journal periodically through the class, but everyone will turn in the final journal on December 12, 2007

The journal is meant to be a record of your experiences in this class. The goal of the journal is as follows:

• to assist you as you to improve your understanding of a procedure (it helps you learn from your mistakes!)
• To help you think through complicated theory and applications (you need to use the journal to help you problem solve)
• To hone your analytical skills
• To record your experiences so that you can replicate this work in later contexts
• Please write legibly. (Journal that are illegible won’t be read…or therefore, graded!)

Unlike many other courses, Do You See What I’m Saying? is not just a theoretical course, but also an experiential course. Amy and Darren are teaching it as if you all were professional community-based performance workers who are learning new applications that you will bring back to your own communities. For you to be effective with that transfer of knowledge, you are going to want to keep track of everything you learn.

Your journal needs to include:

Your class notes. This should include directions for activities, lecture notes, criticisms of other students’ projects, critical notes about your projects from others, hand-outs, notes from discussions amongst class members. Really good journal writers will include quotes not only from the professors, but also from the other students.

Your rehearsal notes. This should include assignments and research notes for your part of the final script. You will also want to articulate the goals you and your teammates set for rehearsals and an evaluations of how well you completed those goals. You also want to reflect back on your rehearsal and think about how you behaved as a collaborator as well as specific activities that you think were particularly effective or ineffective that you might want to be aware of in the future.

Your reflections. Every day after class, take ten minutes to reflect on what happened and make note of what you think you really need to remember for the future. This might also be a time for you to explore creative ideas – if the exercise seems particularly appropriate to something that you think you’ll be doing in the future, explore that idea.

Your reactions to readings. After every reading, take 5-10 minutes to think about what that article really means. If what the article is true, then how does that impact your work as a community arts person? Did this article change your thinking about something? What and how is it different? Do you suddenly have a new idea for something? What are those ideas? Does the article raise questions about something else? What?

Your journal must be hard bound (composition notebook or an actual journal). It can not be typed and it can’t be in a spiral notebook or on random sheets of paper. It is anticipated that what this journal is going to become is your bible for the future.

There are no page limits or expectations to the journal. AND, it is expected that you fully work through an idea. Your journal will be graded based on both your impression and our impressions of your growing thought processes, the development of your technical skills, and your discoveries over the course of the semester.

ReActions Charrette Project

Presentation Date: September 12, 2007 (self-reflection and critique are due on September 19, 2007)

You will be assigned to a group with three other people. Your group is only allowed to spend five hours assembling this performance piece.
Your group should begin a conversation among yourselves about your team’s focus, schedule, methods, and division of labor. Remember that you are planning to create 15-20 minutes of lo-tech, high-creativity performance. You will have access to basic multimedia capabilities (a CD player, a VCR and monitor, or Powerpoint if you contact Denzil Showers in AV to hook you up) as well as any materials you wish to purchase with your own money.
We hope to avoid giving the impression that ReActions is this class’s attempt to fix, heal, or memorialize the city of Beloit through theatre. We recognize that an ethical theatrical response demands a longer residency, a more intimate engagement, than a four-day exploration of Beloit can allow. ReActions is intended to provide THIS CLASS a space in which we can reflect among ourselves on our interactions with this city.
With this rationale in mind, we encourage you all to keep in mind the following considerations as you begin planning with your team:

• You should think of your performances as aimed primarily at this classroom ONLY.
• While it is perhaps difficult to think of Beloit without also thinking of economic challenges realize that the city has always been and continues to be more than its relationship to money and industry. We want you to be consciously looking for the diversity Beloit as a city offers. Look for the unexpected and the unknown.
• ReActions is an experiment in collaboration between students from different disciplines and different ways of seeing and experiencing place. We hope that you discover new ways to observe, create, and collaborate from each other.
• Allow yourselves to think abstractly, imagistically, and poetically. What you invent does not and should not necessarily be linear or text-based. This performance piece can be more like a collage than a story.
• You are responsible for all sets, costumes, props, music, and multi-media. You may not borrow these things from the theatre department.

Exercise taken from ATHE conference in New Orleans, August 2007

My sense of space, my sense of place

Due date: to be submitted before class begins on Monday, September 17th

Word Count: 1,500 minimum

Outline:

The first part of this assignment requires you to describe your place in the world and secondly, to analyse what you have written using the class readings. You may use other secondary sources.

Notes for section one:

Write briefly about the place(s) where you grew-up from your viewpoint; was it urban or rural. Describe your activities and the most important places that you used e.g. a park, diner etc. In essence, build up your personal picture / map of your home town. Repeat this exercise for your sense of place in Beloit. You may insert photographs into the body of your assignment. Title each photograph and number it as follows:

My Family Home

Plate 1

Notes for section two:

Having written section one in a subjective register, section two requires you to write in a more academic register. With reference to your reading and understanding of Calvino, Creswell and Sibley, analyse the life-worlds you inhabit. What places and spaces are not included in your personal map? What does your writing say about the sense of community you inhabit? How would you categorise the different groups to which you are a member, examples might range from a church congregation to a specific group of friends you hang-out with? Do you act / dress / speak differently within each group i.e. do they have explicit or implicit codes? How conscious, prior to this assignment, have you been of the specificity of the places you inhabit and the groups to which you belong?

Oral History Assignment
Transcript & CD due: November 5, 2007
Self critique due: November 7, 2007

Since much of what we have been asked to do by the Flats community is to help them memorialize the Flats, it is essential that we collect for them and work with actual transcripts of their stories. That means we need to speak directly with individuals who grew up in the flats.

The Flats community is assembling a list of people for us to assign you to speak with. You will be provided with a name and number. Your job is to contact the individual and arrange for a time for you to take a life history of these individuals. Once you have completed that interview, you will be asked to transcribe the tape and turn in both a CD of the interview and a finished (and approved) transcript of the interview. Along with the interview and transcript, you will also turn in signed consent forms from your interviewees.

As a class, we will discuss the way in which you will be asked to conduct your interview and you will participate in creating a list of questions that you will be asking your interviewee.

November 7, 2007, you will be asked to turn in a self critique of your transcript and interview. To complete this 3 page, typed, double-spaced 10-12 point font paper, you will need to review your tape and re-read your transcript. Evaluate how you might have conducted a better interview. Assess how your interview went well. Suggest areas that might need follow-up later.

Be sure to give yourself a grade on the project at the end.

Scripts
Due Date: December 3, 2007

From all of the material we have gathered over the course of the semester, we will assemble bits of script. The class will be divided into smaller groups and be assigned to write a script for the theatre piece about a particular topic that the class determines.

As the theatre piece evolves, the assignment will be clearer. In your journal you must detail how you have participated in the writing.