In a hard-hitting new play, Los Angeles teenagers offer contemporary perspectives on the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the civil rights movement.
CalArts Community Arts Partnership /Plaza de la Raza Theater Program Presents the Premiere Production of UPSET!
"They're dreams, but we feel, to rehearse will make them real."
--Rodney King and Claudette Colvin in UPSET!
In May, the CalArts Community Arts Partnership (CAP)/Plaza de la Raza Theater Program will present the premiere of UPSET!. Centering on the dual narratives of police brutality victim Rodney King, whose case was a catalyst for the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and forgotten civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin, UPSET! will open on May 5, 2006 at Plaza de la Raza in Los Angeles.
The play previews on May 4 for a two weekend run at Plaza de la Raza and will also be presented at REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater) in downtown Los Angeles on May 26 - 27. A complete performance schedule appears at the end of this release.
CAP, a program of California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), provides innovative in-depth arts training for teenagers in 53 diverse neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles County. For 16 years, the CAP/Plaza de la Raza Theater Program has offered professional-level theatrical training to middle and high school age youth. UPSET! is a testament to the current students' abilities to reach new understandings of complex and cataclysmic events.
"The oldest of my students was probably a toddler when the riots happened," said founding CAP/Plaza de la Raza Theater Program Director BJ Dodge. "So, these are the children who were born out of that chaos. With the play, they are exploring whether anything has changed since that time. UPSET! is these students living in L. A. right now and asking what's different--'are we on our way out of the fire or are we going back in?'"
Over a six-month period, UPSET!'s writer Mady Schutzman collaborated with CAP/Plaza youth to develop the play's characters and story. In her work with the students, she employed the Joker System, an activist performance style developed by Brazilian theater pioneer Augusto Boal. Best known as originator of the Theater of the Oppressed, Boal's principles emphasize a Rashomon-style approach to real-life events, in which situations are understood through the viewpoints of all characters involved.
In Boal's system, a Joker character acts as a provocative facilitator of the action - presiding over interventions into the facts of the story and injecting humor, questions and commentary.
An authority on Boal's work, Schutzman created an updated interpretation of the Joker System for this project. Schutzman is a dramaturge, scholar and Assistant Dean of CalArts School of Critical Studies. She is co-editor of A Boal Companion, which was released in March 2006 by Routledge Press.
"The Joker System works with constant questioning and changing points of view," she said. "It allows you to create a play that includes commentary about the action. That was important because the students were learning about these historical events and figures for the first time. I wanted their curiosity and learning curves to be included in the play."
Schutzman introduced writing techniques that inspired the students to choose King and Colvin as pivotal characters. She offered strategies for examining the fate of the civil rights movement and media's effect on contemporary experience.
Commenting about Schutzman and her work, Dodge said, "My particular joy has been in watching the encounter between this seasoned Joker and these young people and watching that relationship deepen... They trust Mady and they should. She's written them a remarkable play. When you ask deep questions, you get deep answers. It's an encounter of spirit."
The CAP/Plaza de la Raza Theater Program provides between 35-40 high school and middle school students with 40 weeks of instruction in acting, movement, voice, costume design, set design, lighting and sound design. Classes are held four evenings per week, beginning in October and continuing through May. Students work under former CalArts School of Theater faculty BJ Dodge, with the assistance CalArts School of Theater faculty member Marvin Tunney and CalArts Theater students, to realize an original production.
The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) Community Arts Partnership (CAP) is in its sixteenth year. CAP offers in-depth arts programs free-of-charge for elementary, middle and high school students in jazz, printmaking, photography, digital media, video, drawing, animation, dance, theater, puppetry, writing, chamber music, world music and graphic design. Founded in 1990 as the first program of its kind in the United States, CAP enlists the talents of CalArts faculty and students to offer more than 40 arts training programs covering subjects from digital arts and animation to world music and puppetry. The partnership holds classes and workshops in neighborhoods stretching from the Santa Clarita Valley to South Los Angeles.
Calendar Editors Please Note:
Dates:
May 4, 7:30pm, Preview Night at Plaza de la Raza
May 5, 7:30pm, Opening Night at Plaza de la Raza
May 6, 7:30pm at Plaza de la Raza
May 12, 2:00 and 7:30pm at Plaza de la Raza
May 13, 7:30pm at Plaza de la Raza
On 26 May, UPSET! will move to REDCAT, the Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater, for two nights only.
May 26-27, 7:30pm at REDCAT
Locations:
Plaza de la Raza, 3540 North Mission Rd, Los Angeles
REDCAT, Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater, 631 West 2 St, Los Angeles
Admission: FREE
Reservations are recommended for this event. For reservations please call Plaza de la Raza at 323 223 2475 or the REDCAT Box Office at 213 237-2800.
