Projects / Portland Community College,
Practicing Pluralism: Interactive Theater, Campus Climate and Academic Freedom
PIs: Jan Abushakrah, faculty chair of the Portland Community College Sylvania Economics, Political Science and Sociology Department and staff advisor to the Muslim Student Association; Jeannie LaFrance, Illumination Project Coordinator.
Location: Sylvania Campus, Student Services Division and the Social Sciences Division.
This project will facilitate a college-wide approach to promoting pluralism and will build on Portland Community College’s innovative Illumination Project. The project is a year-long academic and interactive theater program designed to foster a climate of equality, justice and respect for all people. The project trains Student Educators who take a three-term course sequence covering: issues of race, class and gender; community building; and conflict resolution and civic engagement. They then write and perform plays reflecting difficult topics. By the time they begin their performances, students are prepared to provide education and leadership around difficult issues. Performances are based on a style of theater known as Theater of the Oppressed, a nontraditional theater style used to promote community-centered problem solving. Student Educators perform a play once without interruption. Then they perform it again, and audience members have the opportunity to enter a scene, become a character and try to solve the problem presented in the scene as that character. A facilitator debriefs with the audience member, the actors and the rest of the audience, and then the play continues to the next “intervenable” scene. The project allows the campus community to participate in problem solving and build empathy, key elements to living respectfully in a pluralistic society.
See the projects home page here.