Learning Abstract
continued
Thus far, the class has created three original theatrical
pieces written collectively through the use of ritual
poetic drama. They are uncle tom: deconstructed; Genocide
Trail: a holocaust unspoken; and Yellow Fever: the
internment. All three plays have received widespread
critical acclaim, and the company has toured in academic,
public, and corporate settings. The methodology used and
the shift in traditional pedagogy within the applied
theory of learning communities have created a new model
that has far- reaching application both within and outside
of academic communities.
RITUAL POETIC DRAMA DEFINED
In Ritual Poetic Drama Within the African Continuum, the
ultimate goal is the greater good of the community through
revelation, transformation, and social change. Tawnya
Pettiford-Wates, director and conceptualist for The
Conciliation Project, first used the method as a way of
helping individual artists access their creative content
and empowering them to become creators rather than
imitators of the dramatic form. That a fully actualized
creative artist has the power to mobilize an entire
community toward social change is the heart, soul, and
spirit of this work.
The ritual process begins by calling upon the ancestors,
present and past, who have contributed to the place where
the students stand at that moment. The lights are dimmed
and candles are lit. The smell of sage is present, and a
large pitcher of water and a huge, round bowl sit at the
center of the room. Also present is a small mound of earth
from the continent of Africa. There is the ever-present
beat of a single drum, but often a cacophony of rhythms.
Each student is asked to take an inward journey that
manifests physically in that space and time. The students
are willing to commit, and faculty must make the same
commitment. Dr. T, as she is known by students in the
program, practices and models a passion and explicit
commitment during every step of the ritual process. This
approach offers the students an opportunity for learning
that few of them have had before. Form should follow
content because the content comes out of the philosophy,
and style then becomes the offspring of the perfect
marriage between content and form.
In ritual theatre, the learning moments are plentiful. With
a deep sense of community, each student learns from
personal experience and the experiences of others. The sum
is not only greater than the total of the parts; it
provides an experience the parts have not previously had.
Contrasting Western drama’s fourth wall, which encourages
voyeurism rather than participation, in this learning
community watching without participating is simply not
allowed. In this community, as in the African Continuum,
there is no fourth wall, no disconnect between audience and
artist. Each student-artist must be a witness, not a
watcher.
This rejection of passivity is necessary to facilitate
events such as a ritual journey in which a participant in
an altered state of consciousness reconnects with a riteof-passage experience, often from childhood. These
events often cause expressions of anger, sorrow, or hurt in
the face of oppression encountered at that time. The
students write prolifically throughout this process, and
they share their writing with strong emotion and loud
voices. The only rule is that the written pieces cannot
make their way into the play unless they are read aloud to
the community by the author. At the same time, all writing
in the play relinquishes individual ownership, becoming
part of the community and part of the collectively
authored work.
COMMUNITY BUILDING FOR CREDIT
In the program that created and produced Yellow Fever,
students had opportunities to earn 18 credits in English
Composition, Theater, Dance, and Intercultural
Communication. In the first week, all members of the
program discussed what they needed as a community to
sustain them so they could thrive. What would they really
need from one another if this were to be where they live
and if they were in fact part of a world where there
were similar communities? They then self-selected into a
community of seven families: Farmers-Nurturers, HuntersGatherers, Warriors, Elders, Scribes-Teachers-Storytellers,
Healers, Builders-Artists. Each family had distinct tasks
and roles in relation to the larger community; however, all
families also shared mutual responsibilities such as
researching the time period and presenting material to the
entire community. In this case the time period was the
historical and social context of the creation of Yellow
Fever – a part of the disease of racism – and its spread as
a consequence of its creation.
Despite the topical references, Yellow Fever: the
internment is about more than the Japanese internment
camps. Along with the other plays in the ritual theatre
sequence, it is about the history and cycles of racism in
America. One of the main premises and pedagogies is that
benign neglect has proven to be impotent in ending racism.
In fact, pretending to forget about racism ensures that the
unspoken remains unspoken, and racism, with all its hatred
and shame, festers and diseases the society. Of course, no
one likes the word racism: It is a practice that we all got
over – right? Yet, racism is enacted locally, nationally,
and internationally in U.S. relations. Solving these
problems is not a series of comfortable acts for
anyone. These plays are not entertainment.
THE REHEARSAL PROCESS
Students become immersed in living the writing and research
process that asks them to examine their own experience and
the experience of the nation in which they live. It is not
unusual to see these students leaning forward and listening
intently during a play rehearsal. The rehearsals are in
many ways the most valuable part of the learning process
for students.
Consider this scene: A student rehearses for the role of a
father, a well-meaning white dad who considers that he
wants to move out of his neighborhood, which has become
multicultural, for his children’s sake. After researching
and writing a play focused on the Japanese internment
camps in the U.S. during WWII, this class of more than 50
students knows that the play will have to be on the stage
in only a few weeks. The student playing the role of Dad,
like all his classmates, is feeling the many pressures of
the day and date. He is growing frustrated and angry,
lashing out, and others around him are in a dilemma. He
seems angry about the task in front of them, but he is
actually identifying with the character he is portraying.
The young woman playing the role of daughter realizes that
this is her father. She feels the lines and tells him why
he is a racist.
The theater is silent as students and faculty trace the
anger into themselves and find frustration, hurt, and pain.
They now recognize their own racism and the effects of its
legacy on their psyche. The students who are present wrote
the lines in intense journaling and journeying sessions,
not knowing who would speak them or where the words would
be in the play. Now here they are, and the truth is not so
benign. They vow to take action against racism’s deadly
cycles. They continue with the production process.
NEW PEDAGOGY TO INFUSE A POTENT MODEL
This new pedagogy for learning communities, the use of
Ritual Poetic Drama Within the African Continuum, could
claim many disciplines in a transformative learning process
that allows students to move forward with newfound
recognitions and responsibilities. The instructors in this
program brought Composition, Poetry, Drama, Dance, and
Intercultural Communication classes together in a way that
no one who is involved in or attends the plays’
performances will ever forget. When the disciplines come
together, they offer opportunities for learning that the
solitary class struggles to reach.
The art of theater has an interdisciplinary approach at its
core. Ritual Poetic Drama Within the African Continuum uses
the model of a learning community that asks each person to
become an active and conscious advocate in the long and
arduous process of ending racism’s deadly and violent
history in America, and to begin the process of healing
from its personal and systemic legacy of damage and
destruction. The process continues to empower artists
within their communities. In this case, the members of the
class emerge from the journey more fully conscious that
racism is alive and well, and feeling more personally
responsible for the state of their communities.
Tawnya Pettiford-Wates mailto:tpetti@sccd.ctc.edu heads the
drama program at Seattle Central Community College (WA).
She is the artistic director and conceptualist for The
Conciliation Project.
Carl Waluconis mailto:cwaluc@sccd.ctc.edu is a poet and
instructor of writing and humanities at Seattle Central
Community College.
Find more information on The Conciliation Project online.
http://www.theconciliationproject.org/