As I walked into Forum 104, I was handed a red ticket, with the numbers 359191, and was told to put part of the ticket into the basket because there was going to be a drawing with a $50 prize, sadly I didn't win! I was also handed this pamphlet describing the play and filled with tons of information about the many faces of racism and other useful information on how you can help solve the problem. Before the play started, Jeanie LaFrance and Monica Lee Noe (both of these women were the project coordinators), told the audience that they are going to go through the plays twice and that the first time they will go through the entire play, then the second time they will stop when the audience yells stop. Once someone from the audience yelled stop then that person had to go up there and take the place of someone on stage, but they couldn't take the place of the person they thought was doing the racist part, and then once the person picked the character they wanted to be, then they had to react the scene with a different ending. They would have to act out what they would do in real-life and make the outcome a better one and make sure that at least ONE person stood up.
The name of the play was "Other Compounds and Equilibriums" and was about real-life problems these actors have faced in their own lives. The play started out with 4 girls in a coffee shop, waiting for their coffee orders and Delia, called her Native American friend, Pocahontas with a drinking problem, all because she accidentally bumped into her and none of the other girls around them said anything. Then the next scene, all of the girls are getting ready to leave with their coffees and as they are walking past Claire, the barista, Delia says that she wished that the people who worked in America could all speak English, that way they wouldn’t have a reason for messing up at their jobs, and yet again no one said anything.
The second scene was set in a classroom. All of the girls are circled around this table and trying to figure out the chemistry assignment when the teaches walks up to them and looks over Grace’s notes and tells the girls that they will do alright because she is Asian and every single Asian that he has met are really smart. As the professor is walking away, Delia says that they are surely to get an A because they have Grace in their team. Because all Asian people are smart and don’t have to work as hard to get ahead, because they already are. And surprise…no one says anything, yet again.
The final scene was set in Grace’s and Bridget’s apartment and the girls are going over their notes and figuring if they have anything to do, when Grace leaves the room to get the food that she had cooked for them, and Delia starts to talk about her, not knowing she could hear all of what she said. Delia said that she didn’t want to eat the food that Grace cooked and that she didn’t want to smell the way that Grace did because of the food that she ate. Finally, someone stands up and it is Bridget. She tells Delia that the food is actually pretty good and to try it, but they don’t. When they have all left, Grace brings it up with Bridgette and asks if she stinks because of the food she eats. “ If you stink than so do I. I mean I am your roommate”, says Bridgette, but Grace is still hurt and says that she is just going to take a shower and wash the “stink” off of her.
Once they ran through the entire play, they went through it a second time and this time the audience could participate and act out what they would have done and then say why they did that.
When I saw the play, the first time, I realized how easy it is to be racist/prejudice without even trying. These girls were all friends and didn’t mean to hurt each other, but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t.
I think that once people saw how easy it is to be racist/prejudice they started thinking twice about what they say and how they say it. Most people don’t mean to offend people, it just happens. I know that once people see this play they will think twice about what they say and how they say it. People are very sensitive and most of the time never speak up about what hurt them.
CAST:
* Christina Finn- Bridget (student)
* Angelica Lim- Grace (student)
* Kasey Lorraine Thornton- Xena (student)
* Jocelyn Gutierrez- Claire (barista)
* Clarice Joy Jordan- Delia (student)
* Allan Trinidad- Nick (professor)
* Amanda Rabauliman- stage manager
* Jeannie LaFrance- project coordinator
* Monica Lee Noe- student project coordinator
LINKS:
* http://www.pcc.edu/resources/illumination/
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racist
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