“Once there was a performance on January 25th, where an audience from all corners of the country came together to share their stories.”
That quote was the closing line of the District Community Playback performance at the Anacostia Arts Center show we attended and participated in last Saturday (or something similar to that, I was a little teary eyed and couldn’t write it down fast enough). I think I speak for a lot of us when I say we left the performance with a drastically changed view of how beneficial the arts can be for a community. Not only was the structure of this performance drastically different from any of the other shows we have attended this month, but the energy in the room and the makeup of the audience was something I have never experienced at any other arts event.
The performance was intentionally staged minimally: the actors wore all black, and the only things on stage besides themselves were a few wooden apple boxes. Two musicians sat just off stage, equipped only with a box drum, tambourine, and a microphone. The space itself was simple as well, we sat in a small black box theater with the sound of an air conditioning unit humming in the background. John Johnson began the show by asking the audience how long everyone had lived in DC. This question stood out to me for a few reasons. On the surface level, it was clear that John was beginning the process of creating an open and intimate space by breaking the ice. But deeper than that was the use of the word “lived”: it was expected that this audience was not made up of tourists or other visitors to DC, but of community members.
John then began asking the audience for stories or anything else that was on our mind. A few people shared thoughts or stories, and we all quickly began to understand what playback theater is all about. Before the actors began, we were instructed to say as a group “(Name of the storyteller, let’s watch). While it felt a little silly at first, it really did enhance the communal experience. The stories people shared then came to life on the stage in a way that not only resonated with the storyteller, but with the audience as a whole.
John then asked us to do something I’ve never been asked to do in a theater setting: we were told to find someone in the room that we didn’t know and share a story about our time in DC, however long we may have been here for. Not only did this activity create conversations that may never happen organically, but it solidified the trust that was already building in the room. This trust allowed them to move to more long-form pieces, in which an audience member volunteered to come on stage and share a longer story that the actors would interpret. This seemed like a stretch to me: I thought there was no way anybody would volunteer for this, right?
WRONG.
Many audience members came up to share their stories, and they ranged from lighthearted tales of coffee cup mishaps to stories of gun violence and loss of a parent. But regardless of the topic, each story was treated with grace and respect, both by the actors and the rest of the audience.
The last person to share a story titled his “A Million Men Still Marching”. He talked about his experience as a struggling black business owner in DC during the Million Man March in 1995. He told his story beautifully, and described how not only was his business saved that day, but he witnessed a kind of unconditional love between black men that he still feels the power of to this day. The piece that the actors and musicians put together was nothing short of stunning; people all around the room were moved to tears, and the room was electric with energy. In this moment, my classmates and I were confronted with an example of profound healing and communal engagement in a way that we have not seen up until this point.
That man, and everyone else who shared a story, started out as a stranger and left as someone I felt I knew. In the lobby after the performance, those people stood out to me like familiar faces in the crowd.
Many of the organizations we have visited, and many that I myself have spoken with outside of DC, list community engagement as a goal for the future and a way to foster democracy and equity. Some of them do fantastic work in this realm, some are working towards it, and some are frankly doing the wrong things or none at all. To me, District Community Playback company is doing absolutely everything right. They are doing more than placing a cookie-cutter performance in a new neighborhood and expecting new people to come, and they are doing more than simply making their performances free and hoping for the best. They are achieving incredibly authentic and effective community engagement simply through their art form and their ability to cultivate a safe, trusting space that encourages the sharing of ideas. People leave the theater knowing their neighbor just a little better. The conversations we had both during the performance and the post show talk back were the kinds of conversations every community would benefit from having, and I think the work being done through District Community Playback is a fantastic model for other communities and theater companies to utilize as a small but powerful example of democracy.