Bringing The World Into Our Work
This semester, I thought Wesleyan Theater would disappear. In a year where it’s imperative that we stay apart to stay safe, I was certain it’d be impossible to pursue an art form that requires people to come together. But in the past two months, I’ve been proved wrong over and over again. We’ve had Slabber and Salvation, One Day Plays and MonoLogOn. Wesleyan Theater is here—and it’s different. We can no longer bring people together by welcoming them all to watch a performance in the ‘92, and yet with some creativity and some intention, we can continue to maintain and grow our own community.
That’s where Community Outreach for Curious Incident comes in. At the start of this project, Lauren explained my role as Community Outreach Coordinator to me as “bringing our work into the world and the world into our work.” It’s been my mantra ever since. This project is more than the production that’ll be streamed in December, so it’s important that we invite people to collaborate with us and engage with our work in ways other than being an audience member for the final show.
As we welcome this engagement, we have to seek out voices beyond the ones we usually see in Wesleyan Theater. And to do that, we have to create our own process in an effort to be more accessible and inclusive. I spent my first year on campus interested in theater but constantly confused, hesitant to sign up for auditions because I wasn’t sure what to expect and unwilling to participate in shows because I didn’t think I was qualified to do it. So we knew we had to bridge that gap of uncertainty and misinformation early on.
This work started with our Summer Sessions, a series of Information and Creative Sessions that introduced Lauren’s thesis and our plans for this semester to anyone interested in learning more about it. Together on Zoom, we shared information about auditions and casting, we discussed the play itself, and we explored the concept of physical touch in public spaces. We made sure there were opportunities for people to approach us, whether by setting up a meeting or dropping in during our casual “office hours.” By the time auditions came around, anyone who wanted to know more about the process or meet the director and stage manager ahead of time could do so.
When the semester began, Community Outreach was already well underway. As a part of our effort to bring more people into our rehearsal space, we invited Ben Raanan, a Chicago-based disabled teacher and director. Ben worked on Curious Incident as his master’s thesis in directing accompanied by a paper called “Radical Accessibility.” He talked with us about his own experience and perspective directing the show given his personal understanding and expertise with disability and accessibility. We’re continuing to have conversations with theater professionals with disabilities, and will hopefully have more opportunities to bring them into our rehearsal space as we discuss ability and ableism as it relates to Curious Incident, theater, and Wesleyan as a whole.
Just a few weeks ago, we facilitated a collaboration with the Wesleyan Film Series, co-sponsored with Eye to Eye and WesBuds, for a screening of the movie Crip-Camp: A Disability Revolution. Together with the other students who attended the screening, we had a conversation about accessibility, inclusivity, and ableism as depicted in the movie and observed in public spaces and Wesleyan in particular. Few of the participating students were Theater-majors; most were present because they were invested in the subject of the film and our conversation. To me, this is one of the biggest successes our outreach might have: being able to connect with people outside of the “Theater community”, which can otherwise feel extraordinarily insular.
There’s less than a month until the show is performed, and only a little over a month until the show is shared with audiences. But our work with Community Outreach is far from over. We’re continuing to facilitate events to encourage conversation about accessibility, both in Wesleyan Theater and outside of it. In a semester where it seems like such a challenge to even find community, we want to make sure we’re making our own space for one. If you’d like to be a part of any of our initiatives, let us know! And keep an eye out for our upcoming events.
So while we might be staying apart to stay safe, Wesleyan Theater hasn’t met its end. We just have to keep adapting and take this opportunity to welcome more people in our space. When this pandemic is over, I hope this is one shift that remains: that we continue to be intentional about bringing our work into the world and the world into our work.
Written by Malaika Fernandes. At the time this was written, Malaika (she/her) was a sophomore theater and economics major at Wesleyan University from Mumbai, India. She was the Community Outreach Coordinator for The Curious Incident.
[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: The screenshot of a Zoom video call consists of a black background with a grid of fifteen rectangles featuring members of the Curious Incident team and Ben Raanan.]