TheatreWorks - The Workshop - 2002-2003 "Project Interact"

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Bridges Project | LPCH

Community Programs

2002-2003 "Project Interact"

In this Bridges Project, "PROJECT INTERACT," students and teachers explored the themes embedded in The Syringa Tree, a journey into the heart of Apartheid and The Legacy Codes, inspired by the saga of nuclear physicist Wen Ho Lee. These two plays provided educational opportunity to investigate the abyss between various ethnic and economic perspectives in our country, topics, to quote Jesus Aualos, “we usually wouldn't touch.”

Students from Carlmont (Belmont) were grouped with students from Gunn High School (Palo Alto) as were students from Menlo School (Atherton) and Eastside College Preparatory School (East Palo Alto). These economic and racially diverse students prepared for seeing The Syringa Tree in their individual classrooms and with their groups on-line. Through multiple classroom visits, students discussed topics such as racial profiling, tolerance, interracial dating, and membership in community. They had the unique opportunity to meet each playwright, study videos relating to the themes of the plays, and to just plain "talk about difficult issues."

The day of the The Syringa Tree matinee students met face to face with their group members to participate in exercises to get to know each other. After the performance, each group created photo representations around their understanding of the play’s themes. The exhibition created from their writings, artwork, and photos hung in the lobby of the theatre for the run of The Legacy Codes. Students from the project attended that matinee and experienced the unforgettable feeling of, as Eastside College Preparatory student Myron Jordan expressed, "being heard."

It was our goal to use the themes in the plays as a springboard for students to share their viewpoints, thereby using theatre as a bridge between different perspectives. We hoped that students would gain insight through discussion with their peers and, as a result, have an opportunity to challenge their own biases. The project itself serves as a testament to the power of art and its creation as a viable asset to successful education.