Saturday performance to examine local racial issues

By Jenny West, The Star Press, East Central Indiana, March 26, 2004

MUNCIE - A theater performance Saturday at Central High School will portray how local residents feel about race relations.

The 12 participants - from middle and high schools in the city and county - each interviewed four friends, relatives and random community members about their thoughts on race, diversity and unity within the area.

The interviews were then turned into a script, which the students will perform during the one-hour show The Dream: A Unified Community. Community members will have a chance to respond during discussion after the show.

"For the students who have created this piece, I hope they feel like they have an sense of ownership in it, are proud of what they've done and have learned more about their community, about who they are and about who their families are," said program coordinator Katherine Burke.

Felicia Bright, 15, an eighth-grader at Wilson Middle School, said coming up with questions to ask was the most challenging part of the process.

"Most of the people I interviewed said that Muncie was small, that nice people live here and that they like it," Bright said.

She added that she learned more about her subjects during her discussions with them. "You can know someone forever, but not know everything about them," Bright said.

A Lafayette resident, Burke stepped outside her comfort zone when she, too, interviewed community members.

"As I was doing interviews, I got the opportunity to speak with people I never would have spoken with before or gone out of my way to speak to," she said. "It can be difficult to find a reason to go up and talk to someone who is different than you, and this gave me a reason to do that.

"What I learned is that Muncie and Delaware County are very diverse places with deep-feeling people who live here who care about this community and care about each other."

Burke - who runs a theater company called InterPlay - wrote the script Tuesday using the interviews and written material from newspaper articles and the recent "Middletown" study. On Wednesday morning, the group gathered at Central's auditorium for a rehearsal.

While some quotes in the script were hard to distinguish in terms of the race and age of the original speaker, others were obvious in their content, such as an African-American woman talking about her experiences while shopping in the Muncie area:

"I don't like to have to see people watching me. And I will tell people, I'm not going to steal. There's nothing in this store worth my stealing, so don't watch me. And that happens all the time."

Others touched on the more positive aspects of the city: "I think Muncie is a great place for families to raise their kids. It is a nice, safe atmosphere. It's a nice Midwest city; people are very friendly."

Burke said she hoped that the performance would pay tribute to all of the people interviewed.

"It was very touching to read the interviews because they reflected a wide range of people's ideas and sentiments," she said.

If you go

WHAT: The Dream: A Unified Community

WHEN: 7 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Central High School auditorium

ADMISSION: Free