What a Riot: Kaz Tarshis

I think this text is really brilliant. I love the constant breaking of the fourth wall and the way that the audience gets to be fully informed about what this play is. It's almost like a combination news article and greek play. I particularly enjoy the use of the chorus and I think it's a great way to make sure that all of the kids could feel like they had a voice. I think the way that Schultzman went about connecting with the kids in finding people from history that interested them, was a really smart way to create a dialogue about something that they could feel passionate about. I do wonder if there' s a way to take this same technique where you explain things to the audience, but to give a little bit less away of the process. I really enjoyed that aspect while reading it and I enjoyed that the joker had such free reign, but I wonder if the effect would be the same or better with some small changes to preserve the imaginary world of the play. For example, can everyone stay in character all the time, even though those characters can step out of the story?

Comments

What A Riot Brayson Williams

“The Joker System provided a perfect aesthetic vehicle to tell not only the story of Rodney King and the ensuing uprising, but a larger, ever changing and ever-the-same, storyo of violence, racism, and resistance in the US. Creating UPSET! In the mode of the Joker System provided a means to incorporate the teens curiosity, dismay, outrage, confusion, fear, and inspiration in relation to the subject matter of the play within the play.” Here's a bit of extra background on the joker system: “The Joker System laid the theoretical foundation for the Theatre of the Oppressed, the umbrella term Boal employed for all his subsequent theoretical developments. Even in the Forum Theatre, his most popular theatrical format, the lineaments of the Joker system are apparent. The Joker System began in 1965, when the Arena Theatre performed Arena Narrates Zumbí. The word “Joker” had, in Boal’s mind, the same significance as the “Joker” playing card, a card which has more mobility than a...

Mind Map

What a Riot - Bri Pattillo

I like the Theater of the Oppressed methodology of the Joker. It sort of reminded me of El Pachuco in “Zoot Suit”, like this narrator commenting on all the action. I thought the Joker methodology was a good way to introduce a Theater of the Oppressed tactic into the piece. A lot of the Theater of the Oppressed options that we read about last week have an element of questioning within in them, but I think the Joker was a good one to use with young people. It was nice and cool that she was able to include the students’ actual questions into the play. I did think her approach was rather problematic. She highlighted the problem herself and posed the question, “To whom and to what is the author beholden when writing a play for a specified population that has been invited to contribute to the playwriting process?” My problem was her answer, when she said that the students didn’t understand all of the references or language in the play. I don’t...

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