HowlRound: In 2011, when Troy Davis was executed for the murder of white police officer Mark McPhail, the protests stretched from New York to Morocco to Paris. After the execution, Synchronicity Theatre commissioned me to write a play about race and justice as seen through the lens of the Troy Davis case. The commission asked that all current, particularly conflicting, perspectives be presented equally. Beyond Reasonable Doubt: The Troy Davis Project is the result of that commission.
1 comment:
I think art always takes risks when it addresses issues which are still very much present and evolving. Even though a distance from events can sometimes help us process them better, in the case of racism, I think it is far too deeply embedded into history and society to become distanced from it. I admire artists who are willing to take on such a huge challenge of attempting to analyze and process recent and still-occurring events, such as the preposterous violence and prejudice against black people. I really liked what the writer said about how “We have to be greater than the sum of our problems” in response to the “train-wreck” disaster of a talk back they had after “Beyond Reasonable Doubt”. I can’t imagine witnessing my work incite such anger, from both the audience and the performers nonetheless, but I think, if anything, that shows that bringing up these issues is as important now as it will never be, because the fact that people are outraged shows the social change which needs to be made.
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