ArtsCenter Stage and Common Ground Theatre with the support of MOJOAA Performing Arts Company and in conjunction with the Ladies of the Triangle Theatre (LoTT) invite audiences to join us in building a performance-based, community response to critical questions regarding race, equity, and social justice.
 
We begin with three nights of performances at Common Ground Theater in Durham of HANDS UP: 6 Playwrights, 6 Testaments* a collection of monologues by African-American playwrights featuring a wide range of perspectives on being a black man in America in the 21st century. In light of the recent police shootings of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and John Crawford III in Beavercreek, Ohio, among others, The New Black Fest commissioned 6 emerging black male playwrights to write 10-15 monologues that explore their feelings about the well-being of black men in a culture of institutional profiling.
 
The six “testaments” to be featured are: “Superiority Fantasy” by Nathan James, “Holes in My Identity” by Nathan Yungerberg, “They Shootin! Or I Ain’t Neva Scared…” by Idris Goodwin, “Abortion” by Glenn Gordon, “Walking Next to Michael Brown” by Eric Holmes and “How I Feel,” by Dennis Allen II. The New Black Fest was founded in 2010 with a mission to develop and support new work among playwrights from the African diaspora.

ArtsCenter Stage at The ArtsCenter showcases the work of emerging and established artists hailing from next door to around the world. Jeri Lynn Schulke, Artistic Director of ArtsCenter Stage says, “ArtsCenter Stage is community-oriented, professional theatre with a commitment to developing new artists, supporting new work and engaging audiences.”

Common Ground Theatre is a performance space in the Triangle area of North Carolina. We are committed to the growth of lively arts, and our performance space is utilized by many of the best young and small theater companies in the region. CG Theatre is also a great new spot to see local music and various other entertainment alternatives. 

The Ladies of Triangle Theatre (LoTT) is a group of powerhouse women dedicated to promoting, facilitating, and otherwise encouraging the work of all female theatre artisans in the Triangle, NC area. We find quality opportunities, provide solutions where there are problems, and actively support the work done by each other. 

MOJOAA Performing Arts Company is the Black theatre company of the Triangle run by a Black family in the Triangle. MOJOAA stands for Monet, Jordan and Aaron, the progeny of Robin and Bryan Marshall. MOJOAA is committed to to telling Black stories for the community with the community. 

The New Black Fest is a theater organization committed to celebrating, advocating and showcasing diverse and provocative work from throughout the Disapora. It is a convening of visionaries who are determined to reintroduce the way black theater is perceived, who are ready to chart out resolutions and promote action through panel discussions, workshops, and putting both artists and community members on the hot seat.

Tuesday's performance of Out of Silence: Abortion Stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign was a huge success. We were nearly sold out and even caught the attention of Anti-choice protesters. Despite repeated invitations, not one single protester wanted to see the show or engage in conversation. They only wanted to yell and scream. 

When their threats of hell and damnation didn't draw the response from me that they wanted, they took to shouting "We can't breathe! We can't breathe!" At which, I turned, smiled, and shook my head. Oh, this got them riled up! One of them asked me, "Would you smile over the body of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Medgar Evers?" Their tactics were so obvious, but also ineffective. Did they expect me to cry? Argue? As disappointed as they were in me, I wanted so much more from them too. I found myself laughing at how unproductive it all was. Well, this pushed them right over the edge. One of them screamed, "Would you laugh over a lynched body?" At which point, I just shook my head and went back inside to mix, mingle, and celebrate our work. 

I've never been protested. It felt good to stand up not only for these women and reproductive rights, but also for creating space for dialogue and creative expression. And honestly, I should thank the protesters. I learned later that several patrons going to see another play gave donations to Advocates for Youth in support of our work. I'm excited about the next steps for this play and will keep you posted as we make the plays available for production at a conference, college, university or theatre near you.

JACQUELINE LAWTON: Why was it important for you to be a part of Advocates for Youth’s Out of Silence: Stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign?
MARY MCKEOWN: I am a strong believer in a woman’s right to choose.  When it comes to reproductive choices, we all have a story to tell.  I am thrilled that I was given a chance to put on stage the women and stories who are part of the 1 in 3 campaign.

JL: Tell me about the play(s) that you wrote? What inspired it? 
MM: I was inspired by two things—the wonderfully rich stories of real women on the 1 in 3 website and the personal histories of family and friends.  In both, I was struck by how important the support of friendship is to women throughout their lives.  My play is about two college friends who are now in their late 40s.  It is a mashup of a several stories from the website with a dash of my life thrown in.

JL: What was it like to turn this story into a play? What was your process? What research, if any, did you do?
MM: The voices and needs of the women in my play were so compelling that, in a way, the play just wrote itself.  Once I decided to write about two women who find themselves unexpectedly pregnant—one, Sharon,  after years of fertility treatment and one, Ayisha, with two children in college and a grandchild on the way—it was easy to think of what they might say to each other.  I love that Sharon is able to put aside her excitement at her own pregnancy to support Ayisha.  We are not all cookie cutter women and our lives do not follow the same time tables.  Good friends like Sharon and Ayisha recognize that. 

JL: What role does theater have in advocacy work?
MM: Theatre is a great, maybe the best, way to tell powerful stories.  In order for advocacy to be persuasive, it must align with our morals and ethics, convince our minds, and touch our hearts. 

JL: What are you working on next? Where can we follow your work? 
MM: I am currently working with young writers who are just finding their voices.  It is so important to encourage the rising generation to articulate their beliefs and passions.  I’m anxious to hear their stories.

JACQUELINE LAWTON: Why was it important for you to be a part of Advocates for Youth’s Out of Silence: Stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign?  
KRISTEN LEPINE: I didn’t know about the Campaign beforehand you approached me, and I didn’t realize the statistic – 1 in 3 women will have an abortion in her lifetime.  The stories shared on the 1 in 3 Campaign website overwhelmed me – so many different perspectives – so many deeply personal stories that expressed a range of feeling. I was moved by the outpouring of stories – the need to share, to be heard, to connect, find support, and be valued. The more stories I read, the more I wanted to be involved.

JL: Tell me about the play(s) that you wrote? What inspired it? 
KL: I wrote a monologue called DEAR HARRIET and it is based on a three letters. Harriet, the author of one letter, wrote about the harassment she endured after sharing her abortion story. The second letter by an anonymous author spoke about the desire to share her story with her mother, who told her to keep it to herself. The third letter, also by an anonymous author, was filled with gratitude to have a place to share her story and read others. She was grateful to have an outlet and not feel so alone. I felt all three letters could be weaved together to share a story about the very human need we all have to connect with others through storytelling.

JL: What was it like to turn this story into a play? What was your process? What research, if any, did you do?
KL: Once I selected the letters, the story I felt compelled to write fell very quickly and naturally into place. The monologue grew and developed with the help our wonderful team: Jacqueline Lawton, Marie Sproul, and Laura Miller.

JL: What role does theater have in advocacy work?
KL: Theatre presents the human condition – flawed and beautiful. It allows audiences a window into an unknown, and it allows the audience to experience a different perspective. Theatre encourages empathy and understanding, and because of this, theatre is a natural fit for advocacy.

JL: What are you working on next? Where can we follow your work? 
KL: I am thrilled to be working on three projects right now. The Hub Theatre is producing the premiere production of my comedy LETO LEGEND about mythical and contemporary superwomen. My newest play CRACKED POTS will have a Staged Reading in April at Theatre J as a part of the Locally Grown Festival. Also I am working on my first novel, DAUGHTER OF SPARTA, for an educational publishing company called Zoozil. You can find out more at kristenlepine.com.

JACQUELINE LAWTON: Why was it important for you to be a part of Advocates for Youth’s Out of Silence: Stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign? 
CALEEN JENNINGS: I was honored to be included among the invited playwrights. I have known several women who have had abortions.  It is a decision that has huge emotional, psychological or physical implications.  I have never known a woman to take it lightly.  Too often the media and anti-abortion advocates portray those who advocate the right to choose, as well those who have had abortions, as being Godless, promiscuous, and callous women who treat abortion as a form of birth control.  I don’t know any women like this. I want young women to see a range of women and a range of options.  I want them to be able to identify with the positive characters I try to create. 

JL: Tell me about the play(s) that you wrote? What inspired it? 
CJ:  My story was #1615.  What struck me was how this young girl had a series of bad breaks and had received misinformation.  Her home life was difficult and she sought comfort the best way she knew how.  She put her trust in someone who was as clueless as she was.  Both of them were kids.  The thing that leaped off the page for me was the fact that on the day of her abortion, her boyfriend brought her a teddy bear.  This is a very young guy who’s not necessarily a villain. He’s immature and irresponsible, yes, but he’s not without a heart.  He brings her a teddy bear because he thinks it will make her feel better, not understanding the incredible emotional and physical pain that a teddy bear will never erase.  I could very much see my 16 year old self in this narrative.  I was lucky because my home life was great.  Both my parents were very supportive and very aware of what I was doing.  My mother made sure I knew about the birds and the bees and she watched me like a hawk.  What touched me most about Story #1615 can be summed up simply:  There, but for the grace of God, go I.

JL: What was it like to turn this story into a play? What was your process? What research, if any, did you do?
CJ:  It was tough, I spent a lot of time reading and re-reading the original story. In the story, the young woman shares her thinking process.  I had to turn her thinking on the page into doing(action) for the stage.  From the very beginning, I knew I didn’t want a realistic scene, I wanted it more presentational.  I wanted to see if I could elevate this very personal, youthful narrative to something bigger. I wanted to show how complex a young woman is – the many sides of her psychic make-up.  In the first draft, I had four characters, because I had not read the guidelines correctly.  So I had to take the same idea and make it work for two characters.  I did some reading on abortion, especially on the physical and emotional symptoms women are likely to experience after having one.  It struck me that she stayed with her young man for six years, although he continued to cheat on her.  She matured, he did not.  I wanted the play to end with her self-actualization.  In the first draft, that included marriage.  I was advised that too many of the plays were ending in marriage, and I was asked to find another alternative.  My play ended with her owning of herself and being at peace.

JL: What role does theater have in advocacy work?
CJ:  Theatre is a very, very powerful tool in advocacy work.  To see your own story on stage is life-affirming.  To be able to feel empathy for someone else, particularly someone who is very different from you, or a type of person you had previously viewed with apathy or antipathy, is extraordinarily powerful.  To change minds, to make people feel, to validate people – that is the power of theatre.  It is not to be taken lightly.

JL: What are you working on next? Where can we follow your work? 
CJ:   I just closed a play entitled Not Enuf Lifetimes at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington D.C.  One can learn more about that from my playwright’s collective website:  www.thewelders.org.  I am working on a short piece about the Michael Brown case, as well as a short radio piece about D.C. Statehood.  Unfortunately, I don’t yet have a website.

JACQUELINE LAWTON: Why was it important for you to be a part of Advocates for Youth’s Out of Silence: Stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign?
ANU YADAV: As a feminist, and a female actress and playwright, I have become increasingly aware of the stunning gender inequity around whose stories are told, produced, and supported in theater as well as arts in general.   The more I developed these short plays, the more questions I had.  Why haven't I looked at this before?  Why did it feel 'not as interesting' to focus on this in my own writing prior to this? Why is a topic that affects so many people in the world given so little attention?  The writing process was about noticing the silence more and understanding how the stigma has influenced me as well.  That was revelatory for me in a way that I was both embarrassed by and also thankful for.  I noticed how sexism as an institution of power limits our perspective as individuals.  All of us have internalized those values if we are living in a society not yet free of sexism.   It became very clear to me, by reading the experiences of women who have had abortions, that the topic of abortion is systematically invisibilized due to sexism.  This had a direct connection to honing my writing.  To me, art is about broadening one's worldview.  If great writing and character development inherently smashes stereotypes, then part of my job as an artist is to have a practice of unlearning those biases in myself, to be a greater artist and observer of what is there, of truth.  That's ultimately what I'm seeking as an artist. The truth of what is there. That for me was the biggest takeaway.  Getting feedback from you, Jacqueline, and Marie, as well as Advocates for Youth throughout this process was invaluable.

JL: Tell me about the play(s) that you wrote? What inspired it?
AY: I wrote two short plays.  Both are inspired by women I know. The first is about a teenage girl who tells her mother she is pregnant after having been raped by her boyfriend.  I wanted to look at the idea of rape culture and how there was little language for sexual violence even a generation ago.  In part because of the gains of feminism and women's movements, there is now more language for talking about it. The existence of words for a person's experience of an oppression allows the possibility for change. It's really about two women fighting for their relationship when the stigma around abortion and sex threatens to drive them apart.  The second play is about deciding to have an abortion because of financial hardship.  Right now I'm pretty poor and couch surfing due to some housing challenges.  I thought about my situation, and how if I had children, how that raises the stakes for everything.  It reminded me how most of the world experiences financial struggle, yet there are so few representations of this anywhere that are human.  Usually people in poverty are depicted as either romantic, otherized, or to be pitied. People in poverty live nuanced lives, with complexity.  Abortion many times is also very much also a question about money.  We need to talk honestly about this.

JL: What was it like to turn this story into a play? What was your process? What research, if any, did you do?
AY: I really drew from my own life as well as the lives of women I know and work with.  At first I didn't know how to relate to this topic because I have never had an abortion.  But the more I allowed myself to reflect more deeply, the more I realized how abortion touches on things that are direct and personal for me.  And it has been important for me as a writer to start from what I do know and be able to listen both to myself and to the personal experiences of others. 

JL: What role does theater have in advocacy work?
AY: Theater inherently is an advocacy tool.  It promotes messages.  What those messages are depend on the playwright, producer, director, etc.  The messages are always there whether or not anyone wants them to be.  We all have values and codes by which we live and it shows up in our art.  It's important we as artists recognize the advocacy role theater already plays in communicating an expression of values so that we can be thoughtful and intentional about the role we want it to play.  The story matters.  The characters, how they are developed.  Who is the story about?  Who wrote that story? Everything about the play - from choosing it to producing it - tells its own story about what the producers advocate for, what they deem important. The danger comes in not fully understanding the advocacy role theater already plays, with or without our consent. 

JL: What are you working on next? Where can we follow your work?
AY: January 7-25 I'm acting in a play called In Love and Warcraft at No Rules Theatre Company in Arlington, VA.  In March I perform my one-woman show Meena's Dream at the LA Women's Theatre Festival.  I'm also currently building the tour of Meena's Dream.  You can find out more at www.anuyadav.com

JACQUELINE LAWTON: Why was it important for you to be a part of Advocates for Youth’s Out of Silence: Stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign?  
DW GREGORY: I was initially dubious about it because I have a lot of ambivalence about abortion. I don't think I would have one, but it's not my place to tell someone else what she should do. And I wasn't sure I wanted to be involved. Since I was so dubious it occurred to me that I ought to tackle it, just for the challenge of it if nothing more. Once I got into the project, though, I began to connect to the characters and to realize how difficult it is for many women -- working class women and the poor especially -- to obtain reproductive health services of any kind, let alone abortion services. The anti-abortion movement wants to portray these women as selfish whores, which they are not. They are individuals like us who have a choice to make and who often--not always, but often--are in serious economic straits. Which is all the more awful that the anti-abortion movement has so successfully cut off their choices--not just for abortion but for birth control and other reproductive health needs. In Missouri there's only one abortion clinic--in St. Louis. A girl from the Bootheel with no job and no support is going to have an awfully hard time getting there, which is the point for that movement. Deny her the choice and by denying it--negate her personal power. And my play is a counter to that propaganda -- I just want to show how real women wrestle with this choice. 

JL: Tell me about the play(s) that you wrote? What inspired it? 
DW: I selected a testimonial from a woman who became pregnant after unwanted sex with a former boyfriend. She went for an abortion and had to cross a line of nasty protesters at the clinic. That image clicked with me. So I wrote THE LINE about two women--old friends--one hoping to talk the other out of making that choice, but commiting to support her no matter what she decides. And both ginning up the courage to cross the line of protesters at the clinic. I was attracted to the murkiness of the whole story--where do you draw the line between consent and regret? When do you cross the line between advocacy and cruelty?

JL: What was it like to turn this story into a play? What was your process? What research, if any, did you do?
DW: I did not do much research for this. I read about 15 testimonials from the Advocates 1-in-3 Campaign website before I settled on the one to adapt. If I expand the play, as I am planning to do, I will probably go to the Midwest to check out the one remaining clinic in St. Louis, if I can. Ideally I would have a chance to talk to people who work there, or work in that field. I will do library work--reading up on interviews, articles from both sides of the aisle, and I'll look for more first person accounts from women who've made that choice, but truthfully the piece of it that needs research has more to do with other aspects of working class life--and I do have some experience with that, having grown up in it and worked as a cashier and on an assembly line in my early days. 

JL: What role does theater have in advocacy work?
DW: That's a good question. I believe in the power of story to transform. A good book can really change your outlook. In our culture today that storytelling happens mostly on screen--but stage can be a place where you encounter people in a radically different situation from your own. Simply depicting a slice of life that runs counter to most people's assumptions can be a radical act. I have a play--yet to be produced--a sex comedy in which the lead character is a woman with a disability. She is hell bent on bedding down a man she's attracted to, but to get him she has to muscle a rival out of the way--and the rival is the town beauty queen. I had a number of readings of the play so far and in one instance a man in the audience scolded me for writing this character the way I did--shouldn't she be more noble and deserving? Well, that's the point. No matter what shape your legs are in, no matter whether you have 100 percent hearing or a profound loss, whether you can see well or not--we're all human beings and we all lust, love, long for connection and often go about finding it in stupid--and highly hilarious--- ways. I'm convinced if I ever get that thing on its feet it will be revolutionary -- simply by showing the sexualty of someone whom our culture has deemed unworthy of that kind of attention. So I guess my style of theatrical advocacy is to identify the cultural prejudice and expose it by presenting a story that explodes the assumptions underlying it. It doesn't hit you over the head with a hammer; it comes underneath you and surprises you when you realize that you're not as open-minded as you thought you were.

JL: What are you working on next? Where can we follow your work? 
DW: I have a musical that is about ready to shop around. Yellow Stockings is a three-character adaptation of Twelfth Night that I've been working on with composer Steven M. Alper and lyricist Sarah Knapp. I've done tons of work on the book over the past year--so I should give a shout-out to Joe Calarco, who came on board as director last year. His notes really helped me to bring the book up to snuff. Went from 68 pages a year ago August to 108--all in the name of story development. And it's pretty tight and the songs rock. We're just about ready to shop it. God willing and the creek don't rise, we'll be able to gin up some interest and get it into a workshop soon. 

JACQUELINE LAWTON: Why was it important for you to be a part of Advocates for Youth’s Out of Silence: Stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign?  
NICOLE JOST: As an artist, I have a responsibility to tell stories that aren’t often told. And too often, abortion stories aren’t told. We have a lot of pre-conceived notions about abortion – what kinds of people have them, for what reasons, etc. I was incredibly excited that the 1 in 3 Campaign provided a platform for real people to tell their real abortion stories, to complicate this simplistic narrative with the truth of their experiences. I was honored when you asked me to participate.

JL: Tell me about the play(s) that you wrote? What inspired it? 
NJ: For the first piece I wrote, Maria, I really wanted to tell the story of a relatively young woman who decided to have an abortion simply because she wasn’t ready to be a mother. Not to minimize the other kinds of stories out there, women who were abused or going through any number of struggles that influenced their decisions, but just to insist that young women should have the right not to become parents if they don’t want to. That all we should need to hear is that they don’t want to. They shouldn’t need some other reason to convince us or justify their decision. So I searched through all the stories and found two that seemed to complement each other. Both women are young Mexican Americans living in Texas, and both talked about the difficulty of getting to a clinic, of pressure from family members, etc. For the second piece, Charlie, you and the Advocates for Youth asked me to write about fetal anomaly, and I was happy to take that on. Fetal anomaly is another facet of the truth of abortions – that sometimes there’s something so medically wrong with the fetus that it would be cruel to bring it to term. The two stories that I used as source material are heartbreaking, because both women desperately wanted to have a child. They had to make this awful, impossible decision, and I really came to see that it was their love for their unborn children that caused them to choose abortion. They didn’t want to see them suffer. One of the women said she felt grateful to live in a state where second term abortion is legal, because they didn’t know the extent of the fetus’s problems until the second term. That struck me. I can’t imagine how horrible it would have been if she’d been forced to carry her baby to term, just to cause it pain. I really admire this woman for being able to tell her story to so many, and for standing by the choice she made, even though it hurt her to choose it.

JL: What was it like to turn this story into a play? What was your process? What research, if any, did you do?
NJ: It was simultaneously easy and hard to dramatize these stories. Easy, because they were so inspiring to me. The women’s voices were so clear, so strong. The hard part was the pressure to live up to what they really said, to try to carry their spirits through in the text. I did some research, yes, but I got most of what I needed from the stories themselves. Another thing that happened, when I took on this project, is that some of my own friends started to tell me about their experiences with abortion. That was really eye opening. So that colored my writing as well.

JL: What role does theater have in advocacy work?
NJ: Theater is incredibly powerful. Sometimes, people just need to see and experience things for themselves to understand them. They can read articles or study an issue, but it doesn’t hit home until they feel like they’ve experienced it in some way firsthand. And that’s what theater is. It provides a human connection to a story. I really believe in the power of that communal experience. I’m also an arts educator; I’m the Artistic Director of Young Playwrights’ Theater. I see arts education as a form of activism, offering up the art of theater as a tool for young people to express themselves. Making art should be a right, not a privilege, and so I seek to give opportunities to young people that wouldn’t necessarily have access to these forms of storytelling.

JL: What are you working on next? Where can we follow your work? 
NJ: I’m working on a play about sexuality and gendered violence called Slut – I’m very interested in how women’s bodies are policed and controlled, which is another reason I was happy to work on Out of Silence. I’ll also be participating in a writing intensive with The Inkwell this year, and the commitment is to write a new full-length play in one year. So look out for that! You can find me on twitter at @walkunafraiddc.