Reactions and Reflections

Rachael Williams here, also known as "Chorus #5," making my debut post.
I just got released from tonight's rehearsal, and I am feeling a weight of emotions about this project; it's a heavy work, but it's the kind that makes you stronger rather than tiring you out.

There are a thousand thoughts and reactions swirling around in my head, but I hope to make a coherent string out of a few of them to share with you.

This play raises memories for me, some of them painful and some of them beautiful. There are so many stories told in it; the story of a girl raising her younger sibling, watching them head down the wrong path, and unable to do anything to help, the story of a woman in the city who feels that the police make victims of her children, the story of a young man's journey into the criminal life, and the reality he faces there, the story of a guard's first day on the job; it's all deeply moving, and I can recall some of my own friends and family going through the same.

This play has really changed my mind in a lot of ways. The stats aren't really new to me--I've been involved in research projects that made clear the really ugly ways an impersonal system can ruin lives. But the compassion of this play is inspiring. I come from a town where some of the law enforcement officers are like bandits themselves, selling drugs and using the profits for their own gain, abusing inmates, and bolstering their own fame with racism, ignorance and publicity stunts. The first chapter of our reading group book, "Gates of Injustice," is actually about my hometown. I had a pretty unforgiving attitude towards people in uniform as a result of growing up in an environment where anyone "darker than snow" had a lot to fear. But being a part of this project, watching one of my own friends portray the struggle of life in the uniform, has softened my attitude a great deal.

Unlike a lot of "activist theatre," this play doesn't seek to preach a message forcibly, or motivate the audience through anger and outrage; it encourages the whole community to reach out and reach in, to uplift and assist, and to move change with compassion, and that is something I think makes it unique, memorable, and important.

Rachael out!