“Fear of what we don’t know”: Grappling with diversity in a youth theatre program

ABSTRACT

This article examines how youth participants in a community-based theatre program confronted and grappled with issues of diversity and difference while rehearsing and performing a play about Ruby Bridges and school desegregation. It draws on data from an ethnographic study examining ways in which an interracial, intergenerational cast perform work about the Civil Rights movement. The research explicates how artistic practice can be used as a tool to name social injustices and to counteract educational contexts that reproduce inequality. It contributes to the knowledge base of out-of-school learning contexts that inform contemporary approaches to learning in the arts.

Disclosure statement

For IRB purposes, we cannot reveal the location of the theatre company, the city in which the study took place, or the director’s name to maintain participant privacy and confidentiality.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the William T. Grant Foundation [CON000000027218].