AMERICAN SON AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT GUIDE
From the Director
I first read American Son by Christopher Demos Brown about a year ago when it was submitted for the prestigious Laurents/ Hatcher Award. I knew this was an important and timely work about race relations, law enforcement and what it means in today's world to raise an "American Son.” It went on to win that award, and I am honored that this will be the last play I direct in our current home before we prepare to build our new state of the art performance center. I welcome back two extraordinary alumni, Suzzanne Douglas David Saint, Artistic Director and John Bolger to play this central couple caught up in this compelling drama. Together with Mark Kenneth Smaltz, Mark Junek, and a great team of designers, we bring you this powerful new work for the American theatre. I would like to thank Retired Captain Andrea Craparotta, Lieutenant Raymond Trigg and Lieutenant Amish Shah of the New Brunswick Police Department for their help and inspiring guidance on this production. I would also like to thank the New Jersey Council for the Humanities for their support that made this guide possible. Their support also includes a special installation in our Cabaret that we invite you to visit before the show that will explore the diverse identities of our American Sons. This installation is free and open to the public during the run of the show, from February 7th through February 26th. Enjoy this sensational new play for our time, the kind of theatre I am proud to be associated with now and for the past twenty years. Sincerely,
David Saint
Inherent in George Street Playhouse’s mission is to “positively shape and be shaped by the diverse character of our community.” American Son asks us to look at essential issues of inequality and racial justice facing our community, state and nation. Our hope is that this Audience Engagement Guide can help us discuss these sensitive issues in a way that mutually informs and hopefully leads us all toward deeper understanding.
A Context for “American Son” In the annotation for American Son the playwright, Christopher Demos-Brown, notes that Jamal’s birth year is always to be exactly 18 years before the current performance. In other words, American Son is happening right now. The issues dramatized are the issues debated on local news and cable networks last month, last week, last night. The anguish is familiar. The terror, the accusations and the recriminations have happened before. Over time we have even added phrases to our American vernacular as short-hand for the complicated interactions between citizens and law enforcement: “racial profiling,” “driving while black,” “stop-and-frisk,” “stand your ground.” In all cases in the subsequent debates there are two prevailing – and competing – perspectives operating. • America has, through law, regulation and judicial decision, built and enforced a system of structural inequality that systematically limits the opportunities of citizens on the basis of their race and class. • America is the land of opportunity where, regardless of race, creed, religion or national origin, hard work pays off. America is a meritocracy. American Son dramatizes the perilous balancing act required of individuals – whether as parents or law enforcement officers – to give these perspectives equal weight and to hold both perspectives simultaneously. In 2009, a black man was arrested in Cambridge, Massachusetts on suspicion of breaking and entering into a house. He was handcuffed, taken to police headquarters and booked, despite the fact that he was Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and the fact that it was his house. Gates later stated he believed the incident was a case of racial profiling; the Cambridge police department maintained that Sgt. James Crowley responded to a potentially dangerous situation as he had been trained. American Son explores how our assumptions, our prejudices, our life experiences and our beliefs about the competing perspectives get in the way of our ability to recognize our shared humanity. Acknowledging what we share – rather than how we differ – requires that we exercise empathy. Empathy is more than saying, “I understand,” more even than a flash of insight, or pang of sympathy. Empathy is not something that happens to us. It is a choice we make: to pay attention, to extend ourselves. “Art offers sanctuary” in times of stress, confusion, and strife, observes Nikki Giovanni. Perhaps, American Son can offer us space to extend ourselves, to experience empathy, to seek the common ground necessary for healing, and to breathe. — Valarie W. French
An Interview With American Son Playwright: Christopher Demos-Brown
Jim Jack (JJ), GSP’s Director of Education and Outreach, sat down with playwright Christopher Demos-Brown (CDB) to discuss his new play American Son.
JJ: Chris, we're so excited to have your play “American Son” as our next production at George Street Playhouse. You've had incredible regional and national success in the last couple years. What is your background in theater and how did you become interested in working as a playwright? CDB: Well, I actually had no background at all in theater until I got to college. I had seen a few plays before then, but college is when I really fell in love with theater. I owe that to the Dartmouth Theater department. Dartmouth allowed non-theatre majors to do plays. That's how I got started. I began acting and writing for stage my sophomore year, and have continued writing, ever since, off and on. JJ: You worked for several years as a prosecutor in Miami, and now are a civil trial lawyer. How do these experiences inform your practice as a playwright? CDB: A couple of ways. First, the American legal system is what's called an adversarial system as opposed to an inquisitorial system, which most civil law countries have. In an adversarial system, and everybody who's watched any law show on television kind of understands this, basically one side takes one position, the other side takes the opposite position and the belief is that by the two sides locking horns, the truth will emerge. That system, and the presumptions underlying it, work really well in theater because theater is fundamentally about conflict. If you're a trial lawyer, there's an intrinsic, in-your-bones feeling about conflict, that I think translates well into writing for stage. The second thing that's been helpful about being a lawyer is that I've seen hundreds and hundreds of transcripts of people in trial and giving statements in deposition over the course of my career. I've had the advantage of hearing what people say and then seeing how it looks once it's transcribed. Which is a very important aspect of playwriting–creating written speech that’s palatable to the ear when spoken. No matter what style you write in, from magical realism to contemporary American speech, at some level you're trying to write speech that guides actors' behavior.
JJ: The stories that you choose to tell as a playwright have a very powerful, complex focus around human relationships. What inspired “American Son?” CDB: I specifically remember in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin shooting, three very close African American friends of mine were much more vocal and expressive about their views on Facebook than they were willing to be with anyone face to face. I found that kind of interesting, and I found myself responding to what they posted on Facebook in my mind. These conversations grew into a dialogue that became the kernel of the play. The play came out of these imaginary conversations I was having with friends of mine – and my own feelings about the multiple police shootings that were reported over the last few years.
Trayvon Benjamin Martin, February 5, 1995 - February 26, 2012
JJ: Trayvon Martin serves as a haunting marker in the long, tragic history of conflict between police and communities of color in this country. As a lawyer, you are constantly interacting with both of these communities. I wonder if you can share some insights about the challenges facing these two communities. CDB: I've worked with a lot of police officers. When I was a prosecutor I did what are called “ride alongs” with many of them, meaning you ride around in a patrol car during a shift. They make you wear a bullet proof vest. That’s when you realize “Oh. This job ain’t like mine.” So to me, just putting on a police uniform is a daily act of valor. And the overwhelming majority of police officers I worked with were brave and decent. People generally don't go risk their lives for a civil servant’s salary unless they really believe in the cause. At the same time, it's hard to look at Trayvon Martin (though that incident doesn't involve a police officer directly), and Tamir Rice, and Philando Castile, and not see that we have a systemic problem. I found, as I was writing the play, that people kind of get dug into their positions and it makes it difficult for them to listen to each other. White people tend to focus on individual incidents and either dismiss them because the victim was a “bad guy,” or the individual officer was an aberration. But this misses the point. The view that the African American community has towards policing is not
rooted in any particular incident. It's rooted in a much broader societal bias, and a very long history. That's what I hope the play gets at. We all live in this world where every single thing that we do is affected by history. There were certain, deliberate choices made in the writing of this play, like having it take place in Miami. Miami is kind of a contemporary, cosmopolitan city, but there are literally still vestiges of segregation everywhere. And there is still functional segregation in 90% of the city. Those things you can't escape from. I don't care how open-minded and well-intentioned you are. That's going to influence every decision you make, it's going to influence the bureaucracy of the municipal government, it's going to influence the way people raise their children. PEW Research Center Finds White and Black Police Officers and the Public are Divided About Race. % saying that ... Our Country has made the changes needed to give blacks equal rights with whites. white officers
92%
6% 29%
black officers
all whites all blacks
Our Country needs to continue making changes to give blacks equal rights with whites.
57%
69%
41% 12%
84%
Note: No answer category not shown. Source: Survey of law enforcement officers conducted May 19 – Aug. 14, 2016; survey of U.S. adults conducted Aug. 16 – Sep. 12, 2016. “Behind the Badge.” Pew ReSeARch ceNteR
JJ: I think the way in which Kendra articulates her ideas about implicit bias in this country is really interesting. How does being a Southern playwright shape your work? CDB: Well, I love that you call me a “Southern playwright.” I gotta remember to get a seersucker suit and a bottle of bourbon. One of the first times I realized how much Miami is part of the South is when I went away to college. I drove up through the south on my way up to Dartmouth, and there are monuments to Stonewall Jackson, monuments to Robert E. Lee, and Confederate flags flying everywhere and you think, "My God, this is so backwards and strange." So at least in that sense, Miami is a piece of the Union that broke off. Then, when I was on break my freshman year, I had a college friend come down with me and visit from the Northeast. The first thing he noticed was that, and this is in the play, we have a South Dixie Highway, and we have a grocery store here called Winn-Dixie. And he says, "You guys just kind of wear your racism just right out on your sleeve here in Miami, don't you?"
You never notice it when you grow up here, but it’s deep down in there, somewhere in the city’s DNA. In the courthouse where I was a prosecutor, each floor had two water fountains and two bathrooms. They’re vestiges of segregation that you just walk past every day. But if you stop and observe for just one second, they’re shocking. JJ: I find the values that each parent is trying to weave into their son, Jamal, very moving. I'm curious how you, as a father and as a husband, reflect those values in your work as a playwright? CDB: One of my very good friends, Bill Hirschman, who is a wonderful theater critic, made an observation that parenthood and family seems to be a topic in everything that I write, and I hadn't really noticed that before he pointed it out. Being a father and a husband is the most important aspect of my life. I guess I try unconsciously in my plays to sublimate my own ambitions for my children. I write parents who are hyper-ambitious for their children so I can — I hope — avoid being hyper-ambitious for my own kids. I don't know that any of us succeeds very well at that; it just feels like over and over again I keep coming back to these parents who have agendas for their children. In Scott's case, for example, I don't think his agenda for Jamal is misguided, I just think it's a little overbearing. It's obviously a point of contention, his desire to see Jamal continue his family's tradition of military service versus Kendra's inclination to let Jamal pursue whatever his dreams are. That aspect of the play intentionally has nothing to do with their racial differences because I want the audience to see this couple, on some level, as going through what any set of parents goes through. Their struggle is me struggling with two halves of myself as a parent.
JJ: Why did you title the play “American Son?” CDB: I probably wrestled with the title of this play more than the title of any play I’ve written. Titles are really important. They’re the first encounter an audience has with your play. Originally the play was called Liberty City, which is a predominantly African-American section of Miami (it’s where the movie “Moonlight” takes place). Then I had some quasi-poetic title that sounded really pretty but didn’t adequately speak to the plays tone and themes. I finally decide on American Son because I wanted the title to signal that this is a play about something big and archetypal. I wanted to let the audience know right up front that, even though you’re going to be in a room with four people for the next 90 minutes, the person who’s not in the room is important, and his story reflects on who we are as a nation. JJ: Chris, what conversations do you hope the play creates for audiences? CDB: If the play succeeds, my hope is it will create an awareness and help build a bridge between people of different views. We’re at a moment in this country’s history where politics is almost entirely emotional, devoid of logic, and exceptionally divisive. There’s a unique opportunity for art to harness that emotion and compel people to connect through the heart.
for Post-show discussion 1. “Quality-of-life policing is based on probable cause – an officer has witnessed a crime personally or has a witness to the crime.” William Bratton, NYPD Commissioner.
“… people want aggressive policing if they as a community feel they are part of it. They don’t want aggressive policing if they feel it’s being imposed upon them and they are a target.” Loretta Lynch, US Attorney General, 2015 – 2017.
These observations come from citizens who were sworn to uphold, interpret, and enforce US laws, and who daily balanced the rights of the individual citizen with the needs for a safe and secure society.
As you think about the circumstances that the characters faced in American Son, with which of these statements do you most identify with – and why?
2. There are persistent perceptions in the United States that – a. Black men are under siege. b. Police departments are under siege.
Where these two statements are both perceived to be true, there will be tensions. How did these tensions manifest in the characters’ reactions to each other?
3.
The parents in American Son have invested in their son and clearly want the best future for him, but differ in their visions of what that future might include. What do they want? What does their son want? How do these visions collide and intersect? How do these differing visions color their actions and reactions?
4. What decisions by one or more of the characters might have potentially diffused tensions at the police station? 5. Despite – or perhaps, because of – the tensions, differences in perspective and disparate experiences among the characters, where would you suggest they look for common ground, or points of agreement, from which to begin a reconciliation? a. Husband and Lieutenant b. Wife and patrolman c. Parents and Police
For Further Reading Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehesi Coates (2015) New York: Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House. “… examination of the hazards and hopes of black male life … as profound as it is revelatory …” The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander (2010, 2012) New York: The New Press. “… A devastating account of a legal system doing its job perfectly well ...” To Protect and Serve: How to Fix America’s Police, Norm Stamper (2016) New York: Nation Books. “…a compelling investigation of policing practices in America and and pathways to positive reform by a former cop and police chief.” Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do, Claude M. Steele (2010) New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. “… exposes the myriad ways that threats to our identities exert a powerful stranglehold on our individual and collective psyche…” Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama, Tim Wise (2009) San Francisco: City Lights Books. “… an extremely important and timely analysis of the increasing complexity of race on the American political and social landscape…” The Price of Paradise: The Costs of Inequality and a Vision for a More Equitable America, David D. Troutt (2013) New York: New York University Press. “… a careful analysis and … passionate critique of the widely held assumptions that have helped generate metropolitan inequity in the United States…” Citizen: An American Lyric, Claudia Rankine (2014) Minneapolis, MN: Graywolf Press. “Combining poetry, essay, and images from media and contemporary art … [her] poetics capture the urgency of her subject matter.” Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea, Nikki Giovanni (2002) New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc. “Giovanni’s poetry heals and struts, mourns and celebrates with restorative wit.” Beloved Educators: Women of Color Who Inspire Us, Penelope E. Lattimer, Valarie W. French, Marilyn C. Maye, L. Debra Napier, Mary McGriff, Doris Lee (2014) New Jersey. “… points the way for educators seeking to understand the values, dispositions, and skills needed to ensure that every child has the opportunity to succeed in school.”
THE CREATIVE TEAM
John Bolger (Scott Connor) Suzzanne Douglas (Kendra Ellis-Connor) Mark Junek (Officer Paul Larkin) Mark Kenneth Smaltz (Lieutenant John Stokes) Christopher Demos-Brown (Playwright) David Saint (Director/Artistic Director) Jason Simms (Scenic Designer) David Murin (Costume Designer) Tyler Micoleau (Lighting Designer) Christopher J. Bailey (Sound Designer/Production Manager) Rick Sordelet (Fight Director) Tom Clewell (Production Stage Manager) McCorkle Casting, Ltd. Pat McCorkle, (C.S.A.)
Managing Editors Jim Jack, Director of Education and Outreach Scott Goldman, Producing Associate Rick Engler, Director of Marketing Writer Valarie W. French, is an educational consultant specializing in program design, administration and evaluation. She holds advanced degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In her career she has worked on teaching and learning innovations with education professionals at local, state, regional and national levels. Graphic Designer Mark Kieran American Son key art by Scott McKowen copyright GEORGE STREET PLAYHOUSE 2017.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This Audience Engagement Guide was made possible by a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.
Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders through a grant award from the Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund.
This program is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, A Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
American Son is sponsored by The Karma Foundation and The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.
Thank you to NBPD’s: Retired Captain Andrea Craparotta, Lieutenant Raymond Trigg and Lieutenant Amish Shah.
George Street Playhouse
732.246.7717 | www.GSPonline.org
9 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 David Saint, Artistic Director • Michael Mastro, Resident Artistic Director Kelly Ryman, Managing Director