above Members of the cast perform at a dress rehearsal of To Be Honest before their debut performance at the McNay Art Museum in September.
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As Christ, Kaufman, and Noor started reviewing their research, they saw the potential to transform these “unscripted” responses into a script for a play. “One of the first things I thought, when seeing some of the responses to the research, was that we needed to be sharing this,” Noor says. “And we realized, almost as soon as we started reviewing our research together, that these words would be powerful if presented verbatim on stage.” At first, the group explored the idea of creating a podcast or alternative presentation method for the research. But the group settled on a play format after noticing parallels between their research and Tectonic Theatre’s The Laramie Project (2000), a play depicting community reactions to the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming. Shepard was murdered in 1998 before the state of Wyoming had any hate crime laws. Influences from that play, which presents interviews in a multimedia format known as “verbatim” or “documentary” theater, are present in To Be Honest. For the trio of Kaufman, Christ, and Noor, bringing their research into the spotlight has been a long, painstakingly-crafted process. The team has workshopped the play three times, with each performance honing the production toward its current format. The first performance of the script, which opened in Trinity’s Attic Theater in December 2016, was a loosely-structured but emotional experience; about 23 actors sat in chairs, reading their characters’ words aloud. Afterward, cast and audience members were invited to respond.
IMPACT 2016-2017
The second reading, done at the Episcopal Church of Reconciliation, saw the play split into smaller, topical episodes, while some characters took on a heavier focus, with a select few developing a more conventional, linear narrative. A formal ‘talk-back’ followed, which informed the playwrights’ third draft. The final workshop performance, presented in the Attic Theater in May 2017, was fully staged with lights, sound, and projections, and closed with a reception where the audience could interact with the authors, cast, and crew. As Kaufman, Noor, and Christ wrote and continued to refine the script, they brought on theatre professor Stacey Connelly to help make the challenging jump from script to production. In addition to offering some advice on the play’s narrative structure, Connelly assumed directing duties and pulled together an ensemble just as unique and intersectional as the 170 people who responded to the research project. To accomplish this feat, Connelly cast an array of students, faculty, alumni, and professional actors from San Antonio’s theater community. “It’s been wonderful, challenging, and exciting to work with such a diverse cast,” she says. “And they understand the script, the characters, because these are real words coming from real people.” Some actors in the play, Noor notes, connected with familiar words and views right away. “One student actor, who plays an older Sikh man, started going through his lines, stopped, and said, ‘This could be my father,’” she recalls. “People were instantly relating to these characters.”