STUDENT ACTIVITY
Bringing our Full Selves to the Theater
You are going to be seeing PIPELINE on your computer, or in your classroom. If you’re seeing the play at home, you can put on your favorite fuzzy slippers, or fix yourself a snack to eat while you’re watching the show. But when you see a play performed by live actors in a theater, you’re generally expected to behave in a whole other way.
According to the Broadway League, 74% of Broadway theater audiences in 2018-19 were white. The playwright, Dominique Morisseau has written a lot about audience expectations of behavior in many theaters and how that can be a barrier to people – particularly people of color – feeling welcome. The two activities below draw upon Morisseau's writing about the importance of bringing your whole self to the theater.
Lincoln Center Theater teaching artist marcus d. harvey introduces two activities
about bringing our full selves to the theater.
Access the activity related to Dominique Morisseau’s “Playwright’s Rules of Engagement.”
Access the activity related to Dominique Morisseau’s article “Why I Almost Slapped a Fellow Theatre Patron, and What That Says About Our Theatres.”