IMPACT Academy Players
Who are we?
The IMPACT Academy Players (IAP) are an ensemble of social-justice focused professional writers and actors and SIUE students. We utilize theater to engage participants in creative experiences that challenge their cultural competency relating to issues of identity, bias, equity and inclusion.
Rationale
Issues of cultural competency are often difficult for people to grasp — especially when they challenge beliefs that they have held onto for a lifetime. The utilization of theater to bring light to long-held beliefs through real-life scenarios is an attempt to change the hearts of the participants. Participants are challenged with seeing familiar representations that make it difficult to separate themselves from the issue.
Methods
In order to engage participants, the IAP creates unique vignettes based on the client’s needs. Research and development include interviews, testimonials and scenarios suggested by the client. Utilizing this information, the creative team crafts short theatrical skits highlighting the agreed-upon issues.
The theater-based cultural competency training utilizes four modalities:
- Invisible: Actors present a scene without the knowledge of the audience. The audience unknowingly becomes part of a scripted/improved scene.
- Interactive: Actors present a scripted scene which is followed by a facilitated discussion between the actors (in character) and the audience.
- Immersive: Actors present a scripted scene followed by a facilitated discussion. The scene presents several potentially problematic interactions. After performing the scene, the actors share a brief bio of their characters. The scene then starts over from the top. The audience is invited to tag out a cast member and to take over that role in ways they think would lead to better solutions or offer alternate solutions. The audience re-writes the scene.
- Monologues: Actors perform 1-2 minute solo pieces followed by a facilitated discussion.
The performance can be vignettes that demonstrate all or several of these modes. The creative team determines the most appropriate modes for the topic and scenario.
