Confronting campus issues from the stage
When Professor Douglas asked students in his course “The Emergence of an Early American Identity” to examine a piece of Revolutionary War-era art, the first response came from Oliver, who described the image as “one Indian sitting on a box by himself.” His classmate Kia rolled her eyes. “I think it’s weird that we’re calling Native Americans Indians,” she said. The encounter — and the class — were imagined, a theatrical sketch created by the Bok Center Players, a Harvard-based ensemble that uses the stage to address challenging topics such as race, gender, and identity. An ensemble based at Harvard, the Bok Center Players use the stage to address challenging topics such as race, gender, and identity that arise in the classroom and beyond. “Material-wise, we want to be responsive to what’s happening on campus right now — where the real tension areas are — so we can begin or...