This semester Professor Faulkner Fox had the opportunity to finally include a field trip to see a play in-person in her creative writing course, "Plays that Change the World." Professor Fox designed "Plays that Changed the World" as an opportunity for students interested in playwrighting to learn that plays are more than just stage productions. As part of the course, she planned to include at least one field trip to attend an in-person production. However, the first time the course was offered in the fall of 2020, it had to be taught virtually due to the pandemic; each play studied had to be watched online.
The core objective for this course is to have students see how theater can be political above and beyond the speeches given by actors on the stage; the course pushes students to analyze how politics and theater can mesh, especially since protests were changing the world as the class was being taught during the fall of 2020. In this course, students study plays, often politically or socially influenced, from different perspectives, such as how the play impacts the audience’s awareness of, and opinion on, specific social issues. They study the suggestiveness of specific elements in a work and explore the possible perceptions of the straightforward political messages, hidden meaning in the language, and even how lighting or other production elements impact the audience's thoughts. Students study a diverse collection of plays and their impact on the world beyond the stage while learning to write and develop their own scripts.
Professor Fox and her students were extremely excited when they received university approval to attend the closed dress rehearsal of Peace of Clay, a play by local playwrights Mike Wiley and Howard L. Craft. Mike Wiley is a North Carolina-based actor, a playwright whose focus is to share important moments in Black history with audiences of all ages, especially younger audiences. He is a former professor at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.
Howard L. Craft is a poet and playwright who teaches creative writing through the Duke Center for Documentary Studies.
Wiley gave a virtual guest lecture in the fall 2020 section of "Plays that Change the World." Before his visit, the class watched Parchment Hour, a production created in collaboration with Duke students through the Center for Documentary Studies to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Riders. Fox shared that before the pandemic, she had anticipated taking the fall of 2020 section of the class to see Craft's play, Orange Light.
Peace of Clay was performed at the Theatre of Raleigh. The English department had to request special approval for this field trip due to the university's COVID protocol. Fox and her students agreed to the university's strict COVID protocol while in transit and during the production. The entire cast was fully vaccinated before the dress rehearsal, which was limited to an audience consisting of Fox's students and a theater class from North Carolina State University.
Professor Fox said she felt it was essential for students interested in the class to experience a play in person because it provides a much different learning experience than reading or watching a production online in a two-dimensional state. Fox shared that she felt attending Peace of Clay provided her students with a deeper insight into playwrighting and allowed them to view it in its intended state and in three-dimensions.
"I could not have taken my students on a more powerful and meaningful field trip, and I thank you both very much for your work in the world." - Professor Fox, in a "Thank You" email to Wiley
Fox shared that her students seemed to treasure the opportunity to observe a live performance considering all the pandemic's limitations on their life experiences and freedom to attend in-person productions over the last eighteen months. The COVID-19 pandemic caused people to think about things they have taken for granted in the past, like the arts. Being able to venture out on this field trip was about more than just the play and the freedom to have this opportunity and see elements of the world reopen and move forward. The class experiencing a production in its intended live format allowed them to compare how this differs from studying a play that is presented as a recorded film.
Currently, Professor Faulkner Fox is writing a play, All of Them Riding on Horses, and the connection between what she is experiencing as a playwright and what her students are learning are beneficial to both parties. When asked how the play she is working on factors into how she teaches "Plays that Change the World," Fox shared that, in her opinion, it's challenging to teach something only from a theatrical perspective; hence it is hard to teach creative writing in a genre if you are not doing it. She and her students are mutually experiencing some of the same issues in their writing.
The Duke Magazine recently published an article about Professor Fox's course “Plays that Change the World: Students Study Political Theater, Then Tell Their Own Stories.
