Tom Zhang thinks you have issues.
In fact, Zhang believes all of us do. It’s just a matter of discovering them, digging deep and uncovering our unconscious (and not so unconscious) biases.
Their new devised work, DEI: Discovering Everyone’s Issues (the title a play on the abbreviation for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives), encourages the audience to explore these biases through a combination of workshop and scripted performance. With five student actors, Zhang, artist-in-residence this year in the Department of Theater Studies, has crafted a “workshow” that is both funny and thought-provoking. It also might be in the vanguard of a developing style of participatory theater.
“Immersive theater has been a big buzzword for at least the past decade,” Zhang said. They see it as a trend on the rise, buoyed up by hits like Sleep No More, which has played over 5,000 performances in New York City since 2011. “There’s still quite a bit of space to explore, especially as technology gets more advanced. As we start to figure out ways of incorporating new technologies into theater, we have to consider how that might change the audience experience.”
The idea behind DEI: Discovering Everyone’s Issues was born out of Zhang’s time as a graduate student (they earned an MFA in Acting from the California Institute of the Arts in 2020) and as a young faculty member. “I went through a lot of workshops and committee meetings,” Zhang said, “so I’m very aware of what can go wrong in spaces where you’re addressing diversity, equity and inclusion. It's a tough series of priorities to manage, and sometimes there's not buy-in from the folks who are participating.”
Zhang hopes DEI: Discovering Everyone’s Issues will provoke conversation about diversity, equity and inclusion at Duke, engaging the audience as participants as well as viewers. “I thought it'd be fun to combine a little workshop with an examination of the ways that workshops go wrong,” they said.
The actors start the play off like a traditional show, but the action becomes participatory very quickly. “The audience will discuss DEI issues at their tables, then share out some takeaways to the entire room,” Zhang said.
Zhang plays the role of the workshop facilitator, keeping the momentum moving forward, but leaving the room at intervals. “During the time I’m gone, the actors have these really heightened theatrical moments. And the audience will see those as well.” Changes in lighting will cue the audience to the shifts between the scripted and participatory sections.
For some of the students in the show, the devised and improvisational aspects of DEI: Discovering Everyone’s Issues represent a new way to experience theater. Tess Redman, a psychology major who performed in the 2022 MainStage production of She Kills Monsters, had never worked on a devised production before.
“She Kills Monsters has a traditional script. It had been performed before, is still being performed, and is very established. So, I had resources for my character,” she said. “In this show, my character was being made after I was cast, so I had some input on who she was, which I've never experienced before. It's very much a collaborative effort, which was new for me, but I'm really enjoying it.”
Siddhesh Hushangabade, a first-year graduate student studying engineering management, also found Zhang’s approach to be a departure from his previous experiences on stage. “I've done a lot of theater back in my home country of India, so as soon as I landed in America, I went straight to the Theater Studies department,” he said. “This is very experimental theater. The combination of improv and scripted parts is a bit of a challenge, but we started off by building our characters and scripts, and that really helped me a lot. It gave me confidence.”
Zhang is excited to see how the audience reacts to the play they have built with their students. “I do a lot of personal storytelling in my work,” they said. “Now I'm interested in ways to incorporate audience storytelling into my projects as well.”
DEI: Discovering Everyone’s Issues will be performed February 15-17 at 8 pm in the Sheafer Lab Theater, Bryan University Center. Tickets at https://tickets.duke.edu.
