Black history is important to School of the Arts student Deandra Brown.
But she'd like to see Black History Month observed a little differently.
"Black History Month should not be about throwing Black trauma in people's faces. We shouldn't be talking about what our ancestors went through," Deandra said.
"We should be talking about the relationships that they formed, their traditions and customs that are now part of our culture," she added. "The love, the Black love that we're celebrating, and that's what this show is all about."
The show is a dramatic reading of "Fairview," a Pulitzer Prize-winning drama written by Jackie Sibblies Drury, partially inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. Deandra and other students are performing in SOTA's production of the play as part of a schoolwide event called Black Lives Matter Day.
The play opens with a middle-class Black family preparing a birthday dinner for their grandmother. Kind of like a sitcom. But by the second act, things shift.
“In the second act, we turn to our white counterparts who are talking about which race they'd like to be if they could change their race,” said Samyria Blythers, who plays the mother, Beverly.
“A lot of the things that they're saying is racist, but most people wouldn’t notice it. So, this play addresses casual racism.”
That’s something Samyria and her fellow cast members deal with all the time.
Isaiah Santiago plays Beverly’s husband, Dayton. When Isaiah was 9 years old, before his family moved to Rochester, he was walking in his neighborhood in New Jersey. A white neighbor approached him.
“He asked, you know, where'd I live?” Isaiah said. “I didn't know how to answer because, you know, you're taught not to tell anybody where you live. And it came to him telling me that the police were looking for somebody who was breaking into houses and that if he saw me around again, he'll call 911.”
These kinds of stereotypes can change a person’s life trajectory, Isaiah and Samyria said.
“A 9-year-old shouldn't have to go through what Isaiah went through. It was a ‘you fit the description’ moment, and that's not OK,” Samyria said. “I shouldn't have this constant fear over my shoulder of being killed for being Black.”
“Every time I sit there in the seat during the play, I usually think about that, and how that stereotype kind of affected me throughout the years,” Isaiah said.
The lead character, Keisha, in “Fairview” is played by Sadie Rolle-Knox. By the end of the play, she breaks the fourth wall, which means she confronts the audience. It’s a call to action for everyone watching to stand up to racism, even within themselves.
“When people say like, you know, we're the future, the kids are the future. Yes, that's true,” Sadie said. "But also, the people who are here now are also a part of the future. If you're 30, you're still going to be in the future. You could be over 100, and you're still in the future.
"So you don't have to pretend like, ‘Oh, the kids got it. It's all in the hands of the next generation.’ You're also here, and you live in the world, and you can be a part of changing it to be the world you want to see."
“Fairview” is meant for mature audiences due to language and mature themes. Play director Edward Myers said while he expects some pushback from parents, he stands by the decision to perform it.
“I have heard worse things in my classroom with younger students,” Myers said. "If we lend ourselves to be ignorant of what these kids really see and experience in their lives, that's on us, and that's not on them.”
This show demonstrates the power of theater to provoke deeper reflection in a collective experience, Myers said.
“Fairview” is being performed at School of the Arts, 45 Prince St., at 7 p.m. Friday and at 2 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are available through the school’s box office.
