New theater group designed to discuss, show society's problems

By KELLEY NEWSOME

A new theater group on campus was created with one goal in mind: to spread awareness about some of the important issues in today’s society.

The Guerrilla Theatre, which started in August, was created by the artistic director of the Fresno State dance department Ruth Griffin. “It is an issue-based form of theater that takes on social and political concerns in non-traditional atmospheres,” Griffin said. “We want to begin to stimulate activism in people so they will take on a more active role in democracy as opposed to being told what to think by outside forces like the media.

Democracy doesn’t work unless people are informed.”

The Guerrilla Theatre made its silent debut on Sept. 16 at the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the peace garden on campus in an attempt to commemorate the work and sacrifice of Gandhi. The group, which is composed of seven people, set up a non-violent circle around the statue for seven hours with members coming and going throughout the day, leaving at least one person present. Each chair had a letter on it that spelled out, “An eye for an eye makes the world blind.”

Griffin, who stayed for three hours, said that she examined the reactions of those who walked by. “I could sense how some people were interested and others were hardened shells,” Griffin said.

The group’s most recent appearance occurred the week before the presidential election. The group began a suffragette march though campus. “The first thing we did was quiet and long, so I decided to do something short and noisy,” Griffin said.

The performers, dressed in period costumes, carried banners and recited speeches from British and African American feminists, like Sojourner Truth at the free speech platform. They also sang suffragette songs and chants.

The group’s intent was to portray the struggle women went through to receive the opportunity to vote and motivate female students to register to vote.

“We continue to actively define ourselves,” Griffin said. “We should take our freedom of speech and speak or else it could be taken away.”

Griffin plans to make the Guerrilla Theatre interdepartmental by teaming up with the political science department. The next event involves performing for all of the surveillance cameras on campus. She wants to have people around campus with binoculars and signs that read, “You’re being watched.”

This idea was inspired by the Patriot Act, which Congress passed shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. The act allows third-party holders of such things as financial, library, travel, video rental, phone, medical, church, synagogue and mosque records the ability to search them without knowledge or consent by the individual, provided that the government says it's trying to protect against terrorism.

“People need to become informed of legislation changes so our freedoms aren’t lost,” Griffin said.

Guerrilla theatre was derived from the Italian Renaissance Comedy Del Arte, which was a theatre that had an emphasis on political concerns. Griffin said that it originated from migrant workers who would put on performances in outside venues.

“It was considered the poor man’s theater and the workers would depict the great biases against them,” Griffin said.

Street theatre, a form of guerrilla theatre, has been used as a means of protest for many generations.

Griffin said it was used by protestors against the Vietnam War and by those against the Berlin Wall. Griffin said one group that still practices guerilla theatre is the San Francisco Mime Troup.

“Guerrilla theatre can by anything,” Griffin said. “It can be completely abstract or a set scene.”

With its endless creative performance opportunities on campus, the Guerrilla Theatre plans to be seen and make students think.