Neo-Futurism and Creating a Twenty-First Century High School Theatre Curriculum

Abstract

Thirty-two students worked together for eight weeks to write nearly fifty short plays from which thirty were selected, produced and performed in a production titled Warning May Cause Irritation, inspired by the Neo-Futurists' signature show: Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. Nineteen students were also involved in the concurrent case study of the project and kept journals, participated in focus group sessions, developed scripts and filled out worksheets. Data generated was analyzed for evidence of student empowerment, relevancy of the work to student's lives, and their ability to work democratically.In the end, it seems the students enjoyed and felt empowered by the democratic process used to generate the final production and the result was an educative, relevant and fulfilling experience that may inspire some to continue working in the theatre and the students seemed open to continuing to explore nontraditional theatre projects in the future.