PHILADELPHIA, PA (KYW Newsradio) — A West Philadelphia theater company is using performance to open up a discussion about gun violence.
Theatre in the X has been producing free shows in Malcolm X Park every summer for the past ten years.
This year’s show is “Zooman and the Sign”, written by the late Philly playwright Charles Fuller. Set in Southwest Philadelphia in 1979, it tells a fictional story that’s all too real today: a 12-year-old girl gets caught in the crossfire of two rival groups and is shot and killed.
“The father figures out that nobody in the neighborhood will talk to the police,” director Ozzie Jones explains, “even though it was outside during the summertime, and everybody saw it.
“So he makes a sign that pretty much calls all of his neighbors cowards if they don't speak up and say what they saw. And he puts the sign on his front steps.”
Meanwhile, the shooter, who goes by Zooman, is on the run — and nobody wants to snitch.
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“This discussion of ratting, telling, and what our relationship is supposed to be to our community and to the police,” Jones says, “I don't think any play has ever been written that deals with that subject matter so directly and so well… It's a discussion that we as a community need to have.”
That’s precisely what Theatre in the X wants to achieve by putting on this show in a public space in the heart of West Philadelphia. Jones and the cast will host a post-show “epilogue” discussion after each performance.
LaNeshe Miller-White, the executive director of Theatre in the X, co-founded the group 10 years ago and is performing in “Zooman and the Sign.” She thinks that Theatre in the X has a unique opportunity to turn the conversation about gun violence over to the people who are most affected by it.
“It's a conversation that has not been happening in an efficient way or an open way, or in a way that people feel like they can be responsive to and that they're included in,” she says. “We have built up over these 10 years a trust in the community and an audience…I think we're in a great position to both give them a great theatrical experience and get some movement and some real thought around community violence.”
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Walter DeShields, another Theatre in the X co-founder and actor in “Zooman”, agrees.
“When I see these conversations happen, everybody in the room is over 35 years old,” he says. “Oftentimes, everybody in the room is over 45 years old. And I'm thinking, well, this is why you will never ever solve the problem. Because generally speaking, the young men that need to be addressed relative to this issue are never in the conversation for solutions.
“16-year-olds and teenagers are dealing with these complex issues around identity and what community means to them. They get to see ‘Zooman and the Sign’, and walk away and start thinking about and considering options and alternatives for their lives, their peers, and what their future community looks like.”
“Zooman and the Sign” is free and open to the public, running at Malcolm X Park from August 17-20. There will be food vendors and community organizations at the park, including Philly Truce - a group that has built an app where you can report potentially violent situations anonymously to a group of community volunteers.
The Theatre in the X team encourages you to bring your own chair, and as Miller-White says, “Bring a young Black man. Find a young man in your family, in your friend group…bring a young Black man with you to the show.”
More information is available on Theatre in the X’s website.
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