The Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts (PCPA) is more than apt at instructing its students in the art of recitation, from the lyrical lines of Shakespeare, like in the recent production of Hamlet, to more modern playwrights or adaptations, like the current musical production of Spring Awakening. And, always looking to challenge its students, PCPA isn’t afraid to branch into more unconventional forms of performance.
Community Speaks is a documentary-style series in which conservatory students perform the exact words of locals they interviewed in person. The title of this year’s production is Community Speaks: The Other Side of Broadway.
“For this year, we had a little bit more time with the project than we have ever had,” director and PCPA resident artist Karin Hendricks said. “The way we started is we became experts about Santa Maria. We looked at the history, demographics, [and] industry, and went out into the community to talk to the people of Santa Maria.”
This year, Hendricks and her students set out to focus on migrant workers. The students involved in Community Speaks were visited by representatives of local nonprofits, and even took a field trip to see and talk with farm workers about what their jobs are like.
“There have been great lengths taken to ensure there isn’t any spin here,” Hendricks said. “We’re not infusing this with our perspective; we are doing something that gives back in a different way.”
The interviews were mostly conducted after the conservatory’s winter break and focused largely on the recently proposed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Santa Maria. The conservatory students went out in the community to collect viewpoints from a wide range of Santa Marians.
“We interviewed 40 people, and our purpose was to try and find people with all kinds of different perspectives,” Hendricks said. “We interviewed historians, farm workers, stay-at-home moms, a Starbucks barista; the diversity of the interviews, I hope, will represent the diversity in our town.”
Hendricks selected and arranged parts of each interview to be performed by the interviewing student. Their depictions, Hendricks explained, aren’t typical of traditional stage acting.
“The goal is to honor, and I mean authentically represent, the person they interviewed to the best of their abilities,” she said. “We aren’t looking for mimicry either; they are supposed to embody that person, not just through posture and what they are doing vocally, but find a way to emphatically voice their opinion and embody their emotions.”
The style is documentary-like in execution, but still has room for creativity. There will be a handful of musical performances, including a performance by conservatory student Jillian Osborne, who arranged her interviewee’s words into a song that she composed.
“Everyone who has been involved has learned so much,” Hendricks said. “It’s to open our students’ eyes not just to the theatrical world, but the world outside as well.”
Community Speaks will show only once. The tickets are free, but Hendricks recommended people arrive early to guarantee seating. She expects the production to be popular based on the current climate surrounding the issue being portrayed.
“This is our way of honoring our community and giving our community a voice,” she said. “As an audience member, you can decide what you want to believe and what you don’t want to believe.”
Arts Editor Joe Payne’s ears are open to everyone in the community. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 13-20, 2014.