Apr. 29, 2024 12:30p
(WGTD)---A Carthage College play about the 2020 Jacob Blake police shooting in Kenosha and its aftermath has won a prestigious national award that recognizes original college productions.
The Kennedy Center and the American College Theatre Festival have given top honors in the Rosa Parks social justice and civil rights category to the "Kenosha Verbatim Project."
Two Carthage students and a couple of theater professors interviewed a dozen people for the production, then assembled their comments in a staged reading. The one-time performance was presented at Carthage about a year ago.
One of the students, Rayven Craft, told WGTD’s Greg Berg last year that the stories expressed by those interviewed were powerful. "In every single one of the interviews we had somebody saying something that we were like ‘that was a show-stopping moment,’” Craft said. “Everyone had something so powerful to say about their experience and what they brought to the table during this really hard and difficult time.”
The interviewees represented a cross section of the community. But one demographic was purposely left out, according to Craft. “We never wanted to cut off anyone who had a different opinion from us but we did talk a lot about not letting hate have a voice,” Craft said. “That’s something that we were not willing to do. Those people already have a voice.”
"Of all the plays submitted from around the nation, I'm surprised and grateful ours was picked," said Prof. Martin McClendon, one of the professors who was involved in the project.
The other involved student was Katie Layendecker. The second professor, Nora Carroll, has moved on from Carthage.
Carthage has been presenting verbatim plays since 2016.
One currently in production focuses on the effects of gun violence on the American health care system.
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