Students go face to face learning about civil disobedience

Confrontation was encouraged at Southeast Missouri State University's Rose Theatre on Monday as the Kansas City-based theater group In Play tried to teach students about non- iolent demonstration methods used by civil rights leaders.

Students were included in several exercises that gave them an idea of what it was like to be fighting for civil rights in this country during the early 1960s.

This workshop was a prelude to Monday night's "Nothing Comes to Sleepers," an In Play production centered on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

"These students were so receptive from the moment they came in," said producer Fran Farah. "I was surprised at how little it took to get them into it."

Playwright Jacquee Gafford agreed. "It was great the way they got into it," she said.

What the students -- mostly social work majors -- got into were several exercises that reflected civil rights era confrontations between peaceful demonstrators and angry opponents. Audience participants were divided into two groups, one that would yell "get out of here" to the other group, that would have to sit, stand or walk and peacefully respond.

Social work professor Dr. Bob Polack made some of his students attend and even took part in one of the exercises.

"I teach the civil rights movement as part of the curriculum," Polack said.

"It's a powerful tool," he said of non violent demonstrations. "This is a really activist-orientated profession and I want the students to be familiar with it and, who knows, it might have current applications."

Another social work professor, Walt Paquin, had some of his students attend and took part in the first exercise, where two groups walked toward each other while one yelled "get out of here." Then the group switched sides.

Paquin said it was more difficult for him to be part of the group that was yelling, especially when he made eye contact with someone from the other group.

The eye contact made him see someone else as a human being, he said. People who discriminate intentionally try to dehumanize others because of this, he said.

This is the first time that In Play has had such a workshop. Farah said she and Gafford thought it would be a good addition to the play, which is set during the civil rights era and focuses on Martin Luther King Jr.

The main point of the workshop, according to Farah, is to show students "that there is a more powerful way to deal with confrontation than with aggressive action. There is power in nonviolence."

Farah and Gafford said it was important to have the students actively participate in the workshop to teach these messages.

"You have to get people up and doing things, it's the doing that gets the students going," Farah said. "You can lecture at people until hell freezes over, but it won't do any good. You need to touch peoples' emotions."

kalfisi@semissourian.com

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