Author Archives: Benjamin Serrano

During this semester at Stateville, we read different short stories from the collection Tales and Stories for Black Folks edited by Toni Cade Bambara. Within this collection are a variety of rewrites of “classic” fairytales and folktales as well as new interpretations of common African folklore. Students were then asked to rewrite their own tale. We asked questions such as: How would you change the story to tell your own message? What characters would have to change, be omitted, or be added? Who is this story for?

One student, Abdul-Malik Muhammad, rewrote “The Three Little Pigs” as his second story rewrite. The APTP ensemble read his piece and performed their favorite lines using a variety of exercises. Read Malik’s story below and see the video of the APTP ensemble making theater from his work.

These two prompts (I’m here because… and I’m an expert in…) were shared with our teen ensemble during the most recent visit from Common Wealth Theatre Co. artists Rhiannon White and Evie Manning. We pushed students to broaden their idea of what “here” signified. Was “here” Stateville? Was “here” this Earth?

Read their responses below:

We asked our students at Stateville to describe the routine of one of their days and record the movements they make. Read their responses below:

This exercise is also borrowed from Rhiannon White of Common Wealth Theatre Co. when she came to work with our teen ensemble in May 2016. She asked our teens to write a speech to someone in power. What would you tell someone whom has more power than you or whom has taken power from you? If you could let it all out, what would you say? Students at Stateville spoke to figures from slaveowners to the judicial system.

Hear their voices below:

As the semester moved forward and we all learned more about each other and gained comfort in sharing more about ourselves, we gave an assignment where students detailed times they felt powerful and times they felt powerless. This exercise we learned from Rhiannon White of Common Wealth Theatre Co. when she facilitated workshops for our teen ensemble.

Read their responses below:

For this assignment, students had to ask themselves:

Who am I? What makes me, me?

As a response, students wrote recipes of themselves detailing the ingredients and steps one needs to take in order to create the creator. Read their recipes and check out a video of our teen ensemble’s interpretations of their recipes below:

One of the first assignments for students in the performance class at Stateville was to complete this sentence: “When I was young/a little kid…” This is an assignment often done with our teen ensemble and school programs. How does one respond to this prompt when the youngest student in the class is 35 years old?

Read their responses below: