Socially-conscious high school actors “protest” on Scholar’s Walk
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 6:55PM By David Thackham
thackhamd@mytjnow.com
Photo By David Thackham - thackhamd@mytjnow.comFourteen actors from high school disguised as Occupy Wall Street protestors marched their way down Scholar’s Walk at 1:45 p.m. on Monday in an effort to raise publicity for their community performance, “Occupy Wall Street.”
The actors, some as young as 16, were from either Dorman or Spartanburg High School and represented an improvisational theater troupe called “City Heights.”
Chants of “every day, every week, Occupy Wall Street” rang out around Scholar’s Walk and the breezeway between the West Center and the DiGiorgio Campus Center as the actors steadily made their way through campus.
“City Heights,” combined with two other improv troupes, Spartanburg’s “Imagine That” and Winthrop’s own “Skin Deep,” are in town to perform in tonight’s performance, which centers on the social issue of the Occupy Movement in today’s world.
The improv troupes pride themselves on addressing provocative topics, such as bullying, drugs, alcohol, depression and sexuality through theater.
“We’re [marching] to get people to come out and see the show in a very creative way,” troupe member Alexis Jeter said, as the rest of the crowd began their chanting again. “There are broader social issues that go beyond the theater and this is our way of informing the world.”
Over 40 members of the three troupes are expected to be in attendance for the show this evening, which is to be held tonight at 6:45 p.m. in Dina’s Place inside the DiGiorgio Campus Center.
City Heights troupe leader Rod Gilliam, a Winthrop 2010 alumnus, said the students had researched stories from across the country that dealt with the Occupy protests, in order to create their own characters and stories for the stage.
“There are a lot of struggles in the working class right now,” he said. “The kids see that nowadays because a lot of the working class are their parents and this is all about how the students relate to that.”
