DHS Theatre to perform in New York based performance project

Deerfield High School (DHS) Theatre, located in Deerfield, Illinois, will be one of 10 high schools and 2 middle schools in the world to perform “If You Wanna Switch Seats, We Could,” a research-based performance project created by the Verbatim Performance Lab at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. This production involves thirteen student actors from Deerfield High School’s advanced-level theater class. Earlier this year this class had the extraordinary opportunity to be the first high school in the world to premiere Making Gay History: Before Stonewall created by Joe Salvatore and adapted from Eric Marcus’s Making Gay History.

After most presidential debates, Americans have a sense of each candidate's values and stance on certain policies. However, after the first debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, Americans had more questions than answers. This debate was remembered not for its substantive debates on policy but rather the behavior and temperament of each of the candidates. They spoke on top of each other, with both candidates speaking over one another and interrupting as the moderator failed to control either the flow or questioning of the debate. Americans were both frustrated and embarrassed by this spectacle of a debate. As reported by Politico, Alex Castellanos of ABC News described it, “Apparently, I tuned into the wrong debate. I saw children debating, interrupting, calling each other names, never listening to dad.”

A significant differentiating factor of this performance piece is how the audience’s perception of the interactions between the adults changes when younger and different bodied actors play these roles. DHS Theatre also chose to play with the idea of switching the gender of certain participants in the debate to see how it alters the debate, the intentions of the characters, and how the overall debate is newly perceived by the audience.

The DHS actors and their teacher, Britnee Kenyon, explored these questions and others that emerge by embodying the words and actions of the candidates and moderator, word-for-word, stutter-for-stutter, and gesture-for-gesture throughout their rehearsal and performance process. Their filmed investigation will be shared publicly as part of the day-long virtual festival on Saturday, April 17th. There will be four sessions each with three-to-four schools’ performances. Deerfield High School’s showing is at 3:30pm (CDT) along with two schools from Delaware and one school from North Carolina. Registration information can be found on the official If You Wanna Switch Seats, We Could Website.