![\"\u2018Danny\u2019s](\"https:\/\/sandiegodowntownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/band4.jpg\")
\u201cOne thing I strive to bring to the room is whatever is said in the room, is whatever is said in the room. We\u2019re going to acknowledge it and treat it with the same amount of weight as any other bit of the conversation,\u201d Paloma said. \u201cThis is about the community and coming to where these folks are. This is the foundational thing that anchors me in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the discussion, the performers run through several scenes again. This time, when something goes wrong, a volunteer from the audience steps in for an actor to try and write a better outcome for Danny. Often, the high school students transform Danny\u2019s friend Gionni from a bystander into an advocate who stands up for Danny.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hardest part about playing this role is that she is intentionally a bystander,\u201d Sofia Zaragoza, who originated the role of Gionni, explained. In real life, she hopes she would stand up for someone. \u201cTo me, it\u2019s really empowering to get to be that person people want to step in for. I feel like I\u2019ve seen every shade of response people can do \u2014 from the person who comes up dropping wisdom bombs cool and collectedly to the people who come up yelling and ready to fight. As extreme as I\u2019ve seen some of the responses, more often than not, the things that I see inspire me to be a good friend in the face of oppression.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other places, the students practice how Danny could share his experiences with his family and friends so they can help him.<\/p>\n
Paloma navigates these difficult conversations with finesse by carefully explaining that Danny is never at fault for being a victim but there are still ways in which he can use his power to stand up for himself. To emphasize that a victim is never to blame, the final scene of the sexual assault was not redone with students\u2019 participation. The students\u2019 goal was to use Gionni to stop the bully and perpetrator, Adam (Marc Caro-Willcox), before his behavior escalated to that level.<\/p>\n
The piece of forum theater has helped students find tangible ways to recognize and combat transphobia and other forms of bullying. It also requires the largely LGBT+ performers relinquish control of their characters \u2014 and the conversation \u2014 to young people who may have never been exposed to this issue before.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery process is completely different depending on who\u2019s in the room. What\u2019s beautiful about the process is that we give it over to our audience. We say, \u2018we\u2019re gonna show you a piece.\u2019 We don\u2019t exactly know who they are \u2014 how supportive of the trans conversations they are, how curious, how judgmental, but we\u2019re trusting them to bring their perceptions and questions,\u201d said Catherine Hanna Schrock, \u201cDanny\u2019s Story\u201d playwright and Blindspot Collective cofounder. \u201cWe\u2019re illuminating an oppression we think is very important for people to be aware of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zaragoza is proud to be in the play because this is the first time she has seen trans and nonbinary identities talked about in a way aimed at young people in San Diego, even though she grew up here. She has witnessed pushback from schools unsure about welcoming the piece onto their campuses, but students\u2019 reactions to the shows have made her more committed to doing theater for social justice work.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the most magical parts every day is seeing these young people come to the realization about these things in life, whether it\u2019s LGBTQ+ rights, or sexual assault, or the other topics we bring up, but seeing them come to those realizations in real time makes it worth it,\u201d Zaragoza said.<\/p>\n \u201cDanny\u2019s Story\u201d is Blindspot Collective\u2019s second school tour play since it was founded three years ago to bring theater of the oppressed and social justice theater to San Diego. Their first educational play, \u201cSafa\u2019s Story,\u201d is about racism and immigration and is aimed at a primary school-age audience. Unlike \u201cSafa\u2019s Story,\u201d which is based almost entirely on one student\u2019s account, \u201cDanny\u2019s Story\u201d was developed after a group of local LGBT+ high schoolers and young adults shared their stories over two days. After the listening session, Schrock took what she heard and developed a script that delved into some of the common experiences many of the participating trans youth shared.<\/p>\n \u201cWe started because we were interested in new work and new voices, and interested in theater at the intersection of social justice and artistic development. We are interested in topics and issues that are in the blindspot of society,\u201d Schrock explained. \u201cWe show the impact of oppression is tragedy. Only we can then change that. We can change our own lives, we can change the lives of others.\u201d<\/p>\n Blindspot Collective is currently developing a new piece of verbatim theater that will focus on the community in National City through interviews. Schrock hopes to open it this summer.<\/p>\n![\"\u2018Danny\u2019s](\"https:\/\/sandiegodowntownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/bullying.jpg\")