UMD professor covers race, gender and sexuality in dramaturgy

On the outside, Faedra Carpenter may seem like the average theatre professor at Maryland, but her role as a dramaturg shows that when it comes to the nitty-gritty, there is more to herand theatrethan meets the eye.

Applying facts to features to Faedra This professor does not set aside her differences; she embraces them
At the University's school of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies (TDPS), every teacher has their own specialty that they can enrich their students with. There is Scot Reese for musical theatre, there is Leslie Felbaine for clowning and there is Brian McDevit for scenic design and
Faedra has been at Maryland for seven years now, and taught more than 15 classes related to dramaturgy and her main motifs. Photo courtesy of tdps.umd.edu

lighting. And for race, gender and sexuality there is Faedra Carpenterfor she is no stranger to the topic. Growing up in a predominately white area, Faedra knows the importance of cultivating and instilling pride, understanding and appreciation for who she is as an African-American woman. As a result, Faedra learned from her experiences and chose to study the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and class within in our lives. She applies these focuses to her role as a freelance dramaturg and professor for TDPS. She teaches classes on dramaturgy and Latino playwrights, plays that deal with transracial performance and critical theory classes that interrogate identity politics in performance. (more)

Tai Coates, WR#4, Comm231 (0101), Faedra, 2

That sort of outsidership feeling "I think often times we are attracted to themes and motifs that inform our everyday lives," Carpenter said in regards to why she focuses on race. Raised in Bothell, Wash., Carpenter and her sisters were three black girls in a predominately white area. She was the only black girl in her entire elementary school and one of three black girls in junior high and her high school, which had about 1400 kids. "Your otherness, in some ways, is very felt, and profound and palpable," said Carpenter, "because it's real." Even though her parents instilled a "great deal of pride and understanding and appreciation" for who she was as an African-American woman, Carpenter admitted that she still felt that sort of "outsidership feeling," whether it was about someone commenting on her hair or calling her derogatory names because of the color of her skin. ACT-SO influences Instead of letting racial tensions bubble and fester in her daughter, Carpenter's mother enrolled her in the NAACP Afro-Academic Cultural Technological Scientific Olympics of the Mind (ACT-SO). This is a national competition that the NAACP sponsors for junior high and high school students to participate in. ACT-SO has several categories including music composition, computer science, and the visual arts, but Carpenter discovered herself in the oratory, poetry and essay competitions. "Its funny when I look back at all of those articles, those poems, those essays dealt with ideas of beauty, ideas of authenticity, ideas of culture," said Carpenter. "So Im fourteen, basically writing about the same exact things that I write about now at age 42, but with a little more footnotes!" (more)

Ta Coates, W/R#4 Comm231 (0101), Faedra, 3

Now a mother of a 5-year-old girl and a 9-yearold boy, Carpenter finds herself in Howard County in a neighborhood that she describes as being a little "We Are the World." There are influences and people from all over the world, including Korea, Japan, South Asia or Africa. Because of this, her children do not experience the otherness that she did as a child. Had they lived in a similar set up that she grew up in, Carpenter would have taken the same strategies as her own mother to make sure they were aware and educated. You cant have one without the other By enrolling in ACT-SO and other programs outside of Bothell, Carpenter met other intelligent African-American students. She learned her mothers lesson that just because she was a brown girl in a mostly white world did not mean that she was an exception to the media projected image of African-American people and to not believe comments like, "You're different from everyone else." Carpenter successfully took her passion for writing about culture, beauty and authenticity to Spelman College, where she also involved herself with the theatre world. She got her master's degree in drama from Washington University, and received an Allen Lee Hughes Fellow, a fellowship for prestigious black individuals involved in the arts. With that, she merged her two passions together to do dramaturgy specifically in regard to race, sexuality, gender and class because you cant really talk about one without the other.

"Your otherness, in some ways, is very felt, and profound and palpable because its real."
--Faedra Carpenter

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Ta Coates, W/R#4 Comm231 (0101), Faedra, 4

Carpenter has had the opportunity to work with Centerstage and the Kennedy Center to cultivate her profile as a scholar who has an expertise in Latino and African-American drama and to write about those critically. Today she has the opportunity to work alongside her protge, Khalid Long, who she took under her wing last year after his previous mentor introduced them to each other. Together they are tackling the dramaturgy perspective of The Raisin Cycle at Centerstage this spring. Working with her has been fantastic, Long said. After working on a show, Carpenter takes those plays and uses her work to write in academic journals or brings them in the classroom, where she can enrich her students know to with the best information on what she knows best. ###

Maryland goes to Centerstage Two professors give input on Centerstages new production, The Raisin Cycle
In 1959, Lorraine Hansberry contributed to the African-American voice when her play A Raisin in the Sun debuted on Broadway. This spring, nearly 60 years later, Baltimores Centerstage took on the task of adapting and reconstructing the African-American voice in their production of The Raisin Cycle. The production, influenced by their predecessor The Raisin in the Sun, consists of two plays: Clybourne Park and Beneathas Place. Maryland professor Faedra Carpenter and Ph.D. candidate Khalid Long have helped by facilitating the Carpenter and Long helped bring together this performance of the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize dramaturgical dialogue behind the winning plays Clybourne Park and Beneathas Place show. Long, who is also Carpenters Source: centerstage.com protge, serves as the assistant dramaturg for Beneathas Place. Carpenter is the Cycle Dramaturg alongside Gavin Witt, who is the associate artistic director, as well as Centerstages resident dramaturg. In addition to researching and providing input on the script, Carpenter and Witt will lead the of Centerstage employees who will lead discussions for patrons after the show. Carpenter explained that difficult questions might erupt from patrons about representations in gender, sex and class in regard to both of the plays, so her job is to provide the speakers with tools to answer those questions and provide more information.

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Ta Coates, W/R#4 Comm231 (0101), Raisin Cycle, 2

Both plays in the Cycle will be open this spring until June 16, 2013. Clybourne Park opened April 10, and Beneathas Place will open May 8. More information on The Raisin Cycle and tickets can be found on Centerstages website: http://www.centerstage.org/

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